472

ISSN 0965-5425, Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, 2007, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 472486. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2007.
Original Russian Text A.S. Arkhipov, A.M. Bishaev, 2007, published in Zhurnal Vychislitelnoi Matematiki i Matematicheskoi Fiziki, 2007, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 490
505.

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of the Plasma
Plume from a Stationary Plasma Thruster

A. S. Arkhipov and A. M. Bishaev

Research Institute of Applied Mechanics and Electrodynamics,
Leningradskoe sh. 5, Moscow, 125080 Russia
e-mail: bishaev@bk.ru

Received June 16, 2006

Abstract

A numerical method is proposed for simulating the low-density plasma plume exhausted
from a stationary plasma thruster in a three-dimensional setting. In contrast to the axisymmetric approx-
imation, the problem is formulated so as to determine the effect of the backow on the upstream region
and the thruster walls, which are of nite size. The numerical method is a generalization of rareed gas
numerical methods to the case when the force eld is not specied analytically. The method takes into
account the delta-function character of the boundary ion distribution function and the considerable dif-
ference between the velocity scales of ions and neutral atoms, which transform into each other. Numer-
ical results are presented that demonstrate the effect of some factors on the plasma plume.

DOI:

10.1134/S0965542507030116

Keywords:

numerical simulation of a plasma plume, model kinetic equations, nite-difference numer-
ical method

INTRODUCTION
The problem of the plasma ow exhausted from a stationary plasma thruster (SPT) in an axisymmetric
setting was studied in [1]. In [2], the ow was simulated using a special kinetic model that took into account
resonance recharge, i.e., a special interaction between the ions and neutral atoms with the largest interaction
cross section. With the appearance of Pentium-type computers, the size of the computational domain was
increased and numerical results were compared with ion current density distributions measured in experi-
ments. A technique for correctly comparing experimental measurements with numerical data and a method
for improving parameters in the boundary conditions were proposed in [3]. Simulation results revealed that
there are ion currents in the plume that are directed toward the thruster exit face. To determine the backow
effect on the thruster and enhance the capabilities of a software package so as to compute ows in general
geometry, we considered the plume problem in a three-dimensional setting.
1. STATEMENT OF THE PLUME PROBLEM
The simulation of a plasma plume is based on a system of model kinetic equations for determining the
ion distribution function

f

(

x

,

x

)

and the neutral distribution function

g

(

x

,

w

)

. In dimensionless variables, the
system has the form

(1.1)

This expression for the electric eld is derived if we use the generalization of the thermalized potential
hypothesis [1, 2] as set forward in [4, 5]. In (1.1),



is the characteristic electron temperature (

3 eV),

U

0

is the discharge voltage (300600 V), and

k

is the Boltzmann constant. The right-hand side of (1.1) contains
the ionneutral (

in

), neutralion (

ni

), and neutralneutral (

nn

) interaction frequencies. They are dened in
the same manner as in [2]. The Knudsen numbers involved in the collision frequency expressions are greater
than or on the order of unity; and

f

0

,

g

0

, and

g

M

model the inverse collisions integrals. Specically,

j
f
x
j
------- FE
k
f

k
-------- +
in
f
0
f ( ), w
j
g
x
j
-------
ni
g
0
g ( )
nn
g
M
g ( ), F +
ekT
0
e
2U
0
-----------, E
k

x
k
--------, = = = =
5/2 n
i
( )
2/3
, j k , 1 2 3. , , = =
T
0
e
f
0
n
i
B
2
/ B
1
T
n
( ) ( )
3/2
e
B
2
c

2
/T
n

, c

x u
n
/ B
2
, = =

COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS



Vol. 47



No. 3



2007

THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 473

(1.2)

where

B

1

=

eU

0

/(

k

),

B

2

=

eU

0

/(

k

)

; and



for

l

=

i

,

n are the characteristic temperatures of ions and
neutral atoms, respectively. The macroscopic parameters in Maxwellian functions (1.2) are determined by
the integrals

(1.3)

The factor



in the rst integral in (1.3) is associated with the introduction of two velocity scales for the
ion component:

0

= (2

eU

0

/

m

)

1/2

, which is the velocity scale of directed ion motion, and

c

0

= (2

k

/

m

)

