RT Journal Article
T1 Magnetized fluid electron model within a two-dimensional hybrid simulation code for electrodeless plasma thrusters
A1 Zhou, Jiewei
A1 Domínguez Vázquez, Adrián
A1 Fajardo Peña, Pablo
A1 Ahedo Galilea, Eduardo Antonio
AB An axisymmetric fluid model for weakly-collisional, magnetized electrons is introduced and coupledto a particle-in-cell model for heavy species to simulate electrodeless plasma thrusters. The numericaltreatment of the model is based on a semi-implicit time scheme, and specific algorithms for solving ona magnetic field aligned mesh. Simulation results of the plasma transport are obtained for a virtualelectrodeless thruster. The particle and energy fluxes of electrons are discussed. A first phenomenologicalmodel is included for the anomalous cross-field electron transport, and a second one for theanomalous parallel-field electron cooling in the plume. The balances of the plasma properties revealthat wall losses are the crucial reason for the poor thrust efficiency of these thrusters. The magneticthrust inside the source could be negative and largely depending on the location of the magneticthroat, which is found uncoupled from the location of the plasma beam sonic surface. Furthermore, asensitivity analysis of the results against the simulated plume extension shows that finite plumes implyan incomplete electron expansion, which leads to underestimating the performances.
PB IOP Publising
SN 0963-0252
YR 2022
FD 2022-04-28
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/34759
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/34759
LA eng
NO This research received initial funding from Airbus Defense and Space, contract number CW240050, andwas completed thanks to funding from the HIPATIA project of HORIZON 2020 (European Commission),grant number GA870542.
DS e-Archivo
RD 1 sept. 2024