电推力器气路高电压绝缘技术研究

Novel Type of High Voltage Xenon Propellant Insulator for Electric Thruster

电推力器工作时,氙气供气管路上必须设置气路电绝缘器抑制因低气压放电引起的击穿,以确保电推力器正常工作,并避免卫星结构带电。通过气路电绝缘器工况分析,在帕邢放电原理基础上,对提出的几种气路电绝缘器结构方案开展了对比分析。考虑空间应用环境、高可靠和小型轻质化要求,并结合工作电压等条件,重点对多级电压分割绝缘结构进行了设计分析。对不同级数的气路电绝缘器结构样件进行了试验验证。结果表明该设计结构能够满足当前电推力器气路电绝缘要求。该研究成果可推广应用于更高工作电压和更大气体流率的气路电绝缘器结构设计。

A novel type of xenon propellant isolator, used in the Xe feed-line of electric thruster, was developed to effectively restrain the possible break-down, originated from low-pressure discharge in space environment. The impact of the operation conditions and configurations of the isolator, including but not limited to the surface contamination of ceramic materials, ionization and discharge of dilute gas, single-stage and multi-stage isolation, on performance Xe propellant isolator was theoretically analyzed on the basis of Paschen＇ s law for Xe glow discharge to optimize design of the isolator. A prototyped Xe propellant isolator with multi-stage isolation was fabricated, based on design optimization, and experimentally simulated on ground. The test results show that the new reliable, compact, and light-weighted isolator is capable of restraining breakdown at much higher operating voltage and gas-flow rate than that required by electric thruster.