scholarly journals Background Pressure Effects on the Performance of a 20 kW Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster Operating in Various Configurations

Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Antonio Piragino ◽  
Farbod Faraji ◽  
Maryam Reza ◽  
Eugenio Ferrato ◽  
Annalisa Piraino ◽  
...  

The paper reports the characterization results of a 20 kW-class magnetically shielded Hall thruster in three different configurations and operating with a centrally mounted cathode. The characterization was carried out at two different pumping speeds in SITAEL’s IV10 vacuum chamber, resulting in two different background pressure levels for each tested operating point. A linear behavior of discharge current and thrust values versus the anode mass flow rate was noticed for both pumping speeds levels and for all the three configurations. In addition, the thrust and discharge current values were always found to be lower at lower background pressure levels. From the performance levels, a preliminary estimate of the ingested mass flow rates was performed, and the values were then compared to a recently developed background flow model. The results suggested that, for this thruster and in the tested operating regimes, the change in performance due to background pressure could be ascribed not only to the ingestion of external mass flow coming from the chamber but also to other physical processes caused by the flux of residual background neutrals.

Author(s):  
Vijayakumar Rajendran ◽  
Harichandran Ramasubbu ◽  
Karthick Alagar ◽  
Vignesh Kumar Ramalingam

An experimental study has been carried out to enhance a solar air heater’s performance by integrating artificial roughness through baffles on the absorber plate. In this paper, the thermal and energy matrices analysis of a Solar Air Heater (SAH) roughened with V up perforated baffles have been investigated. The effect of various mass flow rates on the SAH was analyzed with and without baffles. Experimental outputs like outlet air temperature, useful energy (heat) gain and thermal efficiency were evaluated to confirm the performance improvement. The baffled absorber plate SAH was found to give the maximum thermal efficiency and useful energy gain of 89.3% and 1321.37 W at a mass flow rate of 0.0346 kg/s, 13% and 12% higher than SAH without baffle. This result showed that the V up-shaped ribs in flow arrangement provide better thermal performance than smooth plate SAH for the parameter investigated. Energy matrices analysis and carbon dioxide mitigation of the SAH system were also analyzed.


Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Vittorio Giannetti ◽  
Manuel Martín Saravia ◽  
Luca Leporini ◽  
Simone Camarri ◽  
Tommaso Andreussi

One of the main oscillatory modes found ubiquitously in Hall thrusters is the so-called breathing mode. This is recognized as a relatively low-frequency (10–30 kHz), longitudinal oscillation of the discharge current and plasma parameters. In this paper, we present a synergic experimental and numerical investigation of the breathing mode in a 5 kW-class Hall thruster. To this aim, we propose the use of an informed 1D fully-fluid model to provide augmented data with respect to available experimental measurements. The experimental data consists of two datasets, i.e., the discharge current signal and the local near-plume plasma properties measured at high-frequency with a fast-diving triple Langmuir probe. The model is calibrated on the discharge current signal and its accuracy is assessed by comparing predictions against the available measurements of the near-plume plasma properties. It is shown that the model can be calibrated using the discharge current signal, which is easy to measure, and that, once calibrated, it can predict with reasonable accuracy the spatio-temporal distributions of the plasma properties, which would be difficult to measure or estimate otherwise. Finally, we describe how the augmented data obtained through the combination of experiments and calibrated model can provide insight into the breathing mode oscillations and the evolution of plasma properties.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Blanke ◽  
Markus Hagenkamp ◽  
Bernd Döring ◽  
Joachim Göttsche ◽  
Vitali Reger ◽  
...  

AbstractPrevious studies optimized the dimensions of coaxial heat exchangers using constant mass flow rates as a boundary condition. They show a thermal optimal circular ring width of nearly zero. Hydraulically optimal is an inner to outer pipe radius ratio of 0.65 for turbulent and 0.68 for laminar flow types. In contrast, in this study, flow conditions in the circular ring are kept constant (a set of fixed Reynolds numbers) during optimization. This approach ensures fixed flow conditions and prevents inappropriately high or low mass flow rates. The optimization is carried out for three objectives: Maximum energy gain, minimum hydraulic effort and eventually optimum net-exergy balance. The optimization changes the inner pipe radius and mass flow rate but not the Reynolds number of the circular ring. The thermal calculations base on Hellström’s borehole resistance and the hydraulic optimization on individually calculated linear loss of head coefficients. Increasing the inner pipe radius results in decreased hydraulic losses in the inner pipe but increased losses in the circular ring. The net-exergy difference is a key performance indicator and combines thermal and hydraulic calculations. It is the difference between thermal exergy flux and hydraulic effort. The Reynolds number in the circular ring is instead of the mass flow rate constant during all optimizations. The result from a thermal perspective is an optimal width of the circular ring of nearly zero. The hydraulically optimal inner pipe radius is 54% of the outer pipe radius for laminar flow and 60% for turbulent flow scenarios. Net-exergetic optimization shows a predominant influence of hydraulic losses, especially for small temperature gains. The exact result depends on the earth’s thermal properties and the flow type. Conclusively, coaxial geothermal probes’ design should focus on the hydraulic optimum and take the thermal optimum as a secondary criterion due to the dominating hydraulics.


