Hybrid Particle-in-Cell Erosion Modeling of Two Hall Thrusters

Cheng, Shannon Y.; Martı́nez-Sánchez, Manuel

doi:10.2514/1.36179

Cited by 46 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Once the magnetic poles are exposed over time, further degradation or overheating may occur, affecting the nominal magnetic field and thereby the thruster's performance. In order to determine the lifetime of a Hall thruster, apart from the usual long duration qualification tests, shorter duration experiments are also performed so that the erosion behavior can be characterized enabling the extrapolation of the thruster lifetime [85].…”

Section: Design Considerations and Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Cube-Satellite Propulsion Technologies and Trends

2017

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CubeSats provide a cost effective means to perform scientific and technological studies in space. Due to their affordability, CubeSat technologies have been diversely studied and developed by educational institutions, companies and space organizations all over the world. The CubeSat technology that is surveyed in this paper is the propulsion system. A propulsion system is the primary mobility device of a spacecraft and helps with orbit modifications and attitude control. This paper provides an overview of micro-propulsion technologies that have been developed or are currently being developed for CubeSats. Some of the micro-propulsion technologies listed have also flown as secondary propulsion systems on larger spacecraft. Operating principles and key design considerations for each class of propulsion system are outlined. Finally, the performance factors of micro-propulsion systems have been summarized in terms of: first, a comparison of thrust and specific impulse for all propulsion systems; second, a comparison of power and specific impulse, as also thrust-to-power ratio and specific impulse for electric propulsion systems.

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Section: Design Considerations and Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Cube-Satellite Propulsion Technologies and Trends

2017

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“…[8][9][10] These models were also implemented for wall erosion and lifetime simulations. [11][12][13] However, it is necessary for these fluidbased models to use quasi-neutrality and Maxwellian electron energy distribution function (EEDF) assumptions throughout the calculation domain. These assumptions make it impossible to conduct self-consistent dielectric wall sheath modeling, despite of their significant impact on the wall erosion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetic particle simulation of discharge and wall erosion of a Hall thruster

Cho

Komurasaki²,

Arakawa

2013

Physics of Plasmas

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The primary lifetime limiting factor of Hall thrusters is the wall erosion caused by the ion induced sputtering, which is predominated by dielectric wall sheath and pre-sheath. However, so far only fluid or hybrid simulation models were applied to wall erosion and lifetime studies in which this non-quasi-neutral and non-equilibrium area cannot be treated directly. Thus, in this study, a 2D fully kinetic particle-in-cell model was presented for Hall thruster discharge and lifetime simulation. Because the fully kinetic lifetime simulation was yet to be achieved so far due to the high computational cost, the semi-implicit field solver and the technique of mass ratio manipulation was employed to accelerate the computation. However, other artificial manipulations like permittivity or geometry scaling were not used in order to avoid unrecoverable change of physics. Additionally, a new physics recovering model for the mass ratio was presented for better preservation of electron mobility at the weakly magnetically confined plasma region. The validity of the presented model was examined by various parametric studies, and the thrust performance and wall erosion rate of a laboratory model magnetic layer type Hall thruster was modeled for different operation conditions. The simulation results successfully reproduced the measurement results with typically less than 10% discrepancy without tuning any numerical parameters. It is also shown that the computational cost was reduced to the level that the Hall thruster fully kinetic lifetime simulation is feasible. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

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“…There have been a few computational models developed to simulate the erosion of the Hall thruster ceramic walls [2,3,8,9]. Most relevantly, Cheng [2] modeled the erosion of the ceramic nose cone of the BHT-200 Hall thruster using a hybrid particle-in-cell Hall thruster discharge plasma simulation code.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of emission spectroscopy for real-time assessment of relative wall erosion rate of BHT-200 hall thruster for various regimes of operation

Çelik¹,

Batishchev²,

Martı́nez-Sánchez³

2010

Vacuum

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Radiation emission due to Boron atoms sputtered from the Boron-Nitride ceramic walls of a BHT-200 Hall thruster was measured as a diagnostic for real time assessment of thruster wall erosion and to determine the effects of various operation conditions on thruster lifetime. Boron neutral 249.677 and 249.773nm lines were measured using a high resolution spectrometer. Spectral measurement results and the accompanying analysis and discussion are presented in this study. From the spectral measurements it was observed that the Boron emission intensity significantly increases for increased discharge voltage pointing to a large increase in the thruster wall erosion rate. Additionally, the measurements show that for the nominal discharge voltage and the applied magnetic field intensity, there is an optimum propellant flow rate for minimum Boron emission, thus minimum wall erosion rate. The variation in the current to the magnet coils showed that the Boron emission intensity increases for increased magnetic field and the Boron emission intensity shows similar behavior to that of the Xenon single ion emission line intensity at 248.911nm. The findings of the study show that emission spectroscopy can be used in determining the optimum operational parameters for minimum wall erosion for SPT type Hall thrusters.

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Hybrid Particle-in-Cell Erosion Modeling of Two Hall Thrusters

Cited by 46 publications

References 24 publications

An Overview of Cube-Satellite Propulsion Technologies and Trends

An Overview of Cube-Satellite Propulsion Technologies and Trends

Kinetic particle simulation of discharge and wall erosion of a Hall thruster

Use of emission spectroscopy for real-time assessment of relative wall erosion rate of BHT-200 hall thruster for various regimes of operation

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