Study on the Thermal Stress and Thermal Deformation of the Grids for an Ion Thruster
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/jatm.v18.1429Keywords:
Ion accelerators, Thermal analysis, Thermal deformation, Thermal stressAbstract
The structural stability of the grids has a significant influence on the work performance of ion thrusters. To obtain the thermal deformation of the grids for a 30 cm diameter ion thruster, the structural properties of the grids are equivalently analyzed by material mechanics, and the equivalent results are verified. The finite element method is used to study the distribution of thermal stress and thermal deformation of the grids, and the simulation results indicate that, after the equivalent treatment of the grids, the equivalent Young’s modulus of the screen grid and the accelerator grid are 20.792 GPa and 89.435 GPa, respectively. When the grids are equivalently treated as a circular plate and the edge is not constrained, the maximum thermal deformation of the grids caused by tensile stress is 0.311 mm, and the maximum thermal stress is about 1.512 × 106 Pa, which occurs in the center of the grids. When the grid is equivalently treated as a circular plate and the edge is constrained, the maximum deflection occurs in the geometric center of the circular plate. Moreover, the maximum deflection of the screen grid is about 1.145 mm, and that of the accelerator grid is about 0.665 mm; the relative distance variation between the screen grid and the accelerator grid is 0.480 mm. The hot gap test is conducted after the thruster has been operated stably for 2 hours without beam extraction. By comparing with the initial gap of the grids, the test results show that the gap variation between the screen grid and the accelerator grid is in the range of 0.502 ~ 0.553 mm. The compare results show that the theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which also proves the accuracy of the equivalent structural properties of the grids.
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