Effects of viscosity in a partially ionized channel flow with thermionic emission

Abstract

The flow of the partially ionized gas inside thermionic hollow cathodes spans a diverse range of theoretical disciplines in plasma physics and fluid mechanics. Understanding and predicting the evolution of such flows has many practical implications because hollow cathodes are critical components of electric propulsion systems used onboard scientific and commercial spacecraft presently in space or in the mission planning stages. As space missions become more demanding of the propulsion system in terms of throughput, understanding and predicting failure mechanisms of the system becomes imperative. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of the partially ionized gas generated by a thermionic hollow cathode have been performed to quantify the effects of viscosity inside the cylindrical channel of the device. A comparison of the inviscid and fully viscous flow fields shows that viscosity has a significant impact on the atomic species and a lesser effect on the ions. The internal pressure is determined to be more than 40% higher compared to the inviscid solution and the Reynolds number for the flow of atoms is found to be less than 20 inside the channel. Although the Mach number is computed to be <0.1 for approximately 95% of the channel, the solution for the velocity flow field begins to deviate from the Poiseuille (parabolic) solution at about 50% of the channel due mainly to collisional drag with ions.