Hybrid Method for Power Control Simulation of a Single Fluid Plasma Thruster

Abstract

Propulsive plasma flow through a cylindrical-conical diverging thruster is simulated by a power controlled hybrid method to obtain the basic flow, thermodynamic and electromagnetic variables. Simulation is based on a single fluid model with electromagnetics being described by the equations of potential Poisson, Maxwell and the Ohm's law while the compressible fluid dynamics by the Navier Stokes in cylindrical form. The proposed method solved the electromagnetics and fluid dynamics separately, both to segregate the two prominent scales for an efficient computation and for the delivery of voltage controlled rated power. The magnetic transport is solved for steady state while fluid dynamics is allowed to evolve in time along with an electromagnetic source using schemes based on generalized finite difference discretization. The multistep methodology with power control is employed for simulating fully ionized propulsive flow of argon plasma through the thruster. Numerical solution shows convergence of every part of the solver including grid stability causing the multistep hybrid method to converge for a rated power delivery. Simulation results are reasonably in agreement with the reported physics of plasma flow in the thruster thus indicating the potential utility of this hybrid computational framework, especially when single fluid approximation of plasma is relevant.