DISCHARGE PARAMETERS OF MAGNETOPLASMA COMPRESSOR: EFFECT OF EXTERNAL AXIAL MAGNETIC FIELD

This paper reports the findings of our recent experiments on the evaluation of the external axial magnetic field effect on the discharge parameters of a magnetoplasma compressor (MPC). The discharge-voltage characteristics were obtained for varied magnitudes of an external axial magnetic field produced by a solenoid installed on the accelerating channel. Present experiments were carried out with helium (at the initial pressures of 2 and 10 Torr) and argon (at the initial pressure of 1 Torr) as working gases at different initial voltages. The external magnetic field varied up to 0.4 T. The discharge-voltage characteristics can be altered by the magnitude of the external magnetic field, as well as by the geometrical properties of an accelerating channel.