Design and performance study of an ablative pulsed plasma thruster
- Paper number
IAC-11,C4,4,13,x10904
- Author
Dr. Rui Zhang, College of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Zehua Xie, College of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Ziran Li, College of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Le Yang, College of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Jianjun Wu, National University of Defense Technology, China
- Year
2011
- Abstract
A breech-fed parallel-plate ablative pulsed plasma thruster (APPT) was designed and built. Several diagnostic instruments were used to character the thruster. The APPT discharge current measure system was designed, the method of using pendulum balance to perform micro thrust measurements was improved. High speed photography was used to observe the acceleration process of the plasma. By means of mass spectrum analysis, the compositions of the APPT plume were studied also. At initial stored energy 40J with 1Hz operation frequency, the APPT achieved impulse bit of 364$\mu$Ns, specific impulse of 1315s, and thruster efficiency of 5.9\%.Analysis of the experimental results showed that a small fraction about 28\% of ablated mass was ionized and accelerated electromagnetically, the impulse bit by electromagnetically contribution was 296$\mu$Ns, the others accelerated gasdynamically had almost no contribution to the thrust. Photographs acquired showed that near the Teflon exposed surface existed slowly moving plasma and the current sheet was canted; those phenomenons might contribute to the low performance of the APPT. The plume consisted primarily of C, F, CF, CF\small 2, CF\small 3, amounts of thruster body materials were detected as well.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-11,C4,4,13,x10904.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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