Simulation of the Electric Propulsion Plasma Jet Interaction with Spacecraft Solar Array Panels

Aeronautical and Space-Rocket Engineering


Аuthors

Kanev S. V.1*, Nadiradze A. B.1**, Grabovsky I. I.1, 2***

1. Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), 4, Volokolamskoe shosse, Moscow, А-80, GSP-3, 125993, Russia
2. VNIIEM Corporation, Moscow, Russian Federation

*e-mail: k208mai@mail.ru
**e-mail: nadiradze@mai.ru
***e-mail: parsec1.34@gmail.com

Abstract

The article considered one of the problems of the electrojet engine (EJE) plasma jet interaction with the spacecraft solar arrays (SA). The problem being considered consists in the electric current leakages from the EJE plasma jet onto the SA exposed electrodes. It is noted that the said problem originates in the case when the power of the spacecraft electric power supply system increase is required. The most efficient way herewith to achieve this is the solar arrays the operating voltage increasing. This fact results in the electrons from the plasma jet begin falling out in a greater numbers on the SA exposed electrodes. The said increase in the electron current from the plasma facilitates the electrode material heating and release of neutral particles, which is a favorable condition for the arc discharge forming. As long as the arc discharge occurrence may lead to the spacecraft SA failure, the authors of the presented article propose a technique for quantitative evaluation of the electric current, leaking onto the SA electrodes. Besides, , compared to the existing analytical methods, the calculation method proposed by the authors allows accounting for the electrodes form-factor. Computations performed in this study with two-dimensional spatial resolution allow observing explicitly the effect of electron plasma polarization near the SA exposed electrodes The obtained ability for the spatial resolution of the electrons collecting area from the engine plasma opens further perspectives for studying the effect of several electrodes on each other.
Within the framework of the presented article, the authors formulate the basic principles of the developed computational technique Thus, the proposed technique consists of two sequential computational stages. The first stage involves numerical modeling of the thruster jet by the particle-in-cell method and the Boltzmann–Vlasov kinetic equations to determine the thruster plasma concentration near the SA electrode. The second stage consists in direct modeling the charged plasma particles motion near the SA electrode with the finite element method and the Newton–Poisson equations. For practical application of the computational results, the authors introduced the scaling factor of the ions velocities relative to the electrons. Introduction of this factor, defined as the electron to ion velocities ratio, allows increasing the physical time step during calculation convergence without altering the particle trajectory, preserving thereby the motion qualitative picture. As the result of this factor application, the computational time becomes less by the value multiple to this factor. This article presents the electrode computed current-voltage characteristics in the SPT-70 thruster plasma and compares them with the experimental data. A study of the computational model for grid convergence is also conducted. The authors present their first intermediate results on this model application for collective interaction of several electrodes computing.
In conclusion the authors draw inference on the proposed model application within the framework of the engineering estimates as well as the platform for studying collective effects of several SA electrodes interaction. The computational model flexibility herewith allows for its application to various plasma thrusters and studying changes in the electrodes V–I characteristics depending on the thruster and SA relative position.

Keywords:

stationary plasma thruster, plasma jet, solar array, volt-ampere characteristic, shielding, numerical model, leakage currents

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