Development of an Advanced Hall Thruster Plume Model

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Development of an Advanced Hall Thruster Plume
Model

• Mark Santi
• Advisor Dr. Jaime Peraire
• Motivation Hall Thrusters are a valuable
  alternative to chemical thrusters because of
  their significant mass savings and high specific
  impulse, but more information is needed on the
  thrusters interactions with spacecraft surfaces
  (i.e. solar arrays, antenna, etc.)
• Goal To develop a robust hybrid-PIC
  computational model that can handle complex
  geometries and non-quasi-neutral plasmas and
  accurately predict the plumes effect on
  spacecraft surfaces

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Hybrid-PIC Methodology

• A 3-D hybrid Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method models
  ions and neutrals as macroparticles and electrons
  as a fluid
• A 3-D tetrahedral unstructured grid is generated
  based on the spacecraft configuration
• Electric potential and field are calculated using
  a finite element Poisson equation solver based on
  the particle distributions on the grid
• Particle collisions are performed using a Direct
  Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method

Generate Grid
Initialize Particles
Weight Particles to Grid
Calculate Potential
Calculate E-field
Perform Collisions
Move Particles
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Previous Results

• The computational model is still in development,
  so new results have not been obtained yet. The
  figures below and to the right show sample data a
  similar code developed at MIT.

Magnetic Field
Electric Potential
Electron Density