Author(s):  
Susheel Singh ◽  
Sumanta Acharya ◽  
Forrest Ames

Flow and heat transfer in a low aspect ratio pin-finned channel, representative of an internally cooled turbine airfoil, is investigated using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). To achieve greater control of surface cooling distribution, a novel approach has been recently proposed in which coolant is injected incrementally through a series of holes located immediately behind a specially designed cutout region downstream of the pin-fins. Sheltering the coolant injection behind the pin-fins avoids the impact of the cross-flow buildup that deflects the impingement jet and isolates the surface from cooling. The longitudinal and transverse spacing of the pin-fins, arranged in a staggered fashion, is X/D = 1.046 and S/D = 1.625, respectively. The aspect ratio (H/D) of pin-fin channel is 0.5. Due to the presence of the sequential jets in the configuration, the local cooling rates can be controlled by controlling the jet-hole diameter which impacts the jet mass flow rate. Hence, four different hole diameters, denoted as Large (L), Medium (M) , Small (S), Petite (P) are tested for impingement holes, and their effects are studied. Several patterns of the hole-size distributions are studied. It is shown that the peak Nusselt number in the stagnation region below the jet correlates directly with the jet-velocity, while downstream the Nusselt numbers correlate with the total mass flow rates or the average channel velocity. The local cooling parameter defined as (Nu/Nu0)(1-ε) correlates with the jet/channel mass flow rates.


Author(s):  
Thomas Ho¨hne ◽  
So¨ren Kliem ◽  
Roman Vaibar

The influence of density differences on the mixing of the primary loop inventory and the Emergency Core Cooling (ECC) water in the cold leg and downcomer of a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) was analyzed at the ROssendorf COolant Mixing (ROCOM) test facility. This paper presents a matrix of ROCOM experiments in which water with the same or higher density was injected into a cold leg of the reactor model with already established natural circulation conditions at different low mass flow rates. Wire-mesh sensors measuring the concentration of a tracer in the injected water were installed in the cold leg, upper and lower part of the downcomer. A transition matrix from momentum to buoyancy-driven flow experiments was selected for validation of the CFD software ANSYS CFX. A hybrid mesh with 4 million elements was used for the calculations. The turbulence models usually applied in such cases assume that turbulence is isotropic, whilst buoyancy actually induces anisotropy. Thus, in this paper, higher order turbulence models have been developed and implemented which take into account for that anisotropy. Buoyancy generated source and dissipation terms were proposed and introduced into the balance equations for the turbulent kinetic energy. The results of the experiments and of the numerical calculations show that mixing strongly depends on buoyancy effects: At higher mass flow rates (close to nominal conditions) the injected slug propagates in the circumferential direction around the core barrel. Buoyancy effects reduce this circumferential propagation with lower mass flow rates and/or higher density differences. The ECC water falls in an almost vertical path and reaches the lower downcomer sensor directly below the inlet nozzle. Therefore, density effects play an important role during natural convection with ECC injection in PWR and should be also considered in Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) scenarios. ANSYS CFX was able to predict the observed flow patterns and mixing phenomena quite well.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 923937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuekun Sun ◽  
Zhigang Zuo ◽  
Shuhong Liu ◽  
Jintao Liu ◽  
Yulin Wu

Pressure fluctuations are very important characteristics in pump turbine's operation. Many researches have focused on the characteristics (amplitude and frequencies) of pressure fluctuations at specific locations, but little researches mentioned the distribution of pressure fluctuations in a pump turbine. In this paper, 3D numerical simulations using SSTk − ω turbulence model were carried out to predict the pressure fluctuations distribution in a prototype pump turbine at pump mode. Three operating points with different mass flow rates and different guide vanes’ openings were simulated. The numerical results show how pressure fluctuations at blade passing frequency (BPF) and its harmonics vary along the whole flow path direction, as well as along the circumferential direction. BPF is the first dominant frequency in vaneless space. Pressure fluctuation component at this frequency rapidly decays towards upstream (to draft tube) and downstream (to spiral casing). In contrast, pressure fluctuations component at 3BPF spreads to upstream and downstream with almost constant amplitude. Amplitude and frequencies of pressure fluctuations also vary along different circumferential locations in vaneless space. When the mass flow and guide vanes’ opening are different, the distribution of pressure fluctuations along the two directions is different basically.


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