Ten-page abstract describing recent work of the Michigan/AFRL Center of Excellence in Electric Propulsion (MACEEP)
The Michigan/Air Force Research Laboratory Center of Excellence in Electric Propulsion (MACEEP) brings together researchers from five universities: University of Michigan (lead); Michigan Technological University; Pennsylvania State University; UCLA, and Colorado State University.
MACEEP has four thrust areas:
- High-Power Plasma Propulsion Systems — Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) thrusters and Nested-channel Hall-effect Thrusters (NHTs);
- Plasma/Electrospray Materials Processing — electrosprays and plasma-wall interaction studies;
- Time-Resolved Diagnostics — ultra-fast probe diagnostics, high-speed Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) measurements, and Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS); and
- Modeling and Simulation — plasma and electrospray physics modeling, large-scale computational plasma modeling, and plasma model validation through canonical plasma experiments.
The MACEEP Team:
- Dr. Alec Gallimore (Michigan), Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Aerospace Engineering, and director of the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory: responsible for the day-to-day operation of the MACEEP as the Center’s Principal Investigator.
- Dr. Iain Boyd (Michigan), James E. Knott Professor, Aerospace Engineering, and director of the Nonequilibrium Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory: thruster erosion, plume/contamination, and basic plasma physics models.
- Dr. John Foster (Michigan), Associate Professor, Nuclear Engineering with an adjunct appointment in Applied Physics: role that secondary electrons play in plasma thruster operation.
- Dr. Lyon King (Michigan Tech), Ron and Elaine Starr Professor, Space Systems/Mechanical Engineering: electrospray diagnostics, techniques that have the potential to produce broad-beam electrospray sources.
- Dr. Deborah Levin (Penn State), Professor, Aerospace Engineering: molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of electrospray propulsion systems using the coarse grained EMIM+/BF4- model.
- Dr. Richard Wirz (UCLA), Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering with a joint appointment in the Advanced Propulsion Technologies Group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: detailed measurements from well-characterized, simplified (canonical) experiments that capture heavy species collisions in intermediately-ionized plasma.
- Dr. Azer Yalin (Colorado State), Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering: Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) for erosion measurements, and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) characterization of plasma potential structure in sheaths with secondary electron emission (SEE).