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Vacuum chambers
Vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to conduct physical experiments or to test mechanical devices which must operate in outer space (for example) or for processes such as vacuum drying or vacuum coating. Chambers are typically made of metals which may or may not shield applied external magnetic fields depending on wall thickness, frequency, resistivity, and permeability of the material used. Only some materials are suitable for vacuum use.(Wikipedia)
There are many caccum chambers in JLPP.
1. DWB-2500: Vacuum chamber for Hall thruster tests
All the experiments about Hall thruster in JLPP are carried out in the DWB-2500 vacuum chamber as shown in the figure. It is built on a stainless-steel chamber with a diameter of 2.5 m and a length of 5.5 m. The DWB-2500 is equipped with two 57000 l/s general cryo-pumps and two xenon cryo-pumps evacuating xenon 60000 l/s and 30000 l/s, respectively. Cryo-pumps are covered by stainless steel grids to protect these pumps from scouring of the high-energy ions. The DWB-2500 could provide a vacuum environment better than 4×10-5 Pa background pressure.
Gas feeding, thrust stand, discharge parameter monitor, 3D erosion reconstruction, ICCD and spectrum are equipped to this vacuum chamber, which can cover all the testing needs of Hall thrusters.
The DWB-2500 groud test system
The DWB-2500 chamber
2. Thermal vacuum chamber: Vacuum Chamber for micro EP thruster temperature tests
The Pulsed Plasma Thruster and Colloidal Thruster have been successfully fired and tested in this vacuum facility. The high and low temperature vacuum facility includes the vacuum chamber, pumps, heating system, refrigeration system, control system and other assistant systems. The vacuum chamber is 0.8 m in diameter and 1m in length. The base pressure in the vacuum chamber can maintain at 1.3×10-3 Pa during the experiment. At the same time, the space temperature range in the chamber is -196℃ ~ +150℃.
The thermal vaccum chamber
3. Comprehensive vacuum chamber：2.5 m x 5.5m
This chamber is a comprehensive chamber for various thruster. Many kinds of Electric thrusters such as MPD, Arcjet, PPT, Ion Thruster, VASIMR, and Cold Gas Thruster have been tested in this Vacuum test Facility. The vacuum chamber is made of stainless steel with a diameter of 2.5m and a length of 5.5m. The vacuum chamber is fitted with four rotary vane pumps, one roots vacuum pump and two high vacuum oil diffusion pumps. The chamber pumping system is capable of maintaining an ultimate pressure of 10-4Pa.
The Comprehensive vacuum chamber
4. Molecular Pump Vacuum Chamber-1500: Chamber for Helicon and Air-breathing propulsion
MPC-1500 vacuum chamber is 1.5m in diameter and 1.5m in length, equipped with two mechanical pumps and two molecular pumps. It can create an ultimate vacuum pressure of 2×10-4 Pa. This vacuum chamber is mainly used for tests of Helicon thruster and Air-breathing electric propulsion.
The Comprehensive vacuum chamber
Featured articles[1–5]:
[1] Jiang, Yiwei, Haibin Tang, Junxue Ren, Min Li, and Jinbin Cao. “Magnetic mirror effect in a cylindrical Hall thruster.” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 51, no. 3 (2017): 035201.
[2] Zhang, Guangchuan, Junxue Ren, Yiwei Jiang, Chao Lu, Haibin Tang, Kan Xie, Haoxiang Yuan, and Xinyu Yang. “Design and experiments of a 100 watt magnetically shielded Hall thruster.” In 2018 Joint Propulsion Conference, p. 4587. 2018.
[3] Zhang, Guangchuan, Junxue Ren, Haibin Tang, Zhe Zhang, and Jinbin Cao. “Magnetic field deflection in a 100 W Hall thruster with permanent magnets.” Plasma Sources Science and Technology (2022).
[4] Zhang, Guangchuan, Junxue Ren, Haibin Tang, Zhe Zhang, Yifeng Fu, Zhongkai Zhang, and Jinbin Cao. “Plasma diagnosis of an Unclosed E× B Drift Thruster with visible ionization zone.” Plasma Sources Science and Technology (2022).
[5] Zhang, Zhongkai, Zun Zhang, Yimeng Wang, Guangchuan Zhang, Jiayun Qi, Jiubin Liu, Haibin Tang, and Jinbin Cao. “Simultaneous experimental verification of indirect thrust measurement method based on Hall-effect thruster and plasma plume.” Vacuum 204 (2022): 111384.
(Lastly Updated in September, 2022