10 Micrograms Supply System for Liquid Propellant Pulsed Plasma Thruster

Si Yu Wang, Xiang Yang Liu*, Kan Xie, Zhi Wen Wu, Yue Cheng, Ning Fei Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Using water as propellant, which could effectively increase the specific impulse, prevent late-time ablation and reduce pollution, was a new technology to improve the performance of pulsed plasma thruster (PPT). As the prerequisite of pushing the liquid propellant pulsed plasma thruster (LP-PPT) into engineering application, the trace propellant supply system was difficult to satisfy the needs of LP-PPT. Therefore, first of all, the existing LP-PPT supply systems were introduced. And their strengths and weaknesses were analyzed. Secondly, the cork, organic material, was used as osmotic media. Subsequently a multi-section infiltration water supply system was developed. Thirdly, based on the theoretical analysis of the supply principle, two sets of measurement plans were designed. And the related experiments were carried out. Finally, combined with the PPT, the performances of LP-PPT were tested. It is found that the mass flow rate of three-section supply system is 21.76 μg/s, which is able to meet the requirement of LP-PPT prototype. The performances of LP-PPT is acquired. The impulse bit, specific impulse and efficiency are 82.998 μN·s, 194.6s and 2.47%, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1648-1653
Number of pages6
JournalTuijin Jishu/Journal of Propulsion Technology
Volume38
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2017

Keywords

  • Electric propulsion
  • Liquid propellant pulsed plasma thruster
  • Mass flow rate
  • Penetrant meterial
  • Supply system

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