Bulletin of the American Physical Society
76th Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference
Volume 68, Number 9
Monday–Friday, October 9–13, 2023; Michigan League, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Session DT2: Electric Propulsion I |
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Chair: Pascal Chabert, Ecole Polytechnique Room: Michigan League, Hussey |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 10:00AM - 10:30AM |
DT2.00001: Radio-frequency inductively coupled plasma discharges for electric propulsion applications Invited Speaker: Trevor Lafleur Radio-Frequency (RF) Inductively Coupled Plasmas (ICPs) are an attractive technology that has a wide range of applications: including as electrodeless plasma sources for several electric propulsion devices such as gridded ion thrusters, ambipolar thrusters, and RF neutralizers. While the discharge pressure in these systems is typical less than 1 Pa, ICPs can also be used to generate high-pressure (10-100 kPa or higher) plasmas and have been proposed as novel electrothermal plasma thrusters capable of generating high thrust-to-power ratios. In these thrusters, an inductive plasma is used to superheat a propellant gas which is then expanded and accelerated through a physical supersonic nozzle to generate thrust, without requiring a neutralizer or an applied magnetic field. Here, we present the basic operation of these thrusters and review the current state-of-the art. We also discuss recent advances associated with bidirectional vortex gas injection – inspired by vortex chemical rocket engines – and how this can significantly reduce heat losses and enhance thruster performance. We also highlight how this versatile technology can be used for many ground-based applications including materials processing, gas conversion, and aerothermodynamics testing. |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 10:30AM - 10:45AM |
DT2.00002: Parametric study of a vortex-enhanced supersonic inductively coupled plasma torch Ash Pascale, Ash Pascale, Trevor Lafleur, Cormac Corr |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 10:45AM - 11:00AM |
DT2.00003: Experimental and numerical comparison of iodine and noble gas (Xe, Kr and Ar) plasmas for electric propulsion Benjamin Esteves, Trevor Lafleur, Alejandro Alvarez Laguna, Nicolas Lequette, Anne Bourdon, Cyril Drag, Pascal Chabert
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Tuesday, October 10, 2023 11:00AM - 11:15AM |
DT2.00004: A Method for Propellant-Agnostic Laser Induced Fluorescence for Hall Thrusters Jacob Simmonds, Matthew P Byrne, Vernon H Chaplin As prices of Xenon have increased and remained uncertain, many have considered changing to other propellants such as Krypton and Argon. Doing so provides challenges given that thrusters operate quite differently on these other propellants, due to the differences in ionization and instabilities in the plasma. This necessitates more investigation into the plasmas itself, however this can be a further challenge as much of the diagnostic architecture has been built to probe Xenon. This is particularly evident in laser induced fluorescence (LIF), which requires lasers and controllers for the specific wavelength of Xenon excitation. To perform LIF on Krypton plasmas would require purchasing a new laser and support equipment, which is both expensive and can take months to attain. An alternate method to use existing Xenon LIF setups to probe non-Xenon plasmas has been demonstrated at JPL on a Hall thruster operating on Krypton, which would enable rapid testing of propellants without changing the diagnostic setup. This is achieved by leaking miniscule amounts of Xenon through the thruster to serve as tracers. Experimental results of this method are shown, with results discussing how xenon flow fraction affects both signal to noise ratio of the LIF signal and the Krypton plasma. |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 11:15AM - 11:30AM |
DT2.00005: Modeling complex plasma chemistry for electric propulsion in a hybrid simulation code Jiewei Zhou, Francesco Taccogna, Filippo Cichocki, Pierpaolo Minelli, Pablo Fajardo, Eduardo Ahedo The chemistry of the low-temperature plasma discharge in electric propulsion devices is introduced for atomic and diatomic substances, and the related reactions are implemented in a particle/fluid multi-dimensional simulation code. For atomic substances: elastic, excitation and ionization collisions are considered. Excitation and de-excitation to and from metastable states can be state-selective, and thus it is possible to model stepwise ionization. For diatomic substances: in addition, vibrational and rotational excitations, dissociation and dissociative ionization are considered. Chemistry of the wall interaction is also modeled considering ion recombination, associative wall recombination, and the wall accommodation processes. Applications to two cases of interest are shown for an electrodeless plasma thruster. First, the effects of the stepwise ionization from metastable states operating with Xe are analyzed. Simulations are run for several operation conditions (on mass flow and electric power) to find regimes where stepwise ionization is important, and how it impacts on the plasma response. Second, the air-breathing concept is assessed. Simulations are run with air substances (nitrogen and oxygen) for various operation conditions to find the best thrust efficiency, and the plasma discharge characteristics and thruster performances obtained are compared with those of Xe. |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 11:30AM - 11:45AM |
DT2.00006: Demonstration of Vacuum Arc Ion Thruster Operation Using Asteroid-Derived Propellant Paul Stansell, Phil Ferrer, Trevor Lafleur Alternative propellants, such as those that could be easily extracted from asteroids, could significantly accelerate space exploration by reducing launch mass. Furthermore, due to the high price of many traditional electric propulsion fuels, alternative propellants are invaluable in their own right as cost-effective replacements. In this work a vacuum arc ion thruster - a gridded ion thruster that utilises a vacuum arc to generate plasma from solid metal for acceleration - was built and tested. This compact and low power vacuum arc ion thruster consisted of a vacuum arc thruster (VAT) plasma source, a glass plasma containment vessel and a two-grid ion acceleration system. Two different VAT plasma source configurations were tested and compared. First, a coaxial pure copper cathode VAT was tested as the plasma source in the ion thruster. Successful operation was recorded and pulsed ion beams of up to 11 mA, 3.1 keV copper ions lasting 320 microseconds were produced and detected downstream. Next, a metallic meteorite cathode was used in a planar VAT configuration as the plasma source for the ion thruster. Successful operation of this 'asteroid-fueled' ion thruster was demonstrated and pulsed ion beams of up to 11 mA, 1.7 keV meteorite (primarily iron and nickel) ions were produced. It was concluded that the vacuum arc ion thruster is a promising propulsion system due to its ability to use inexpensive solid metal propellant and be refueled from asteroidal material with little or no processing. |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 11:45AM - 12:00PM |
DT2.00007: Testing Of A Solid Fuel Adamantane Ion Thruster Kayden Elmer-Schurr, Olivia Kukar, Sebastian Matiauda, Dev Pokhriyal, Lubos Brieda, Kayden Cutchins, Jonathan Garcia The goal of this work is to experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of solid Adamantane, C10H16, as a propellant for an ion thruster operating in vacuum conditions. Our motive is the development of a single-use electric propulsion system for the deorbiting of low-Earth orbit spacecraft, which increases or maintains similar thrust compared to current technology, while reducing complexity. A prototype thruster was constructed from a non-conductive tube 0.5 inches in length, with a conductive surface capping either end, and an exit orifice 0.05 inches in diameter. Approximately 0.05 g of adamantane was placed inside the tube. Initial tests were conducted in a vacuum chamber depressurized to 50 mTorr. A 1 kV potential difference was applied to the conductive end caps, and an ion plume was observed coming out from the orifice. Further experiments will be conducted on the prototype thruster using a pendulum to indirectly measure its thrust. A 4 cm2 aluminum foil pendulum is suspended from the top of the vacuum chamber by a light, uninsulated copper wire, and positioned 2 cm in front of the exit orifice. The pendulum’s displacement is used to calculate thrust. The system is also simulated numerically using the open-source Starfish software. |
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