One dimensional case studies with picfoam solver

Abstract

Since the electrical field can produce a rocket thrust idea was given by pioneers, electrical propulsion became widely used in space missions. As humanity's interest in exploring space increased, the idea of developing efficient and relatively affordable spacecraft contributed to the development of electric propulsion thrusters. Hall thrusters which produce thrust by ionization of the plasma gases with electric field and magnetic field have become one of the interesting and attractive thrusters means of space propulsion; since, they are promising devices that can be used in deep space exploration, space mining satellite systems, etc. On the other hand, to be used efficiently and provide deeper distance in space, it needs to be studied for some problems regarding the event in the discharge chamber. More specifically, E ⃗×B ⃗ drift instability or anomalous electron transport is one of the most important and still needs more clarification and explanations about the physical phenomena inside the Hall thruster. To achieve this, it is needed that new codes or solvers that can model those physical problems more accurately and less costly. Although there are fluid or hybrid approaches that solve the simulation relatively cost-efficiently, to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of those physical problems, fully kinetic codes are needed. Therefore, in this thesis, an attempt was made to implement the new picFoam solver which is developed as a fully kinetic and electrostatic solver based on OpenFoam. Two benchmark cases which are capacitively coupled benchmarks for the low-pressure plasma and the other one is one-dimensional azimuthal particles in cell simulation were chosen. In the first case, some collision models which include elastic scattering, excitation, and ionization were implemented. The results from the first benchmark case show that the picFoam solver can simulate collisions in a plasma environment, emphasizing circuit design parameters for more accurate modeling, and improvement of some collision model applied in the picFoam solver is needed to implement both excitation states at the same time, more study is required to better accomplish. In the second benchmark case, a one-dimensional azimuthal E ⃗×B ⃗ drift case which includes the main problems in the Hall thruster physics, namely the E ⃗×B ⃗ drift instability and anomalous electron transport, was applied. However, instead of going deeper into those physical phenomena, an attempt was made to implement the picfoam solver for the specified benchmark case 2. Following tests, a simulation can produce similar results; however, it does not have same solutions. Therefore, this work will be continued for better outcomes.