Propellant Mass Scaling and Decoupling and Improved Plasma Coupling in a Pulsed Inductive Thruster
Abstract - Two methods of improving the life and efficiency of the Pulsed
Inductive Thruster (PIT) have been investigated. The first is a trade study of
available switches to determine the best device to implement in the PIT design.
The second is the design of a coil to improve coupling between the accelerator
coil and the plasma. Experiments were done with both permanent and
electromagnets to investigate the feasibility of implementing a modified
Halbach array within the PIT to promote better plasma coupling and decrease the
unused space within the thruster. This array proved to promote more complete
coupling on the edges of the coil where it had been weak in previous studies.
Numerical analysis was done to predict the performance of a PIT that utilized
each suggested switch type. This model utilized the Alfvén velocity to
determine the critical mass and energy of these theoretical thrusters.
Three major studies were presented in this work: the triggering circuit
relay trade study, the proposal of a modified coil geometry to improve plasma
coupling, and the computer model used to simulate a single shot in PIT
operation. This work was done to demonstrate the potential of PITs and
encourage future work to be aimed in that direction.
The details of these studies can be found in the original text below. This work was also cited in a recent paper by K. Polzin et al. in Aerospace, special issue "Electric Propulsion" (link below).
