船用等离子体推进器的初步设计

Preliminary Design of Plasma Thruster Used in Ships

为了解决原有船舶推进方式存在的缺陷,设计了包括等离子体发生器和等离子体加速器两部分的船用等离子体推进器,并分析了以水为推进剂等离子体发生器内起弧放电过程、起弧放电条件和热量平衡关系;建立了等离子体加速器的物理模型。设计等离子体发生器时,要求等离子体发生器内水电阻尽量大,保证等离子体发生器电极间能起弧放电;要求等离子体发生器电极间的空腔尽量大且水在发生器内停留时间足够长,以便从电源处获得足够多的能量,保证发生器喷口处的喷出物为等离子体和气体混合物。为提高等离子体向后喷射的速度和等离子体的集中程度,在发生器出口处的等离子体运动区域引入均匀恒定相互正交的电磁场,以此来约束和加速等离子体,从而克服了从等离子体发生器中喷出的等离子体分散和推力不大的缺点。

In order to solve the flaw that original ship propulsive modes have, plasma thruster used in ships is designed and manufactured, which includes plasma generator and plasma accelerator. The process and condition of arc starting and discharge and heat balance relationship in plasma generator that takes water as propellant are analyzed, physical model of plasma accelerator has been established. When designing plasma generator, water resistance in plasma generator should be as big as possible so that arc starting and discharge can occur between electrodes in plasma generator. Also, cavity between electrodes in the plasma generator should be as big as possible and time of water stay in the plasma generator should be long enough so that water obtains enough energy from the electric source and a mixture of plasma and steam ejects from the generator outlet. In order to enhance speed and centralized degree of plasma which sprays backward, uniform, constant and mutual orthogonal electromagnetic field are introduced in plasma movement region of outlet of generator. Plasma accelerator uses uniform, constant and mutual orthogonal electromagnetic field to restrain and accelerate plasma, the shortcomings that plasma spouted out from plasma generator is decentralized and thrust force of plasma is not big are overcomed.