We conducted two more MHD generator firing tests. Carbon plate erosion was pretty bad. No enough to cause a problem on this scale but enough that it might be on the quad engine. Doubling the plates was an easy fix but now we needed to get a new baseline in the data. The first test did just that and the data is below. The anode and cathode get ready fouled with the test motors were using. We clean them between firings on the assumption that dirty electrical probes will hurt power production. To test that firing test 45 was done without cleaning. Power dropped off by about 3/4. This won’t be as big of a problem with the quad engine as it should run a lot cleaner.
MHD Test 44
Chart correction. I had the vertical column labeled millivolts. It is millamps. This was the current test.