Design of a laboratory Hall thruster with magnetically shielded channel walls, Phase I: numerical simulations

Abstract

In a proof-of-principle effort to demonstrate the feasibility of magnetically shielded (MS) Hall thrusters, an existing laboratory thruster has been modified with the guidance of physics-based numerical simulation. When operated at a discharge power of 6-kW the modified thruster has been designed to reduce the total energy and flux of ions to the channel insulators by >1 and >3 orders of magnitude, respectively. The erosion rates in this MS thruster configuration are predicted to be at least 2-4 orders of magnitude lower than those in the baseline (BL) configuration. At such rates no detectable erosion is expected to occur.