Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Analysis of applied magnetic field and electrical current in Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accelerator due to electrical efficiency has been numerically investigated. Studies were carried out using air plasma as a working gas in equilibrium condition. Composition of simulated air-plasma consists of two species, N2, and O2, with concentration of 1 mol and 0.284 mol, respectively. The working gas is seeded with potassium and seed fraction is 1% by weight of all gas, which corresponds to 0.949% in mole ratio. In order to solve the set of differential equations with MHD approximations, the MacCormack scheme is employed. The Magnetohydrodynamic Augmented Propulsion Experiment (MAPX) channel designed and developed by NASA MSFC is used to investigate the MHD accelerator performance. Numerical results show the characteristic of MHD accelerator electrical efficiency with variation of different applied magnetic field and electrical input.
(Received July 24 2009)
(Revised August 27 2009)
(Accepted September 3 2009)
(Online publication October 30 2009)