COMPUTATION OF THE INTERIOR AND NEAR-FIELD FLOW OF A 2-kW CLASS HALL THRUSTER

A time-accurate 2D axisymmetric Hybrid PIC-MCC model is used to simulate the plasma flow in the acceleration channel and near-field plume of a Hall thruster. The model is applied to the P5 Hall thruster due to known magnetic configuration and the availability of experimental data on the plasma properties in the interior and near-field plume for this thruster. Results for thruster performance and plasma properties are compared with this experimental data. In qualitative agreement with the measured data, the computations show significant ion acceleration in the plume near-field. Quantitative differences between the data sets suggest that fundamental ID assumptions of the computational model regarding the electron energy equation begin to break down as the computational domain extends into the near-field plume.