Ion Engine Plume Interaction Calculations for Prototypical Prometheus I

Mandell, M. J.; Kuharski, Robert A.; Gardner, B.; Katz, Ira; Randolph, Thomas; Dougherty, Ryan C.; Ferguson, Dale C.

doi:10.2514/6.2005-4047

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Macroparticles representing the CEX ions are introduced into the simulation domain according to (12). The initial distribution of CEX ions is taken to be Maxwellian.…”

Section: B Simulation Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous electric propulsion plume models have been developed in recent years using particle-simulation methods [5]. For example, PIC-based ion thruster plume models are discussed in [6]- [12] and the references therein. The model presented here adopts the same physics formulation as in [8] but extends the numerical model to a significantly more sophisticated spacecraft configuration with multiple ion thruster plumes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Hybrid Grid Immersed Finite Element Particle-in-Cell Algorithm for Modeling Spacecraft–Plasma Interactions

Kafafy

Wang

2006

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a new algorithm for modeling spacecraft-plasma interactions: the hybrid grid immersed finite element particle-in-cell (HG-IFE-PIC) algorithm. This algorithm is extended from IFE-PIC and is designed to efficiently and accurately simulate the interactions between nonuniform plasmas and complex objects. In HG-IFE-PIC, the meshes used by the IFE field solver and PIC are decoupled, and the IFE solver uses a Cartesian-tetrahedral mesh that is stretched according to local potential gradient and plasma density. It is shown that the application of HG-IFE-PIC with a stretched IFE mesh can achieve approximately the same accuracy as IFE-PIC while significantly reducing the memory requirement and computation time required for large-scale PIC simulations of spacecraft-plasma interactions.Index Terms-Electric propulsion plume, immersed finite element particle-in-cell (IFE-PIC), spacecraft-plasma interaction.

show abstract

“…Macroparticles representing the CEX ions are introduced into the simulation domain according to (12). The initial distribution of CEX ions is taken to be Maxwellian.…”

Section: B Simulation Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hybrid Grid Immersed Finite Element Particle-in-Cell Algorithm for Modeling Spacecraft–Plasma Interactions

Kafafy

Wang

2006

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The simulation presented here typically uses ∼ 12.5 million particles. Simulations are performed using 8,16,32, and 64 processor of the JPL Dell Xeon cluster.…”

Section: High Resolution Simulation Of Multiple Ion Thruster Plume Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To measure the communication overhead, we define the parallel efficiency of particle push and field solve as 8) and the overall parallel efficiency of the code as…”

Section: Performance Benchmarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electric Propulsion Plume Simulations Using Parallel Computer

Wang

Cao

Kafafy

et al. 2007

Scientific Programming

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A parallel, three-dimensional electrostatic PIC code is developed for large-scale electric propulsion simulations using parallel supercomputers. This code uses a newly developed immersed-finite-element particle-in-cell (IFE-PIC) algorithm designed to handle complex boundary conditions accurately while maintaining the computational speed of the standard PIC code. Domain decomposition is used in both field solve and particle push to divide the computation among processors. Two simulations studies are presented to demonstrate the capability of the code. The first is a full particle simulation of near-thruster plume using real ion to electron mass ratio. The second is a high-resolution simulation of multiple ion thruster plume interactions for a realistic spacecraft using a domain enclosing the entire solar array panel. Performance benchmarks show that the IFE-PIC achieves a high parallel efficiency of ≥ 90%

show abstract