Magnet stage optimization of 5 kW multicusped field thruster

Peng HU (胡鹏); Daren YU (于达仁); Yan SHEN (沈岩)

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/aba680

Plasma Science and Technology > 2020 > 22(9): 94015-094015. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aba680

Peng HU (胡鹏), Daren YU (于达仁), Yan SHEN (沈岩). Magnet stage optimization of 5 kW multicusped field thruster[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2020, 22(9): 94015-094015. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aba680

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Magnet stage optimization of 5 kW multicusped field thruster

¹ Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing 100094, People's Republic of China
² Lab of Advanced Space Propulsion, Beijing 100094, People's Republic of China
³ Beijing Engineering Research Center of Efficient and Green Aerospace Propulsion Technology, Beijing 100094, People's Republic of China
⁴ Plasma Propulsion Laboratory of Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China
⁵ School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, People's Republic of China

Funds: The authors would like to acknowledge the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51806011), the Advance Research Project of Equipment Development (No. 30501050203), and the Advance Research Project of the Civil Space Program (No. D010509)

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Received Date: December 29, 2019
Revised Date: July 13, 2020
Accepted Date: July 14, 2020

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Abstract

The multi-cusped field thruster is a unique electric thruster device, which has many advantages such as long lifetime, large-range thrust throttling ability, high thrust density, and low mass. The thruster employs several alternating polarity permanent magnets to create a periodic magnetic field with several cusps. Previous studies have indicated that the basic ionization and acceleration processes are directly related to the electron motion behavior, which mainly depends on the magnetic field characteristics. The magnet number and magnet stage length are two key magnetic field parameters that have important effects on the thruster performances. In this paper, both the magnet number and magnet stage length parameters are studied for the optimization of a 5 kW multi-cusped field thruster. The results indicate that the three-stage thruster has a better electron confinement than the two-stage thruster. It has lower ion energy loss at the wall, and shows a higher ionization rate. Therefore, the three-stage magnetic field is a superior magnetic field configuration. Besides, the three-stage magnetic field simulation results indicate that an optimal accelerating electric field distribution and ionization region distribution could be obtained when the magnet length ratio is 78:25:20.
- multi-cusped field,
- magnet number,
- magnet length,
- performance optimization

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References (34)

References

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Magnet stage optimization of 5 kW multicusped field thruster