Power efficiency estimation of an inductive plasma generator using propellant mixtures of oxygen, carbon-dioxide and argon

Georg, R.; Chadwick, Ashley; Dally, Bassam B.; Herdrich, Georg

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.11.020

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…No convergingdiverging nozzle was present and a maximum specific impulse of 38 s was obtained. The temperature rise of the neutral gas was estimated to be between 300 and 600 K. Georg et al 34,35 and Chadwick et al 36 have investigated very high-power (around 180 kW) ICP systems with different gases and shown that gas mixtures can enhance performance. In the above recent works, thruster performance is generally poor, and the upstream thruster stagnation pressure in the ICP source is relatively low (about 5 Torr).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Lafleur

Corr

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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A radio-frequency (RF) inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster operating with argon is experimentally characterized for different mass flow rates, RF powers, and propellant injection configurations. Depending on the propellant mass flow rate, significant neutral gas heating is observed with effective stagnation temperatures around 2000 K (giving a maximum estimated thrust and specific impulse of about 100 mN and 125 s, respectively) for absorbed powers between 300 and 500 W. A self-consistent theoretical discharge model is developed and used to study the basic physics and operation of RF electrothermal thrusters, and predictions of the gas temperature are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The model identifies primary power inefficiencies as electron-neutral excitation losses and neutral gas heat losses to the thruster walls. Both experimental and theoretical results indicate that a relatively high stagnation pressure (of the order of 100 Torr or higher) is critical for high performance. For pressures significantly below this the electron-neutral collisional power transfer is too low to effectively heat the neutral gas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Lafleur

Corr

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…In the past decade or so, the ABEP system has been widely researched. [1][2] Kinds of electric thrusters have been applied in ABEP system development, such as the halleffect thruster (HET), [3][4][5] the inductive plasma thruster (IPT), [6][7][8][9] the pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) [10][11] and so on. In order to provide sufficient propellant for these electric thrusters, an efficient air-intake must be developed firstly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization investigation of vacuum air-intake for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Zheng

Zhang

et al. 2021

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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An atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system uses the rarefied atmospheric molecules as the propellant for the electric thruster. In the best case, it can allow spacecraft complete a long-time mission in the lower Earth orbit without carrying any propellant. In this article, the intake geometry is designed, analysed and optimized to improve the performance of atmospheric particles capture, including collection efficiency and compression ratio. The orthogonal method is used in the simulation test to analyse the sensitivities of main parameters, including the configuration of grid ducts, the configuration of tapered chamber, the length-to-diameter ratio of tapered chamber and the diameter of tube. The results show that the performance of air-intake can be optimized with different parameter combinations. Compared with different intake designs of previous studies, the optimal design in this article shows the better particle capture performance under the same boundary conditions. The particles compression ratio is over 100, and the collection efficiency can reach 81.08%.

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Simulation investigation of inductively coupled plasma generator for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Zheng

Zhang

et al. 2021

Acta Astronautica

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Power efficiency estimation of an inductive plasma generator using propellant mixtures of oxygen, carbon-dioxide and argon

Cited by 9 publications

References 22 publications

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Optimization investigation of vacuum air-intake for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Simulation investigation of inductively coupled plasma generator for atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

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