1/2

,
which is the velocity scale of ion thermal motion. The scales are related by

0

>

c

0

.
The geometry of the plume is illustrated in Fig. 1. The box

ABCDA

1

B

1

C

1

D

1

represents the thruster walls.
All the faces are rigid surfaces, except for

CC
1
D
1
D with a circular thruster exit in its center. The dashed line
inside ABCDA
1
B
1
C
1
D
1
shows the accelerating channel RG. The computations were performed in the exte-
rior of this box. The boundary conditions for (1.1) are stated as follows. On CC
1
D
1
D (z = 0, 1 x 1, 1
y 1) for
z
0 and w
z
0, we have
(1.4)
(1.5)
Here, , , , and are given functions of x and y (note that x = x
1
, y = x
2
, and z = x
3
). They are dened
in the same manner as in [3], except for , which can be nonzero in contrast to [3]. R
1
and R
2
are the inner
and outer dimensionless radii of the thruster exit, respectively, and B
w
= /T
w
, where T
w
is the temperature
of the thruster walls. The parameter n
w
in the second formula in (1.5) is determined by the balance between
g
0
n
n
B
1
/ B
2
T
i
( ) ( )
3/2
e
B
1
c
w
2
/ B
2
T
i
( )
, c
w
w B
2
u
i
, = =
g
M
n
n
T
n
( )
3/2
w u ( )
2
/T
n
, exp =
T
0
i
T
0
n
T
0
l
n
nu
n
3
2B
1
---------T u
2
+
,
_
,




_
i
B
1
3/2
1
x
x
2
,


_
f x,
n
nu
n 3T/2 u
2
+ ( )
,


_
n
1
w
w
2
,


_
g w. d

= d

=
B
1
3/2
T
0
i
f
n/
3/2
B
1
x u ( )
2
, R
2
r R
1
, r exp x
2
y
2
+ , =
0, r R
1
< ( ) r R
2
> ( );
,

=
g
n

/
3/2
w u

( )
2
, R
2
r R
1
, exp
n
w
B
w
/ ( )
3/2
B
w
w
2
, exp r R
2
< ( ) r R
1
> ( ).
,

=
n n

u u

u
T
0
n
C
G
R
z
B
A
1
D
A
y
x
L
M
K
1
K
B
1
C
1
D
1
N
1
N
M
1
L
1
Fig. 1.
474
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
the incident and reected uxes of neutral atoms and ions (see [13]) and is given by the formula
The boundary conditions on the remaining faces of ABCDA
1
B
1
C
1
D
1
are set by the second formulas in (1.4)
and (1.5) for
n
= (xn) 0 and w
n
= (wn) 0, where n is the outward normal to the corresponding face.
In addition to the boundary conditions on the rigid surfaces, we need boundary conditions at innity.
They are given by
(1.6)
where
2
= n

/ and B

= /T

. In the computations, conditions (1.6) were transferred to the boundary

of the computational domain. The computational domain is shown in Fig. 1 by dashed lines. Specically,
this is the box KLMNK
1
L
1
M
1
N
1
. An important point in this setting is that the computations are performed
upstream and downstream of the plume. As a result, the effect of the backow on the thruster can be taken
into account. In fact, we consider the problem of the ow over a thruster produced by the thruster itself. It
was assumed in [13] that the thruster exit face is extended to innity. Therefore, the boundary Maxwellian
function of neutral atoms had a zero velocity and the temperature T
w
. In the present setting, this boundary
function can take arbitrary values u

and T

. As a result, there appear additional dimensionless parameters

determining the plasma ow. Due to these parameters, we can simulate the pumping-out of a vacuum cham-
ber in which an SPT is usually placed in experimental studies.
2. GENERAL ISSUES CONCERNING THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE NUMERICAL SCHEME
The mathematical problem presented in Section 1 can be stated as follows: Solve Eqs. (1.1)(1.3) for the
functions f and g satisfying boundary conditions (1.4) and (1.5) and the conditions at innity (1.6). This
problem was solved numerically by using a method that generalizes numerical techniques designed for sta-
tionary kinetic equations in rareed gas dynamics (see [6, 7]). Specically, the method is based on the iter-
ation procedure
(2.1)
Here, k is the iteration index. All the values in (2.1) indexed by k 1 are known, since they are expressed in
terms of the ion and neutral macroscopic parameters found at the (k 1)th iteration step.
The basic method applied to rareed gas dynamics is the method of characteristics. In most rareed gas
problems, there is no force eld (an exception is [8]). Therefore, the characteristics of the equations' differ-
ential parts are straight lines. In the case under study, the equations of characteristics (ion trajectories) at a
phase point (x, x) are
(2.2)
Given () and (), the solution to the rst equation in (2.1) can be represented as
(2.3)
Here, t
b
is the value of when the characteristic intersects the computational domain. This can be the face
ABCDA
1
B
1
C
1
D
1
or KLMNK
1
L
1
M
1
N
1
. The parameter f
b
in (2.3) is the ion distribution function given on the
corresponding boundary.
A key difference of this problem from rareed gas dynamics is the presence of an electric eld, which is
known only at nodes or cells in physical space. Determined numerically in the course of problem solving,
n
w
2 B
w
w
z
g x y 0 w , , , ( ) w
r
w

d d

( )dw
z

0

B
1
3/2

1
B
2
B
1
-----
z
f x y 0 x , , , ( )
r

d d

( )

