Particle Simulation of Pulsed Plasma Thruster Plumes

Abstract

This final report summarizes the research carried out on the development of numerical approaches for simulating the plumes of pulsed plasma thrusters. A significant amount of progress has been made in the three years of this grant and this summarized in the 9 journals and conference papers that are included as appendices to this report. Our modeling had made progress in al aspects of simulating these complex devices including Teflon ablation, plasma formation, electro-magnetic acceleration, plume expansion, and particulate transport. Several different pulsed plasma thruster devices were modeled including an electro-thermal device (the PPT-4 developed at the University of Illinois by Dr. Rod Burton), and various micro-PPT's (developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory by Dr. Greg Spanjers and colleagues).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA405541

Entities

People

  • Ian D. Boyd

Organizations

  • Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Charged Particles
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Electron Density
  • Energy Transfer
  • Glow Discharges
  • Heat Transfer
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Particle Flux
  • Particles
  • Plasma Accelerators
  • Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
  • Specific Heat
  • Thrusters
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster