Steady Operation of an FRC Thruster on Martian Atmosphere and Liquid Water Propellants

Kirtley, David; Pancotti, Anthony; Slough, John; Pihl, Chris; Llc, Msnw

doi:10.2514/6.2012-4071

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…A PPU for the UM RMF-FRC thruster has been the subject of recent design efforts but has not yet been demonstrated in operation [43]. EMPT and ELF Thruster PPU PPUs with pulse charging capabilities have been developed and tested with the EMPT [47] and the ELF thruster [58,85,86] in continuous operation. The basic circuit topology of these PPUs is shown in Figure 20.…”

Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EMPT PPU architecture was extended to a 15 kW PPU design for continuous high repetition rate operation of the ELF thruster [58,85]. For this PPU, the inductive pulse charging was used to boost a 300 V DC input bus voltage to as high as 4000 V across the main capacitor bank of 1.2 µF.…”

Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Testing of this PPU demonstrated 15 kW continuous operation at up to 1 kHz repetition rates, with peak pulse powers as high as 55 MW [85]. An earlier version of the 15 kW ELF PPU incorporated a variable frequency pulse charging circuit to permit dynamic tuning of the repetition rate to an optimal value, which could change depending on the propellant being tested [58]. In these tests, repetition rates between 100 Hz to 1500 Hz were achieved for a nominal capacitor bank charge voltage of up to 2800 V.…”

Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most IPPTs tested have used film type capacitors [3,16,18,58]. The PIT MK Va used 18 separate 2 µF oil-filled, pressurized film capacitors charged to as much as 16 kV in a Marx bank configuration.…”

Section: Capacitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Film capacitors designed for snubber applications are particularly well suited for use as IPPT bank capacitors, since they are typically designed for operation at very high dV/dt and dI/dt rates. Paralleled arrays of WIMA™ FKP and/or MKP series snubber film capacitors were used for the energy storage banks in the EMPT [47] and ELF thruster [58]. Typical bank capacitance in these thrusters was roughly 24 µF for the EMPT and 1.2 µF for the ELF thruster.…”

Section: Capacitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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State-of-the-Art and Advancement Paths for Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

et al. 2020

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An inductive pulsed plasma thruster (IPPT) operates by pulsing high current through an inductor, typically a coil of some type, producing an electromagnetic field that drives current in a plasma, accelerating it to high speed. The IPPT is electrodeless, with no direct electrical connection between the externally applied pulsed high-current circuit and the current conducted in the plasma. Several different configurations were proposed and tested, including those that produce a plasma consisting of an accelerating current sheet and those that use closed magnetic flux lines to help confine the plasma during acceleration. Specific impulses up to 7000 s and thrust efficiencies over 50% have been measured. The present state-of-the-art for IPPTs is reviewed, focusing on the operation, modeling techniques, and major subsystems found in various configurations. Following that review is documentation of IPPT technology advancement paths that were proposed or considered.

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Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Power Processing Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Capacitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Capacitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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State-of-the-Art and Advancement Paths for Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

et al. 2020

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Nitrogen discharge characteristics and species kinetics in helicon plasma source

Zhang

Cui

Han

et al. 2022

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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Nitrogen (N2) helicon plasma is produced with radio frequency (RF) right-helical antenna at low pressures. Several wave modes and their transitions of N2 helicon discharge are observed experimentally. Blue Core phenomenon is achieved at high magnetic fields and high RF powers, with strong local blue light emissions of N II lines and high electron temperature inside the core area. Based on actinometric ratio and pressure balance model, species kinetics of N2 helicon plasma are analyzed. It is shown that about 79% of N2 molecules are dissociated and about 49% of the neutrals are ionized inside the Blue Core in high magnetic field of 850 G and RF power of 2200 W. Nearly 99% of N2 molecules inside the core area are depleted considering the neutral density before and after discharge, from 7.3×1013 cm-3 to 6.5×1011 cm-3. Serious neutral depletion of N2 and N neutrals and high electron temperature are suggested to be the dominant causes for significant enhancement of central N II emissions (blue lights). Meanwhile, evolution of reaction processes indicates that N ionization and N+ excitation become dominant in BC mode. Besides, external magnetic field is an important factor to control the discharge mode transitions as well as the radial distributions of plasmas. From the calculated results of dispersion relation, the cavity mode resonance, rather than antenna coupling resonance, of helicon waves plays a dominant role on the wave mode formation and RF energy coupling between RF antenna and plasma. The mode transition results from excitation of helicon wave of higher axial eigenmode. N2 helicon plasma shows different characteristics from argon in mode transition, spectral emission and Blue Core formation. It is due to the high dissociation energy of N2 molecules (9.8 eV) and extensive dissociation and ionization processes. This results in a higher RF power as well as magnetic field for helicon wave coupled mode in N2 helicon plasma than that in Ar plasma.

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Inductive probe measurements in a rotating magnetic field thruster

Sercel,

Gill,

Jorns

2023

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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The induced magnetic field during acceleration in a pulsed rotating magnetic field (RMF) thruster is experimentally investigated. A two-axis Bdot probe is employed to characterize the time-resolved evolution of the fields in a 5 kW-class test article. This device is operated at an average power of 4 kW with an RMF frequency of 415 kHz, pulse widths of 125 µs, and a repetition rate of 155 Hz. Plasma currents induced in the thruster are shown to be 2500 A and to have sufficient magnitude to form a Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmoid. The Lorentz force resulting from the induced magnetic field contributes ∼25% of measured thrust at this operating condition. Of this Lorentz thrust, ∼58% is due to plasma current interaction with the steady applied bias field, while the remainder is caused by interaction with secondary induced currents in nearby structural elements. This structure force is predicted to scale quadratically with plasma current magnitude. These results are discussed in the context of the historically low performance of these devices and strategies for improving their operation are presented.

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Steady Operation of an FRC Thruster on Martian Atmosphere and Liquid Water Propellants

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

State-of-the-Art and Advancement Paths for Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

State-of-the-Art and Advancement Paths for Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

Nitrogen discharge characteristics and species kinetics in helicon plasma source

Inductive probe measurements in a rotating magnetic field thruster

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