0

d
z
+
,

_
. =
f x x , ( ) 0, g x w , ( )
2
B

/ ( )
3/2
B

w u

( )
2
x
2
y
2
z
2
+ + , exp = =
n
0
n
T
0
n

j
f
k
x
j
-------- FE
j
k 1 f
k

j
-------- + F
+

1
f
k
,
1

in
k 1
, F
+

1
f
0
k 1
, w
j
g
k
x
j
-------- G
+
1
G
+
2

2
g
k
, + = = = =

ni
k 1

nn
k 1
, G
+
1
+
ni
k 1
g
0
k 1
, G
+
2

nn
k 1
g
M
k 1
. = = =
dx

d
------ x,
dx

d
------ E, x

0 ( ) x, x

0 ( ) x, E FE
k 1
x

( ) ( ). = = = = =
x

f
k
x x , ( ) f
b
x

t
b
( ) x

t
b
( ) , ( )
1
x

s ( ) ( ) s d
0
t
b

,

_
exp F
+
x

( ) x

( ) , ( )
1
x

s ( ) ( ) s d
0

,

_
exp . d
0
t
b

+ =
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 475
the electric eld may be such that the ion trajectory never reaches the boundary of the computational
domain. This situation is fundamentally different from that in [8], where the characteristics were extracted
analytically.
Formula (2.3) (the solution to the second equation in (2.1) is written likewise, see [7]) can be used to
analyze the features of the solution to Eqs. (2.1). It can be seen that f
k
and g
k
are discontinuous in the velocity
space. Moreover, since B
1
in (1.3) is considerably larger than unity (B
1
= 20), the function on the circular
thruster exit is similar to a delta function. Since the area of the thruster exit is much smaller than that of
CC
1
D
1
D, if no care is taken, then few of the characteristics leaving the thruster exit will arrive at the point
x and most of the information about the plume will be lost. Since the value of B
1
is large, the ion distribution
function has several peaks in the velocity space. Due to the recharge processes, analogous peaks appear in
the neutral distribution function. In the case of a rareed gas, the distribution function is characterized by
several peaks in hypersonic ows. The difculty in the computation of macroscopic parameters in this case
is associated with the fact that, due to the hot particles, the distribution function has a slowly decaying
tail. As a result, the innite limits in integrals (1.3) are modeled by large numbers, while the step size in the
velocity space is chosen according to the narrow delta-function-like peak of the distribution function caused
by cold particles. This leads to an unacceptably large CPU time required for solving the problem with so
many velocity nodes.
The following procedure is proposed for overcoming this difculty. Since Eqs. (2.1) are linear, their solu-
tion at the kth iteration can be represented as f
k
= f
1
+ f
2
and g
k
= g
1
+ g
2
+ g
3
, where the functions satisfy
the equations
(2.4)
Here, f
1
and g
1
obey boundary conditions (1.3) and (1.4), while f
2
, g
2
, and g
3
vanish on the boundary of the
computational domain. It is assumed that each of these functions is responsible for its own peak in the dis-
tribution function. Moreover, these functions, except for f
1
, are continuous in the velocity space. Therefore,
at each point of physical space, we can introduce a special grid in the velocity space and effectively calculate
the corresponding contributions to the macroscopic parameters at a small number of velocity nodes.
3. NUMERICAL SCHEME FOR DETERMINING f
1
Equation (2.4) for f
1
is solved together with boundary condition (1.3). The function f
1
vanishes at innity
and on all the boundaries, except for the thruster exit. Therefore, it is the ions exhausted through the thruster
exit that form the ion plume. The inuence of these particles is propagated along characteristics (2.2) leav-
ing the thruster exit and arriving at the point x in physical space. Since B
1
> 1, the inuence of the thruster
exit is transferred by characteristics along which the ion velocity differs little from u = { (r), (r), (r)}.
The value of (r) is taken from experiments (see [3]). Specically, it is on the order of unity over the entire
thruster exit. The electric eld component E
z
is of order F. Since F in the plume is small (0.01), the electric
eld has a small effect on the ion trajectories determining the support of the distribution function. Therefore,
the thruster exit affects the downstream region, which corresponds to z 0 in Fig. 1.
The characteristics arriving at the point x can be represented as
(3.1)
For characteristics (3.1) leaving the thruster exit, the velocity x is such that D = { (t
b
) 0, R
2
r R
1
, r =
}, where t
b
is determined by the relation (t
b
) = 0. The representation of f
k
implies that =

