The effect of easily ionized elements Na and K on the performance of pulsed plasma thruster using water propellant  

作　　者：ZHU Ping1,2, HOU LiYa1 & ZHANG WeiYi1 1 School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China 2 Instrumentation Science and Dynamic Measurement Laboratory, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China 

出　　处：《Science China(Technological Sciences)》2010年第10期2878-2882,共5页中国科学（技术科学英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.60778029);the Specialized Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China(Grant No.20060288005);the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(Grant No.BK2007209)

摘　　要：In view of the low thrust power ratio caused by the high resistance of pulsed plasma thruster using water propellant,the paper argues that the easily ionized elements Na and K with low ionic potentials are added in the water propellant to improve its performance. The measurement of the discharging current and plasma emission spectrographic analysis prove the improvement. The experiments show that the elements Na and K have certain effect on the improvement of the performance of pulsed plasma thruster: In comparison with water propellant,the NaCl and KCl water propellant has a lower total resistance and a higher ratio of thruster power and specific impulse,and the NaCl water propellant has a slightly stronger effect on pulsed plasma thruster than the KCl. The plasma emission spectrographic analysis is in consistent with the experiment of measuring the discharging current: The elements Na and K can intensify the plasma emission spectrographic signal.In view of the low thrust power ratio caused by the high resistance of pulsed plasma thruster using water propellant,the paper argues that the easily ionized elements Na and K with low ionic potentials are added in the water propellant to improve its performance. The measurement of the discharging current and plasma emission spectrographic analysis prove the improvement. The experiments show that the elements Na and K have certain effect on the improvement of the performance of pulsed plasma thruster: In comparison with water propellant,the NaCl and KCl water propellant has a lower total resistance and a higher ratio of thruster power and specific impulse,and the NaCl water propellant has a slightly stronger effect on pulsed plasma thruster than the KCl. The plasma emission spectrographic analysis is in consistent with the experiment of measuring the discharging current: The elements Na and K can intensify the plasma emission spectrographic signal.

关 键 词：PULSED plasma THRUSTER WATER PROPELLANT easily ionized ELEMENTS PERFORMANCE 

分 类 号：V439.2[航空宇航科学与技术—航空宇航推进理论与工程]