Numerical study of the effect of radial magnetic field on performance of Hall thruster

Abstract

The Hall-effect thruster has wide applications for commercial aerospace because of the high thrust density and simple structure. In order to further improve the performance of low-power Hall thruster and to solve the problem that the performance of low-power Hall thruster for low-orbit satellites is limited by the input power and maximum magnetic field intensity, the influence of radial magnetic field distribution in the discharge channel on the performance of the thruster is studied by numerical simulation and theoretical analysis in this work through changing the radial magnetic gradient on condition that the axial magnetic profile and the magnetic strength remain unchanged. The results show that the potential of the acceleration zone decreases with the increase of radial distance when the discharge parameters, propellant flow rate and axial magnetic field are unchanged. Therefore, the greater the radial magnetic field gradient near the inner wall of the thruster discharge channel, the greater the kinetic energy of the ions drifting along the axial direction to the thruster outlet, , and the greater the thrust of thruster. The research results of this work provide theoretical support for the magnetic field design and performance optimization of hall thrusters.