Bulletin of the American Physical Society
75th Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference
Volume 67, Number 9
Monday–Friday, October 3–7, 2022;
Sendai International Center, Sendai, Japan
The session times in this program are intended for Japan Standard Time zone in Tokyo, Japan (GMT+9)
Session FF3: Modeling - Thrusters and Wave-Plasma Interactions
1:30 PM–3:30 PM,
Friday, October 7, 2022
Sendai International Center
Room: Shirakashi 1
Chair: Scott Doyle, University of Michigan
Abstract: FF3.00004 : PIC simulation of plasma sources for the on-ground reproduction of orbital flows*
2:30 PM–2:45 PM
Presenter:
Pietro Parodi
(von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics; KU Leuven)
Authors:
Pietro Parodi
(von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics; KU Leuven)
Thierry Magin
(von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics)
Giovanni Lapenta
(Katholieke Univ Leuven)
Ground testing of satellite aerodynamics in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) requires facilities able to produce a rarefied flow of particles at hypersonic speeds up to 8 km/s. A plasma source can produce the required flow by electrostatic acceleration of ions. Electric thrusters for space propulsion can be repurposed for this application. We use Particle-in-Cell (PIC) to simulate these devices and the plasma plume they produce. Traditional explicit PIC schemes need to resolve the smallest electron length- and time scales, or numerical instabilities will appear. This requirement can make simulation of the device extremely expensive, unless an appropriate scaling can be applied. Recently, a new class of semi-implicit methods have been devised, mostly for applications in astrophysics. These feature exact total energy conservation, and are stable for cell sizes and time steps well in excess of the Debye length and plasma period, allowing the simulation of dense plasma in large domains. We investigate the applicability of such schemes to the simulation of the plasma plume of an Hall effect thruster. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a semi-implicit scheme, and evaluate the accuracy of the results, also by comparing them with quasineutral plasma fluid solutions.
*The research of Pietro Parodi is founded by a Belgian FWO Strategic Basic PhD fellowship (1S24022N)
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2025 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700