A two-dimensional numerical simulation is performed to examine the performance characteristics of an onboard Hall-type magnetohydrodynamic generator and the influence of the ion slip effect on its performance at several altitudes (52, 56, 60, and 64 km) on a reentry flight path from low Earth orbit. The magnetohydrodynamic generator is composed of a magnetic field of about 0.5 T and a pair of electrodes on the surface of a blunt body with an overall diameter of 3.4 m. Numerical results demonstrate that the generator performance changes drastically along the flight path. At high altitudes, such as 60 and 64 km, the magnetohydrodynamic generator can extract power outputs at a sub-megawatt to megawatt level, whereas at low altitudes, such as 52 km, the magnetohydrodynamic generator is not useful for onboard power generation because of the shortage of electrical conductivity in the shock layer. Furthermore, the results show that the ion slip effect has a nonnegligible negative influence on the generator performance and that the influence of the ion slip effect becomes stronger with an increase in flight altitude and load voltage. The results at an altitude of 64 km indicate that the ion slip effect reduces the peak power output by 22%.


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    Title :

    Performance Characteristics of Onboard Hall-Type Magnetohydrodynamic Generator During Earth Reentry Flight


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2015-03-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English