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At least 19 records

Results and comparison of Hall and DW duct experiments

Experimental data from recent tests of a 45 deg diagonal wall duct are presented and compared with the results of a similar Hall duct. It is shown that while the peak power density of the two devices is approximately equal that the diagonal wall duct produces greater total power output due to its ability to better utilize the available magnetic field.

Smith, J. M.↗

Crop Identification Technolgy Assessment for Remote Sensing (CITARS). Volume 1: Task design plan

A plan for quantifying the crop identification performances resulting from the remote identification of corn, soybeans, and wheat is described. Steps for the conversion of multispectral data tapes to classification results are specified. The crop identification performances resulting from the use of several basic types of automatic data processing techniques are compared and examined for significant differences. The techniques are evaluated also for changes in geographic location, time of the year, management practices, and other physical factors. The results of the Crop Identification Technology Assessment for Remote Sensing task will be applied extensively in the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment.

Hall, F. G.↗

Accomplishments of the Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program and Future Research Requirements

The Abrupt Wing Stall (AWS) Program has addressed the problem of uncommanded lateral motions, such as wing drop and wing rock, at transonic speeds. The genesis of this Program was the experience of the F/A-18E/F Program in the late 199O's, when wing drop was discovered in the heart of the maneuver envelope for the pre-production aircraft. While the F/A-18E/F problem was subsequently corrected by a leading-edge flap scheduling change and the addition of a porous door to the wing fold fairing, the AWS Program was initiated as a national response to the lack of technology readiness available at the time of the F/A-18E/F Development Program. The AWS Program objectives were to define causal factors for the F/A-18E/F experience, to gain insights into the flow physics associated with wing drop, and to develop methods and analytical tools so that future programs could identify this type of problem before going to flight test. The paper reviews, for the major goals of the AWS Program, the status of the technology before the program began, the program objectives, accomplishments, and impacts. Lessons learned are presented for the benefit of future programs that must assess whether a vehicle will have uncommanded lateral motions before going to flight test. Finally, recommended future research needs are presented in light of the AWS Program experience.

Hall, Robert M.↗

NEOS Operation Center

This report covers the activities of the NEOS Operation Center at USNO for 2012. The Operation Center schedules the IVS-R4 and the INT1 Intensive experiments.

Hall, David↗

Plasma Propulsion Testing Capabilities at Arnold Engineering Development Center

This paper describes the results of a series of experiments aimed at quantifying the plasma propulsion testing capabilities of a 12-ft diameter vacuum facility (12V) at USAF-Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). Vacuum is maintained in the 12V facility by cryogenic panels lining the interior of the chamber. The pumping capability of these panels was shown to be great enough to support plasma thrusters operating at input electrical power >20 kW. In addition, a series of plasma diagnostics inside the chamber allowed for measurement of plasma parameters at different spatial locations, providing information regarding the chamber's effect on the global plasma thruster flowfield. The plasma source used in this experiment was Hall thruster manufactured by Busek Co. The thruster was operated at up to 20 kW steady-state power in both a lower current and higher current mode. The vacuum level in the chamber never rose above 9 x 10(exp -6) torr during the course of testing. Langmuir probes, ion flux probes, and Faraday cups were used to quantify the plasma parameters in the chamber. We present the results of these measurements and estimates of pumping speed based on the background pressure level and thruster propellant mass flow rate.

Polzin, Kurt A.↗

Porting a Hall MHD Code to a Graphic Processing Unit

We present our experience porting a Hall MHD code to a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The code is a 2nd order accurate MUSCL-Hancock scheme which makes use of an HLL Riemann solver to compute numerical fluxes and second-order finite differences to compute the Hall contribution to the electric field. The divergence of the magnetic field is controlled with Dedner?s hyperbolic divergence cleaning method. Preliminary benchmark tests indicate a speedup (relative to a single Nehalem core) of 58x for a double precision calculation. We discuss scaling issues which arise when distributing work across multiple GPUs in a CPU-GPU cluster.

