Modeling Fundamental Plasma Transport and Particle-Induced Emission in a Simplified Test Cell.

Abstract

This work involves the modeling of fundamental plasma physics processes occurring within environments that are similar to that of the discharge and plume regions of electric propulsion devices such as Hall effect thrusters. The research is conducted as a collaborative effort with the Plasma & Space Propulsion Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as part of the University of Michigan/AFRL Center for Excellence in Electric Propulsion (MACEEP).

Transport physics, such as particle-particle collisions and particle-induced electron emission, are simulated within the UCLA experimental facility and its representative electric propulsion environment. Simulation methods employed include the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and particle-in-cell (PIC) techniques for the kinetic simulation of charged, rarefied species on high-performance computing architectures.

Momentum- (MEX) and charge-exchange (CEX) collision cross-section models for Xe and Xe+, both total and differential, are successfully validated at collision energies of 1.5 keV within the novel facility. Heavy-species collisional transport models are validated and the importance of scattering anisotropy in this collision-dominated environment is shown. The theory of particle-induced electron emission (PIE) is then investigated in the context of the relevant energies and environments of the UCLA facility and electric propulsion devices and diagnostics. Reduced, semi-empirical models for total yield and emitted electron energy distribution functions that are easily implemented in a DSMC-PIC code are developed for the simulation of secondary-electron emission due to low-energy ions and high-energy atoms, even in the case of incomplete target-material information.

These models are important for the characterization of electric propulsion devices due to the problematic nature of low-temperature plasma diagnostic techniques in which the emission of electrons is physically indistinguishable from the collection of ions.