Performance measurements on a pulsed vacuum arc thruster.

Dethlefsen, R.

doi:10.2514/3.4713

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…32 The strength of external magnetic field B z = 0.1 T is typical for various MEVATs. 21,28 The axial stream velocity of ion fluid is set to 1.3×10 4 m s −1 according to the experiment using titanium (Ti) cathode, 34 which lies inside the typical range of ion velocity 10 − 50 km s −1 , [35][36][37][38][39] and meanwhile the ion species of Ti is chosen. The rotation frequency is assumed to be half the ion cyclotron frequency, which is close to that of plasma centrifuge 29,31 to see the effect of rotation on instability evolution more clearly, and rigid rotation is a reasonable assumption according to various jetting plasma devices.…”

Section: Computed Wave Physics Analysis a Numerical Scheme And Condit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma instability of magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Chang

Zhang²,

et al. 2019

AIP Advances

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A two-fluid flowing plasma model is applied to describe the plasma rotation and resulted instability evolution in magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster (MEVAT). Typical experimental parameters are employed, including plasma density, equilibrium magnetic field, ion and electron temperatures, cathode materials, axial streaming velocity, and azimuthal rotation frequency. It is found that the growth rate of plasma instability increases with growing rotation frequency and field strength, and with descending electron temperature and atomic weight, for which the underlying physics are explained. The radial structure of density fluctuation is compared with that of equilibrium density gradient, and the radial locations of their peak magnitudes are very close, showing an evidence of resistive drift mode driven by density gradient. Temporal evolution of perturbed mass flow in the cross section of plasma column is also presented, which behaves in form of clockwise rotation (direction of electron diamagnetic drift) at edge and anti-clockwise rotation (direction of ion diamagnetic drift) in the core, separated by a mode transition layer from n = 0 to n = 1. This work, to our best knowledge, is the first treatment of plasma instability caused by rotation and axial flow in MEVAT, and is also of great practical interest for other electric thrusters where rotating plasma is concerned for long-time stable operation and propulsion efficiency optimization.

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Section: Computed Wave Physics Analysis a Numerical Scheme And Condit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma instability of magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Chang

Zhang²,

et al. 2019

AIP Advances

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show abstract

“…Vacuum arcs can be produced from any electrically conductive material. The suitability of various materials for vacuum arc propulsion was first studied by Dethlefsen [3]. In the case of a magnesium cathode, a plasma velocity of 50 000 m s −1 was demonstrated, which is certainly very appealing to the propulsion community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Keidar

Schein

Wilson

et al. 2005

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

114

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A hydrodynamic model of the vacuum arc thruster and its plume is described. Primarily an effect of the magnetic field on the plume expansion and plasma generation is considered. Two particular examples are investigated, namely the magnetically enhanced co-axial vacuum arc thruster (MVAT) and the vacuum arc thruster with ring electrodes (RVAT). It is found that the magnetic field significantly decreases the plasma plume radial expansion under typical conditions. Predicted plasma density profiles in the plume of the MVAT are compared with experimental profiles, and generally a good agreement is found. In the case of the RVAT the influence of the magnetic field leads to plasma jet deceleration, which explains the non-monotonic dependence of the ion current density, on an axial magnetic field observed experimentally.

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Vacuum-Arc Modeling with Respect to a Space Microthruster Application

Beilis

2020

Plasma and Spot Phenomena in Electrical Arcs

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Performance measurements on a pulsed vacuum arc thruster.

Cited by 11 publications

References 5 publications

Plasma instability of magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Plasma instability of magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster

Vacuum-Arc Modeling with Respect to a Space Microthruster Application

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