Investigation on the effects of dielectric material on the thrust performance of annular DBD plasma ion thrusters

In this thesis, the effects of dielectric material on the propulsion performance of annular DBD plasma ion thrusters are investigated. Briefly, the history of electric propulsion system, types of electric thrusters and DBD ion thrusters are given. In order to maximize the propulsion performance, geometrical parameters (annular and sinusoidal), electrical parameters and material types were considered and experiments were carried out. In all experiments, voltages of 4 kVpp, 6 kVpp and 8 kVpp were applied respectively. An electronic thrust measurement device was used to measure the thrust generated by the DBD plasma actuator during the experiments. As a result of the experiments, it is stated that the thrust value increases while the voltage is increased. Moreover, it is observed that for sine geometries with the same outer diameter, the thrust efficiency decreases as the diameter increases.