The fully-kinetic investigations on the ion acceleration mechanisms in an electron-driven magnetic nozzle

Chen, Zhiyuan; Wang, Yibai; Ren, Junxue; Tang, Haibin; Wu, Po-Liang; Li, Min

doi:10.1088/1361-6595/ac6a74

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The JLPP2.5 code is a multi-purpose, full particle code for electric propulsion devices, developed by the JLPP, Beihang University. This code has been used in previous studies to simulate cylinder Hall thrusters [14,32], MPDTs [18,19], hollow cathodes [9,20], ITs [11], and MNs [10,33].…”

Section: Summary Of Particle-in-cell/monte Carlo Collision (Pic/mcc) ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical analysis of different neutral algorithms for particle simulation of Hall thruster

Pan

Ren

Mao

et al. 2023

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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The modeling of neutral atoms is important for the full-particle simulations of Hall thrusters. In previous studies, researchers have developed various algorithms to model the neutral kinetics. The choice of those algorithms can influence significantly the computational speed, simulation convergence, and physical results. In this work, we perform a full-particle simulation of a typical 1kW-class SPT-100 Hall thruster using four neutral algorithms, including the fixed-neutral algorithm (FNA), the algorithm of direct simulation of Monte Carlo (DSMC), the collisionless-neutral algorithm (CLNA), and the fluid algorithm (FA), to analyze the effects of different neutral iteration approaches on the simulation results. We found that FNA is sensitive to the initial number density of neutrals, and is difficult to converge properly, while the other algorithms not neglecting the atomic dynamics can get stable results. We count the parameters of the thruster, that is, thrust, specific impulse, and plasma density using different neutral algorithms. The time-averaged results match well with those of the experiment. However, the results differ in the time scale due to the low-frequency oscillations in Hall thrusters. We verify that the oscillations are due to the periodic change of neutrals and establish a zero-dimensional model to analyze the properties of the oscillations in the time scale. It indicates that the ratio of ion migration to neutral migration is the essential factor that significantly affects the calculation results. The model also figures out that the direct neutral iteration methods, like DSMC and CLNA, can better simulate the characteristics of discharge fluctuations in Hall thrusters than the quasi-steady-state method, like FA. Finally, we proposed practical suggestions for the selection of the neutral algorithms for the SPT-100 thruster, which can also be generalized to other low- and medium-power Hall thrusters.

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Section: Summary Of Particle-in-cell/monte Carlo Collision (Pic/mcc) ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical analysis of different neutral algorithms for particle simulation of Hall thruster

Pan

Ren

Mao

et al. 2023

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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“…To investigate the plasma detachment mechanisms in the MN, the fully-kinetic two-dimensional axisymmetric PIC model reported in our previous work [24,25] has been used to simulate it.…”

Section: The Fully-kinetic Pic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To tackle the huge computational load brought by the PIC method, the computational domain is scaled down as in the previous studies [24,25,35,[37][38][39]. To ensure the magnetization degree of the plasma remains unchanged before and after the scaling, the dimensionless number Ωi0 = eB 0 R p0 /m i c s0 is kept constant during the scaling process.…”

Section: The Fully-kinetic Pic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the definition of detachment ratio equation ( 4), it is only necessary to separately calculate the perpendicular and parallel velocities of the electron, both of which can be obtained from the results of the PIC simulation program. However, the parallel velocity of the plasma mainly depends on various acceleration mechanisms that have been sufficiently reported in the literature [18,25,40], thus obtaining its perpendicular velocity is the core of detachment research. Therefore, it is necessary to derive the electron's perpendicular velocity from the electron momentum equation,…”

Section: The Derivation Of Electron Detachment Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A fully kinetic study on the plasma detachment processes in the collisionless propulsive magnetic nozzle

Chen,

Wu,

Wang

et al. 2023

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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A fully kinetic axisymmetric particle-in-cell model is employed to simulate and study the detachment processes of electrons in the propulsive magnetic nozzle. The detachment rate is adopted to evaluate the extent to which the electrons detach from the magnetic field. The theoretical expression for the electron detachment rate is derived and indicates that the electron detachment is driven by two mechanisms: inertia effect and gyro-viscous effect. The simulation results show that the detachment direction of electrons are outward in the upstream and inward in the downstream. In addition, the dominating detachment mechanisms in the upstream is inertia effect, while the gyro-viscous effect is equally, if not more, important as the inertia effect in the downstream, especially around the periphery of the magnetic nozzle under lower magnetic field strength. Moreover, the electron detachment is found to contribute to no more than 20% of the axial flux of plasma in the downstream, while the majority of it is caused by the electrons flowing along the magnetic field.

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Analytical investigation of outflow currents in applied field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters

Wang²,

Li³

et al. 2023

Acta Astronautica

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The fully-kinetic investigations on the ion acceleration mechanisms in an electron-driven magnetic nozzle

Cited by 10 publications

References 37 publications

Practical analysis of different neutral algorithms for particle simulation of Hall thruster

Practical analysis of different neutral algorithms for particle simulation of Hall thruster

A fully kinetic study on the plasma detachment processes in the collisionless propulsive magnetic nozzle

Analytical investigation of outflow currents in applied field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters

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