Numerical simulation of plasma and electromagnetic characteristics for an ion thruster discharge chamber

Abstract

In this paper, a two-dimensional axisymmetric particle-in-cell plus Monte Carlo collision numerical model is developed to simulate the plasma and electromagnetic characteristics inside the discharge chamber of an ion thruster. This model tracks three major particle types: primary electrons, secondary electrons, and xenon ions. The neutral particles are treated as a background gas, and the collision mechanism between electrons and neutral gas is modeled in detail. Besides the external electric field and magnetic field, the time-varying electromagnetic fields caused by the movement of the charged particles are considered. Compared to the electrostatic model, the electromagnetic model can further study the electromagnetic radiation characteristics of the discharge chamber. The numerical results are presented and discussed, including the particle number density distributions, the particle energy distributions, and the time-varying electromagnetic fields. At last, the influence of the electromagnetic effect on ion dynamics is analyzed.

Numerical investigation of plasma behavior in a micro DC ion thruster using the particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision (PIC/MCC) method

“…A great deal of previous research into numerical simulation methods for discharge chamber has been conducted. The numerical simulation for the discharge chamber of ion thruster can be handled using a fluid model [19] based on the continuum assumption or a kinetic approach [20,21] which regards plasma as individual particles. A multicomponent hybrid two-dimensional (2D) computational 'Discharge Model' was developed by Huerta and Wirz [22] to investigate the important discharge process in the discharge chamber by treating the plasma as quasi-neutral fluid while tracking primary electrons which are assumed to be monoenergetic energy with a Boris-type predictor-corrector algorithm.…”

Electron loss mechanisms in a miniature microwave discharge water neutralizer

“…We assumed that neutral particles are spatially and temporally uniform with a Maxwellian velocity distribution at the gas temperature of 300 K, which is the common assumption for low-pressure plasma sources. [23][24][25] For the water neutralizer, H2O + , OH + , H + , H − , O − , OH − , and electrons were taken into account, whereas only Xe + and electrons were considered for the xenon neutralizer. The collision reactions and their cross sections for each neutralizer were the same as those employed in our previous papers (see Ref.…”

Three-dimensional analysis of RF-biased ion optics with misalignments of apertures

“…Examples include the Beihangkongshi-1 satellite with NPT30-I2 that was injected into a circular, Sun-synchronous orbit [1], the European Space Agency's (ESA) BepiColombo mission to Mercury with the T6 Kaufmann-type thruster [2][3][4], the satellite SJ-9 A with the LIPS-200 ion thruster which carried out an ion electric propulsion system flight test plan [5,6], the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) mission using the T5 Kaufmann type thruster for drag compensation [7], the Dawn mission and the Deep Space 1 mission with the NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) ion thruster of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [8][9][10], the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa sample-return missions with the µ10 thruster to the near-Earth asteroids [11], [12]. Meanwhile, the working mechanism of the ion thruster has also been extensively studied, including the discharge chamber [13][14][15][16] that generates plasma and the optic system [17][18][19][20][21][22] that provides thrust.…”