Particle In Cell Method for Fully Kinetic Modelling of Hall Thruster

• Main Author: Fathurrohim, Luqman
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/42617
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

A Hall eect plasma thruster acceleration channel walls was numerically modeled using 2D3V Particle-in-Cell (PIC) and Monte-Carlo Collision (MCC) methodologies. Electron, ion, and neutral dynamics were treated kinetically on the electron time scale to study transport and the electron energy distribution function. Axisymmetric R-Z coordinates were used with a non-orthogonal variable mesh to account for important small-scale plasma structures and a complex physical geometry. The simulation included, via MCC, elastic and inelastic electron-neutral collisions and ion-neutral scattering and charge exchange collisions. The cathode was modeled indirectly by injecting electrons at a rate which conserved the number of electrons through anode. Free space permittivity was increased to allow a coarser grid and longer time-step. A method for changing the ion to electron mass ratio and retrieving physical results was developed and used throughout. Results were compared with analytic and experiments.