Effects of Propellant Type on Low Power Arcjet Thruster Performance

Xin-Ai Zhang1, Hai-Bin Tang1, Yu Liu1, Hai-Xing Wang1, Xi Chen2

1
School of Astronautics, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing 100191, China
2
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084
(Corresponding author. E-mail: whx@buaa.edu.cn)

Abstract: An experimental investigation was conducted to reveal the effects of propellant

type on low power arcjet thruster performance. Three kinds of gases, i.e. argon, nitrogen and
nitrogen/ammonia mixtures simulating decomposed hydrazine, were used as the propellants.
Important performance data, such as the thrust, the specific impulse, etc, were measured for
various arc currents and mass flow rates. When arc current was fixed to be 10 A, typical spe-
cific impulse values obtained in the experimental were 150 s, 240 s and 500 s for argon, ni-
trogen and nitrogen/ammonia used as the propellants, respectively. It was shown that the
thruster performance for the case using the nitrogen/ammonia mixture simulating hydrazine as
propellant was much better than that for the case using nitrogen or argon as the propellant.

Keywords: Arcjet performance; propellant type; experimental study

1. Introduction
Arcjet thrusters use electric arc to heat the gaseous
propellant instead of a combustion reaction. Due to its
high specific impulse and moderate thrust levels, the arc-
jet thruster is playing an increasing role in satellite pro-
pulsion. Low power hydrazine arcjets are now used for
north-south position-keeping of many satellites, while
higher power or lower power designs are in development
for spacecraft orbit transfer or mini/nano-satellite applica-
tions. For those applications, the arcjet thruster could pro-
vide significant propellant savings in comparison with the
monopropellant hydrazine engine or the resistojet thruster
due to its higher specific impulse. Although the arcjet
thruster has been a relatively mutual technology in the
United States, many other countries are also engaged in
developing their own arcjet technology in order to employ
the arcjet thruster in their own satellites. Work is also un-
derway to extend the mission applicability of the arcjet
thruster by expanding the power range and by investigat-
ing the possibility of using other propellants.
Low power arcjet operation on hydrogen/nitrogen
/ammonia mixtures was reported previously. The arcjet
had a typical performance of 450 s specific impulse at 1
kW with hydrogen/nitrogen mixtures[1,2] as the propel-
lant. It was found that the amount of ammonia present in
the gaseous propellant had significant effect on the arcjet
voltage-ampere characters. Also, hydrogen/nitrogen mix-
tures simulating ammonia gave approximately the same
arc characteristics as those of pure ammonia. The influ-
ence of propellant compositions on the performance cha-
racteristics of a low power arcjet thruster was experimen-
tally investigated by Tanaka et al [3]. Three kinds of gases,
i.e. argon, helium and nitrogen, were used as the propel-
lant in their studies. It was found that the specific impulse
of helium was the highest among the three gases. In terms
of efficiency, argon was the best and nitrogen was the
worst. The efficiency of nitrogen was extremely low,
about 3-5 percent, compared with other two propellants.
This low efficiency was caused by the dissociation of the
gas molecules occurring in the thruster and the large radi-
ation loss from the thruster wall. As a result, nitrogen was
not appropriate for the propellant of the arcjet thruster.
Although a large amount of studies concerning low power
arcjet operation on nitrogen, hydrogen, ammonia, argon
and hydrogen/nitrogen /ammonia mixtures have been
reported as mentioned above, the effects of propellant
type on the performance of arcjet have not been com-
pletely understood. Therefore, a systematic study has
been conducted by us to investigate the effects of different
propellants on the arcjet operation.
The 1 kW arcjet thruster used in this investigation was
designed and developed by BUAA in the recent years.
Different dimensions and structures of arcjet thruster were
designed and used in the experimental studies. Work was
also performed on using various materials, such as ce-
rium-tungsten or thoriated tungsten, as the arcjet cathodes
Anodes were also fabricated from four different materials,
i.e. cerium-tungsten, thoriated tungsten, pure tungsten or
molybdenum-tungsten, and were tested in a modular
arcjet thruster at the 1 kW power level in different expe-
riments. This paper describes some recent experimental
results aimed at studying the effects of propellant type on
the low-power DC arcjet thruster performance. In the
present study, arc voltage, thrust and other important pa-
rameters of arcjet thruster are measured for various mass
flow rates of argon, nitrogen, nitrogen/ammonia mixtures
simulating hydrazine, while the arc current of the arcjet
thruster is fixed constant (i.e. I=10 A), so that the effects
of different propellants and mass flow rates can be re-
vealed.
2. Experimental apparatus and facilities
Fig. 1 Schematic of an arcjet experimental system
The test is conducted on the arcjet experimental system
developed in BUAA, shown as in Fig 1. This system in-
cludes propellant feed system, vacuum system, data ac-
quisition system, power control unit and thrust stand.
Thruster
Fig. 2 Schematic of test arcjet thruster
The arcjet thruster used through the test is of the con-
