Investigating the evolution of ionic liquid Taylor cones in porous electrospray thrusters through direct optical visualisation

Abstract

Electrospray ion thrusters are well suited to small satellites, or for spacecraft with fine pointing requirements, but suffer from limited lifetimes and off-axis emission. Limiting off-axis emission promises to improve performance and lifetimes. This paper utilises direct experimental visualisation of Taylor cones on single porous electrospray emitters to better understand the rich physics of electrospray emission - presenting what is believed to be the first direct experimental measurement of the Taylor cone half-angle on porous emitters, in addition to an examination of the concavity and evolution of the Taylor cone with time and voltage. Broadly, the Taylor cone was found to match trends found in electrospray thruster models for single site emission, with the Taylor cone adopting a flatter structure with increased voltage. This did not, however, hold true in the presence of multiple emission sites. Finally, the Taylor cone behaviour and location appeared to be dominated by the surface topology of the emitter.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Euan Donovan-Hill: orcid.org/0000-0001-5038-0804

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