Effect of Conductive Walls on the Performance of a Pulsed Inductive Thruster

The magnetic field produced by the acceleration coil of a pulsed inductive thruster (PIT) interacts not only with the plasma current sheet but also with the conductive walls of the vacuum chamber in which testing is performed. A quantitative evaluation of this interaction and its effects is made thr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on plasma science 2009-02, Vol.37 (2), p.359-364
Main Authors: Polzin, K.A., Reneau, J.P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Chambers
Coiling
Coils
Conductivity
Electromagnetism
Exact sciences and technology
Inductance
Inductive plasma acceleration
Ion and plasma propulsion
Life estimation
Magnetic fields
Magnetostatics
Performance evaluation
Physics
Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges
Physics of plasmas and electric discharges
Plasma
Plasma accelerators
Plasma devices
pulsed inductive thruster (PIT)
Testing
Thrusters
Topology
Vacuum chambers
Walls
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The magnetic field produced by the acceleration coil of a pulsed inductive thruster (PIT) interacts not only with the plasma current sheet but also with the conductive walls of the vacuum chamber in which testing is performed. A quantitative evaluation of this interaction and its effects is made through the use of both a magnetostatic model to compute the evolution of the magnetic field topology as the plasma moves and an inductive thruster performance model to calculate thruster performance. The 1-m-diameter PIT MkVa thruster is evaluated as it represents the most successful inductive thruster to date and was tested in a conductive vacuum chamber possessing a radius of 60 cm. As the conductive walls are moved radially inward, closer to the acceleration coil, the magnetic field topology becomes compressed, lowering the overall inductance of the coil and reducing the electromagnetic acceleration imparted to the plasma. The computed performance data indicate that as the chamber radius is increased from 60 cm to infinity, representing in space conditions, the specific impulse and thrust efficiency increase by 4% and 7.5%, respectively. This underscores the importance of testing a PIT in a chamber that is either constructed of a nonconducting material or is significantly larger than the thruster diameter when attempting to accurately measure thruster performance.
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.2008.2009987