i
f
1
x
i
-------- E
i
f
1

i
-------- +
1
f
1
,
i
f
2
x
i
-------- E
i
f
2

i
-------- +
1
F
+

1
f
2
, = =
w
i
g
1
x
i
--------
2
g
1
, w
i
g
s
x
i
--------
s
G
s 1
+

2
g
s
, s 2 3, i , 1 2 3. , , = = = =
u
r
u
z
u

u
z
x s ( ) x E x

( ) ( ) , x

s ( ) d
0
s

x xs E x

( ) ( ) d
0

,

_
. d
0
s

+ = =

z
x

2
t
b
( ) y

2
t
b
( ) + z

n
i
k
476
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
n
1
+ n
2
. Using the notation introduced above, we have
(3.2)
Dene
Then, t
b
= z*/
z
and D = {
z
A
z
0, R
2
R
2
}. In integral (3.2), we switch to
the new integration variables
(3.3)
Under transformation (3.3), the domain D becomes = {A
z
p , R
2
r R
1
, 0 2}. The Jacobian
of (3.3) can be written as J =
2
r , where
After switching to new variables, integral (2.2) is evaluated over the thruster exit area with respect to a single
velocity variable. This makes it possible to develop a numerical integration scheme taking into account that
the distribution function is of the delta-function type.
The integration intervals in r and are divided into m
0
and n
0
subintervals, respectively; i.e.,
Here, r
m
= + (m 1)r for m = 1, 2, , m
0
and
n
= (n 1) for n = 1, 2, , n
0
, where r = (R
1
R
2
)/m
0
and = 2/n
0
. In each double integral over the domain [r
m 1
, r
m
] [
n 1
,
n
], the values of x, A, (r),
(r), and are assumed to be constant and are calculated at the points = (r
m 1
+ r
m
)/2 and = (
n 1
+

n
)/2. Switching from p to p = A
z
+ + c , we obtain
(3.4)
n
1
B
1
/ ( )
3/2
n r ( )
3/2
B
1
x t
b
( ) u r ( ) ( )
2
x

s ( ) ( ) s d
0
t
b

, ,

exp x. d
D

=
x

t
b
( ) x* xt
b
, x* x E x

( ) ( ) d
0

,

_
, x* d
0
t
b

+ x* y* z* , , , = = =
x

t
b
( ) x A, A E x

s ( ) ( ) s, A d
0
t
b

A
x
A
y
A
z
, , . = = =
x*
x
t
b
( )
2
y*
y
( )
2
+

x
x* r cos ( ),
y
y* r sin ( ),
z
p, p/z*. = = = =
D
J
J 1 r
1
sin
x*

---------
y*

--------- cos
,
_

x*
r
--------- cos
y*
r
--------- sin r
1 x* y* , ( )
r , ( )
----------------------- + + =
+
y* r sin
z*r
-------------------------
z*

-------- cos r
z*
r
-------- sin
x* z* , ( )
r , ( )
----------------------- +
,
_
x* r cos
z*r
-------------------------- r
z*
r
-------- cos
z*

-------- sin
y* z* , ( )
r , ( )
---------------------- +
,
_
, +
Q G , ( )
r , ( )
-------------------
Q
r
-------
G

-------
Q

-------
G
r
-------. =
( ) r d d
0
2

R
1
1

( ) r. d d

n 1

r
m 1
r
m

n 1 =
n
0

m 1 =
m
0

=
R
1
n
u J r
m

n
u
z
B
1
1/2
n
1
i
D
mn
, D
mn
n 1 =
n
0

m 1 =
m
0

n
2
r J B
1
e
p
2

1
A
z
p
--------
,
_

3/2
,
_
1
G, d
u
z
B
1

m 1

r
m 1
r
m

=
dG e

2
B
1
g
2

dcddr, g
2
r

( ) cos qu
r
r ( ) + [ ]
2

( ) sin u

+ [ ]
2
, + x s ( ) ( ) s, d
0
t
b

= = =
x* qA
x
( )
2
y* qA
y
( )
2
+ ,

y* qA
y
( )/ x* qA
x
( ), q arctan
1
. = = =
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 477
Here, the integral with respect to c is evaluated using Gaussian quadrature formulas of the form
where C
k
and c
k
are the weights and nodes of the corresponding quadrature formula. When 3, the
integral is evaluated by the Gaussian quadrature formula for integrals of the form (c) dc. When
< 3, the integral is divided into two, namely,
The rst integral is evaluated using the Gaussian quadratures for integrals of the form (u)du (the inte-
gration limits can be made symmetric by applying a linear change of variables). The second integral, in
which the substitution c
2
= t is made beforehand, is evaluated by the Gaussian quadrature formulas for inte-
grals (t)e
t
dt. Introducing the new variables t = r
k
cos( ) + q
k
and = sin( ) + q
k
/
k
in
(3.4) and evaluating the double integrals, we obtain
The difculty in using the scheme described above is that there are no analytical expressions for x*, A
z
,
J, A
z
/p, and the derivatives in J; therefore, they have to be determined numerically. For this purpose, we
need to nd characteristics (2.2) that, when leaving the thruster exit with velocities belonging to the support
of the given boundary distribution function, arrive at a given point x in physical space. On such character-
istics, we have
Since 0 on these trajectories, they can be found by solving the problem
(3.5)
This problem was solved by the relaxation method according to the scheme q/t = Lq, q(0) = q
0
, q(z) = q
1
.
The system of equations was solved numerically using the three-point difference scheme
where all the nonlinear terms were taken from the previous time step. The difference problem was solved
by usual three-diagonal Gaussian elimination (see [9]). In the case under study, the well-posedness and sta-
Q h c ( )e
c
2

