A Hydrodynamic-Based Erosion Model for Hall Thrusters

Lifetime issues for Hall thrusters are becoming increasingly important as the mission envelopes for such devices continue to expand. A hydrodynamic model of the plasma flow within a Hall thruster acceleration channel is developed to analyze the erosion of the channel walls over time. Comparisons to experimental data are presented. The total erosion rate over the initial 1200 hours is captured fairly well, but results indicate that more erosion mechanisms exist beyond those captured by the model. Changes in the potential drop within the channel and thrust are also observed as the channel widens from erosion