Design and Analysis of an Air-Intake System for Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion [吸气式电推进中的气体捕集系统的设计分析]

作者：Yang C.; Hu Y.^*; Sun Q.-H.; Huang H.-J.

来源：Journal of Astronautics, 2022, 43(2): 232-240.

DOI：10.3873/j.issn.1000-1328.2022.02.012

• Air-breathing electric propulsion
• Free molecular flow
• Gas collection
• Turbomolecular pump

Air-breathing electric propulsion is a very promising propulsion technology for ultra-low-orbit satellite, and one of the keys is to efficiently collect atmospheric molecules as propellant. Several representative air-intake systems are compared and analyzed, which helps to summarize the basic principles to increase collection efficiency. The common physical problems in air-intake systems are then investigated through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, and the influence of key parameters such as non-dimensional tube length and exit transmission probability on collection efficiency is obtained. It is found that when the non-dimensional tube length increases the collection efficiency first increases and then decreases, and the highest collection efficiency shows a positive correlation with the exit transmission probability.Based on the analysis, a preliminary design of air-intake system is provided for earth orbit at 150 km and the optimized collection efficiency is over 50%.

• 单位
  高温气体动力学国家重点实验室; 中国科学院大学