NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Hybrid-PIC Modeling of a High-Voltage, High-Specific-Impulse Hall ThrusterThe primary life-limiting mechanism of Hall thrusters is the sputter erosion of the discharge channel walls by high-energy propellant ions. Because of the difficulty involved in characterizing this erosion experimentally, many past efforts have focused on numerical modeling to predict erosion rates and thruster lifespan, but those analyses were limited to Hall thrusters operating in the 200-400V discharge voltage range. Thrusters operating at higher discharge voltages (V(sub d) >= 500 V) present an erosion environment that may differ greatly from that of the lower-voltage thrusters modeled in the past. In this work, HPHall, a well-established hybrid-PIC code, is used to simulate NASA's High-Voltage Hall Accelerator (HiVHAc) at discharge voltages of 300, 400, and 500V as a first step towards modeling the discharge channel erosion. It is found that the model accurately predicts the thruster performance at all operating conditions to within 6%. The model predicts a normalized plasma potential profile that is consistent between all three operating points, with the acceleration zone appearing in the same approximate location. The expected trend of increasing electron temperature with increasing discharge voltage is observed. An analysis of the discharge current oscillations shows that the model predicts oscillations that are much greater in amplitude than those measured experimentally at all operating points, suggesting that the differences in oscillation amplitude are not strongly associated with discharge voltage.
Document ID
20140011014
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Smith, Brandon D.
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Boyd, Iain D.
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Kamhawi, Hani
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Huang, Wensheng
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2014
Publication Date
July 14, 2013
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
GRC-E-DAA-TN10205
AIAA Paper 2013-3887
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC)
Location: San Jose CA
Country: United States
Start Date: July 15, 2013
End Date: July 17, 2013
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., American Society for Engineering Education, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 346620.04.08.01.01.01
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX11AM64H
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Hall Thrusters
Plasma Modeling
EP Propulsion
No Preview Available