EFFECTS OF ELECTRODE CONFIGURATION ON ABLATIVE PULSED PLASMA THRUSTER PERFORMANCE

摘要

Pulsed plasma thrusters(PPTs) have been used widely in space flight mission due to their high specific impulses, low power requirements, and simple propellant management. Obviously, electrodes configuration has great influence on thruster performance. Previous researches have shown that flared electrodes produce impulse bits considerably higher than parallel geometries under the same operating conditions. However, the mechanism how electrodes configuration influents thruster performance is not very clear. In order to explore the effects of electrodes configuration on thruster performance, an experimental prototype has been designed and built. The thrust and operating performances of thrusters with different electrode configurations which have the same length and different flared angle and tongue angle are measured. From the experimental results, the effects of electrode geometry on thruster performance are obtained.