放电电压和屏栅电压对离子推力器性能的影响

Effects of discharge voltage and screen grid voltage on performance of ion thruster

利用试验和数值模拟相结合的方法研究6 cm Kaufman离子推力器放电电压和屏栅电压的变化对其工作性能的影响。试验中,离子推力器使用氩气作为推进剂,测量了多组不同工况下的性能参数。此外,基于Goebel的理论模型模拟了放电电压对束流电流和推进剂利用率的影响;采用单元内粒子-蒙特卡罗碰撞(PIC-MCC)方法模拟屏栅电压对束流电流、推进剂利用率和加速栅极电流的影响。试验和数值模拟结果一致,发现当放电电压逐渐增大时,引出的束流电流和推进剂利用率先增加然后趋于稳定;当屏栅电压逐渐增大时,引出的束流电流和推进剂利用率先增加然后趋于稳定,加速栅极电流先减小后趋于稳定。研究可以为提高多模式离子推力器的性能提供参考。

The effects of discharge voltage and screen grid voltage changing to working performance of a 6 cm Kaufman ion thruster were studied by combination of experiments and numerical simulation.In these experiments,the argon was used as propellant for the ion thruster,and many groups of data were gathered.Furthermore,based on Goebel＇s theory model,the effects of discharge voltage changing on beam current and propellant efficiency were simulated.And the particle in cell Monte-Carlo collide（PIC-MCC） theory was used to simulate the effects of screen voltage on beam current,propellant efficiency and acceleration grid current.Experiments and numerical simulation drew the same conclusions.When discharge voltage increases,ion beam current and propellant utilization efficiency tend to be stable after a corresponding increase.A similar beam electric current and propellant utilization efficiency changing pattern is observed when the screen grid voltage is increased,but acceleration grid voltage tends to be stable after a corresponding decrease.This study can provide a reference for increasing multi-modes ion thrusters＇ performance.