Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
group
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Nirav Patel, Junior Garret Seckinger
Lead Presenter's Name
Nirav Patel
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Engineering
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Mubarak Mujawar
Abstract
With the advent of ion thrusters, burns requiring large velocity changes can be performed with a fraction of the propellant required by traditional chemical rocket engines. However, current ion thrusters produce thrust in the order of millinewtons and thus cannot be viable for launching vehicles or burns requiring velocity changes in a small amount of time. Furthermore, current ion thrusters experience grid and component erosion, where the two grids at the termination of the nozzle slowly erode due to particle impact, and the hot electrodes degrade due to high thermal load. This limits the life of ion engines, which require a long useful life to be practical. Additionally, current thrusters require lots of power, often in the order of kilovolts, which requires large and heavy power supply components, detracting valuable payload mass. This research explores the use of a constricted hollow anode pulsed plasma source (CHAPPS) to generate high-density plasma within the constrained region, mimicking the desired conditions in the ion thruster. Experiments are carried out in a vacuum chamber at an operating pressure in the range of 0.1-0.001 mTorr. Plasma is characterized by the Langmuir probe and the emissive probe. Various electrode geometries are being tested to further optimize the density of the sinusoidal (30 kHz) and pulsed plasma (1-1kHz), thereby achieving the best thrust density while avoiding the traditional pitfalls of electrode and grid erosion.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
Included in
Electrical and Electronics Commons, Plasma and Beam Physics Commons, Propulsion and Power Commons
Effect of Anode Size on the Properties of Constricted Hollow Anode Pulsed Plasma Source
With the advent of ion thrusters, burns requiring large velocity changes can be performed with a fraction of the propellant required by traditional chemical rocket engines. However, current ion thrusters produce thrust in the order of millinewtons and thus cannot be viable for launching vehicles or burns requiring velocity changes in a small amount of time. Furthermore, current ion thrusters experience grid and component erosion, where the two grids at the termination of the nozzle slowly erode due to particle impact, and the hot electrodes degrade due to high thermal load. This limits the life of ion engines, which require a long useful life to be practical. Additionally, current thrusters require lots of power, often in the order of kilovolts, which requires large and heavy power supply components, detracting valuable payload mass. This research explores the use of a constricted hollow anode pulsed plasma source (CHAPPS) to generate high-density plasma within the constrained region, mimicking the desired conditions in the ion thruster. Experiments are carried out in a vacuum chamber at an operating pressure in the range of 0.1-0.001 mTorr. Plasma is characterized by the Langmuir probe and the emissive probe. Various electrode geometries are being tested to further optimize the density of the sinusoidal (30 kHz) and pulsed plasma (1-1kHz), thereby achieving the best thrust density while avoiding the traditional pitfalls of electrode and grid erosion.