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Article Dans Une Revue Physics of Plasmas Année : 2018

Anomalous electron transport in Hall-effect thrusters: Comparison between quasi-linear kinetic theory and particle-in-cell simulations

Résumé

Kinetic drift instabilities have been implicated as a possible mechanism leading to anomalous electron cross-field transport in E B discharges, such as Hall-effect thrusters. Such instabilities, which are driven by the large disparity in electron and ion drift velocities, present a significant challenge to modelling efforts without resorting to time-consuming particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Here, we test aspects of quasi-linear kinetic theory with 2D PIC simulations with the aim of developing a self-consistent treatment of these instabilities. The specific quantities of interest are the instability growth rate (which determines the spatial and temporal evolution of the instability amplitude), and the instability-enhanced electron-ion friction force (which leads to “anomalous” electron transport). By using the self-consistently obtained electron distribution functions from the PIC simulations (which are in general non-Maxwellian), we find that the predictions of the quasilinear kinetic theory are in good agreement with the simulation results. By contrast, the use of Maxwellian distributions leads to a growth rate and electron-ion friction force that is around 2–4 times higher, and consequently significantly overestimates the electron transport. A possible method for self-consistently modelling the distribution functions without requiring PIC simulations is discussed
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Dates et versions

hal-01895564 , version 1 (15-10-2018)

Identifiants

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Trevor Lafleur, Roberto Martorelli, Pascal Chabert, Anne Bourdon. Anomalous electron transport in Hall-effect thrusters: Comparison between quasi-linear kinetic theory and particle-in-cell simulations. Physics of Plasmas, 2018, 25 (6), pp.061202. ⟨10.1063/1.5017626⟩. ⟨hal-01895564⟩
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