Abstract: In order to study the effects of emission voltage and flow rate on the performance of ionic liquid electrospray micro-thruster, a type of active supply ionic liquid electrospray micro-thruster was designed. The propellant supply system, vacuum system and time of flight (TOF) test system were established. Firstly, the flow rate of the propellant supply system was calibrated, and then time of flight method was used to test the thruster under various conditions of flow rate and emission voltage. Lastly, the basic performances of the thruster were obtained based on the time of flight curves. Experiments show that the thruster can alternately work in positive and negative modes under vacuum environment. The flow rate range of the propellant supply system and the effects of the emission voltage and flow rate on the performance of the thruster are obtained. The results show that the flow rate range of the propellant supply system is 100nL/s~500nL/s. The emission current increases with the increase of the emission voltage and flow rate, and it is more significantly affected by the emission voltage. The thrust of the thruster is greatly influenced by the emission voltage while and specific impulse is more influenced by the flow rate. Under the experimental conditions, the thrust range of the thruster is 112μN~183μN, the specific impulse range is 250s~315s, and the efficiency is 77%~90%, which indicates that the thruster is in colloid emission mode.

Key words: Ionic liquid;Electrospray micro-thruster;Flow rate;Emission voltage;Specific impulse;Thrust

摘要： 为了研究发射电压和流量对离子液体电喷微推力器性能的影响，设计了一种主动供给型离子液体电喷微推力器，建立了推进剂供给系统、真空系统和飞行时间测试系统，首先对推进剂供给系统进行了流量标定，使用飞行时间法在不同流量和不同发射电压条件下对推力器进行测试，根据飞行时间曲线得出推力器的基本性能。试验证明推力器能够在真空环境中实现正负模式交替发射，得到了推进剂供应系统的流量变化范围和推力器性能随发射电压和流量的变化规律。结果表明该系统推进剂流量供应为100nL/s~500nL/s。发射电流均随发射电压和流量增加而增加，发射电流受发射电压的影响更加显著。推力器推力受发射电压影响较大而比冲受流量影响较大。在实验条件下推力器的推力为112μN~183μN，比冲为250s~315s，效率为77%~90%，表明推力器处于胶体发射模式。

关键词: 离子液体;电喷微推力器;流量;发射电压;比冲;推力