Development of Ignition Unit for Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

液体供给脉冲等离子体推力器（LPPT）存在工作效率低、烧蚀后效应造成的推进剂质量损失以及传统点火塞短路导致的系统失效等缺点。解决这些问题的方法是重新审视LPPT的子系统，在基础水平上研究高真空下有利的液体排放条件。其目的是重新设计传统的半导体火花塞，特别是液体进料的PPT。然而，重新设计的装置可能具有更广泛的适用性。示出了使用电润湿来局部增强电场并最终在较低的施加电压下诱导放电的优点，如所期望的。该项目的第二部分是实施新的馈电系统，该馈电系统与点火单元结合，将提高LPPT的操作效率，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.