Analysis of Numerical Simulation Results of LIPS-200 Lifetime Experiments

• Published in: Plasma science & technology Vol. 18; no. 6; pp. 611 - 616
• Main Author: 陈娟娟 张天平 耿海 贾艳辉 孟伟 吴先明 孙安邦
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and IOP Publishing 01.06.2016
• Subjects: accelerator grid structural failure; Accelerators; Charge exchange; electron backstreaming failure; Failure; Ion thrusters; lifetime; LIPS-200 ion thruster; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Neutral atoms; Walls; 可靠性分析; 寿命试验; 操作过程; 数值模拟; 数值计算方法; 离子推进器; 离子推进系统; 通信卫星平台
• ISSN: 1009-0630
• DOI: 10.1088/1009-0630/18/6/06

Accelerator grid structural and electron backstreaming failures are the most important factors affecting the ion thruster＇s lifetime.During the thruster＇s operation,Charge Exchange Xenon（CEX） ions are generated from collisions between plasma and neutral atoms.Those CEX ions grid＇s barrel and wall frequently,which cause the failures of the grid system.In order to validate whether the 20 cm Lanzhou Ion Propulsion System（LIPS-200） satisfies China＇s communication satellite platform＇s application requirement for North-South Station Keeping（NSSK）,this study analyzed the measured depth of the pit/groove on the accelerator grid＇s wall and aperture diameter＇s variation and estimated the operating lifetime of the ion thruster.Different from the previous method,in this paper,the experimental results after the 5500 h of accumulated operation of the LIPS-200 ion thruster are presented firstly.Then,based on these results,theoretical analysis and numerical calculations were firstly performed to predict the on-orbit lifetime of LIPS-200.The results obtained were more accurate to calculate the reliability and analyze the failure modes of the ion thruster.The results indicated that the predicted lifetime of LIPS-200＇s was about 13218.1 h which could satisfy the required lifetime requirement of 11000 h very well.