NUMERICAL SUITE FOR MAGNETICALLY ENHANCED PLASMA THRUSTERS

This work focuses on a numerical suite targeted at cathodeless plasma thrusters. A Global Model is used for a preliminarily estimate of the propulsive performance. The code 3D-VIRTUS solves self-consistently the plasma transport with a fluid approach and the electromagnetic wave propagation in the plasma source. Starfish and SPIS are used to handle the magnetic nozzle region via a fully kinetic Particle-in-Cell approach. Starfish solves the plasma dynamics in a 2D axisymmetric domain and has been coupled to 3D-VIRTUS in order to estimate the propulsive performance. SPIS is a 3D PIC code used mainly to study the interactions between the satellite and the plume. Results have been benchmarked against thrust measurements performed on a low power (50 W range) Helicon Plasma Thruster