Development of Ignition Unit for Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

液态脉冲等离子体推进器存在着工作效率低、烧蚀后药剂质量损失大、传统点火器塞子短路导致系统失效等缺点。解决这些问题的办法是重新审查LPPTs的各个子系统，从根本上调查高真空下的有利液体排放条件。其目的是重新设计传统上使用的半导体火花塞，专门用于液体馈电PPT。然而，重新设计的装置可能会有更广泛的适用性。除了其他优点外，还对降低点火电压进行了初步测试；显示了使用电润湿来增强局部电场并最终在较低电压下诱导放电的优点。项目的第二部分是实施一种新的馈电系统，该系统与点火装置相结合，将提高LPPTS的运行效率；从而使其与其他电力推进系统相比更具竞争力。

The Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (LPPTs) suffer from various disadvantages, such as low operational efficiency, propellant mass losses due to post ablative effects and failure of the system due to short circuiting of the traditional ignitor plug. The approach to solve these issues is to revisit the sub-systems for LPPTs, investigating favourable liquid discharge conditions under high vacuum at the fundamental level. The aim is to redesign the traditionally employed semiconductor spark plug, specifically for liquid-fed PPTs. However, the redesigned device may have a wider applicability.The reduction in ignition voltage, among other advantages, has been preliminary tested; showing the advantages of using electrowetting in to enhance the electric field locally and ultimately induce discharge at lower applied voltages, as desired.The second part of the project is to implement a new feeding system which, in conjunction with the ignition unit, would raise the operational efficiency of LPPTs; consequently making them more competitive with other electric propulsion systems.