Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Electrostatic Discharge And Endurance Time Measurements Of Spacecraft Materials: A Defect-Driven Dynamic Model, Allen Andersen, Jr Dennison, Alec Sim, Charles Sim

Journal Articles

Electrostatic breakdown leads to the majority of anomalies and failures attributed to spacecraft interactions with the plasma space environment. It is therefore critical to understand how electrostatic field strength (F_ESD) of spacecraft materials varies due to environmental conditions such as duration of applied electric field, rate of field change, history of exposure to high fields, and temperature. We have developed a dual-defect, thermodynamic, mean-field trapping model in terms of recoverable and irrecoverable defect modes to predict probabilities of breakdown. Fits to a variety of measurements of the dependence of F_ESD of insulating polymers on endurance time, voltage …