Self-consistent, one-dimensional analysis of the Hall effect thruster

Abstract

This work achieves a self-consistent, robust, one-dimensional, macroscopic numerical model of the Hall effect thruster (HET) by dividing the discharge into two domains: (1) a collisionless electron diffusion region and (2) a collisional dominant electron diffusion region. Each region is modeled by governing equations based on the dominant physical characteristics. The solution for the discharge channel is created by matching the regional solutions at a common interface. The point validation for the model shows that the predicted HET performance is within 8% of the measured value. Furthermore, the proposed analysis is quite efficient in terms of a numerical perspective with a conventional PC wall time of 22 s for the nominal operating condition of the SPT-100. In addition, this paper shows that the numerical experiments for anomalous coefficients provide sufficient accuracy for performance metrics, closely matching the experimental data with correct values of the anomalous coefficients over a wide range of anode mass flow rates.