INCREASING THE CONVERSION ACCURACY OF MODEL GAS (Ar) CONSUMPTION INTO XENON CONSUMPTION WHEN USING CAPILLARY TUBES IN THE WORKING SUBSTANCE FEED SYSTEMS OF ELECTRIC PROPULSION

Abstract

The article discusses the possibility of improving the method of converting the mass flow rate of the model gas (Ar) to the mass flow rate of the working gas (Xe) in capillary tubes. The well-known method of such conversion, which is used in electric propul- sion systems, is based on Poiseuille’s law for laminar flow. The results of the experimental verification of the method showed the accuracy from 21 % to 30 %. On the basis of the conducted experimental studies, it was proposed to enter a correction factor depending on the inner diameter of the capillary into the existing methodology of mass flow recalculation, which made it pos- sible to significantly reduce the error of recalculation of Ar mass flow rate into Xe mass flow rate to ±4 %. Increasing the accuracy of the calculation allows the wide use of argon model gas in the selection of capillary flow restrictors for feed systems of low- and medium-power electric propulsion systems and during testing of assembled systems at various stages of development and testing.