Dorelli, John C.↗

Effects of an Internally-Mounted Cathode on Hall Thruster Plume Properties

The effects of cathode position on the plume properties of an 8 kW BHT-8000 Busek Hall thruster are discussed. Experiments were conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in a vacuum chamber suitable for the development and qualification of high-power Hall thrusters. Multi-mode Hall thruster operation was demonstrated at operating conditions ranging from 200-500 V discharge voltage, 10-40 A discharge current, and 2-8 kW discharge power. Reductions in plume divergence and increased near-field plume symmetries were found to result from the use of an internally-mounted cathode instead of the traditional externally-mounted configuration. High-current hollow cathodes developed at JPL utilizing lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) emitters were also demonstrated. Discharge currents up to 100 A were achieved with the cathode operating alone and up to 40 A during operation with the Hall thruster. LaB6 cathodes were investigated because of their potential to reduce overall system cost and risk due to less stringent xenon purity and handling requirements.

electric propulsion↗

Effects of an internally-mounted cathode on hall thruster plume properties

The effects of cathode position on the plume properties of an 8 kW BHT-8000 Busek Hall thruster are discussed. Experiments were conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in a vacuum chamber suitable for the development and qualification of high-power Hall thrusters. Multi-mode Hall thruster operation was demonstrated at operating conditions ranging from 200-500 V discharge voltage, 10-40 A discharge current, and 2-8 kW discharge power. Reductions in plume divergence and increased near-field plume symmetries were found to result from the use of an internally-mounted cathode instead of the traditional externally-mounted configuration. High-current hollow cathodes developed at JPL utilizing lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) emitters were also demonstrated. Discharge currents up to 100 A were achieved with the cathode operating alone and up to 40 A during operation with the Hall thruster. LaB6 cathodes were investigated because of their potential to reduce overall system cost and risk due to less stringent xenon purity and handling requirements.

Fitzgerald, Dennis J.↗

Dependence of defect introduction on temperature and resistivity and some long-term annealing effects

The effort reported here represents data of lithium properties in bulk-silicon samples before and after irradiation for analytical information required to characterize the interactions of lithium with radiation-induced defects in silicon. A model of the damage and recovery mechanisms in irradiated-lithium-containing solar cells is developed based on making measurements of the Hall coefficient and resistivity of samples irradiated by 1-MeV electrons. Experiments on bulk samples included Hall coefficient and resistivity measurements taken as a function of: (1) bombardment temperature, (2) resistivity, (3) fluence, (4) oxygen concentration, and (5) annealing time at temperatures from 300 to 373 K.

Brucker, G. J.↗

Design of a Laboratory Hall Thruster with Magnetically Shielded Channel Walls, Phase III: Comparison of Theory with Experiment

A proof-of-principle effort to demonstrate a technique by which erosion of the acceleration channel in Hall thrusters of the magnetic-layer type can be eliminated has been completed. The first principles of the technique, now known as "magnetic shielding," were derived based on the findings of numerical simulations in 2-D axisymmetric geometry. The simulations, in turn, guided the modification of an existing 6-kW laboratory Hall thruster. This magnetically shielded (MS) thruster was then built and tested. Because neither theory nor experiment alone can validate fully the first principles of the technique, the objective of the 2-yr effort was twofold: (1) to demonstrate in the laboratory that the erosion rates can be reduced by >order of magnitude, and (2) to demonstrate that the near-wall plasma properties can be altered according to the theoretical predictions. This paper concludes the demonstration of magnetic shielding by reporting on a wide range of comparisons between results from numerical simulations and laboratory diagnostics. Collectively, we find that the comparisons validate the theory. Near the walls of the MS thruster, theory and experiment agree: (1) the plasma potential has been sustained at values near the discharge voltage, and (2) the electron temperature has been lowered by at least 2.5-3 times compared to the unshielded (US) thruster. Also, based on carbon deposition measurements, the erosion rates at the inner and outer walls of the MS thruster are found to be lower by at least 2300 and 1875 times, respectively. Erosion was so low along these walls that the rates were below the resolution of the profilometer. Using a sputtering yield model with an energy threshold of 25 V, the simulations predict a reduction of ~600 at the MS inner wall. At the outer wall ion energies are computed to be below 25 V, for which case we set the erosion to zero in the simulations. When a 50-V threshold is used the computed ion energies are below the threshold at both sides of the channel. Uncertainties, sensitivities and differences between theory and experiment are also discussed.

