The simplicity, efficiency, and reliability of pulsed plasma thrusters make them a preferred choice in low-power systems
for microsatellites. In this paper, a coaxial electrothermal pulsed plasma thruster was designed and tested using Teflon as a
solid propellant. The ablated mass was measured for different values of peak discharge current and number of pulses. The
Experimental results of our system were compared with calculated values obtained using a 1-D time-dependent ETFLOW
model for the electrothermal capillary system. The model was used to calculate the values of thrust and impulse for each
case. Experimentally, increasing the number of pulses resulted in an increase in the total ablated mass and the capillary
diameter. Experimentally, increasing the peak discharge current from 1.95 kA to 5.66 kA led to an increase in the ablated
mass per pulse from 128.4 µg to 980.8 µg and the impulse from 340 µN.s to 2156 µN.s. In addition, extending the capillary
length from 3 to 8 cm led to an increase in the ablated mass from 52 µg to 326.2 µg, consistent with the calculated data.
Moreover, the thrust efficiency was investigated as a function of input energy and capillary length. The maximum achieved
thrust efficiency was about 8.9% for an input energy of 6 J and a capillary length of 6 cm. Theoretically, the model predicted
that thrust, impulse, and specific impulse increase with raising the peak discharge current |
