The Effect of Magnetic Field Distribution on Thrust Performance of the Farady MHD Accelerator

Abstract

In this work, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is carried out on an ideal Faraday MHD accelerator for the thrust boosting effect in terms of the configuration of magnetic field. The study is performed by using a low magnetic Reynolds number magnetohydrodynamic model under the effect of a uniform magnetic field and a non-uniform magnetic field, respectively. With the increase of the applied potential, the channel under both types of magnetic fields show an increase in thrust and a decrease in electrical efficiency. For a fixed applied potential, the thrust under the non-uniform magnetic field is higher compared with one generated by the uniform magnetic field. This deviation becomes more pronounced under a larger conductivity or magnet field strength. However, the increase in potential has negligible effect on the difference in the thrust. With the magnetic field at 1.5 T and the potential at 600 V, the channel thrust under the uniform magnetic field is 883.9 N, which makes the increase rate of 47.6%. With the maximum magnetic field strength in the Z direction at 1.5 T and the potential at 600 V, the channel thrust under the non-uniform magnetic field is 885.37 N, which makes the increase rate of 47.9%.