Design and fabrication of a full elastic sub-micron-Newton scale thrust measurement system for plasma micro thrusters

Zhongkai ZHANG (张仲恺); Guanrong HANG (杭观荣); Jiayun QI (齐佳运); Zun ZHANG (张尊); Zhe ZHANG (章喆); Jiubin LIU (刘久镔); Wenjiang YANG (杨文将); Haibin TANG (汤海滨)

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/ac1ac3

Plasma Science and Technology > 2021 > 23(10): 104004. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/ac1ac3

Zhongkai ZHANG (张仲恺), Guanrong HANG (杭观荣), Jiayun QI (齐佳运), Zun ZHANG (张尊), Zhe ZHANG (章喆), Jiubin LIU (刘久镔), Wenjiang YANG (杨文将), Haibin TANG (汤海滨). Design and fabrication of a full elastic sub-micron-Newton scale thrust measurement system for plasma micro thrusters[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2021, 23(10): 104004. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/ac1ac3

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Design and fabrication of a full elastic sub-micron-Newton scale thrust measurement system for plasma micro thrusters

1 School of Space and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People's Republic of China
2 Shanghai Institute of Space Propulsion, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Space Engine, Shanghai 201112, People's Republic of China
3 School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, People's Republic of China
4 The Institute of Space Systems, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart D-70569, Germany
5 Key Laboratory of Spacecraft Design Optimization & Dynamic Simulation Technologies, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China
6 Laboratory of Space Environment Monitoring and Information Processing, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China

Funds: This work was partly supported by the Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Space Engine (No. 17DZ2280800).

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Received Date: March 17, 2021
Revised Date: August 01, 2021
Accepted Date: August 03, 2021

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Abstract

Abstract

In this work, a force measurement system is proposed to measure the thrust of plasma microthruster with thrust magnitude ranging from sub-micro-Newtons to hundreds micro-Newtons. The thrust measurement system uses an elastic torsional pendulum structure with a capacitance sensor to measure the displacement, which can reflect the position change caused by the applied force perpendicular to the pendulum axis. In the open-loop mode, the steady-state thrust or the impulse of the plasma micro-thruster can be obtained from the swing of the pendulum, and in the closed-loop mode the steady-state thrust can be obtained from the feedback force that keeps the pendulum at a specific position. The thrust respond of the system was calibrated using an electrostatic weak force generation device. Experimental results show that the system can measure a thrust range from 0 to 200 μN in both open-loop mode and closed-loop mode with a thrust resolution of 0.1 μN, and the system can response to a pulse bit at the magnitude of 0.1 mN s generated by a micro cathode arc thruster. The background noise of the closed-loop mode is lower than that of the open-loop mode, both less than 0.1 mN Hz / in the range of 10 mHz to 5 Hz.
- plasma thruster micro-thrust,
- measurement,
- torsional pendulum

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References (35)

References

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Design and fabrication of a full elastic sub-micron-Newton scale thrust measurement system for plasma micro thrusters