Experimental and numerical simulation study of the effect for the anode positions on the discharge characteristics of 300W class low power Hall thrusters

Low-power Hall thruster(LHT) generally has poor discharge efficiency characteristics due to the large surface-to-volume ratio.Aiming to further refine and improve the performance of 300 W class LHT in terms of thrust and efficiency,and to obtain the most optimal operating point,the experimental study of the discharge characteristics for three different anode positions was conducted under the operation of various discharge voltages(100-400 V) and anode mass flow rates(0.65 mg·s-1and 0.95 mg·s-1).The experimental results indicated that the thruster has the most excellent performance in terms of thrust and efficiency etc at a channel length of 27 mm for identical operating conditions.In addition,particle in cell simulations,employed to reveal the underlying physical mechanisms,show that the ionization and acceleration zone is pushed downwards towards the channel exit as the anode moves towards the exit.At the identical operating point,when the channel length is reduced from 32 to 27 mm,the ionization and acceleration zone moves towards the exit,and the parameters such as thrust and efficiency increase due to the high ionization rate,ion number density,and axial electric field.When the channel length is further moved to 24 mm,the parameters in terms of thrust(F) and efficiency(ηa) are reduced as a result of the decreasing ionization efficiency(ηm) and the larger plume divergence angle(α).In this paper,the results indicated that an optimum anode position(ΔL=27 mm) exists for the optimum performance.

The far-field plasma characteristics of LHT40 low-power Hall thruster for commercial aerospace applications

To achieve a better insight into the far-field plasma spatial distribution and evolution characteristics of the 300 W class low-power Hall thruster(LHT)for commercial aerospace applications,a dedicated and integrated plasma diagnostic system composed of seventeen Faraday cups(FC)and two triple Langmuir probes(TLP)is established to investigate the timeaveraged in situ spatial distribution characteristics of far-field ions and electrons.The ion current density(ICD),plasma potential,plasma density,and electron temperature at 1000 mm downstream of 300 W class LHT for commercial aerospace applications in the azimuthal angle range of-90°to 90°were investigated under the conditions of different anode mass flow rates and discharge voltages.The results demonstrated that ICD,beam divergence angle,and mass utilization efficiency increased with increasing anode mass rate.The double-wings phenomenon was observed in the spatial distribution of ICD at large angles from the thruster axis,which is attributed to charge exchange collisions at increasing vacuum backpressure.The plasma electron temperature,electron density,and plasma potential parameters derived from the TLP decreased rapidly in the angle range from 0°to 30°and did not exhibit significant variations above 30°,which was also in good agreement with the results of the measured divergence angle of the FC.The discrepancy of average ion speed was calculated.The maximum error is better than 31.5%which checks the consistency between the TLP’s results and that of FC to some extent.