METHOD TO ACCELERATE WORKING MEDIUM FLOW IN ROCKET ENGINE CHANNEL Russian patent published in 2001 - IPC

FIELD: electric rocket engines. SUBSTANCE: according to proposed method, acceleration is provided owing to action of electrodynamic Lorentz force in nonhomogeneous gas plasma flow. Plasmoids in gas flow are created by T-layer effect formed at artificially provoking overheat instability in channel with magnetic field cross to flow. For this purpose impulsive high current discharge is provided periodically at inlet section of MHD accelerator channel. T-layer at steady state are stable current layers acting onto gas flow at plasma pistons. MHD-process with T-layers preserves stability at high mass density of flow. This methods improves stability of plasma to development of overheat instability at multiple increase in consumption of working medium. EFFECT: increased thrust of electric rocket engine.