Modeling of the Hall-Effect thruster plume by combined PIC-MCC/DSMC Method

A combined particle method was applied to simulate numerically the ATON Hall-effect thruster plume. This method employs the Particle-in-Cell/Monte Carlo collisions technique for modeling the plume ions and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method for modeling the neutral species. ATON thruster plume expansion into the vacuum chamber was simulated, and a comparison with experimental data was performed. The back-pressure effects of the facility were assessed using two different methods of modeling plume-background interactions. The importance of accurate modeling of this interactions was demonstrated through a comparison with total ion current measurements. ATON thruster plume expansion under space vacuum conditions was also simulated, and the structure of slow ion back flow was studied