• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.101-105
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• 2006

The computational fluid dynamic analysis has been conducted for the thermo-chemical flow field in an arcjet thruster with mono-propellant Hydrazine (N2H4) as a working fluid. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are modified to analyze compressible flows with the thermal radiation and electric field. The Maxwell equation, which is loosely coupled with the fluid dynamic equations through the Ohm heating and Lorentz forces, is adopted to analyze the electric field induced by the electric arc. The chemical reactions of Hydrazine were assumed to be infinitely fast due to the high temperature field inside the arcjet thruster. The chemical and the thermal radiation models for the nitrogen-hydrogen mixture and optically thick media respectively, were incorporated with the fluid dynamic equations. The results show that performance indices of the arcjet thruster with 1kW arc heating are improved by amount of 180% in thrust and 200% in specific impulse more than frozen flow. In addition to thermo-physical process inside the arcjet thruster is understood from the flow field results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.550-552
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• 2008

A small hall thruster with a thrust of about 10 mN and a specific impulse of about 1500 s is being developed with an intent to control or maintain the orbits of small satellites. The total mass, consumed electric power and efficiency of the thruster are approximately 10 kg, 300W and 30%, respectively. The thruster system consists of a hall thruster with a cylindrical cross section, a power processing unit and a Xenon(Xe) gas feed system. Laboratory examination of the thruster performance finds that the thruster meets the design specification.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.76-86
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• 2008

The EP(electric propulsion) is unique in that several energy sources can be utilized to produce the electric energy and that high exhaust velocity can be achieved compared to the conventional chemical propulsion. Though a lot of variety of non chemical propulsion are under study, the fact that the EP's specific impulse ranges widely from 200s to 5000s led most research to concentrate on the electric propulsion research. This paper, therefore, is aimed to introduce the up-todate existing EP family such as electrothermal, electrostatic and electromagnetic thrusters where its operating concepts, characteristics and possible variants are presented for future applications.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.14-21
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• 2010

Ion thruster is a kind of electrostatic thruster that use electrostatic field in order to accelerate ionized propellant. Ion thruster have characteristics of small thrust but very high specific impulse among the electric thrusters. High specific impulse can reduce propellant consumption significantly. So, ion thruster have advantage for long time and long distance mission. Recently, plans for space exploration is increasing gradually not only at traditional forward countries for space like USA, Russia and Europe, but also other countries like Japan, China and India. Exploration for superior planets and asteroids the propellant ratio can go up to about 99% when chemical propulsion is used as a cruising thruster. Therefore, latest space exploration vehicles use the ion thruster as main thruster for del-V burn and use monopropellant thrusters for attitude control. In this paper, the development process of preliminary ECR ion thruster and the ECR discharge test results will be presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

To develop technologies for the stable operation of electric propulsion systems, the exhaust plume behavior of electric thrusters was studied using PIC-DSMC(particle-in-cell and direct simulation Monte Carlo). For the numerical analysis, the Simple Electron Fluid Model using Boltzmann relation was employed, and the charge and momentum exchanges due to atom-ion collisions were considered. The results of this study agreed with the plasma potentials measured experimentally. Near the thruster exit, active collisions among particles and charge exchanges created slow ions and fast atoms, which were expected to significantly affect the trajectory and velocity of the thruster exhaust plume.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.95-108
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• 2019

Electric propulsion is a type of space propulsion with a high specific impulse by accelerating propellant using electrical energy and brings about reduction of the fuel mass and launch costs of satellites so that it is being extensively studied in the world. Electric thrusters are widely used for various purposes from micro satellites to large satellites and from low Earth orbit satellites to spacecraft for exploration. Recently, satellites using full-electric propulsion have been developed, and the number of satellites with electric propulsion is also gradually increasing. In this paper, the current status and trends of research on electric propulsion in the United States, Europe, and Japan will be reported.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.907-915
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• 2008

The computational fluid dynamic analysis has been conducted for the thermo-chemical flow field in an arcjet thruster with mono-propellant Hydrazine (N2H4) as a working fluid. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are modified to analyze compressible flows with the thermal radiation and electric field. the Maxwell equation, which is loosely coupled with the fluid dynamic equations through the Ohm heating and Lorentz forces, is adopted to analyze the electric field induced by the electric arc. The chemical reactions of Hydrazine were assumed to be infinitely fast due to the high temperature field inside the arcjet thruster. The chemical and the thermal radiation models for the nitrogen-hydrogen mixture and optical thick media respectively, were incorporated with the fluid dynamic equations. The results show that performance indices of the arcjet thruster with 1kW arc heating are improved by amount of 180% in thrust and 200% in specific impulse more than frozen flow. In addition thermo-physical process inside the arcjet thruster is understood from the flow field results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.611-620
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• 2020

The effect of discharge voltage on electron mean energy, electric potential, ionization rate, neutral and ion density of Hall thruster was analyzed using a two-dimensional axisymmetric hybrid model. The results of the code developed for this study such as discharge current, thrust, and plasma distribution according to discharge voltage of SPT-100ML Hall thruster were compared by experiments and calculations of other researchers for validation. The results show that the electron mean energy, the ionization rate, and the ion density are increased while the neutral density is decreased as the discharge voltage is increased. The thrust and the discharge current are proportional to the discharge voltage.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.490-495
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• 2009

A small Hall-effect thruster with a thrust range near 10 mN and a specific impulse of about 1500 s has been designed to control or maintain the orbits of small satellites. The thruster system consists of a hall-effect thruster head, a power processing unit and a Xenon (Xe) gas feed system. The total mass, the consumed electric power and the efficiency of the thruster are approximately 10 kg, 300W and 30%, respectively. Analyses results that support the selection of the thruster for small satellites are provided along with a brief description of the thruster system.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.139-143
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• 2007

Electric propulsion has become a cost effective and sound engineering solution for many space applications. The success of SMART-1 and MUSES-C developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) each proved that even small spacecraft could accomplish planetary mission with electric propulsion systems. A small electric propulsion system which is Hall effect thruster like SMART-1 is under development by SaTReC and GDPL (Glow Discharge Plasma Lab.) in KAIST for the next microsatellite, STSAT-3. To achieve optimized propulsion system, it is very necessary to understand plasma motions of Hall effect thruster. In this paper, we try to approach comprehensive plasma model with the particle simulation complementary to Particle In Cell (PIC) simulation. We think these two different approaches will help experimenters to optimize Hall effect thruster performances.