DocumentCode
3471060
Title
Particle in cell simulation of plasma thrusters
Author
Matyash, K. ; Schneider, R.
Author_Institution
Greifswald Univ., Greifswald, Germany
fYear
2013
fDate
16-21 June 2013
Firstpage
1
Lastpage
6
Abstract
A new 3 dimensional Particle-in-Cell code is applied to simulate the operation of a 100 W CHT thruster. In the simulation a spoke moving with a velocity of about 1 km/s was observed. The initial position of the spoke was found to be strongly correlated with the cathode placement. The simulation has shown that the depletion of neutral gas can lead to azimuthal asymmetry of the discharge and possibly to the spoke phenomenon. The spoke and non-spoke regimes of the CHT operation were achieved in the simulation. The simulations have demonstrated that the presence of the spoke visibly changes the ion flow pattern in the thruster.
Keywords
discharges (electric); plasma accelerators; plasma magnetohydrodynamics; plasma simulation; CHT thruster; cathode placement; discharge azimuthal asymmetry; ion flow pattern; neutral gas; particle-in-cell simulation; plasma thrusters; power 100 W; spoke phenomenon; spoke velocity; Acceleration; Anodes; Cathodes; Computational modeling; Magnetic fields; Mathematical model; Plasmas;
fLanguage
English
Publisher
ieee
Conference_Titel
Pulsed Power Conference (PPC), 2013 19th IEEE
Conference_Location
San Francisco, CA
ISSN
2158-4915
Type
conf
DOI
10.1109/PPC.2013.6627708
Filename
6627708
Link To Document