霍尔推力器羽流离子能量实验研究

霍尔推力器羽流中的离子能量分布情况对于评估推力器羽流影响,优化推力器在航天器上的布局具有重要意义。本文使用阻滞势分析器对霍尔推力器羽流的离子能量分布进行了实验研究,获得了推力器在不同工况下羽流场中关注位置的离子能量分布状况。实验结果表明:霍尔推力器羽流离子主要由电荷交换碰撞产生的低能量离子和高能量源离子组成;高能量源离子的分布在推力器轴线达到最大值,低能量离子的分布随着与推力器轴线夹角的减小呈先增后减态势;随着霍尔推力器放电电压的提高,羽流源离子能量分布会相应向高能量方向偏移。

Experimental investigations of ion energy distribution in the plasma exhaust plume of a hall thruster

The ion energy distribution in the plasma exhaust plume of a hall thruster is important to evaluate the influence of the hall thruster plume and optimize the thruster position on the spacecraft. Retarding potential analyzer （RPA） had been used to measure the ion energy distribution at a certain location downstream of the low-power hall thruster at various status. These experimental results indicate that the hall thruster plume is comprised of both low energy charge exchange （CEX） and high energy source ions. The high energy ions distribution is mostly at the center line of the thruster, the low energy ion distribution firstly increases and then decreases along with the de crease of angle between the analyzer and axes of thruster. When increasing thruster discharge voltage, the ion energy distribution will move to the direction of high energy.