Development and Characterization of a Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion Device Using Torsional Magnetic Reconnection

One of the “holy grails” of advanced propulsion engineering is the design of a system with both high specific impulse (ISP) and reasonable thrust levels. Since ISP is a direct function of propellant exit velocity, any high ISP propulsion system must use a physical process that can accelerate propellant particles to very high velocities. Magnetic reconnection (MR) is one such process that occurs throughout our universe in high energy plasmas, yet has not been successfully harnessed for use in a propulsion system. The proposed research will attempt to design and build a propulsion device using torsional magnetic reconnection (TMR) to accelerate plasma propellant. Building on previous research designing a coaxial plasma gun (CPG) and associated pulsed-power architecture, the proposed research will progress in three further primary phases. The first will be to develop a magnetic solenoidal linear null-point architecture to induce TMR in synthesis with the azimuthal field created by the CPG. Secondly, the reconnection/plasma physics of the device will be studied using a variety of plasma/electromagnetic field diagnostics. These will include: high speed visual imagery, high temporal and spatial fidelity B-dot probes to measure electromagnetic fields, triple Langmuir probe measurements, and optical emission spectroscopy using Stark broadening for electron temperature and density, and Mach probes for plasma flow velocity. The final step will be to characterize the device as a propulsion system by calculating operating efficiencies, performing beam diagnostics, and potentially directly measuring thrust. Previous theoretical and numerical studies indicate such a device will be capable of 10,000 – 100,000 s. ISP and ~5 N. thrust with magnetic fields of approximately 0.1-1 T.

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