Effect of Wall Sheaths on Ion Trajectories in a Hall Thruster Numerical Model

Abstract

A 2D framework for solving the sheath equations near a dielectric corner has been developed and applied in a "quasi" 2D fashion to solve for sheath thickness and potential profile. When appropriate, boundary conditions were taken from an HPHall model of an SPT-70 Hall thruster. Ion paths within the sheath were also calculated. Results suggest that the radial acceleration provided by the sheath has the ability to produce significant changes in ion trajectories. However, the changes seen in the model are not large enough to explain high velocity, high angle ion populations seen in experiments.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA506237

Entities

People

  • Ioannis G. Mikellides
  • Joseph E. Shepherd
  • Lee K. Johnson
  • Michelle K. Scarfe
  • Regina M. Sullivan

Organizations

  • California Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Boundaries
  • Electric Fields
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Electron Emission
  • Electrons
  • Emission
  • Equations
  • Fluids
  • Geometry
  • Hall Thrusters
  • High Angles
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Thickness
  • Thrusters
  • Trajectories
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Electrical Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster