Numerical investigation of plasma characteristics for an ion thruster discharge chamber

Abstract

A 2D fully kinetic particle-in-cell plus Monte Carlo collision model is developed to simulate the plasma characteristics of the ion thruster discharge chamber. The interaction between charged particles and the dynamic electric field, the confinement of the static magnetic field, and the particle collisions are simulated. The self-similar scaling method, the multigrid method, sub-cycle time, and neutral particle pre-distribution techniques work together to perform the full-particle and full-kinetic simulation. The steady-state results such as particle number, current flows, static magnetic field, electric potential, particle density, and energy distributions are obtained and discussed. Moreover, the plasma generation and transport, the dynamic behavior of neutral particles, and the influence of the gas flow rate on the plasma are analyzed. The density distribution of charged particles indicates that the electrons are strongly constrained by the magnetic field, and the magnetization characteristics are distinguished from that of ions. Neutral particles are heavily ionized and are depleted along the central line, which is consistent with the area with a higher ionization rate. At last, it is found that the energy and density of charged particles are sensitive to the change of the gas flow rate.