Speaker
Song Chai
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P2.3018.pdf
Numerical and Feasibility Study of MHD Power Extraction
on Supersonic Vehicle
Song Chai, Gang Meng, Runhui Wu, Jiaqi Liu, Xin Liu and Ruiqi Sun
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Test Physics and Numerical
Mathematics,
China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing 100076, China
The previous studies [1-2] have shown that there is sufficient ionized plasma surrounding
the vehicle with a flight Mach number equal or greater than 10 which could sustain the plasma
power extraction process via current collection electrodes and proper magnetic field methods.
Thus, it is suitable to equip hypersonic vehicles with onboard thermal plasma energy extraction
system, i.e. MHD power supply system.
In this paper, a reduced model containing main features of on-board MHD generators has
been constructed and problems have been solved numerically for the purpose of providing
preliminary guidelines for the design of external MHD generators on board hypersonic vehicles.
As it shows, the power extracted from the plasma flow field was related to profiles of magnetic
field and fluid velocity, fundamental plasma characteristic, geometry parameter of electrodes,
spacing and load voltage between electrodes. Based on the numerical results, an onboard MHD
power extraction scenario was proposed accordingly, and systematic feasibility studies were
performed. The results revealed that the power output of the MHD generator is capable of
providing substantial energy output up to several hundred kilowatts or tens of kilowatts per
square meter from the alkali-seeded/non-seeded boundary layer for typical flight condition,
separately.
[1] Macheret, S. O., et al, AIAA Paper 2004-2560 (2004)
[2] Sheikin, E. G., et al, AIAA Paper 2005-1335 (2005).