plasma simulations↗

Self-Consistent Implementation of a Zero-Equation Transport Model Into a Predictive Model for a Hall Effect Thruster

The performance of an axisymmetric multi-fluid Hall thruster code that incorporates a self-consistent, data-driven closure model for the anomalous electron transport is investigated. Five different operating conditions of the H9 magnetically shielded Hall thruster are simulated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Hall2De. In order to capture the inherent uncertainty associated with the closure model, O(100) simulations are run for each condition, each of using a coefficient set sampled randomly from a probability distribution. The results of these simulations provide probabilistic predictions of thruster performance quantities including thrust, and discharge current, as well as several component efficiencies and centerline plasma properties. The model is found to yield converged solutions at all conditions, with large 10 kHzrange oscillations and performance trends with voltage and flow rate similar to experiment. The model under-predicts the thrust by 15-25% and over-predicts the discharge current by 20% on average compared to experiments at the same discharge voltage and mass flow rate. This performance discrepancy is due to lower beam utilization, mass utilization, and divergence efficiency than experiment, resulting from high Hall parameters in the acceleration region, which lead to a protracted ion acceleration region. The physical processes underlying this result are discussed in the context of future data-driven modeling efforts.

Jorns, Benjamin A.↗

The Effectiveness of Magnetic Shielding in High-Isp Hall Thrusters

A series of numerical simulations and experiments have been performed to assess the effectiveness of magnetic shielding in a Hall thruster operating in the discharge voltage range of 300-700 V (Isp 2000-2700 s) at 6 kW, and 800 V (Isp 3000) at 9 kW. In this paper we report on the simulation results and their validation with experimental measurements. At 6 kW the magnetic field topology with which we recently demonstrated highly effective magnetic shielding at 300 V was retained for all other discharge voltages; only the magnitude of the field was changed to achieve optimum thruster performance. It is found that magnetic shielding remains highly effective for all discharge voltages studied. Maximum erosion rates that remain fairly constant across the range of 300-700 V are computed, with values not exceeding 10-2 mm/kh. Such rates are ~3 orders of magnitude less than those observed in the unshielded version of the same thruster at 300 V. At 9 kW and 800 V, saturation of the magnetic circuit did not permit us to attain precisely the same magnetic shielding topology as that employed during the 6-kW operation since this thruster was not designed to operate at this condition. Consequently, the maximum erosion rate at the inner wall is found to be ~1 order of magnitude higher (~10-1 mm/kh) than that at the 6-kW level. At the outer wall the ion energy is below the sputtering yield threshold so no measurable erosion is expected. The reasons behind the effectiveness of magnetic shielding at higher discharge voltages are discussed.

magnetic-field-aligned-mesh (MFAM) code↗

High Voltage TAL Performance

The performance of a two-stage, anode layer Hall thruster was evaluated. Experiments were conducted in single and two-stage configurations. In single-stage configuration, the thruster was operated with discharge voltages ranging from 300 to 1700 V. Discharge specific impulses ranged from 1630 to 4140 sec. Thruster investigations were conducted with input power ranging from 1 to 8.7 kW, corresponding to power throttling of nearly 9: 1. An extensive two-stage performance map was generated. Data taken with total voltage (sum of discharge and accelerating voltage) constant revealed a decrease in thruster efficiency as the discharge voltage was increased. Anode specific impulse values were comparable in the single and two-stage configurations showing no strong advantage for two-stage operation.

Jacobson, David T.↗

Hall-Effect Current Sensors For Integrated Circuits

Built-in devices measure direct or alternating currents. Hall-effect sensors placed near constriction in conductor strip. Differential configuration reduces effects of stray magnetic fields, nonlinearities, and changes in temperature. Preliminary design studies and experiments with macroscopic commercial Hall-effect sensors conducted to assess feasibility, limitations, and need for further research and development of this concept. Potential applications include programmable power supplies and protective circuitry.

Rippel, Wally E.↗