Numerical analysis of MHD accelerator using nonequilibrium air plasma for space propulsion

Author

Anwari, Makbul ; Qazi, Hummad H. ; Sukarsan

Author_Institution

Fac. of Electr. Eng., Univ. Teknol. Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia

Volume

5

fYear

2010

fDate

26-28 Feb. 2010

Firstpage

112

Lastpage

117

Abstract

Numerical analyses of Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accelerator using nonequilibrium air plasma are outlined in this paper. Composition of simulated air plasma consists of seven species, N₂, N, O₂, O, NO, NO⁺ and e^-. The Magnetohydrodynamic Augmented Propulsion Experiment (MAPX) channel designed by NASA is used in this simulation. The MacCormack scheme is used to solve the set of differential equations of MHD approximations. Characteristics of nonequilibrium air plasma as a working gas are shown. Numerical results show the fundamental characteristic and propulsion performance of MHD accelerator using diagonal electrode connection with constant diagonal angle setting 55Â°.

Keywords

aerospace propulsion; magnetohydrodynamic conversion; numerical analysis; MHD accelerator; magnetohydrodynamic accelerator; magnetohydrodynamic augmented propulsion experiment channel; nonequilibrium air plasma; numerical analysis; space propulsion; Accelerator magnets; Differential equations; Electrodes; Magnetohydrodynamics; NASA; Numerical analysis; Plasma accelerators; Plasma properties; Plasma simulation; Propulsion; Air Plasma; MHD accelerator; Propulsion performance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE), 2010 The 2nd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Singapore

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5585-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-5586-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICCAE.2010.5451505

Filename

5451505