Measurement of transient neutral gas puff pressure in the NUDT_IPPTx by a fast ionization gauge

A gas injector was designed for the 400 J/pulse prototype of the planar inductive pulsed plasma thruster (IPPT) developed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT_IPPTx). As the gas puff distribution over the coil surface is critical to the NUDT_IPPTx functioning efficiently, a fast ionization gauge was developed to investigate the neutral gas pressure profiles to seek the critical time when the thruster is ignited. The gauge was calibrated for argon by using a capacitance manometer. Time-resolved pressure profiles have been acquired in the condition of the gas puff mass matching with the discharge energy and the drive coil parameters of the NUDT_IPPTx. It is demonstrated that the gas injector can supply a gas puff with a sufficiently steep (dp/dt approximate to 770 kPa s(-1)) leading and trailing edge, and the gas puff can be compressed against the drive coil as expected. The critical ignition moment is considered to appear at some instant between 525 mu s and 650 mu s after the valve trigger.