Advanced Magnetized Plasma Modeling Applied to Hall Effect Thrusters

Willca Villafana

Extending the lifetime and capabilities of satellites and spacecraft has significant impact to the society. Reliable and efficient space propulsion systems are therefore the key for the aerospace sector. One possible solution can be provided by the Hall Effect Thruster (HET). A HET is a space propulsion device that relies on electro-magnetic forces to accelerate an ionized gas, a plasma, from an annular cavity into the space vacuum. The generated thrust is low but the thruster efficiency remains high, which is crucial for space applications. In spite of being a technology already used for space missions, predicting the behavior of the HET plasma for a wide range of conditions remains difficult. The physics is very complex and accounting for all physical mechanisms is computationally challenging. Our research project will focus on investigation of the interaction between plasma and channel walls, which plays an important role in the HET performances, using advanced particle simulations. Such high-fidelity simulations can help us understand the complex plasma dynamics and serve as predictive modeling to design new high-power propulsion systems. We will also discuss numerical algorithms to accelerate the computation during the collaboration, which is important for a design tool.


 

Academic Year
2020-2021
Area of Study