An approach based on strong electromagnetic acceleration produced simple closed-form analytic expressions for the ablated mass and total impulse per pulse for rectangular, breech-fed pulsed plasma thrusters. The theoretical model is validated by comparisons to experiments of a wide range of geometries and operating conditions showing very good agreement. The produced expressions quantify contributions from electromagnetic and gas dynamic acceleration; confirm, explain, and generalize trends observed by experiments; and offer additional guidelines for thruster improvements.
Theoretical Formulation for the Performance of Rectangular, Breech-Fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
Journal of Propulsion and Power ; 35 , 4 ; 811-818
2019-04-29
8 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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