脉冲等离子体推力器电磁加速机理数值研究

为了对脉冲等离子体电磁加速机理有清晰的认识，为后续推力器性能的优化和产品的小型化提供理论基础,需要对脉冲等离子体推力器的特性进行数值研究。利用包含电容、电感、平行板电极、等离子体的一维集成电路模型,开展了脉冲等离子体推力器的数值模拟研究。通过改变初始放电电压和电极间距的大小，系统地研究了脉冲等离子体推力器的初始放电电压、电极间距对推力器电磁加速的影响。结果表明，在其他参数不变的情况下，推力器的推力、比冲、元冲量，以及等离子体的密度、温度随推力器初始放电电压的增加而增加；同样，增加电极间距也能够提高推力器的推力、比冲；然而，电极间的阻抗会随电极间距的增加而增加，导致推力器的点火难度也随之增加，因此脉冲等离子体的电极间距存在一个最优值。

Numerical study of electromagnetic acceleration mechanism for pulsed plasma thruster

In order to get a clear understanding of electromagnetic acceleration mechanism for pulsed plasma thrusters, and offer a theoretical foundation for the performance optimization and minification of the thruster，numerical simulation of the pulsed plasma thruster characteristic is necessarily to be researched. In this paper, a one dimensional integrated circuit model that includes the capacitance, inductance, electrodes and plasma is used to numerically study pulsed plasma thrusters. The electromagnetic acceleration mechanism of pulsed plasma thrusters is systematically investigated by varying the initial discharge voltage and separation distance of the electrodes. The results show that the thrust, specific impulse, impulse bit of pulsed plasma thrusters, and temperature and density of plasma increase with initial discharge voltage. Similarly, the thrust and specific impulse of thrusters also increase with the separation distance of electrodes. However, the igniting difficulty of thruster increases since the resistance between electrodes increases with the electrodes spacing. Therefore, there is an optimal value of distance between electrodes of the pulsed plasma thruster.