Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters

The accurate simulation of the plasma transport in helicon sources is a key aspect to improve the design of Helicon Plasma Thrusters (HPTs). Specifically, the 3D-VIRTUS code was proven to provide satisfactory estimations of the propulsive performance of realistic HPTs (difference between measures an...

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Autores principales:	N. Souhair, M. Magarotto, F. Ponti, D. Pavarin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	AIP Publishing LLC 2021
Materias:	Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e25854d66da749a8a750f58147ba0789
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e25854d66da749a8a750f58147ba07892021-12-01T18:52:06ZAnalysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters2158-322610.1063/5.0066221https://doaj.org/article/e25854d66da749a8a750f58147ba07892021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0066221https://doaj.org/toc/2158-3226The accurate simulation of the plasma transport in helicon sources is a key aspect to improve the design of Helicon Plasma Thrusters (HPTs). Specifically, the 3D-VIRTUS code was proven to provide satisfactory estimations of the propulsive performance of realistic HPTs (difference between measures and numerical estimations of the thrust <30%). Nonetheless, further investigations are needed to deepen the influence that the plasma chemistry model, the formulation of the energy equation, and the definition of the diffusion coefficients have on the results of the simulation. First, a quantitative analysis has been conducted on a simplified configuration of HPT to study each phenomenon separately. Second, the generalized fluid model has been benchmarked against measures of plasma density performed on a helicon source. The radiative decay reactions affect the estimation of the performance (e.g., thrust) up to 40%. The quasi-isotherm formulation of the energy equation affects results (e.g., electron density) up to 30%. Accounting for anomalous transport or defining diffusion coefficients classically does not have a major effect on the simulation (e.g., thrust varies less than 20%). The generalized formulation of the fluid model provides estimations of the plasma density, which are within the uncertainty band of the measures (i.e., differences <20%).N. SouhairM. MagarottoF. PontiD. PavarinAIP Publishing LLCarticlePhysicsQC1-999ENAIP Advances, Vol 11, Iss 11, Pp 115016-115016-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Physics QC1-999 N. Souhair M. Magarotto F. Ponti D. Pavarin Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
description	The accurate simulation of the plasma transport in helicon sources is a key aspect to improve the design of Helicon Plasma Thrusters (HPTs). Specifically, the 3D-VIRTUS code was proven to provide satisfactory estimations of the propulsive performance of realistic HPTs (difference between measures and numerical estimations of the thrust <30%). Nonetheless, further investigations are needed to deepen the influence that the plasma chemistry model, the formulation of the energy equation, and the definition of the diffusion coefficients have on the results of the simulation. First, a quantitative analysis has been conducted on a simplified configuration of HPT to study each phenomenon separately. Second, the generalized fluid model has been benchmarked against measures of plasma density performed on a helicon source. The radiative decay reactions affect the estimation of the performance (e.g., thrust) up to 40%. The quasi-isotherm formulation of the energy equation affects results (e.g., electron density) up to 30%. Accounting for anomalous transport or defining diffusion coefficients classically does not have a major effect on the simulation (e.g., thrust varies less than 20%). The generalized formulation of the fluid model provides estimations of the plasma density, which are within the uncertainty band of the measures (i.e., differences <20%).
format	article
author	N. Souhair M. Magarotto F. Ponti D. Pavarin
author_facet	N. Souhair M. Magarotto F. Ponti D. Pavarin
author_sort	N. Souhair
title	Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
title_short	Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
title_full	Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
title_fullStr	Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
title_full_unstemmed	Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
title_sort	analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters
publisher	AIP Publishing LLC
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e25854d66da749a8a750f58147ba0789
work_keys_str_mv	AT nsouhair analysisoftheplasmatransportinnumericalsimulationsofheliconplasmathrusters AT mmagarotto analysisoftheplasmatransportinnumericalsimulationsofheliconplasmathrusters AT fponti analysisoftheplasmatransportinnumericalsimulationsofheliconplasmathrusters AT dpavarin analysisoftheplasmatransportinnumericalsimulationsofheliconplasmathrusters
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Analysis of the plasma transport in numerical simulations of helicon plasma thrusters

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