The effect of ion rotational flow on Hall thruster azimuthal instability via two dimensional PIC simulations

Abstract

Previous experimental studies have found that the neutral gas rotational flow in the reverse direction of electron Hall drift can lead to better experimental results comparing to the same direction. In Hall thrusters, the core factor influencing operational states is the electron cross field transport, where the azimuthal instability serves as a key mechanism. The rotational flow of neutral gas may affect instability by altering initial azimuthal velocity of ions, which has not been investigated before. Therefore, to study the effects of ion rotational flow of varying magnitudes and directions on azimuthal instability, simulations are conducted in this work based on two benchmark particle-in-cell (PIC) cases: the azimuthal-axial and the azimuthal-radial. The results indicate that the ion rotational flow velocity can potentially complicate the coupling characteristics of the electron cyclotron drifting instability (ECDI) and the modified two stream instability (MTSI), particularly when a reverse rotational flow velocity is added. In general, both co-directional and reverse ion rotational flow have been observed to inhibit azimuthal instability, which results in a decrease in axial electron mobility. A 1% addition of the ion rotational flow (compared to the electron drift) would result in a 10% change of the electron mobility due to varied azimuthal instability, and the decrease in electron mobility of the reverse ion rotational flow is greater than that of co-directional. In addition, detailed spectral analyses are carried out to study the relation between ECDI, MTSI, and resonant wave-wave interactions.