Iranian Journal of Mechanical Engineering Transactions of the ISME

Iranian Journal of Mechanical Engineering Transactions of the ISME

Designing and Calibrating of a Millinewton Measurement System for Thermal-vacuum Conditions

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Morteza Farhid 1
Moharram Shameli 1
Masoud Dehnad 2
1 Assistant Professor, Space Thrusters Research Institute, Iranian Space Research Center, Tabriz, Iran
2 Ph.D. Researcher, Space Thrusters Research Institute, Iranian Space Research Center, Tabriz, Iran
10.30506/jmee.2024.2016680.1335
Abstract
Pendulum-based configuration thrust measurement systems are employed for measuring thrust force of the electrical thrusters in millinewton and smaller orders by separating thrust and weight forces. This paper comprises designing, modeling, manufacturing, calibrating and verifying of a thrust measurement system with inverted pendulum configuration in a range of 5 to 100 mN with resolution of 0.05 mN. Novelty of this system is associated with capability to operate in vacuum condition of 1e-5 mbar and in temperature range within -40°C to +80°C with the desired accuracy. In designing phase, structure of the system and its dimensions are established considering some predefined requirements and criteria using optimization techniques. After detailing modeling and manufacturing phases, an electromagnetic actuator is designed, manufactured and verified for calibration phase. At the last phase, system is verifying through experimental tests and overall uncertainty is calculating. Results show that uncertainty is less than 10% and 2% for the minimum and maximum of the measurement range.     
Keywords
Measurement system
Designing
Manufacturing
Calibration
Experimental tests

Subjects

[1]        K. D. Diamant, J. E. Pollard, M. W. Crofton, M. J. Patterson, and G. C. Soulas, "Thrust Stand Characterization of the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT)," in 46th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 2010, Nashville, TN, No. AIAA Paper 2010-6701, doi: 10.2514/1.B34095.
 
[2]        D. Packan, J. Bonnet, and S. Rocca, "Thrust Measurements with the ONERA Micronewton Balance," in Proceedings of the 30th International Electric Propulsion Conference, 2007, Florence, Italy, doi: http://electricrocket.org/IEPC/IEPC-2007-118.pdf.
 
[3]        N. Nagao, S. Yokota, K. Komurasaki, and Y. Arakawa, "Development of a Dual Pendulum Thrust Stand for Hall Thrusters," in 43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, 2007, Cincinnati, OH, p. 5298, doi: 10.1063/1.2815336.
 
[4]        A. Grubišić and S. Gabriel, "Development of an Indirect Counterbalanced Pendulum Optical-lever Thrust Balance for Micro-to Millinewton Thrust Measurement," Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 21, No. 10, p. 105101, 2010,  doi: 10.1088/0957-0233/21/10/105101.
 
[5]        A. R. Wong, A. Toftul, K. A. Polzin, and J. B. Pearson, "Non-contact Thrust Stand Calibration Method for Repetitively Pulsed Electric Thrusters," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, No. 2, 2012, doi: 10.1063/1.3680557.
 
[6]        Y. Nakagawa, D. Tomita, H. Koizumi, and K. Komurasaki, "Design and Test of a 100 μN-class Thrust Stand for a Miniature Water Ion Thruster with CubeSat," Transactions of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Aerospace Technology Japan, Vol. 16, No. 7, pp. 673-678, 2018, doi: 10.2322/tastj.16.673.
 
[7]        H. Xu et al., "A Compound Pendulum for Thrust Measurement of Micro-Newton Thruster," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 93, No. 6, 2022, doi: 10.1063/5.0090980.
 
[8]        B. N. Wachs and B. A. Jorns, "Sub-millinewton Thrust Stand and Wireless Power Coupler for Microwave-powered Small Satellite Thrusters," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 93, No. 8, 2022, doi: 10.1063/5.0088831.
 
[9]        L. Cassady, A. Kodys, and E. Choueiri, "A Thrust Stand for High-power Steady-state Plasma Thrusters," in 38th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, 2002, Indianapolis, IN, p. 4118, doi: 10.2514/6.2002-4118.
[10]      A. Kodys, R. Murray, L. Cassady, and E. Choueiri, "An Inverted-pendulum Thrust Stand for High-power Electric Thrusters," in 42nd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, 2006, Sacramento, California, p. 4821, doi: 10.2514/6.2006-4821.
 
[11]      K. G. Xu and M. L. Walker, "High-power, Null-type, Inverted Pendulum Thrust Stand," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 80, No. 5, 2009, doi: 10.1063/1.3125626.
 
[12]      A. Neumann, J. Simon, and J. Schmidt, "Thrust Measurement and Thrust Balance Development at DLR’s Electric Propulsion Test Facility," EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 17, 2021, doi: 10.1140/epjti/s40485-021-00074-7.
 
[13]      U. Kokal and M. Celik, "Development of a Mili-Newton Level Thrust Stand for Thrust Measurements of Electric Propulsion Systems," in 2017 8th International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies (RAST), 2017: IEEE,  Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 31-37, doi: 10.1109/RAST.2017.8002970.
 
[14]      H. Harmann, H. Dartsch, and E. Werner, "Low Drift Thrust Balance with High Resolution," in Joint Conference of 30th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science, 34th International Electric Propulsion Conference and 6th Nano-satellite Symposium, IEPC-2015-257/ISTS-2015-b-257, 2016, Japan, doi: https://www.ast-space.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IEPC-2015-257-Low_Drift_Thrust_Balance_with_High_Resolution.pdf.
 
[15]      U. Kokal, E. Saridede, and M. Celik, "Development and Tests of a Thrust Stand with an In-situ Null Position Adjustment and Calibration Method for Low Power Plasma Thrusters," Results in Engineering, p. 101219, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.rineng.2023.101219.
 
