Modified Electromechanical Modeling and Parameters Analysis of Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster

Abstract

To predict the thrust of magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters (MPDTs), a modified electromechanical model was proposed and a comparison with experimental results is presented in this paper. The motion of propellant in the thruster was divided into two portions: the axial motion which was accelerated by the interaction of current and induced self-field, and the swirling motion which was accelerated by the interaction of current and applied magnetic field. The electromechanical model was in good agreement with the experimental data, and the fitting degrees of the model were greater than 0.93. Furthermore, the influence of parameters on the performance of MPDT were investigated by utilizing the electromechanical model. The results indicate that the thrust performance of the thruster improved with the increase of discharge current, anode radius, applied magnetic field strength, and the decrease of mass flow rate. However, the large anode radius and low mass flow rate readily led to the failure of thruster function. Therefore, the model can not only predict the thrust performance of MPDTs, but also guide the design and operation optimization of the thruster.

Revolutionizing Spaceflight: A Study on Electric Propulsion and Air-Breathing MPDs

“…Although this representation may not be perfect due to non-linearities measured in experimentation, physical and engineering relationships can be applied with significant precision. Maecker's Relation (Zhang et al, 2019) T represents the output force (thrust), µ represents the vacuum permeability constant, J represents the electrical current, ra represents the radius of the anode, and rc represents the radius of the cathode.…”