TY - JOUR
T1 - High energy pulsed inductive thruster modeling operating with ammonia propellant
AU - Mikellides, Pavlos
AU - Villarreal, James K.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the contributions of Mr. Stewart Smith in the development of the plasma voltage model addition to the MACH2 code. The work was supported by NASA Glenn Research Center.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Numerical modeling of the pulsed inductive thruster operating with ammonia propellant at high energy levels, utilized a time-dependent, two-dimensional, and axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamics code to provide bilateral validation of experiment and theory and offer performance insights for improved designs. The power circuit model was augmented by a plasma voltage algorithm that accounts for the propellant's time-dependent resistance and inductance to properly account for plasma dynamics and was verified using available analytic solutions of two idealized plasma problems. Comparisons of the predicted current waveforms to experimental data exhibited excellent agreement for the initial half-period, essentially capturing the dominant acceleration phase. Further validation proceeded by comparisons of the impulse for three different energy levels, 2592, 4050, and 4608 J and a wide range of propellant mass values. Predicted impulse captured both trends and magnitudes measured experimentally for nominal operation. Interpretation of the modeling results in conjunction to experimental observations further confirm the critical mass phenomenon beyond which efficiency degrades due to elevated internal energy mode deposition and anomalous operation.
AB - Numerical modeling of the pulsed inductive thruster operating with ammonia propellant at high energy levels, utilized a time-dependent, two-dimensional, and axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamics code to provide bilateral validation of experiment and theory and offer performance insights for improved designs. The power circuit model was augmented by a plasma voltage algorithm that accounts for the propellant's time-dependent resistance and inductance to properly account for plasma dynamics and was verified using available analytic solutions of two idealized plasma problems. Comparisons of the predicted current waveforms to experimental data exhibited excellent agreement for the initial half-period, essentially capturing the dominant acceleration phase. Further validation proceeded by comparisons of the impulse for three different energy levels, 2592, 4050, and 4608 J and a wide range of propellant mass values. Predicted impulse captured both trends and magnitudes measured experimentally for nominal operation. Interpretation of the modeling results in conjunction to experimental observations further confirm the critical mass phenomenon beyond which efficiency degrades due to elevated internal energy mode deposition and anomalous operation.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.2809436
DO - 10.1063/1.2809436
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:36649014495
SN - 0021-8979
VL - 102
JO - Journal of Applied Physics
JF - Journal of Applied Physics
IS - 10
M1 - 103301
ER -