c d
u
z
B
1

C
k
h c
k
( ),
k 1 =
k
0

=
u
z
B
1
h

e
c
2

u
z
B
1
Q h c ( )e
c
2

c d
u
z
B
1

2t
1/2
( )
1
e
t
h t ( ) t. d
0

+ =
h
a
a

h
0

u
r

n
1
C
k
S
k
/4 q
k

n
/
k
Q
m
R
m
u
r
( )
n
R
m
+ ( ), where S
k
n 1 =
n
0

k 1 =
k
0

m 1 =
m
0

J
k
/ 1
A
z
p
--------
,
_
k
e

1/2
, = =

n
( )Erf
k

n
( ) sgn
n 1
( )Erf
k

n 1
( ) sgn [ ],
n

n
/,

k ( ), cos = = =
Q
m
B
1
( )
1/2

k
2
u
m 1
2
( ) exp
k
2
u
m
2
( ) exp [ ], =
R
m
u
m
( )Erf
k
u
m
( ) sgn u
m 1
( )Erf
k
u
m 1
( ) sgn [ ], =
u
l
r
l

k ( ) cos u
r
q
k
, l + m 1 , m
l
,
k
B
1
. = = =
x

0 ( ) x, z

t
b
( ) 0, x

t
b
( ) r
m

n
, y

t
b
( ) cos r
m

n
, x

z x ( ) sin p
k
c
k
B
1
1/2
u
z
r
m
( ) A
z
. + + = = = = = =

z
Lq
d
2
q
dz

2
--------
1

z
2
-----
dq
dz

------ E
q

,
_
+ 0, q x

( ) y

( ) , , E
q
E
x
E
y
, , 0 z

z, = = = =

z
2
p
k
2
2 E
z
q s ( ) s , ( ) ( ) s, q 0 ( ) d
z
z

r
m

n
cos r
m

n
sin , q
0
, q z ( ) x y , q
1
. = = = = =
q
i
l 1 +
q
i
l

t
---------------------
q
i 1 +
l 1 +
2q
i
l 1 +
q
i 1
l 1 +
+
z
2
----------------------------------------------- C
i
q
i 1 +
l 1 +
q
i 1
l 1 +

2z
--------------------------- F
i
, C
i
+
E
z

z
2
-----
,
_
i
l
, F
i
E
q

z
2
------
,
_
i
l
, = = =
478
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
bility condition given in [9] implies that the time step t can be arbitrary if e
i
= zC
i
/2 < 1 and is related to
z by 2t z
2
/(e
i
1) otherwise. It was assumed that a steady-state regime had been achieved if
< 0.5p, where p is the minimum cell size in physical space. When the
right-hand side of the expression for became negative, the corresponding coefcient C
k
was set equal to
zero.
The schemes described above were used in all the computations of the plume problem. Note that most
of the CPU time per iteration was spent on these computations, but they were necessary, since correct allow-
ance for the thruster exit made it possible to determine the entire structure of the plume in the downstream
region.
Figures 2 and 3 show the lines of equal ion density [1] as produced by different computational methods.
Specically, the results in Fig. 2 were obtained when the distribution function was not partitioned and the
characteristic from the point x reached the boundary. For Fig. 3, the same computations were performed
with a partitioned distribution function using the above-described procedure for determining the contribu-
tion of f
1
. The resulting density distribution patterns differ signicantly. It can be seen that Fig. 2 lacks a
crossover (i.e., a region of higher ion densities on the axis of symmetry [13]). Thus, although the procedure
requires considerable CPU time, it correctly reproduces the plasma plume pattern.
As z 0, the integrand for r and in (3.4) becomes similar to a delta function even when B
1
1. The
exact contribution of f
1
is n
1
= /{2[1 + Erf( )]}. For z 0, the formula derived above for the
numerical computation of n
1
yields
Therefore, the above formulas are at least rst-order accurate with respect to r when z 0. The evalua-
tion of the integral with respect to is as accurate as the Gaussian quadrature formula. In nondegenerate
cases, the formulas constructed are second-order accurate in r and . This can easily be seen by expand-
ing all the exponentials and Erf functions in Taylor series.
When
k
0, the values of the density and other macroscopic parameters can increase strongly. This
effect is especially pronounced in the axisymmetric case, when the ion density on the axis of symmetry
becomes on the order of . It is easy to see that the numerical scheme then produces results that are sec-
ond-order accurate in and r.
Thus, the computational scheme is uniformly applicable; i.e., it correctly produces the leading asymp-
totic term without a specially chosen integration step. Some general ideas behind the construction of such
schemes can be found in [10].
x

