RT Journal Article
T1 Fluid-kinetic model of a propulsive magnetic nozzle
A1 Merino Martínez, Mario
A1 Nuez, Judit
A1 Ahedo Galilea, Eduardo Antonio
AB A kinetic-electron, fluid-ion model is used to study the 2D plasma expansion in an axisymmetric magnetic nozzle in the fully-magnetized, cold-ion, collisionless limit. Electrons are found to be subdivided into free, reflected, and doubly-trapped sub-populations. The net charge current and the electrostatic potential fall on each magnetic line are related by the kinetic electron response, and together with the initial profiles of electrostatic potential and electron temperature, determine the electron thermodynamics in the expansion. Results include the evolution of the density, temperature, and anisotropy ratio of each electron sub-population along the expansion. The different contributions of ions and electrons to the generation of magnetic thrust are analyzed for upstream conditions representative of different thruster types. Equivalent polytropic models with the same total potential fall are seen to result in a slower expansion rate, and therefore to underpredict thrust generated up to a fixed section of the magnetic nozzle.
PB IOP Publishing Ltd.
SN 0963-0252
YR 2021
FD 2021-11-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/33649
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/33649
LA eng
NO This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Project ZARATHUSTRA, Grant Agreement No. 950466). Eduardo Ahedo's work was supported by the ESPEOS project, funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish National Research Agency), under Grant No. PID2019-108034RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
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RD 27 jul. 2024