ventional, constricted-arc, vortex-stabilized design. A
schematic of test arcjet has been shown in Fig. 2. The
anode, which is also the nozzle of the thruster, is made of
tungsten. The converging side of the nozzle is conical and
has a half angle of 30°, while the diverging or the down-
stream side of the nozzle is also conical and has a 20°
half angle. The constrictor is 0.7 mm in diameter and 0.5
mm in length. The cathode is made from 2 percent tho-
riated tungsten rod of 4 mm diameter. The arc gap in this
test is set to be 0.4 mm.
Vacuum Facility
All the tests are conducted in the RZM-1800 vacuum
facility in BUAA. This vacuum facility has a 1.8 m di-
ameter and 3.2 m long vacuum chamber with four me-
chanical pumps, two roughing pumps, two oil diffusion
pumps and other accessories. Each oil diffusion pump has
a rated capacity of 26000 liters/s at a pressure range of
1.3×10-3 Pa to 6.7×10-2 Pa. The ultimate vacuum degree of
this facility was 1.0×10-5 Pa. The chamber pressure can
maintained at approximately 5 Pa when the vacuum facil-
ity is operated only with mechanical pumps and roughing
pumps.
Thrust Stand
Fig. 3 Arcjet thruster mounted on the thrust stand in
RZM-1800 vacuum facility
The thrust is measured by a thrust stand developed spe-
cially for low power arcjet thruster in BUAA, which has
three thrust ranges, i.e. 0~200 mN, 0~400 mN and
0~1000 mN, and with accuracy of 1%. The thrust stand
consists of the frame assembly, flexural pivot assembly,
movable beam assembly, reactive circuit and feedback
force system, capacitor displacement sensor system, elec-
trical wires and flexible propellant feed tube. The arcjet
thruster is mounted on the movable beam assembly in
thrust-measuring test as shown in Fig 3. The propellant is
supplied to the arcjet through flexible propellant feed tube.
In thruster-measuring tests, the capacitance displacement
sensor system measures the displacement caused by the
thrust generated by the arcjet thruster and then transmits
the signal to the reactive circuit and forces electric coil
system to resist the motion of the movable beam assembly.
The thrust stand is calibrated before each test run using a
set of known free weights that are suspended from the
thruster mount. The thrust stands of the same design have
been extensively in previous studies.
Propellant Feed System
In the propellant feed system, argon, nitrogen and am-
monia are stored and metered separately. Propellant mass
flow measurements and controlling are performed by
Model D07-7A mass flow controllers. The system can
supply the propellant to the arcjet in single gas mode or
mixed gas mode separately according to requirements. A
gasket made from insulated material is used in the pro-
pellant feed system to insulate the propellant feed tubes
from the thruster.
Power Control Unit
The ground power control unit of arcjet thruster was
developed using the technology of inversion power with
insulating grid bipolarity transistor (IGBT) module. The
power control unit used in this test consists of main cir-
cuit, safety circuit and ignition circuit. The breakdown
voltage is around 3000 V. The output voltage ranges from
80 to 120 V, while the output current ranges from 8 to 14 The arc voltages for the case with the nitrogen/ammonia
A. The efficiency of the PCU is approximately 90%. mixture simulating hydrazine as the propellant is much
Coaxial-cables are used to link the power control unit and higher than those for the cases with nitrogen or argon as
the thruster. the propellant at small flow rates. The gas flow rates also
have an effect on the arc voltage. As the flow rate in-
Data Acquisition System creases, the arc voltage also increases. Increasing the flow
The experimental data measured through the tests in- rate increases the gas pressure and the collision frequency
clude arc voltage, arc current, thrust, mass flow rate and of gas particles in the flow. This leads to the increase of
propellant feed pressure. Arc voltage and arc current are the energy loss from the arc column. At the same time, the
measured by Hall effect sensors. Thrust is measured by arc root moves toward the downstream of the nozzle due
thrust stand with accuracy of ±1% as mentioned above. to the effect of aerodynamic force. Thus, a higher voltage
Propellant mass flow rate is measured by mass flow con- is required to sustain the arc at higher mass flow rates.
trollers with accuracy of ±2%. The measuring methods Correspondingly, the input power increases with the in-
and uncertainties of data measured in this test are listed in crease of the mass flow rates for the case that the arc cur-
Table 1. The signals of corresponding sensors are record- rent is kept constant. The input power levels of the test
ed by a thirty-two channels data acquisition system with a arcjet operating with nitrogen/ammonia mixture as the
frequency response capability of 1 kHz. Isolation amplifi- propellant increase from 1.05 to 1.19 kW when the mass
er modules and shielded cables are used to avoid the sig- flow rate increases from 19.19 to 31.29 mg/s.
nal interference. The volt-ampere characteristics of the arcjet tested in
Table 1 Data measurements uncertainty these studies are given in Fig. 6 for various arc currents
Parameter method Accuracy and propellant types. The curves in the figure illustrate
Arc Voltage Hall Effect sensor ±1%
Arc Current Hall Effect sensor ±1%
Thrust Thrust Stand ±1%
mass flow Thermal Conductivity-type
±2%
rates Mass Flow Controllers
Propellant Diaphragm-type Pressure
±1%
feed pressure Sensor

