Comparative study of plume characteristics of polymeric propellants filled with different oxides for laser-electric hybrid thruster

2022 
Abstract Laser-electric hybrid thrusters have attracted increasing attention as a new concept for space propulsion systems because of their low weight, high propulsion performance, and controllable thrust. When the thruster works, the laser-ablation plasma induced by the laser irradiation of a solid target is additionally accelerated by electrical means in the discharge chamber, generating thrust. Therefore, a stable and continuous ablation plume is required to ensure the subsequent electromagnetic acceleration process. This study compared and analyzed the plume characteristics of polymeric propellants doped with different oxides under the same operating conditions. The plume images were examined using an ultrahigh-speed camera, and the plume length, expanding velocity, plume area, and normalized intensity distribution were collected from the plume images based on the image processing method. The results illustrated that the CuO dopant contributed to the rapid, stable, and massive formation of the ablation plume, and VO2 could make the plume have a certain distance from the ablation surface, and then reduce the particle reflux deposition effect to a certain extent. It was also found that the samples doped with CuO, NiO, and Fe2O3 generated a micro cluster with a duration of about 0.5 ms at the beginning of ablation, while the sample doped with VO2 did not generate such a cluster. There were two regions of high-intensity light in the plumes of the samples doped with CuO and VO2. Furthermore, the plume areas of the samples doped with NiO, VO2, and Fe2O3 experienced a quiescence of approximately 2 ms before rapid growth, while that of CuO continued to increase steadily.
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