Preliminary design of helicon plasma thruster by means of particle swarm optimization

Abstract

Radio-frequency and Helicon Plasma Thrusters have emerged as viable electric propulsion systems due to their high plasma density, thrust density, and useful life. Helicon Plasma Thruster (HPT) is a very attractive technology because it could use many propellants and does not require hollow cathodes or grids, overcoming their associated critical erosion problem and extending the thruster’s lifetime to some tens of thousands of hours. Despite the fact that high-power HPTs have reached 30% efficiency in laboratory configurations, sophisticated numerical models are required for a deeper understanding of the main plasma phenomena and for the preliminary design to increase the very low HPT’s efficiency (3–7%) typical of the low-power class thrusters. The paper focuses on the development of a model for the low-medium power range (50–2000 W) of HPTs design. Starting from Lafleur’s model, it has been improved with the hypothesis of neutral gas being expelled at the real thruster’s wall operative temperature (300–600 K) in place of the more frequent laboratory temperature assumption (300 K). This hypothesis affects total thrust and specific impulse by about 10%. A parametric analysis of the slenderness ratio (chamber length-to-radius) has been conducted. The results showed that slender configurations lead to higher efficiencies. Downstream from the numerical model validation, a tool for the global design has been built with the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique that leads to optimal thruster configuration. This tool has been used to design a 4 mN HPT tuning the PSO in order to minimize the dimensions and the weight according to the assigned mission constraints (i.e., power, thrust, and weight). A total efficiency of 10.4% results.

Investigating the impact of applied magnetic field and current on anode power deposition in AF-MPDT

“…The Applied-field Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster (AF-MPDT) 1 stands as an exemplary model of electric thrusters. 2,3 It boasts a unique set of characteristics, including high specific impulse, remarkable thrust density, versatile propellant options, and scalability. 4,5 As such, the AF-MPDT has long been considered a promising choice for various mission scenarios, particularly those demanding high power.…”

Analysis of Wave Propagation with Different Magnetic Configurations in Helicon Plasmas

“…Electric propulsion has become one of the most widely used technologies in space propulsion due to its advantages of long lifetime, high reliability and low cost [1][2][3]. A prominent type of electric propulsion is the helicon plasma thruster, which represents a novel electrodeless system [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. This propulsion system consists of a helicon plasma source and a magnetic nozzle.…”

Solution of Orifice Hollow Cathode Plasma Model Equations by Means of Particle Swarm Optimization

“…PSO is a population based stochastic optimization technique developed by Dr. Eberhart and Dr. Kennedy in 1995 [16], inspired by social behaviour of bird flocking or fish schooling. PSO has been successfully applied in many research and application areas [17] and recently it has also been successfully used in EP application to solve the complex systems of non-linear equations used to model Helicon Plasma Thrusters' (HPTs) plasma [18].…”