Physicomathematical model of plasma acceleration in an ablative pulsed plasma thruster
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MA DYNAMICS
Physicomathematical Model of Plasma Acceleration in an Ablative Pulsed Plasma Thruster G. A. Popov, M. M. Khrustalev, V. A. Khrabrov†, N. N. Antropov, and N. V. Lyubinskaya Research Institute of Applied Mechanics and Electrodynamics, Moscow Aviation Institute, Volokolamskoe sh. 4, Moscow, 125993 Russia email: [email protected] Received June 28, 2013; in final form, November 20, 2013
Abstract—A new comparatively simple quasionedimensional physicomathematical model of plasma acceleration in an ablative pulsed plasma thruster with a capacitive energy storage is proposed. In spite of its simplicity, the model adequately reflects the main physical processes occurring in the thruster channel in the course of plasma blob acceleration: the blob dynamics, plasma radiation, absorption of radiation by the Teflon channel walls, ablation of the wall material, and plasma ionization. The results of computer simula tions agree well with the experimental results. DOI: 10.1134/S1063780X14050079 †
1. INTRODUCTION One of the actively developed lines of space engi neering is the design of mini and microspacecraft (MSC) with a mass of a few tens to several hundred kilograms. Ablative pulsed plasma thrusters (APPTs) most completely satisfy the requirements imposed upon MSC thrusters [1–4] due to their simplicity, reliability, low cost, and the capability of operating in the power range from a few watts to several hundred watts. The first APPTs were created and flight tested at the Kurchatov Institute in the 1960s under the supervision of L.A. Artsimovich and A.M. Andrianov. Since the 1960s and up to the present, research in this field has been performed at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) and, later, at the Research Institute of Applied Mechanics and Electrodynamics (RIAME)—a branch of MAI. As a result, a new generation of APPTs with a capacitive energy storage and substantially improved specific characteristics (such as the specific thrust, thrust efficiency, energy efficiency, etc.) has been developed [5–11]. There are a lot of works devoted to the mathemati cal modeling of the processes occurring in plasma thrusters (see, e.g., [1–5, 10, 12–16]). However, to the best of our knowledge, the existing mathematical models do not take into account the entire spectrum of physical phenomena occurring in the APPT channel, in which a plasma blob (PB) forms due to the ablation of the polymer material (Teflon) of the channel walls under the action of plasma radiation. It is well known that even the simplified magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) description of plasma pro
† Deceased.
cesses leads to a rather complicated system of partial differential equations complemented with the equa tions describing variations in the plasma parameters and absorption of the ablated Teflon by the accelerated plasma. The numerical solution of such a system, even by means of modern computers, is an extremely difficult problem. In this connection, a relatively simple quasione dimensional physicomathematical model of plasma acceleration in an APPT
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