M. Maurer et al., CALCULATION OF NONLINEAR DRIFT INSTABILITIES IN MAGNETOPLASMADYNAMIC THRUSTER FLOWS, Journal of physics. D, Applied physics, 28(11), 1995, pp. 2269-2278
This paper presents the latest results from calculations of the nonlin
ear development of instabilities in magneto-plasmadynamic (MPD) thrust
er flows. Linear instability analysis carried out at the Institut fur
Raumfahrtsysteme of the Universitat Stuttgart yielded three basic inst
abilities for stationary MPD thruster flows: a space charge instabilit
y, an acoustic wave instability and an electron drift instability. Non
linear analysis using the quasi-analytical method (QAM) developed by t
he authors not only yields these instabilities in the lower orders of
the QAM hierarchy but also shows their nonlinear evolution in the high
er order development, particularly that of the space charge instabilit
y which is actually shown to lead to current chopping. Calculation res
ults for the normalized current density and electric field strength as
functions of time for various relative gradients are presented.