The Development of a Flexible, Usable Plasma Interaction Modeling System
Abstract
A 3-D computational plasma interaction modeling system is being developed to predict the interaction of electric propulsion plumes with surfaces. The system, named COLISEUM, is designed to be flexible, usable, and expandable, allowing users to define surfaces with their choice of off-the-shelf 3-D solid modeling packages. These surfaces are then loaded into COLISEUM which performs plasma operations based on user commands. Functional modules are interchangeable, and can range from simple (prescribed plume field) to complex (PIC-DSMC). Surface interaction parameters such as ion flux, ion energy, sputtering, and re-deposition are computed. Development to date has progressed to include the two simplest functional modules: prescribed plume, which imports and superimposes a plume distribution, and ray, which performs ray tracing of flux from point sources. This paper presents a new COLISEUM algorithm for calculating equilibrium resputtering and re-deposition of materials. This algorithm enables calculation of net deposition and sputtering of surfaces inside HET test facilities as well as in the space environment. Two cases are presented - one for a laboratory experiment in which sputtering and redeposition were measured, and another in which sputtering and redeposition on a generalized geosynchronous spacecraft is predicted.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA410797
Entities
People
- D. B. Vangilder
- D. E. Kirtley
- J. M. Fife
- M. R. Gibbons
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory