A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / In this dissertation a recipe has been outlined on how thrust can be calculated
using the conservation of momentum in continuum form. With the aim
of modelling a CORION (corona ionization) like thruster in mind it was then
argued using a much simpler system and stochastic calculus why a statistical
description of the system is necessary. From this the one-particle distribution
emerged as a natural tool for the description of a system su cient for the determination
of the system's thrust.This was followed by a short investigation
into the background of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, both classical and
quantum, necessary to understand how one-particle distributions could be derived
formally and in a physically consistent way. Mass
ow and current-voltage experiments of the CORION like thrust system, necessary for characterization of part of the system, were conducted. This led to a proposal for a modelling strategy, consisting of merging di erent modelling approaches and descriptions
considered throughout the dissertation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/20450 |
| Date | 30 October 2015 |
| Creators | Krommenhoek, Marinus Frans |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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