[16]      J. Asakawa, K. Nishii, Y. Nakagawa, H. Koizumi, and K. Komurasaki, "Direct Measurement of 1-mN-class Thrust and 100-s-class Specific Impulse for a CubeSat Propulsion System," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 91, No. 3, 2020, doi: 10.1063/1.5121411.
 
[17]      S. Scharmann, K. Keil, J. Zorn, P. Dietz, B. Nauschütt, K. Holste, K. Hannemann, P. J. Klar, S. Kloss, S. Graubner, A. Neumann, and J. Simon, "Thrust Measurement of an Ion Thruster by a Force Probe Approach and Comparison to a Thrust Balance," AIP Advances, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2022, doi: 10.1063/5.0066401.
 
[18]      Y.-X. Yang, L.-C. Tu, S.-Q. Yang, and J. Luo, "A Torsion Balance for Impulse and Thrust Measurements of Micro-Newton Thrusters," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, No. 1, 2012, doi: 10.1063/1.3675576.
 
[19]      J. Kolbeck, T. E. Porter, and M. Keidar, "High Precision Thrust Balance Development at the George Washington," in Proceedings of the 35th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Georgia, USA, 2017, doi: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320371491_High_Precision_Thrust_Balance_Development_at_the_George_Washington_University.
 
[20]      M. R. Anselmo and R. I. Marques, "Torsional Thrust Balance for Electric Propulsion Application with Electrostatic Calibration Device," Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 30, No. 5, p. 055903, 2019, doi: 10.1088/1361-6501/ab0f0e.
 
[21]      D. L. O. Soares and R. I. Marques, "In Vacuum Dynamic and Static Tests of a Thrust Balance for Electric Propulsion with Hysteresis Analysis and Behaviour Prediction with Transfer Function," Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 32, No. 12, p. 125903, 2021, doi: 10.1088/1361-6501/ac271d.
 
[22]      Y. Zhang, D. Guo, and Y. Yang, "Design and Experimental Validation of a Micro-Newton Torsional Thrust Balance for Ionic Liquid Electrospray Thruster," Aerospace, Vol. 9, No. 10, p. 545, 2022, doi: 10.3390/aerospace9100545.
 
[23]      H. Zhang, B. Duan,, L. Wu, Z. Hua, Z. Bao, N. Guo, Y. Ye, L.T. DeLuca, and R. Shen, "Development of a Steady-state Microthrust Measurement Stand for Microspacecrafts," Measurement, Vol. 178, p. 109357, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.measurement.2021.109357.
 
[24]      J. Soni and S. Roy, "Design and Characterization of a Nano-Newton Resolution Thrust Stand," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 84, No. 9, 2013, doi: 10.1063/1.4819252.
 
[25]      C. Yang, J.-W. He, L. Duan, Q. Kang, and T. S. Collaboration, "A Torsional Thrust Stand for Measuring the Thrust Response Time of Micro-Newton Thrusters," International Journal of Modern Physics A, Vol. 36, No. 11n12, p. 2140015, 2021, doi: 10.1142/S0217751X21400157.
 
[26]      M. R. Gilpin, W. A. McGehee, N. I. Arnold, M. R. Natisin, and Z. A. Holley, "Dual-axis Thrust Stand for the Direct Characterization of Electrospray Performance," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 93, No. 6, 2022, doi: 10.1063/5.0087716.
 
[27]      J. E. Polk, J.E. Polk, A. Pancotti, T. Haag, S. King, M. Walker, J. Blakely, and J. Ziemer "Recommended Practice for Thrust Measurement in Electric Propulsion Testing," Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 539-555, 2017, doi: 10.2514/1.B35564.
 
[28]      J. R. Brauer, Magnetic Actuators and Sensors, John Wiley & Sons, 2006, https://catalogue.library.cern/literature/3etgt-j4h30.
 
[29]      G. Shan, Y. Li, L. Zhang, Z. Wang, Y. Zhang, and J. Qian, "Contributed Review: Application of Voice Coil Motors in High-precision Positioning Stages with Large Travel Ranges," Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 86, No. 10, 2015, doi: 10.1063/1.4932580.
 
[30]      J. Rovers, J. Jansen, and E. A. Lomonova, "Analytical Calculation of the Force between a Rectangular Coil and a Cuboidal Permanent Magnet," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 46, No. 6, pp. 1656-1659, 2010, doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2040589.
 
[31]      E. P. Furlani, Permanent Magnet and Electromechanical Devices: Materials, Analysis, and Applications, Academic Press, 2001, https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/KjJM8i3tIsQC?hl=en&gbpv=1.
 
[32]      G. Akoun and J.-P. Yonnet, "3D Analytical Calculation of the Forces Exerted between Two Cuboidal Magnets," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 1962-1964, 1984, doi: 10.1109/TMAG.1984.1063554.
 
[33]      J. Jansen, C. Van Lierop, E. A. Lomonova, and A. Vandenput, "Modeling of Magnetically Levitated Planar Actuators with Moving Magnets," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 15-25, 2006, doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2006.886051.
 
[34]      J. Compter, E. Lomonova, and J. Makarovic, "Direct 3-D Method for Performance Prediction of a Linear Moving Coil Actuator with Various Topologies," IEEE Proceedings-Science, Measurement and Technology, Vol. 150, No. 4, pp. 183-191, 2003, doi: 10.1049/ip-smt:20030586.
 
[35]      J. Mackey, S. J. Hall, T. Haag, P. Y. Peterson, and H. Kamhawi, "Uncertainty in Inverted Pendulum Thrust Measurements," in 2018 Joint Propulsion Conference, 2018, p. 4516, doi: 10.2514/6.2018-4516.