Speaker
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD)?
MSc
Apply to be<br> consider for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
yes
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
no
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Dr Phil Ferrer, Philippe.Ferrer@wits.ac.za, University of Witwatersrand
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)
We aim to model the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed thrust of a miniature electric propulsion system to be used in space applications. The thruster operates by ejecting gas through a small orifice at high electrical potential, where corona ionisation is responsible for ionisation of neutrals and subsequent acceleration of the created ions. In this context, we consider the emission of a rarefied gas from a circular orifice into vacuum which may impinge on a flat plate surface parallel to the orifice's plane some distance away from it. Such a model can provide important parameters used for a systematic description of the thrust mechanism, such as a density and temperature profile of the plume, and will facilitate a computational simulation.
