Effect of ion solvation energy on electrohydrodynamic behavior of ionic liquid droplets in electrospray thrusters  

作　　者：Yipeng FAN Chong CHEN Huifeng KANG Guangqing XIA Chang LU Yajie HAN 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis,Optimization and CAE Software for Industrial Equipment,Dalian University of Technology,Dalian 116024,China [2]Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Aerospace Vehicles of Liaoning Province,Dalian University of Technology,Dalian 116024,China [3]Collaborative Innovation Center of Micro&Nano Satellites of Hebei Province,North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering,Langfang 065000,China

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Aeronautics》2025年第3期222-233,共12页中国航空学报(英文版)

基　　金：supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2020YFC2201100);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.12175032,12102082,12275044,12402327,12405290 and 12211530449);the Joint Program of the Science and Technology Program of Liaoning,China(No.2023JH2/101700285);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China(Nos.DUT22RC(3)078,DUT23RC(3)040 and DUT24ZD106);the S&T Program of Hebei,China(No.246Z2301G);the S&T Innovation Program of Hebei,China(Nos.SJMYF2022X18 and SJMYF2022X06);the Beijing Engineering Research Center of Efficient and Green Aerospace Propulsion Technology and Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory of BICE,China(No.LabASP-2023-07).

摘　　要：The electrospray thruster supplied by ionic liquid is a promising micro-propulsion thruster with small size and precise thrust, which can emit both cations and anions to achieve self-neutralization. In order to further investigate the effect of ion solvation energy on the evaporation of cations and anions from ionic liquid under the action of a uniform electric field, this paper establishes a transient Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) model for free ionic liquid droplets undergoing ion evaporation. The dynamic processes of droplet deformation and ion evaporation are simulated. And the study further focuses on the influence of different ion solvation energies for cations on the droplet morphology and the ion evaporation characteristics at the positively charged end and negatively charged end of the droplet. The results indicate that, when the ion solvation energy for cations is higher than that of anions, it will cause the ion evaporation at the positively charged end of the droplet to lag behind the ion evaporation at the negatively charged end. And the higher the ion solvation energy for the cations, the longer the evaporation lag time at the positively charged end of the droplet, which will lead to a higher peak of surface charge density that can be reached, resulting in a larger evaporation current and sharper droplet stretching deformation. Additionally, the peak surface charge density of the positively charged end of the droplet is linearly related to the ion solvation energy for cations, while the peak surface charge density of the negatively charged end remains almost unchanged and is not significantly affected by the ion solvation energy for cations.

关 键 词：Ionic liquid ELECTROSPRAY ELECTROHYDRODYNAMICS Ion solvation energy Ion evaporation 

分 类 号：V439[航空宇航科学与技术—航空宇航推进理论与工程]