The far-field plasma characteristics of LHT40 low-power Hall thruster for commercial aerospace applications

Xinwei CHEN (陈新伟); Zuo GU (顾左); Jun GAO (高俊); Shangmin WANG (王尚民); Tao CHEN (陈焘); Ning GUO (郭宁); Sanxiang YANG (杨三祥); Chao LIU (刘超)

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/ac15eb

Plasma Science and Technology > 2021 > 23(10): 104009. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/ac15eb

Xinwei CHEN (陈新伟), Zuo GU (顾左), Jun GAO (高俊), Shangmin WANG (王尚民), Tao CHEN (陈焘), Ning GUO (郭宁), Sanxiang YANG (杨三祥), Chao LIU (刘超). The far-field plasma characteristics of LHT40 low-power Hall thruster for commercial aerospace applications[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2021, 23(10): 104009. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/ac15eb

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The far-field plasma characteristics of LHT40 low-power Hall thruster for commercial aerospace applications

Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology and Physics Laboratory, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, Lanzhou 730000, People's Republic of China

Funds: The authors would like to acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12005087 and 61901204), the Science and Technology Plan of Gansu Province (No. 20JR10RA478), the Military Test Instruments Program (No. 2006ZCTF0054) and the Key Laboratory Funds for Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology and Physics Laboratory (No. HTKJ2019KL510003).

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Received Date: March 04, 2021
Revised Date: July 08, 2021
Accepted Date: July 18, 2021

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Abstract

To achieve a better insight into the far-field plasma spatial distribution and evolution characteristics of the 300 W class low-power Hall thruster (LHT) for commercial aerospace applications, a dedicated and integrated plasma diagnostic system composed of seventeen Faraday cups (FC) and two triple Langmuir probes (TLP) is established to investigate the time-averaged in situ spatial distribution characteristics of far-field ions and electrons. The ion current density (ICD), plasma potential, plasma density, and electron temperature at 1000 mm downstream of 300 W class LHT for commercial aerospace applications in the azimuthal angle range of −90° to 90° were investigated under the conditions of different anode mass flow rates and discharge voltages. The results demonstrated that ICD, beam divergence angle, and mass utilization efficiency increased with increasing anode mass rate. The double-wings phenomenon was observed in the spatial distribution of ICD at large angles from the thruster axis, which is attributed to charge exchange collisions at increasing vacuum backpressure. The plasma electron temperature, electron density, and plasma potential parameters derived from the TLP decreased rapidly in the angle range from 0° to 30° and did not exhibit significant variations above 30°, which was also in good agreement with the results of the measured divergence angle of the FC. The discrepancy of average ion speed was calculated. The maximum error is better than 31.5% which checks the consistency between the TLP's results and that of FC to some extent.
- low power Hall thruster,
- plasma characteristics,
- commercial aerospace,
- plasmadiagnostic system

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References (33)

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