Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is commonly employed as a propellant in PPTs due to its favorable vacuum physical properties. These properties include its non-adhesiveness and non-brittleness at low temperature, low outgassing rate in vacuum, and inherent self-lubrication. PTFE is ablated and ionized under the action of the discharge arc, and the products are accelerated and ejected from the thruster under the combined action of the Lorentz force and aerodynamic force, thus generating thrust. Due to factors such as propellant ablation lag, the utilization efficiency of PTFE is very low, resulting in a low level of propulsion efficiency (about 10%), which is one of the crucial factors limiting the widespread application of PPTs in microsatellites. Therefore, establishing a simulation model that can accurately reflect the ablation process of the PPT propellant and conducting a theoretical analysis of the propellant ablation process are necessary for understanding the intrinsic mechanism of propellant ablation in the thruster and improving the propulsion performance of PPTs.


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    Title :

    Numerical Simulation of the Arc Ablation Process of PTFE Propellant


    Contributors:
    Wu, Jianjun (author) / Li, Jian (author) / Zhao, Yuanzheng (author) / Zhang, Yu (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2024-10-29


    Size :

    18 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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