Influences of characteristic parameters on starting-up process of an arcjet thruster  

作　　者：Yan SHEN Yinggang TONG Fuzhi WEI Zhaopu YAO Dawei HU 

机构地区：[1]School of Aerospace and Astronautics,Sun Yet-sen University,Guangzhou 510006,China [2]Lab of Space Propulsion Technology,Beijing Institute of Control Engineering,Beijing 100094,China

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Aeronautics》2020年第12期3011-3017,共7页中国航空学报（英文版）

基　　金：co-supported by the Defense Industrial Technology Development Program,China(No.JCKY2018203B029);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.11702021)。

摘　　要：Arcjet thruster has been a widely used electrical propulsion technology on GEO satellites since 1993.In its long history of technical development and commercial application,lifetime verification of an arcjet thruster is always one of the most important and expensive tasks.Considering that the main life limitation of an arcjet thruster is electrode ablation and a significant share of the total ablation happens in its starting-up process,the starting-up process is studied with arc voltage signals.Through interpretation of arc voltage signals,the transfer process of the arc root on the anode surface is identified,and?T(the duration of the arc root transfer process)is suggested to be a characteristic parameter for fast evaluation of lifetime assessment and design optimization for an arcjet thruster.With this criterion,the influences of typical parameters on the starting-up process are established through comparison with a benchmark parameter.According to experimental results,an increase of the gas flow will obviously reduce?T,while a smaller swirl aperture and a longer throat channel do not have a remarkable correlation with?T.Moreover,with a sample of a smaller throat diameter to increase the flow velocity,a reduction of?T is achieved.Meanwhile,the modifications also affect the stability of arcjet thruster operation,which is also discussed.

关 键 词：Arc root ARCJET Electric propulsion Electrode ablation Starting-up process 

分 类 号：V439.4[航空宇航科学与技术—航空宇航推进理论与工程]