The cold gas micro-propulsion system can provide low noise and ultra-high accuracy thrust for satellite platforms for space gravitational wave detection, high-precision earth gravity field measurement. In this study, the effect of different needle valve opening ratios on the rarefied flow characteristics of a micro-nozzle in a cold gas micro-propulsion system was investigated based on DSMC method. The special feature of the currently studied micro-nozzle is that it has a section of micro-channel with a large length–diameter ratio up to 4.5. Due to the extremely small needle valve displacement of the nozzle (minimum needle valve displacement up to 1.7 μm), a finely structured mesh was used. The molecular particle and macro flow characteristics inside the micro-nozzle were calculated for the conditions of a needle valve opening ratio from 5% to 98%. The throttling effect of the throat has a significant effect on the rarefied flow in the micro-nozzle; especially under the tiny opening, this effect is more significant. The spatial distribution of continuous flow, transition flow, and free molecular flow in the micro-nozzle varies at different needle valve opening ratios. As the needle valve opening ratio increases, the continuous flow will gradually fill the microfluidic region.

A thrust stand is developed for testing micro-Newton level thrusters on the ground. The stand is composed of a compound pendulum that is symmetrically suspended by two thin beryllium copper strips, and it is precisely calibrated by gravity. The stiffness of the stand can be adjusted in 3 orders of magnitude by a counterweight. When the stiffness is larger than 1 Nm/rad, the stand demonstrates a fast response to thrust. The measured range of the stand reaches 1000 μN, and the noise is less than 0.1 μN/[Formula: see text] within 1 mHz–1 Hz. To calibrate the resolution of the stand, an electrostatic force is applied to the stand with an actuator. The equivalent thrust is determined to be 0.09 μN with a standard uncertainty of 0.02 μN. Using the stand, a micro-Newton colloid thruster is tested. The output of the colloid thruster changes with the applied voltage as 0.015(1) μN/V. When changing the voltage by 50 V, the change in thrust is measured to be 0.7 μN with a standard uncertainty of 0.1 μN.

In this study, we first considered the influence of micro-nozzle wall roughness structure on molecular collision and reflection behavior and established a modified CLL model. The DSMC method was used to simulate and analyze the flow of the micro-nozzle in the cold gas micro-propulsion system, and the deviation of simulation results before and after the improvement of CLL model were compared. Then, the rarefied flow characteristics under a small needle valve opening (less than 1%) were focused on the research, and the particle position, molecular number density, and spatial distribution of internal energy in the micro-nozzle were calculated. The spatial distributions of the flow mechanism in the micro-nozzle under different needle valve openings were compared and analyzed. It was found that when the needle valve opening is lower than 1%, the slip flow and transition flow regions move significantly upstream of the nozzle, the free molecular flow distribution region expands significantly, and the relationship between thrust force and needle valve opening is obviously different from that of medium and large needle valve openings. The effect of nitrogen temperature on the rarefied flow and thrust force is also discussed in this research. The numerical results showed that as gas temperature increases, the molecular internal energy, momentum, and molecular number density near the nozzle exit are enhanced. The thrust at small needle valve openings was significantly affected by the temperature of the working mass. The results of this study will provide key data for the design and development of cold gas micro-thrusters.

A decoupling method is proposed for micro-Newton thrust measurement with a torsion pendulum. The basic approach is to reduce the influences introduced by the propellant tube and wires of the thruster. A hollow aluminum tube is used to hang the torsion pendulum and is also chosen as the transport pipe for the propellant of the thruster. The electric control box of the thruster is mounted on the pendulum body, which is powered by an externally installed power supply through a liquid metal conductive unit. The control of the electric control box is performed through wireless transmission. With this design, the influences of the propellant tube and connection wires between the torsion pendulum and the outside device are reduced and the stability of the torsion spring constant of the system can be improved. The use of the liquid metal conductive unit reduces the coupling between the wires and the measurement system. The feasibility of the wireless transmission is analyzed. The error sources during the thrust measurement are analyzed, and the expected three σ uncertainty of the thrust is [Formula: see text]N for the measurement of the cold gas thruster. The scheme provides a thrust measurement with higher precision and stability.