Pulsed thrust measurements using laser interferometry
TL;DR: In this article, an optical interferometric proximeter system (IPS) for measuring thrust and impulse bit of pulsed electric thrusters was developed, which can yield electromagnetic interference-free, high accuracy (<2% error) thrust measurements within a very wide range of impulses (100 μN to above 10 N) covering the impulse range of all known pulsed plasma thrusters.
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Abstract: An optical interferometric proximeter system (IPS) for measuring thrust and impulse bit of pulsed electric thrusters was developed. Unlike existing thrust stands, the IPS-based thrust stand offers the advantage of a single system that can yield electromagnetic interference-free, high accuracy (<2% error) thrust measurements within a very wide range of impulses (100 μN s to above 10 N s) covering the impulse range of all known pulsed plasma thrusters. In addition to pulsed thrusters, the IPS is theoretically shown to be capable of measuring steady-state thrust values as low as 20 μN for microthrusters such as the field emission electric propulsion thruster. The IPS-based thrust stand relies on measuring the dynamic response of a swinging arm using a two-sensor laser interferometer with 10 nm position accuracy. The wide application of the thrust stand is demonstrated with thrust measurements of an ablative pulsed plasma thruster and a quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic thruster.
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Citations
Experimental and theoretical studies of cylindrical Hall thrusters
TL;DR: The cylindrical Hall thruster (CHT) is fundamentally different from the conventional design in the way the electrons are confined and the ion space charge is neutralized as mentioned in this paper, and the performances of both the large (9-cm channel diameter, 600-1000W) and miniaturized (2.6-cm Channel diameter, 50-300W) CHTs are comparable with those of the state-of-the-art conventional (annular) design Hall thrusters of similar sizes.
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Parametric Investigations of Miniaturized Cylindrical and Annular Hall Thrusters
Artem Smirnov,Yevgeny Raitses,Nathaniel J. Fisch +2 more
- 16 Oct 2001
TL;DR: In this article, a cylindrical geometry Hall thruster of a flexible design was built and successfully operated in the power range of 50-300 W. The absence of the inner wall and use of the cusp magnetic field can potentially reduce heating of the thruster parts and erosion of the channel.
Gas dynamic calibration of a nano-Newton thrust stand
TL;DR: In this paper, a simple but uniquely successful thrust stand has been developed and used to measure thrust levels as low as 86.2 nano-Newtons (nN) with an estimated accuracy of ±11%.
107
Thrust stand for electric propulsion performance evaluation
TL;DR: An electric propulsion thrust stand capable of supporting testing of thrusters having a total mass of up to 125 kg and producing thrust levels between 100 microN to 1 N has been developed and tested as discussed by the authors.
Recommended Practice for Thrust Measurement in Electric Propulsion Testing
James E. Polk,Anthony Pancotti,Thomas W. Haag,Scott King,Mitchell L. R. Walker,Joseph Blakely,John Ziemer +6 more
TL;DR: The accurate, direct measurement of thrust or impulse is one of the most critical elements of electric thruster characterization, and it is the most difficult measurement to make as mentioned in this paper, and therefore it is difficult to obtain accurate measurements.
References
Thrust stand for high‐power electric propulsion devices
TL;DR: In this paper, a high-power thrust stand was developed for use with high power magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters, which is installed in a high vacuum MPD facility at Lewis Research Center.
179
Flight Qualified Pulsed Electric Thruster for Satellite Control
TL;DR: A solid fuel pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) has been designed, built and flight qualified for the LES-8/9 program (due to be launched in March 1975).
97
Measured performance of a multimegawatt MPD thruster
TL;DR: In this article, the authors measured the impulse bit per pulse on a swinging gate thrust stand in a dielectric vacuum tank at a background pressure of 10 ~ Torr and found that the impulse scale quadratically with arc current and confirm previous estimates of the electromagnetic and electrothermal components of thrust from magnetic and pressure probe measurements.
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