円筒胴体型マイクロ波推進機の推力発生モデル

A Thrust generation model of tube body microwave beaming thruster

小田 靖久; 坂本 慶司; 小紫 公也*

Oda, Yasuhisa; Sakamoto, Keishi; Komurasaki, Kimiya*

A thrust generation model of microwave beaming thruster was studied. The model was proposed based on shock wave propagation driven by atmospheric plasma on the analogy of a pulse detonation engine (PDE), because pressure histories measured in the thruster tube were resembling to those in a PDE. Furthermore, both the shock propagation speed and ionization front propagation speed were found to be nearly constant and identical in the tube when they propagated at a supersonic speed with a high microwave power density. Based on the model, thrust impulse was estimated from the pressure history. Estimated thrust showed a good agreement with the result of the flight experiment.