Critical regimes and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities in a magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster

Abstract

An extensive experimental investigation of magnetic and electrostatic fluctuations in a magneto-plasma-dynamic (MPD) thruster, with and without the application of an external magnetic field, has shown that gross magnetohydrodynamic instabilities develop whenever the current rises beyond a threshold value. These instabilities are helical kink modes with azimuthal m and axial n periodicity m/n=1/1 and their occurrence can be described by the Kruskal–Shafranov stability criterion. The presence of these modes is found to be the cause of the loss of efficiency observed in MPD thrusters at high current.