Numerical simulation of pulsed plasma thruster based on water propellant

In order to reveal the specific ablation mechanism of water propellant pulsed plasma thruster (WP-PPT) and to overcome critical obstacles in its application, we simulated and investigated the working process of WP-PPT by an ablation model for WP-PPT. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results obtained by researchers in University of Tokyo. The comparison indicated that, because some water was gasified before being ignited and some was remained in the electrode area after discharge, the experimental results were different from the simulation ones. However, with the working parameters of prototype and a quality percentage of propellant participating in discharge of 20%, the simulation performances could fit the experimental results well. The impulse bit, specific impulse and energy conversion efficiencies in the simulation results were 74 μN·s, 1 114 s, and 15.2%, respectively. According to analysis of the experiment, it was estimated that about 32% of propellant participated in discharge, which was close to the simulation. We further proposed that developing injector which was able to respond rapidly and jet uniformly would improve the performance of WP-PPT.