Advanced Search+
Mingming SUN (孙明明), Tianping ZHANG (张天平), Xiaodong WEN (温晓东), Weilong GUO (郭伟龙), Jiayao SONG (宋嘉尧). Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2018, 20(2): 25503-025503. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa8edb
Citation: Mingming SUN (孙明明), Tianping ZHANG (张天平), Xiaodong WEN (温晓东), Weilong GUO (郭伟龙), Jiayao SONG (宋嘉尧). Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2018, 20(2): 25503-025503. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aa8edb

Plasma characteristics in the discharge region of a 20A emission current hollow cathode

  • Numerical calculation and fluid simulation methods were used to obtain the plasma characteristics in the discharge region of the LIPS-300 ion thruster’s 20 A emission current hollow cathode and to verify the structural design of the emitter. The results of the two methods indicated that the highest plasma density and electron temperature, which improved significantly in the orifice region, were located in the discharge region of the hollow cathode. The magnitude of plasma density was about 1021 m-3 in the emitter and orifice regions, as obtained by numerical calculations, but decreased exponentially in the plume region with the distance from the orifice exit. Meanwhile, compared to the emitter region, the electron temperature and current improved by about 36% in the orifice region. The hollow cathode performance test results were in good agreement with the numerical calculation results, which proved that that the structural design of the emitter and the orifice met the requirements of a 20 A emission current. The numerical calculation method can be used to estimate plasma characteristics in the preliminary design stage of hollow cathodes.
  • loading

Catalog

    Turn off MathJax
    Article Contents

    /

    DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
    Return
    Return