l 1 +
x

l
( )
2
y

l 1 +
y

l
( )
2
+
,
_
0 z z
max

z
2
n u
z
B
1
n
1
i
n r
m
( ) C
k
h p
k
( ).
k 1 =
k
0

B
1
0 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0
z
1.2
1.8
2.4
3.0
0.01
0.1
0.2
0.5
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.01
0 1.5 4.5 3.0 6.0
z
1.2
1.8
2.4
3.0
0.01
0.02
0.05
0.1
0.2
0.4
0.6 1.0
1.5
2.0
0.2
0
.
4
0.6
Fig. 2. Fig. 3.
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 479
The function g
1
(see above), the integrals of which determine the contributions of the boundaries to the
neutral macroscopic parameters, can be represented in the kth approximation as
(3.6)
where
The rst term in (3.6) describes the effect of the thruster exit. This part of g
1
is determined using the proce-
dure constructed for ions. In this case, x* = x, A
z
= 0, and = 1, and the computation time is reduced con-
siderably. In contrast to the ion component, the contribution of this term to the macroscopic parameters of
the neutral atoms is rather small. This is explained by the fact that the distribution function of neutral atoms
exhausted from the thruster exit is not of the delta-function type and the thruster exit is small in area as com-
pared with the thruster exit face.
The second term in (3.6) determines the contributions of the rigid surfaces to the neutral distribution
function. In the three-dimensional statement of the plume problem, these surfaces are the six faces of the
plasma thruster.
A numerical scheme for determining the contribution from any term in (3.6) to the macroscopic param-
eters is constructed as above; i.e., we switch to new integration variables; as a result, the integration is per-
formed over the area of the corresponding face with respect to a single velocity variable. The relevant for-
mulas are rather simple and are easy to derive by following the method described.
4. NUMERICAL SCHEME FOR DETERMINING f
2
The function f
2
in the above representation of f
k
obeys the second equation in (2.4). Its solution under
zero boundary conditions is written as
(4.1)
where f denotes f
2
. The computation of f according to (4.1) is based on the following procedure:
(4.2)
Here, F
+
() and
1
(s) are F
+
( (), ()) and
1
( (s)), respectively, and x
k
= {x
k
, y
l
, z
m
} and x
i
= {
xi
,
yj
,

zn
} are phase-space nodes, which must be prescribed. When = t

, the characteristic enters the cell shown

in Fig. 4 (t

is known). When = t
+ 1
, the characteristic leaves this cell ( is to be found). The electric eld
is assumed constant inside the cell and is determined at its center. Specically, the electric eld potential
calculated at nodes of physical space is numerically differentiated and is then averaged. Due to this assump-
tion, the expressions for () and () inside the cell can be written as
(4.3)
where x
1
= (t

), x
1
= (t

), and is the electric eld strength inside the cell. Denote by x

b
= {x
b
, y
b
, z}
the cell faces that could be reached by the characteristic if the motion were at the constant velocity x
1
. Set-
ting () = x
b
in (4.3), we nd the value t

= t

( = 1, 2, 3) for which an ion moving in the constant

electric eld E would reach the corresponding face ( = x
b
, = y
b
, = z
b
):
(4.4)
g
1
x w , ( )
3/2
e
w u x
w
0
( ) [ ]
2

n
w
l
x
w
l
( ) B
w
/ ( )
3/2
e
B
w
w
2

,
l 1 =
6

+ =
x
w
x wt
b
l
,

l

2
k 1
x ws ( ) s, l d
0
t
b
l

0 6. , , = = =
J
f x x , ( ) F
+
x

( ) x ( ) , ( )
1
x

s ( ) ( ) s d
0

,

_
exp , d
0
t
b

=
f x
k
x
i
, ( ) D

, D

1 =

1
s ( ) s d
0
t

,

_
F
+
( )
1
s ( ) s d
t

,

_
exp . d
t t

t
1 +

exp = =
x

( ) x
1
x
1
t

( ) E t

( )
2
/2, x

( ) + x
1
E t

( ), = =
x

E
x

x
b

x
1
b
x
2
b
x
3
b
t

2 x
b

x
1

( )/
1

( ) D sgn + ( ), D
1

( )
2
2 x
b

x
1

( ). = =
480
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
A positive value of D in (4.4) is a criterion for the curve AB to reach . If D < 0, then there is a point inside
the cell at which the corresponding component of changes its sign. The characteristic no longer reaches
but turns toward = + x

(x

is the mesh size in the corresponding physical-space coor-

dinate). In this case, t

is determined by the condition that, after turning, an ion reaches the face . Spe-
cically,
The value t
+ 1
is given by the formula t
+ 1
= t + t

