Development of Electric Propulsion Thrusters Cooling Systems for Perspective Spacecrafts

This Thesis is dedicated to the problems of calculation and design of high power electric rocket (propulsion) thrusters (EPT) cooling systems. The paper investigates the issues of thermal regime and thermodynamic balance of the thruster, reveals a particular case of the heat conduction equation for the EPT cooling system and finds its analytical solution. On this basis a methodology, algorithm and program for calculating EPT cooling systems have been developed.

The theoretical provisions of the Thesis were confirmed by comparative experiments with two versions of a Magnetoplasmadynamic EPT with its own magnetic field with the same characteristics of the discharge chamber, operating at atmospheric pressure. The first version is without a cooling system and the second is equipped with a cooling system which was developed using the indicated methodology, algorithm and program.

Based on the obtained results , the EPT with an external magnetic field was created and tested, the thrust of which increased by an order of magnitude with the same characteristics of the discharge gap and the obtained energy characteristics at atmospheric pressure are comparable with the best examples of chemical rocket engines.