Serge Barral

Wall material effects in stationary plasma thrusters. II. Near-wall and in-wall conductivity

Simulations and experimental characterizations of a stationary plasma thruster are compared for four different wall materials to investigate near-wall conductivity (dielectric materials) and in-wall conductivity (conducting materials) in such a discharge. Using a one-dimensional transient fluid model that takes into account a possible electron temperature anisotropy, it is shown that electron-wall backscattering plays a crucial role by maintaining a relatively high electron temperature along the magnetic field lines which in turn drives large electron currents toward the walls. The large differences in discharge current observed experimentally for the dielectric materials are qualitatively recovered, confirming that near-wall conductivity results from the combined effects of secondary electron emission and electron backscattering. A clear correlation is found between the appearance of space charge saturation at the walls and a jump of the discharge current observed in experiments when varying the discharg...

Wall material effects in stationary plasma thrusters. I. Parametric studies of an SPT-100

The operation of a laboratory version of the flight-qualified SPT-100 stationary plasma thruster is compared for four different discharge chamber wall materials: a boron nitride–silica mixture (borosil), alumina, silicon carbide, and graphite. The discharge is found to be significantly affected by the nature of the walls: changes in operating regimes, up to 25% variations of the mean discharge current, and over 100% variations of the discharge current fluctuation amplitude are observed between materials. Thrust, however, is only moderately affected. Borosil is the only material tested that allows operating the thruster at a low mean current, low fluctuation level and high thrust efficiency regime. It is suggested that secondary electron emission under electron bombardment is the main cause of the observed differences in discharge operation, except for graphite, where the short-circuit current inside the walls is believed to play a major role. It is also suggested that the photoelectric effect, which has a...

Transit-time instability in Hall thrusters

Longitudinal waves characterized by a phase velocity of the order of the velocity of ions have been recurrently observed in Hall thruster experiments and simulations. The origin of this so-called ion transit-time instability is investigated with a simple one-dimensional fluid model of a Hall thruster discharge in which cold ions are accelerated between two electrodes within a quasineutral plasma. A short-wave asymptotics applied to linearized equations shows that plasma perturbations in such a device consist of quasineutral ion acoustic waves superimposed on a background standing wave generated by discharge current oscillations. Under adequate circumstances and, in particular, at high ionization levels, acoustic waves are amplified as they propagate, inducing strong perturbation of the ion density and velocity. Responding to the subsequent perturbation of the column resistivity, the discharge current generates a standing wave, the reflection of which sustains the generation of acoustic waves at the inlet ...

Modeling Electrospinning of Nanofibers

A fast discrete model for the simulations of thin charged jets produced during the electrospinning process is derived, based on an efficient implementation of the boundary element method for the computation of electrostatic interactions of the jet with itself and with the electrodes. Short-range electrostatic forces are evaluated with slender-body analytical approximations, whereas a hierarchical force evaluation algorithm is used for long-range interactions. Qualitative comparisons with experiments is discussed.

A model for the active control of low frequency oscillations in Hall thrusters

Low frequency discharge current oscillations in Hall thrusters are a main concern in the design of power supplies and constitute a potential source of electromagnetic interference. Their damping typically require the use of external LC or RLC units. Power supply/thruster interactions are investigated by means of a numerical model comprising a 1D plasma column discharge and an ideal voltage supply coupled to a RLC filter. Proportional-integral-derivative control via the magnetic field is also investigated.

Closed-loop control of ionization oscillations in Hall accelerators

Feedback control of ionization oscillations in Hall accelerators is investigated with a proportional-integral-derivative controller acting on the discharge voltage. The stability of the current is found to systematically improve with proportional control, whereas integral and derivative control have in most cases a detrimental or insignificant impact. At low discharge voltages, proportional control eliminates at the same time ionization breathing oscillations as well as a coexisting low frequency mode. A progressive deterioration of the stability is observed at higher voltage, presumably attributable to the limited output voltage range of the controller. The time-averaged characteristics of the discharge such as average current, thrust and efficiency, remain unchanged within measurement uncertainties.

Liquid micro pulsed plasma thruster

Abstract A new type of pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) for small satellite propulsion is investigated, of which the most innovative aspect is the use of a non-volatile liquid propellant. The thruster is based on an open capillary design. The thruster achieved a thrust-to-power ratio above 45 μN/W, which constitutes a 5-fold improvement over the water-propelled pulsed plasma thruster, and which is also slightly above the performance of a similarly sized PPT with a solid propellant.

IS NEAR-WALL CONDUCTIVITY A MISNOMER?

The near-wall conductivity theory outlined by Morozov in 1968 constitutes one of the most prominent outcome of the early investigations of Hall thrusters, which describes the cross-eld electron diffusion mechanism induced by electron-wall collisions. The present work generalizes the near-wall conductivity theory to the case of a non-zero sheath potential at the walls. The general solution is found to differ qualitatively from the no-sheath solution of the classical theory, and puts into question the hypothesis that the so-called near-wall currents are conned to the close vicinity of the walls.

Influence of oblique magnetic field on electron cross-field transport in a Hall effect thruster

The effects of the inclination of the magnetic field with respect to the channel walls in a Hall effect thruster are numerically studied with the use of a one-dimensional quasi-neutral Particle-In-Cell model with guiding center approximation of electron motion along magnetic lines. Parametric studies suggest that the incidence angle strongly influences electron transport across the magnetic field. In ion-focusing magnetic topologies, electrons collide predominantly on the side of the magnetic flux tube closer to the anode, thus increasing the electron cross-field drift. The opposite effect is observed in ion-defocussing topology.

Chaotic waves in Hall thruster plasma

The set of hyperbolic equations of the fluid model describing the acceleration of plasma in a Hall thruster is analyzed. The characteristic feature of the flow is the existence of a trapped characteristic”; i.e. there exists a characteristic line, which never intersects the boundary of the flow region in the thruster. To study the propagation of short wave perturbations, the approach of geometrical optics (like WKB) can be applied. This can be done in a linear as well as in a nonlinear version. The nonlinear version describes the waves of small but finite amplitude. As a result of such an approach one obtains so called transport equation, which are governing the wave amplitude. Due to the existence of trapped characteristics this transport equation appears to have chaotic (turbulent) solutions in both, linear and nonlinear versions.