• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.314-317
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• 2004

On 9/5/2003, the planet probe “HAYABUSA” as MUSES-C project was launched by The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. “HAYABUSA” has microwave discharge ion engines and these engines are characterized by their high efficiency and specific impulse in comparison with chemical engine. A large ion engine can be used as a planet explorer, while a small ion engine can be used as attitude control of small satellite. We have been developing a high thrust density microwave discharge ion engine using “Multi-Monopole Antenna”. The performance of this engine are: ion cost of 344W/A, propellant utilization efficiency of 52% and thrust density of 0.055mN/$\textrm{cm}^2$ for Kr gas flow rate of 2.5sccm, microwave(2.45㎓) power of 32W and acceleration voltage of l.4㎸.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

This paper presents the trade-off study of conducting a survey of the weights for various kind of propulsion systems installed in the Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle TR-100, a tilt-rotor vehicle, which is developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, in order to predict the appropriate propulsion system for present and future Personal Air Vehicle, which has single mode and vertical take-off & landing. In order to perform the trade-off study, we set the requirements that the vehicle hovers for 1 hour with 1,000 kg maximum take off weights. In this study, the power systems are classified engine, which uses the fossil fuel - turboshaft engine, piston engine, diesel engine and rotary engine, and electric motor with fuelcell or Li-Ion battery. The results of trade-off study shows the power systems using fossil fuel are superior to using fuelcell or Li-Ion battery for weight of propulsion system. Also turboshaft engine is the best power system for the aspects of system weight, and the nexts are rotary engine, piston engine, diesel engine, electric motor with Li-Ion battery, and electric motor with fuelcell.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2005

Natural gas possesses several characteristics that make it desirable as an engine fuel; 1)lower production cost, 2)abundant commodity and 3)cleaner energy source than gasoline. Due to the physics characteristics of natural gas, the volumetric efficiency and flame speed of a natural gas engine are lower than those of a gasoline engine, which results in a power loss of $10-20{\%}$ when compared to a normal gasoline engine. This paper describes the results of a research to improve the performance of a natural gas engine through the modification and controls of compression ratio, air/fuel ratio, spark advance and supercharging and method of measuring flame propagation velocity. It emphasizes how to improve the power characteristics of a natural gas engine. Combustion characteristics are also studied using an ion probe. The ion probe is applied to measure flame speed of gasoline and methane fuels to confirm the performance improvement of natural gas engine combustion characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.842-848
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• 2008

In this study, we propose a novel micro-ion engine system. Single plasma source is used for both ion beam source and neutralizing electron source. By changing the electrical connection, either operation can be switched. This micro-ion engine system gives translation motion and attitude control to microspacecraft. The major objective of this study is verification of our concept. Small plasma source of 20 mm diameter was developed. Plasma was sustained by microwave power. Using this plasma source, ion beam extraction and electron emission was successively demonstrated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.18-25
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• 2000

Ion current in an S.I engine cylinder is measured with the spark plug as a probe. The peak values are confirmed to show a fair correlation with local air-fuel ration and engine speed which implies that the ion current measured at the spark plug may provide a signal for the local mixture strength which is the key parameter in precise fuel control for future engines especially of gasoline direct-injected lean burn engines.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.153-161
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• 1998

The knock in a spark ignition engine has been investigated to avoid the damage to the engine and unpleasant feeling caused by the pressure waves propagating across the combustion chamber. Knock intensity and knock onset angle were used as physical parameters to quantify the knock characteristics. The knock intensity is defined as a peak to peak value of the bank pass filtered combustion pressure signal and the knock onset angle is determined as the crank angle at which this signal exceeded the threshold level on each cycle. The cyclic variation of knock in four valve single cylinder engine was investigated with these two parameters. The location of autoignition was also examined by ion probes in the cylinder head gasket and squish region in the combustion chamber. For this measurement, a single cylinder engine was modified to accept the pressure transducer, 18 ion probes in the squish region and 8 ion probes in the specially designed PCB (Printed \ulcornerCircuit Board) cylinder head gasket.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.223-229
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• 2002

Spark plug ionization signal could be useful in an internal combustion engine as a feedback signal for combustion diagnostics such as misfire detection, knocking detection and lambda control, but the signal has high level of cyclic fluctuation in an internal combustion engine due to residual gas, pressure, temperature, mixture composition in the spark gap. Because of this reason it is very difficult to apply ion signal to commercial engine control. In this Study, a correlation between A/F and spark plug ionization signal was studied in a constant volume chamber. Constant volume chamber with gas phase fuel(Propane) has homogeneous fuel composition , no mixture flow, same pressure and temperature on each test. The results show that mean chemi-ion signal has the highest correlation with A/F and intial pressure change has on effect on the thermal-ion signal and not on chemi-ion signal.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.306-313
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• 2004

The microwave discharge ion engine generates plasmas of both the main ion source and the neutralizer using 4㎓ microwave without discharge electrodes and hollow cathodes, so that long life and durability against oxygen and air are expected. The MUSES-C “HAYABUSA” asteroid explorer installing four microwave discharge ion engines “$\mu$10s” was launched into deep space by M-V rocket No.5 on May 9, 2003. After vacuum exposure and several runs of baking for reduction of residual gas the ion engine system established the continuous acceleration of the spacecraft toward the asteroid “ITOKAWA”. The Doppler shift measurement of the communication microwave revealed the performance of ion engines, which is 8mN thrust force for a single unit with 3,200sec specific impulse at 23mN/㎾ thrust power ratio. At the end of 2003 the accumulated operational time exceeded 8,000 hour and unit. HAYABUSA will execute the Earth swing-by on June 2004 and arrive at the asteroid in 2005 and return to Earth in 2007.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2003

LPG has been a broad concern of pro-environmental alternative fuel for vehicles. Recently, the new Liquid Phase LPG Injection(LPLI) system extends the limit of power of LPG engine and gives a chance to substitute LPG engine for diesel engine of heavy duty vehicles that are the main resources of air pollution in urban area. Large bore size of heavy duty LPG engine derives a serious knock problem. To find an optimal MBT conditions, it is necessary to know how the flame develops in the combustion chamber and find where the knock positions are. In this study. the ion-probe head gasket was used to estimate the knock position. Inverse operation of the ion-probe signal provides the flame developing characteristics. The further the position is from the spark plug, the later the flame arrives and the more times knock occurs. The main factor that effects knock position is inferred a flor situation of mixed gas in the combustion chamber.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.511-518
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• 2008

The Engineering Test Satellite VIII(ETS-VIII) of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) uses a 20mN class xenon ion engine subsystem(IES) for North-South Station Keeping(NSSK). The IES was modified for a larger satellite with longer lifetime based on the former IES. ETS-VIII, a three-ton class geosynchronous satellite with 10 years bus lifetime, was launched 18 Dec. 2006 JST; it reached the planned orbit and all bus systems were checked out. The IES showed good results and is now under normal operation. The total accumulated operation time of the IES in orbit was about 2300 hours till $19^{th}$ Dec. 2007.