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Pulsed electromagnetic acceleration of plasmas
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Cassibry, Jason T. Thio Sr., Y. C. Francis Markusic, Tom E. |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Description | A major shift in paradigm in driving pulsed plasma thruster is necessary if the original goal of accelerating a plasma sheet efficiently to high velocities as a plasma "slug" is to be realized. Firstly, the plasma interior needs to be highly collisional so that it can be dammed by the plasma edge layer not (upstream) adjacent to the driving 'vacuum' magnetic field. Secondly, the plasma edge layer needs to be strongly magnetized so that its Hall parameter is of the order of unity in this region to ensure excellent coupling of the Lorentz force to the plasma. Thirdly, to prevent and/or suppress the occurrence of secondary arcs or restrike behind the plasma, the region behind the plasma needs to be collisionless and extremely magnetized with sufficiently large Hall parameter. This places a vacuum requirement on the bore conditions prior to the shot. These requirements are quantified in the paper and lead to the introduction of three new design parameters corresponding to these three plasma requirements. The first parameter, labeled in the paper as gamma (sub 1), pertains to the permissible ratio of the diffusive excursion of the plasma during the course of the acceleration to the plasma longitudinal dimension. The second parameter is the required Hall parameter of the edge plasma region, and the third parameter the required Hall parameter of the region behind the plasma. Experimental research is required to quantify the values of these design parameters. Based upon fundamental theory of the transport processes in plasma, some theoretical guidance on the choice of these parameters are provided to help designing the necessary experiments to acquire these data. |
| File Size | 606613 |
| Page Count | 9 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20030002753 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t8kd6vc1f |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2002-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Plasma Physics Cavities Plasmas Physics Mathematical Models Lorentz Force Pulsed Plasma Thrusters Velocity Distribution Magnetic Fields Diffusivity Electromagnetic Acceleration Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Technical Report |
