Development of the MONACO-PIC Code for 12V Chamber Plasma Plume Analysis
Abstract
The first part of this report discusses the progress made in modeling the plume of a high-power Hall thruster tested within the 12V vacuum test facility located at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center (AEDC), Tullahoma, Tennessee. Over the course of the project, significant progress was made in further development of an existing simulation capability called MONACO. MONACO employs a combination of direct simulation Monte Carlo and Particle-In-Cell methods to compute the plasma flow in 12V. New features added to MONACO include: (I) analysis of solid baffles in 12V; (2) ability to compute plasma flow properties measured by a virtual probe; and (3) implementation of a detailed electron fluid model to describe the plasma. The new features were assessed by direct comparison with data measured during a Hall thruster test conducted in 12V, and the results were found to be satisfactory. The enhanced MONACO simulation capability has been transferred to AEDC for their future use. The second part of the report describes progress made in the simulation of a Hall thruster discharge. The need to create an accurate model of the Hall thruster plasma generation was identified as a critical element for achieving accurate plume simulations of the thruster operation in 12V. The plasma discharge model simulates the unsteady behavior of the Hall thruster using a code called HPHALL. While HPHALL has been demonstrated to produce physically accurate results for time-averaged properties such as thruster, there has been little prior work focused on the unsteady results produced by the code. In the work performed in this project, detailed analysis was performed on the unsteady nature of HPHALL results with direct comparisons made with unsteady data measured experimentally.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 23, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1026351
Entities
People
- Iain D. Boyd