Quantum mechanics

Magnetic field

Engineering

Philosophy

Aerospace engineering

Statistics

Computational physics

Nuclear physics

Plasma

Kinetic energy

Computer science

Classical mechanics

Statistical physics

Debye length

Physics

Instability

Mathematics

Epistemology

Parametric statistics

Electron

Mechanics

Aeronautics

Intuition

Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics

In the last 30 years, numerical models have revealed different physical mechanisms involved in the Hall thruster functioning leading to a bridge between analytical prediction/empirical intuition and experiments. For this reason, the need for a model to study Hall thruster operation continues to increase. Two basic approaches exist: one based on fluid/hybrid simulation where the velocity distribution of electrons is prescribed and the plasma inside the thruster, considered as quasineutral, is described with macroscopic quantities (density, velocity and energy), with unmagnetized ions being considered as collisionless; the second approach is based on a kinetic description for charged particles where no approximations are made regarding their velocity distributions. Fluid or hybrid approaches offer the advantages of computational efficiency with modest hardware requirements. They are very useful to perform parametric studies but actually the anomalous phenomena believed to be responsible for electron transport across the magnetic field barrier have not been self-consistently modeled using a fluid approach. A kinetic approach is able to better capture phenomena originating on the Debye scale length like the lateral sheaths, E × B electron drift instability, and it is important to explain the anomalous electron transport, but kinetic simulations require very long run times. For the latter, the advances in computer hardware over the past years have allowed researchers to perform simulations under conditions closer and closer to the actual thruster operation. In this review, we will present two approaches, with emphasis on numerical schemes used with assumptions and approximations and the main results obtained. Future directions in the Hall thruster modeling will finally be outlined.

Latest progress in Hall thrusters plasma modelling