3. Results and Discussions

The purpose of this investigation is to obtain a prelimi-
nary assessment of arcjet operating characteristics and
performance with different gases, i.e. argon, nitrogen and
nitrogen/ammonia mixture, as the propellant. In all the
tests performed, the mass flow rates of argon, nitrogen,
and nitrogen/ammonia mixture are set to be 70~110 mg/s,
40~80 mg/s, and 19.19~31.29 mg/s respectively.
Fig. 4 shows the arcjet plume in the vacuum chamber Fig. 4 Arcjet operating with different propellants in va-
operating with argon, nitrogen and nitrogen/ammonia
mixture as the propellants for the case that the arc current cuum chamber (arc current I =10 A)
is fixed to be 10 A. With the argon as the propellant, the 120
arcjet plume is red and constricted. The plume of the arc- Nitrogen and Ammonia
Nitrogen
jet with the nitrogen as propellant is weak and diffuse. 100 Argon
When nitrogen/ammonia is used as propellant, the plume
Voltage(V)

of arcjet is brighter and the nozzle becomes red. 80

In the present study, voltage and thrust measurements
are taken as the function of the flow rate of argon, nitro- 60

gen or nitrogen/ammonia mixture simulating hydrazine.

40
Variations of measured voltage with flow rate for different
propellants are shown in Fig. 5 for the case with the arc 20
current of 10 A. It is shown that the arcjet thruster oper- 20 40 60 80 100
Mass Flow Rate(mg/s)
ates on different voltage or power ranges when different
working gases are used as the propellant for a constant arc Fig. 5 Variation of the thrust with the mass flow rates
current. For each kind of the propellant, the arc voltage of
arcjet thrust increases with the increase of mass flow rate. for different propellants (arc current I =10 A)
typical arcjet behavior throughout the tests on all the pro- different propellants. When argon is used as the propellant,
pellants. In all tests, the voltage level was seen to decrease the thrust of arcjet thruster is much smaller than that for
with increasing current levels. In other word, low current the case using nitrogen, especially using nitrogen
operation required high operating voltages. /ammonia mixture as the propellant. Correspondingly, the
nitrogen/ammonia mixture gives a specific impulse level
120
approximately 250 s higher than the nitrogen and 350 s
100 Nitrogen and Ammonia
higher than argon. For the case using nitrogen/ammonia
Nitrogen as propellant, a maximum specific impulse of 528 s is
Voltage(V)

Argon
80 achieved with the mass flow rate of 23.75 mg/s. The
arcjet thruster assumes high thrust level even at low mass
60
flow rates for the case using nitrogen/ammonia mixture as
the propellant. It means that using the nitrogen/ammonia
40
mixture can give appreciably higher specific impulse than
20 using nitrogen or argon.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Current(A) 60
Nitrogen and Ammonia

Specific Power(MJ/kg)
50 Nitrogen
Fig. 6 Voltage-Ampere characteristics with different Argon
gases as propellants 40

30
200
Nitrogen and Ammonia
20
180 Nitrogen
Argon
10
Thrust(mN)

160
0
140 20 40 60 80 100
Mass Flow Rate(mg/s)
120
Fig. 9 Variation of the specific power with the mass flow
100 rates for different propellants (arc current I=10 A)
80
20 40 60 80 100 4. Conclusions
Mass Flow Rate(mg/s)
In this study, tests are conducted to reveal the effects
Fig. 7 Variation of the thrust with the mass flow rates for of propellant types on low power DC arcjet thruster per-
formance. Some important performance data, such as the
different propellant (arc current I=10 A) thrust, arc voltage, specific impulse and specific power of
arcjet thrust are measured in the tests with argon, nitrogen
500
Nitrogen and Ammonia and nitrogen/ammonia mixture simulating hydrazine as
Nitrogen
the propellants. Over the arc current range tested, arc vol-
Specific Impulse(s)

Argon
400 tage decreases with increasing arc current. For the range
of mass flow rates tested for different propellants, in-
300
crease in mass flow rate leads to the increase of the arc
voltage. The experimental results show that the arcjet
200
thruster operating with nitrogen/ammonia mixture can
give better performance than that with nitrogen or argon
100
as the propellant.
20 40 60 80 100
Mass Flow Rate(mg/s)
Acknowledgment
Fig. 8 Variation of the specific impulse with the mass This study was supported by the National Natural
flow rates for different propellants (arc current I=10 A) Science Foundation of China (No. 50836007)

Typical performance data of arcjet thruster, such as References

thrust, specific impulse and specific power of the arcjet
thruster with different propellants in the tests are shown in
Fig. 7, Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, respectively. Fig. 7 shows that all
the curves display the same general trends, i.e. the thrust
of arcjet increases with increasing mass flow rates for
[1] G. Cruciani, W. D. Deininger, AIAA Paper, 93-1900.
[2] T. L. Hardy, F. M. Curran, AIAA Paper, 87-1948.
[3] K. I. Tanaka, A. Fukatsu, International Syposium on
Space Technology and Science, 1990, p. 395-400