The multi-cusped field thruster is a unique electric thruster device,which has many advantages such as long lifetime,large-range thrust throttling ability,high thrust density,and low mass.The thruster employs several ...The multi-cusped field thruster is a unique electric thruster device,which has many advantages such as long lifetime,large-range thrust throttling ability,high thrust density,and low mass.The thruster employs several alternating polarity permanent magnets to create a periodic magnetic field with several cusps.Previous studies have indicated that the basic ionization and acceleration processes are directly related to the electron motion behavior,which mainly depends on the magnetic field characteristics.The magnet number and magnet stage length are two key magnetic field parameters that have important effects on the thruster performances.In this paper,both the magnet number and magnet stage length parameters are studied for the optimization of a 5 k W multi-cusped field thruster.The results indicate that the three-stage thruster has a better electron confinement than the two-stage thruster.It has lower ion energy loss at the wall,and shows a higher ionization rate.Therefore,the three-stage magnetic field is a superior magnetic field configuration.Besides,the three-stage magnetic field simulation results indicate that an optimal accelerating electric field distribution and ionization region distribution could be obtained when the magnet length ratio is 78:25:20.展开更多
基金the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51806011)the Advance Research Project of Equipment Development(No.30501050203)the Advance Research Project of the Civil Space Program(No.D010509)。
文摘The multi-cusped field thruster is a unique electric thruster device,which has many advantages such as long lifetime,large-range thrust throttling ability,high thrust density,and low mass.The thruster employs several alternating polarity permanent magnets to create a periodic magnetic field with several cusps.Previous studies have indicated that the basic ionization and acceleration processes are directly related to the electron motion behavior,which mainly depends on the magnetic field characteristics.The magnet number and magnet stage length are two key magnetic field parameters that have important effects on the thruster performances.In this paper,both the magnet number and magnet stage length parameters are studied for the optimization of a 5 k W multi-cusped field thruster.The results indicate that the three-stage thruster has a better electron confinement than the two-stage thruster.It has lower ion energy loss at the wall,and shows a higher ionization rate.Therefore,the three-stage magnetic field is a superior magnetic field configuration.Besides,the three-stage magnetic field simulation results indicate that an optimal accelerating electric field distribution and ionization region distribution could be obtained when the magnet length ratio is 78:25:20.