, where t = min{t
1
, t
2
, t
3
}.
After t
+ 1
has been found, we can calculate D

. This is done using a modication of the scheme with

exponentials. In our case, we have
(4.5)
where
Recall that this scheme is second-order accurate in s. When s 1, (4.5) becomes the usual trapezoidal
rule. For s > 1, scheme (4.5) gives correct asymptotics up to (s)
2
. In contrast to [6], varies along the
characteristic. If the electric eld is potential, then varies over a cell in the same manner as the macro-
scopic parameters. Therefore, the use of scheme (4.5) is natural.
In contrast to rareed gas dynamics, the particle trajectory in problems with a force eld may never reach
the boundary of the computational domain. In this case, we set t
b
= , but the integrals in (4.1) converge,
which was used in the computations.
In this study, as in [6, 7], the distribution function was not stored (only recently computers have appeared
that can store six-dimensional arrays of distribution functions). The contributions of f
2
to the macroscopic
x
b

x
b

x
h

x
b

( ) sgn
x
h

/E

2 x
h

x
*

( )/E

, x
*

+ x
1

( )
2
/ 2E

( ). = =
D

1
q ( ) q d
0
t

,

_
F

+
1 e
s
( ) ( F
1 +
+
F

+
( ) e
s
1 e
s
( )/s + ( ), + exp =
s
1
q ( ) q d
t

t
1 +

1 1 +
+ ( )t/2, F
l
+
x

t
l
( ) x

t
l
( ) , ( ), l 1. + , = =
x

A
t

B t
+ 1
Fig. 4.
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 481
parameters were calculated using the quadrature formulas
(4.6)
where A
nm
are the weights of a quadrature formula and m
0
n
0

0
is the number of velocity nodes. For
xed x
ijl
, we calculated f for each x
mn
by using (4.4) and (4.5), thus, making a contribution to the right-hand
side of (4.6). Then, f
2
was computed at the next point in physical space. This procedure was performed with-
out storing the distribution function at nodes of the six-dimensional phase space. In (4.1), we had F
+
~
(B
2
/B
1
)
3/2
exp[B
2
/ (x )
2
]. In the case of contributions to ion macroscopic parameters, all the
integrals were multiplied by and B
2
1000, so that the integrand in (4.1) was nearly a delta function.
n
nu
n 3/ 2T ( ) u
2
+ ( )
,


_
n
k
A
mn
1
w
mn
w
mn
2
,


_
g x
ijl
w
mn
, ( ),
1 =

n 1 =
n
0

m 1 =
m
0

=
T
n
k 1
u
n
k
/ B
2
B
1
3/2
0.0003
0.000084
0.00019
0.00072
SPT
0.000084
0.00014
0.00019
0.00035
0.07
0.032
0.108
0.146 0.261
0.299
0.223
0.185
0.65
0.032
1.00
0.71
0
0.71
1.00
2.66 2.00 1.33 0.67 0 0 1 2
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.
0.07
0.032
0.108
0.146
0.452
0.233
0.184
0.643
1.00
0.71
0
0.71
1.00
2.66 2.00 1.33 0.67 0 0 1 2
0.00022
SPT
0.00034
0.0001
0.00016
0.0001
0.000043
0.00053
482
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
For this reason, when evaluating the integrals over the velocity space, we switched to the variable x =
( + c) . Then, for example, the contribution to the ion density was calculated as
where y
k
and C
k
are the nodes and weights of the corresponding Gaussian formula (k
0
= 6). This procedure
yielded whose value was on the order of unity. The contributions of g
2
and g
3
were calculated in a similar
fashion. It is well known that Gaussian quadrature formulas are sensitive to the smoothness of the integrand
(see [10]). In the method described, f
2
, g
2
, and g
3
are continuous in the velocity space, which justies the
application of the Gaussian formulas.
5. NUMERICAL RESULTS
The simulation of an axisymmetric SPT plume performed in [13] revealed the presence of a backow,
i.e., ion currents directed toward the thruster exit face (CC
1
D
1
C in Fig. 1). All the computations in [13]
were performed downstream of the exit, so that nothing certain could be stated concerning the plume effect
on the upstream region except that this effect existed. Since the computations in this study were performed
u
n
k 1
B
2
1/2
n
2
k
B
1
3/2
f
2
x x , ( ) x d

