The physics of ionic electrospray propulsion spans multiple length scales. This paper combines a molecular dynamics model, a particle–particle model, and a particle-in-cell model to investigate the physics of ionic electrospray propulsion over 9 orders of magnitude in length scale. The combined models are applied to simulate beam emission for an ionic electrospray propulsion system with porous emitter tips and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquid propellant from the emission site to the downstream plume. Additionally, the impact of multiple emission sites from a single emitter tip is analyzed with regard to extractor grid interception and overall beam neutralization for bipolar thruster pairs. Results show that beams consisting of species of different masses (i.e., monomer and dimer species) are affected by particle–particle forces during acceleration and should not be treated as a superposition of independently accelerated species in macro-scale plume models. The activation of multiple emission sites also causes a noticeable increase in the beam’s spread, leading to increased intercepted current but relatively little adverse effects in the downstream plume region.
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7 January 2022
Research Article|
January 04 2022
Multi-scale modeling of ionic electrospray emission
Special Collection:
Physics of Electric Propulsion
Jeffrey Asher
;
Jeffrey Asher
Department of Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California
, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
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Ziyu Huang
;
Ziyu Huang
Department of Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California
, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
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Chen Cui
;
Chen Cui
Department of Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California
, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
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Joseph Wang
Joseph Wang
a)
Department of Astronautical Engineering, University of Southern California
, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: josephjw@usc.edu
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: josephjw@usc.edu
Note: This paper is part of the Special Topic on Physics of Electric Propulsion.
J. Appl. Phys. 131, 014902 (2022)
Article history
Received:
September 14 2021
Accepted:
December 06 2021
Citation
Jeffrey Asher, Ziyu Huang, Chen Cui, Joseph Wang; Multi-scale modeling of ionic electrospray emission. J. Appl. Phys. 7 January 2022; 131 (1): 014902. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071483
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