High Voltage Plume Measurements and Internal Probing of the BHT-1000 Hall Thruster

This paper presents results from experiments performed on the one-kilowatt BHT-1000 Hall thruster. Plume measurements were taken at various discharge voltages to study the effects on plume divergence angle. Current density profiles were determined using a Faraday probe previously developed at MIT. Plume measurements were made at several different radii from the exit plane to ensure testing was done outside of both the near-field jet region and the far-field region that is typically dominated by collisions. Divergence angles were determined at all discharge voltages tested. In addition to plume testing, internal probing of the thruster was performed using a set of axially distributed Langmuir probes placed along the discharge channel. Plasma parameters were determined at various discharge voltages and compared to the full Particle In Cell (PIC) model of the BHT-1000 previously developed. Plume testing results indicated that discharge voltage had no significant effect on plume divergence. However, increased discharge oscillations tended to increase the divergence angle. Internal probing results have shown some agreement with the simulation, particularly at lower discharge voltages.

[1]  J. Szabo.  One and Two Dimensional Modeling of the BHT-1000 , 2003 .

[2]  Thomas W. Haag,et al.  Design of a thrust stand for high power electric propulsion devices , 1989 .

[3]  Bruce Pote,et al.  Development of low power Hall thrusters , 1999 .

[4]  Manuel Martinez-Sanchez,et al.  FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE AQUILA HALL THRUSTER PLUME MODEL , 2003 .

[5]  Alec D. Gallimore,et al.  The Effects of Nude Faraday Probe Design and Vacuum Facility Backpressure on the Measured Ion Current Density Profile of Hall Thruster Plumes , 2002 .

[6]  E. Ahedo,et al.  One-dimensional model of the plasma flow in a Hall thruster , 2001 .

[7]  Bruce Pote,et al.  Performance of a High Specific Impulse Hall Thruster , 2001 .

[8]  Yassir Azziz,et al.  Instrument development and plasma measurements on a 200-watt Hall thruster plume , 2003 .

[9]  T. Haag,et al.  RHETT/EPDM Performance Characterization , 1998 .

[10]  James Joseph Szabo,et al.  Fully kinetic numerical modeling of a plasma thruster , 2001 .

[11]  A. Gallimore,et al.  Recent Results From Internal and Very-Near-Field Plasma Diagnostics of a High Specific Impulse Hall Thruster , 2003 .

[12]  Robert S. Jankovsky,et al.  The Influence of Current Density and Magnetic Field Topography in Optimizing the Performance, Divergence, and Plasma Oscillations of High Specific Impulse Hall Thrusters , 2003 .

[13]  Noah Zachary Warner.  Performance testing and internal probe measurements of a high specific impulse Hall thruster , 2003 .