1992 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
NUMERICAL CALCULATION CODE FOR DESIGN OF CUSPED ION THRUSTERS
| Project/Area Number |
03555013
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Aerospace engineering
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| Research Institution | UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO |
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Principal Investigator |
ARAKAWA Yoshihiro UNIV. OF TOKYO, FAC. OF ENG. PROFESSOR, 工学部, 教授 (50134490)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OGIWARA Koji UNIV. OF TOKYO, FAC. OF ENG. RESEARCH ASSISTANT, 工学部, 助手 (30092175)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1991 – 1992
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| Keywords | ELECTRIC PROPULSION / CUSPED MAGNETIC FIELD / ION THRUSTER / NUMERICAL CODE / PLASMA / ION BEAM |
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| Research Abstract |
A numerical calculation code for cusped ion thrusters was developed to estimate thruster performance and to optimize chamber design. This code can be used to calculate both ion production cost and propellant utilization efficiency for a cylindrical ion thruster having any magnetic field configuration. This code is composed of four calculation sections; namely ones that are used 1) to compute the direction and strength of magnetic fields applied to the discharge chamber. 2) to compute grid transparencies to ions and neutral atoms. 3) to compute primary electron confinement time, and 4) to compute the fraction of ions produced that are extracted as an ion beam. In the first section, a two-dimensional magnetic analysis code using the Finite Element Method was employed to compute the magnetic field configuration. In the second, a tow-dimensional ion optics code is uded to compute ion trajectries and to optimize the grid system design. In the third section, a charge particle kinetic model using the Monte Carlo Method was employed to compute orbits of primary electrons in the discharge chamber and then to compute the confinement time. In the last calculation section, a plasma flow model based on plasma diffusion equation is used to compute the extracted-ion fraction. Combing these with the discharge chamber model base on the conservation equations of mass, charge, and energy, one can compute plasma properties and then calculate the thruster performance. Several numerical results were shown and compared with experimental results obtained in several ion thrusters. From the results, it is concluded that this code is a useful tool of optimizing the chamber geometry and the magnetic field configuration for good thruster performance.
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