Design and analysis of MEMS based electrospray thruster

Abstract

This paper presents a design of MEMS based Electrospray thruster with high throughput, low volume and high output velocities. The performance of thruster can be improved by choosing best possible dimensions of cone height, half angle, propellant height and its radius. The most effective outcomes of the design have been observed through various analysis, which are suggested that propellant height should be > 280 μm, also propellant radius varied between 50 and 125 μm, tip angle with 44°, operating voltage between 1.5 and 3 kV. The elements of the device are designed in micro scale using COMSOL multiphysics tool in Laminar flow environment. Propellant within the emitter usually has ionic liquid, in this design EMI-BF4 is used as propellant. The output velocity is analyzed for input voltages 1.5 kV to 3 kV by varying height and half angle of cone, height and radius of propellant. The optimum outcomes producing the higher efficiencies for the device are achieved for cone angle of 44° with cone height 124 μm and cone bottom radius of 125 μm along with propellant radius of 125 μm and propellant height of 360 μm, the output velocities are of the order 106.