Study On Hall Thruster Magnetic Configuration And Its Effect On Discharge

Human beings activate in space more and more frequently, high-performance, long-life time electric propulsion technology get more attention. Stationary plasma thruster (SPT), also called Hall thruster, is typical electric propulsion. Hall thruster is the most nature and most widely used electrical propulsion device, and it is mainly used for station keeping and attitude control. In order to improve the performance of hall thruster, requires the intensive study. In this paper, we study the magnetic field of SPT by numerical simulation, and its effect on discharge.Hall thruster is to generate propulsion through the Hall Effect, so the magnetic field is the key point to generate Hall Effect. Magnetic field configuration will affect the discharge, life and efficiency, so the study of magnetic field configuration is meaningful to the mechanism of hall thruster, it also provide a theoretical basis for the design of hall thruster. In the second chapter, we get the ideal magnetic configuration under different coil current through numerical methods. The results indicate that magnetic field increase with the coil current; but the increment only happened near the channel exit. Mirror ratio will not change with the coil current.In the third chapter, we use one-dimensional fluid model to study the discharge characteristics of hall thruster in different magnetic field configuration. The results indicate that, potential reduction mainly happen near the channel exit under different ideal magnetic field. This result is same with current experimental and theoretical research. The electric field and ion speed have a little decrease with increase of magnetic field.