• AF-MPD
• MPD
• Thermal simulation

The aim of the thesis is to develop a thermal model on FEM code (ANSYS Workbench v11) to simulate the evolution of the temperature in the various components of an applied field magnetoplasmadynamic (AF-MPD) thruster, taking into account the thermal load caused by the plasma arc and the thermal structural properties of the device. The thruster analysed is the laboratory model AF-MPD thruster built at the
Institute for Space Systems (Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, IRS) in the University of
Stuttgart (Germany). Such device, called “IRS AF-MPD Thruster ZT1”, operates on the power range 5-20 kW. Based on the results of these simulations and on the analysis of literature data about gas-fed steady state AF-MPD Thrusters, some changes necessary for an upscaling of the design up to 100 kW thruster are proposed and the thermal behaviour of the new design and load conditions is simulated. The simulation and the
study have been performed at IRS under the supervision of Dr.-Ing. Georg Herdrich and
Dipl.-Ing Daniel Haag.