Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Longitudinal Oscillations in Hall Thrusters

Abstract

One of the main oscillatory modes found ubiquitously in Hall thrusters is the so-called breathing mode. This is recognized as a relatively low-frequency (10–30 kHz), longitudinal oscillation of the discharge current and plasma parameters. In this paper, we present a synergic experimental and numerical investigation of the breathing mode in a 5 kW-class Hall thruster. To this aim, we propose the use of an informed 1D fully-fluid model to provide augmented data with respect to available experimental measurements. The experimental data consists of two datasets, i.e., the discharge current signal and the local near-plume plasma properties measured at high-frequency with a fast-diving triple Langmuir probe. The model is calibrated on the discharge current signal and its accuracy is assessed by comparing predictions against the available measurements of the near-plume plasma properties. It is shown that the model can be calibrated using the discharge current signal, which is easy to measure, and that, once calibrated, it can predict with reasonable accuracy the spatio-temporal distributions of the plasma properties, which would be difficult to measure or estimate otherwise. Finally, we describe how the augmented data obtained through the combination of experiments and calibrated model can provide insight into the breathing mode oscillations and the evolution of plasma properties.