S. Venkateswaran et Cl. Merkle, NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF BLUFF-BODY STABILIZED MICROWAVE PLASMAS, Journal of propulsion and power, 11(2), 1995, pp. 357-364
Microwave heating of gases for space propulsion applications is addres
sed analytically by means of coupled solutions of the Navier-Stokes an
d Maxwell equations. The model is validated using experimental measure
ments of bluff-body stabilized microwave plasmas sustained in a resona
nt cavity. The size, shape, and location of the plasma are reasonably
Hell-predicted, as are its overall thermal efficiency coupling efficie
ncy, and peak temperature. Parametric trends such as the effect of pow
er and mass flow variations on thruster performance verify that tile m
odel incorporates the dominant physical processes of the plasma-fluid-
dynamic interaction, In addition, the predictions indicate that the si
ze of the plasma strongly influences the plasma temperature and its ab
sorption characteristics. proper design of the flow tube/bluff-body co
nfiguration enables tile control of the plasma size and, hence, the pl
asma characteristics. This enables high-coupling efficiencies to he ob
tained at high po,rer levels and, along with control of the mass flow
to minimize wall heat, high thruster performance may be realized. Prel
iminary efforts to maximize performance resulted in specific impulse p
redictions of 600 s. Additional work is needed to identify methods for
increasing the peak powers and to study size scale-up issues.