Density reduction on plasma sheath using pulsed magnetic field

Abstract

When a space vehicle travels through the atmosphere at a hypersonic speed, it is enveloped by a plasma sheath. The density of plasma sheath is high enough such that communication and telemetry signals are prevented from passing to and from the vehicle, which is called communication blackout. A method to reduce plasma density for communication blackout mitigation by using pulsed magnetic field is proposed in this paper. In order to study the effect of pulsed magnetic field on plasma density, a two-dimensional axisymmetric model was established. The simulation results suggested that the pulsed magnetic field can reduce the plasma sheath density of 5 cm thickness by more than 90%, and was of sufficient size (about 5 cm) and time duration (about 330 μs) to permit transmission of data. On the basis of the simulation results, the interaction mechanism between pulsed magnetic field and plasma is explained by theoretical analysis. Furthermore, experiments of the plasma density reduction by pulsed magnetic field are performed. The experimental results suggested that a 0.55T pulsed magnetic field can reduce the plasma sheath density of 14 cm thickness by 43%–78%, which verifies the effectiveness of the pulsed magnetic field method. A comparison of results from simulation and experiment provided strong evidence for the correctness of the simulation model. The simulation results also show that low pressure and high initial electron density are beneficial to the reduction of plasma density, which also explains the phenomenon in the experiment. In addition, it is found in the experiment that two continuous reverse pulses can play the same role in reducing the plasma density, which provides the possibility for the continuous reduction of plasma density. These investigations could have a significant benefit on the design and optimization of pulsed magnetic field mitigation scheme for the blackout problem.

Topics & Concepts