Research on the Impact of Laboratory Testing Conditions on the Operating Parameters of the ST-25 Hall Effect Motor

Authors

Keywords:

Hall-effect thruster, residual gas pressure, vacuum chamber, characteristics, electric rocket engines

Abstract

The object of the study was the Hall-effect thruster ST-25, developed by Flight Control LLC (Ukraine), with a discharge power limit of up to 200 W. This research focused on examining the influence of residual gas pressure in various vacuum chambers on the operational characteristics of this thruster. The chambers had different volumes and were made of different materials. To achieve this, the main parameters of the ST-25 thruster were determined in three vacuum chambers of varying sizes with different levels of residual gas pressure. Laboratory experiments allowed obtaining volt-ampere characteristics of the thruster discharge at fixed levels of xenon gas flow rate, with thrust values recorded. The volt-ampere characteristics show that the average discharge current remains almost unchanged and is determined by the magnitude of the working gas flow rate into the thruster's anode block. Dependencies of the thruster thrust on the mass flow rates of the working gas at fixed levels of discharge voltage were obtained from the results of experimental measurements. Based on the experimental data, dependencies of the specific impulse of the thruster's anode block on the discharge voltage, as well as dependencies of the anode block efficiency on the discharge voltage, were calculated. The research demonstrated that reducing the residual gas pressure in the vacuum chamber by 2-3 times increases the main operational parameters of the thruster by 15-20%. Such a reduction in residual gas pressure contributes to an increase in thrust by 25-40%. The obtained results are important as they establish critical values of residual gas pressure in vacuum chambers during experiments where the operational parameters of the Hall-effect thruster are similar to those in space. These findings can be useful for conducting practical tests of electric rocket engines when it is necessary to evaluate the operational parameters of Hall-effect thrusters in real space conditions.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Snyder, J. S., Lenguito, G., Frieman, J. D., Haag, T. W., & Mackey, J. A. (2020). Effects of Background Pressure on SPT-140 Hall Thruster Performance. Journal of Propulsion and Power, 36(5). https://doi.org/10.2514/1.B37702.

Piragino, A., Piragino, A., Piragino, A., Ferrato, E., Piraino, A., & Andreussi, T. (2021). Background Pressure Effects on the Perfor-mance of a 20 kW Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster Operating in Various Configurations. Aerospace, 8(3), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace8030069.

Kerber, T. V., Baird, M. J., McGee-Sinclair, R. F., & Lemmer, K. M. (2019). Background Pressure Effects on Plume Properties of a Low-Cost Hall Effect Thruster. In Proceedings of the 36th Interna-tional Electric Propulsion Conference, University of Vienna, Austria, September 15-20, 2019. https://electricrocket.org/2019/513.pdf.

Frieman, J. D., Liu, T. M., & Walker, M. L. R. (2017). Back-ground Flow Model of Hall Thruster Neutral Ingestion. Journal of Propulsion and Power, 33(5). http://hpepl.ae.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/articles.

Nakles, M. R., & Hargus Jr., W. A. (2009). Hall Effect Thruster Ground Testing Challenges. In Proceedings of the 25th Aerospace Testing Seminar, Huntington Beach, CA, October 2009. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA506238.pdf.

Nakles, M. R., & Hargus Jr., W. A. (2008). Background Pres-sure Effects on Internal and Near-field Ion Velocity Distribution of the BHT-600 Hall Thruster. In Proceedings of the 44th AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference, Hartford, CT, 20-23 July 2008. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA486026.pdf.

Cheng, S. Y. (2007). Modeling of Hall Thruster Lifetime and Erosion Mechanisms (Ph.D. thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology. http://electricrocket.org/IEPC/IEPC-2007-250.pdf.

Mazouffre, S., Echegut, P., & Dudeck, M. (2007). A Calibrated Infrared Imaging Study on the Steady State Thermal Behavior of Hall Effect Thrusters. Institute of Physics Publishing. DOI: 10.1088/0963-0252/16/1/003.

Petrenko, O., Voronovsky, D., Kulagin, S., & Tolok, S. (2020). Hall-effect thruster ST-25 with permanent magnet. Journal of Rock-et-Space Technology, 28(4), 37–45. https://rocketspace.dp.ua/index.php/rst/article/view/74.

Published

2024-06-14

Issue

Section

Engines, Energy and Thermotechnics

How to Cite

Pererva, V., & Petrenko, O. (2024). Research on the Impact of Laboratory Testing Conditions on the Operating Parameters of the ST-25 Hall Effect Motor. Challenges and Issues of Modern Science, 2, 59-64. https://cims.fti.dp.ua/j/article/view/115

Share