使用不同工质的会切磁场等离子体推力器

会切磁场等离子体推力器是一种利用磁镜约束等离子体产生推力的新型推力器,具有寿命长、推力大范围连续可调等优点,在无拖曳控制领域具有较大的应用前景.分别采用Xe,Kr和Ar三种不同工质,开展了会切磁场等离子体推力器实验.首先,对所用的推力器进行了简要的原理和设计介绍;然后,对三种工质的点火电压分别进行了测试,发现Xe是最容易点火成功的,Kr和Ar点火难度较大.在阳极电流、推力、效率和比冲等性能方面,三种工质在同等条件下也存在明显的区别.分析发现,三者的工质利用率高低导致了性能上的差别,通过提升通流密度能够大幅提升Kr和Ar的工质利用率.在羽流结构方面,法拉第测量结果表明三者都存在明显的空心羽流,且离子电流密度峰值出现的角度随着原子量的减小而逐渐减小.     

应用于电推进的碘工质电子回旋共振等离子体源

电子回旋共振(electron cyclotron resonance, ECR)源具有无需内电极、低气压电离、等离子体密度较高和结构紧凑等优点,适用于小功率电推进.因此,研究小功率碘工质ECR等离子体源具有重要意义.本文首先设计了一套耐腐蚀且可以均衡稳定输出碘蒸汽的储供系统;然后完成了耐碘腐蚀ECR推力器设计,利用耐腐蚀的同轴谐振腔结构将微波馈送到推力器,并将通道磁场变为会切型磁场以产生更多ECR层;最终联合点火实验成功,成为国际上首个可以用于电推进的ECR电离碘工质等离子体源.分析实验和静磁场、微波电场分布发现,小功率、低流量下的不稳定等离子体羽流闪烁由寻常波电子等离子体共振加热和非寻常波ECR加热模式之间的转化引起.高流量下电离率下降是由电子损失、壁面损失和碘工质电负性导致.并依据此原理提出了改进方案.放电后等离子体源没有明显损伤,说明具备长寿命潜力.此项工作初步证实了小功率碘工质ECR电推进方案可行.     

Influence of channel length on discharge performance of anode layer Hall thruster studied by particle-in-cell simulation

Hall thruster has the advantages of simple structure, high specific impulse, high efficiency, and long service life, and so on. It is suitable for spacecraft attitude control, North and South position keeping, and other track tasks. The anode layer Hall thruster is a kind of Hall thruster. The thruster has a longer anode area and a relatively short discharge channel.In this paper, the effect of the channel length on the performance of the anode layer Hall thruster is simulated by the PIC simulation method. The simulation results show that the change of the channel length has significant effect on the plasma parameters, such as potential and plasma density and so on. The ionization region mainly concentrates at the hollow anode outlet position, and can gradually move toward the channel outlet as the channel length decreases. The collision between the ions and the wall increases with the channel length increasing. So the proper shortening of the channel length can increase the life of the thruster. Besides, the results show that there is a best choice of the channel length for obtaining the best performance. In this paper, thruster has the best performance under a channel length of 5 mm.