A Traceable Electrostatic Force Method for High Reliability Calibration of Thrust Stand

Thrust stands serve as essential devices for assessing the performance of micro-thrusters, demanding strictly calibration prior to application. However, it is challenging to generate traceable standard force with large range and high accuracy. Therefore, we design an electrostatic cylinder using a cylindrical capacitor array. The accuracy and traceability of the force are ensured by capacitance gradient. In this method, the coefficient measurement and force generation of electrostatic cylinder are both carried out on the thrust stand, thus eliminating the deviation caused by electrode posture changes. The capacitance gradient and electrostatic force are explored under different overlap depths and axial deviations. Validation and application experiments are carried out. Experiments show that electrostatic cylinder can produce a force of 0– $1836.12~\mu $ N. It is reliable and accurate to take capacitance gradient as the coefficient of electrostatic force and voltage. The stiffness of pendulum is calibrated by electrostatic cylinder. The result shows that the stiffness of pendulum is 165.35 N/m, and the relative uncertainty is 1.77%. The electrostatic cylinder is suitable for the calibration of various thrust stand and is of great significance for the development of standard force generation devices.