Pulse-width variation of power supply for evaluating quasi-steady state of magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster operation

Abstract

Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters are operated in a quasisteady state with about 1.0 ms pulse created by a pulse forming network (PFN). However, there is still no precedent to verify the operation time quantitatively. The nonsteady region of the pulse can lead to an error of the thrust performance against that of steady state operation. In addition, the propellant gas outside the discharge chamber can be consumed since the exhaust velocity exceeds the estimated velocity. This paper shows the first step in quantitative evaluation of the quasisteadiness of an MPD thruster operation. First, we developed a new power supply that outputs a flat-topped and less nonsteady region pulse with a variable pulse width. Compared with that of a PFN, the nonsteady region “tr + tf” decreased from 0.532 to 0.110 ms. By implementing the circuit shorter and adjusting the gate resistance, the surge voltage in the experiment was suppressed to 309 V, which is less than 2% error of that in the PSIM simulation, 305 V. Second, we operated an MPD thruster using the new power supply for discharge and the external magnetic field. As a result, we obtained operation time characteristics by sweeping the operation time from 0.3 to 5.0 ms. The current waveforms are in a range of 620 ± 70 A. We confirmed the consistency of the thrust, 0.32 ± 0.03 N. From the correlation between the input energy and the impulse, it is possible to discuss quasisteadiness of the MPD thruster operation using the determination coefficient and the offset.