Performance Parameter Analysis of a Hall Effect Thruster With Modified Bohm Parameter Model

Abstract

The Hall effect thruster (HET) is an electric propulsion system in which electrons confined in a certain region collide with neutral particles due to the Hall effect. The neutral particles are ionized, and the ions are accelerated by the electric field to produce thrust. Thus, a Hall thruster has a simpler structure than an ion thruster. To improve the accuracy of the HET performance analysis, the energy change of electrons is predicted by considering thermal conduction. The number of ions produced by ionization and the change in electron energy via multivalent ionization are investigated. To minimize the independent variables, the boundary condition is modified after considering the physical correlation of each variable, and a semi-experimental model equation for the Bohm parameter is proposed. The performance results have greater similarity to the experimental results than those of the previous analytical model. Based on this, the performance changes according to the thruster operating conditions are predicted and compared. It is confirmed that the thrust increases by about 10–20% according to the change of propellant mass flow rate due to the increase of ion exit velocity.