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Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2019

Theses/Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations

Electric Propulsion

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Sheet Velocity Measurements Using Laser Absorption Spectroscopy In A Xenon Hall Effect Thruster Plume, Avery W. Leonard Mar 2019

Sheet Velocity Measurements Using Laser Absorption Spectroscopy In A Xenon Hall Effect Thruster Plume, Avery W. Leonard

Theses and Dissertations

A new laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) velocimetry system, designed to obtain 2D planar velocity fields for ionized Xenon in the plume of a Hall effect thruster by probing the transition of Xe II at 834.72 nm, was implemented at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Space Propulsion Analysis and System Simulator (SPASS) Lab vacuum chamber. A single horizontal laser sheet was used to probe singly-ionized Xenon in the plume of a Busek BHT-600 Hall thruster and obtain a histogram of estimated axial velocity, to validate the system. Similar velocities to those obtained by an earlier intrusive characterization of the …


Characterization And Anomalous Diffusion Analysis Of A 100w Low Power Annular Hall Effect Thruster, Megan N. Maikell Mar 2019

Characterization And Anomalous Diffusion Analysis Of A 100w Low Power Annular Hall Effect Thruster, Megan N. Maikell

Theses and Dissertations

A Busek 100W low-power annular Hall effect thruster was characterized to determine the thruster’s best operating parameter range and to study plasma oscillations within the thruster. These experiments were conducted using xenon gas in the Space Propulsion Analysis and System Simulator chamber at the Air Force Institute of Technology on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The thruster’s performance characteristics were evaluated at nominal discharge voltages and constant total mass flow rate, solenoid current, and keeper current to determine the operating conditions optimizing divergence angle, beam efficiency, and discharge loss. This was accomplished using a Faraday probe to determine the plume’s current …