B
1
/ B
2
( )
3/2
f
2
x u
n
k 1
c + ( )B
2
1/2
, ( ) c d

C
k
e
y
k
2
f
2
x x
k
, ( ),
k 1 =
6

= =
x
k
u
n
k 1
y
k
+ ( )B
2
1/2
, f
2
B
1
/ B
2
( )
3/2
f
2
, = =
f
2
Fig. 7.
SPT
Fig. 8. Fig. 9.
0.078
0.042
0.649
0.328
0.114
0.149
0.185
0.256
0.00021
SPT
0.00026
0.00011
0.000066
0.00016
0.00016
0.000066
0.000018
1.00
0.5
0
0.5
1.00
2.66 2.00 1.33 0.67 0 0 1 2
SPT
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 483
upstream and downstream of the plume, we were able to determine the inuence of ion currents on these
regions.
First, the thrust was determined with sputtering taken into account. The force exerted by the ow on the
vehicle is
(5.1)
Generally, the momentum received from the neutral component should be taken into account on the right-
hand side of (5.1), but it is considerably lower than the momentum received from the ions. The computations
of F
z
showed that the basic part of this thrust is produced by the ion ow exhausted from the thruster exit.
The contribution of the remaining faces does not exceed 0.3% of this value, and all of them produce thrust,
except for BB
1
C
1
C, which exerts drag.
Figures 5 and 6 show ion density contour lines in the planes y = x and y = x, respectively, for = 0 in
the region z 0 (right panels) and l z 0 (left panels), where l is the thruster length. The thruster is shown
in black. Because of the symmetry of the thruster, the contour line distributions in these planes must be iden-
tical. Therefore, the differences they exhibit estimate the accuracy of the numerical method used. A com-
F m
i
x
n
f x d . d

S

=
u

0.035
0.035
0.035
0.035
0.066
0.066
0.192
0.192 0.129
0.129
0.098
0.098
0.224
0.098
0.161
0.161
0.043
0.043
0.043
0.082
0.12
0.082
0.082
0.159
0.159
0.237
0.267
0.12
0.198
0.12
0.5
0 0.5
1.0
0.066
0.190
0.310
0.5 0
0.5
1.0
0.054
0.15
0.26
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0.5
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0.5
Fig. 10.
484
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
parison of the gures shows that the contour lines with values equal to or larger than one-thousandth are
reproduced fairly well. Figure 7 displays contour lines in the plane XOZ (y = 0).
By comparing the plots in Figs. 5 and 6, we can reveal the effect of the problems nonaxisymmetry on
the ow pattern. It can be seen that the plume is virtually axisymmetric in the downstream region. For z < 0
(upstream region), there is a small difference in the distribution of the ion density contour lines caused by
the nonaxisymmetry of the problem.
An analysis of the plasma ow in the SPT channel shows that the plume exhausted from the thruster must
be swirled. Estimates show that amounts to 57% of . Since computations could be performed in arbi-
trary geometry, we were able to determine the swirl effect on the distribution of the plume parameters.
We computed the plasma ow in which involved in boundary condition (1.4) was specied as =
0.1(1 + cos).
Figures 8 and 9 show the ion current streamlines for = 0 and 0, respectively, i.e., the integral
curves of the system dx/dt = qu
i
, x(0) = x
w
, x
w
ABCDA
1
B
1
C
1
D
1
, where q = 1 (light lines) if (x
w
) 0
and q = 1 (dark lines) otherwise. Overall, the streamline pattern with = 0 is similar to that with 0.
The difference is that the backow terminates on ABCD and BB
1
C
1
C when = 0, while, for the swirling
plume, it terminates only on BB
1
C
1
C, while starting at ABCD and terminating on the thruster exit face.
u

u
z
u

u
n
i
u

0.045
0.045
0.045
0.065
0.065
0.065
0.103
0.103
0.084
0.084
0.142
0.122
0.122
0.026
0.026
0.026
0.026
0.5
0 0.5
1.0
0.043
0.12
0.02
0.5 0
0.5
1.0
0.038
0.099
0.16
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0.5
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0.5
0.053
0.053
0.077
0.077
0.101
0.101
0.125
0.125
0.149
0.028
0.028
0.028
0.028
0.173
Fig. 11.
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION 485
Figures 1012 display the plots of n
i
= n
i
(x, y, z
0
) (upper panels) and contour lines of these functions in
the plane z = z
0
(lower panels) for = 0 (left panels) and 0 (right panels). For z
0
= 1 (Fig. 10), we can
see that the location of the ion density peak and its value are affected by the plume swirl. For = 0, the
peak lies on the z axis (i.e., crossover occurs), while, for 0, the peak is noticeably smaller and, judging
from the contour lines, corresponds to the thruster exit.
At z
0
= 1.5 (Fig. 11), the behavior of the ion density is noticeably different. When 0, two peaks
begin to form in the ion density distribution.
At z
0
= 2 (Fig. 12), they nally diverge and the differences in the behavior of the ion density in the plumes
with and without swirl are exhibited most clearly. It can be seen that no crossover occurs in this case, since
the peaks correspond to the inuence of the thruster exit. Thus, the fact that no crossover is sometimes
observed in experiments can be caused by the swirl of the plume. The dependence of on remains
vague. The presence of two peaks in the density distribution may be caused by the specic character of the
given dependence of on the azimuthal angle. This issue is to be claried in experiments.
u

Fig. 12.
0.019
0.019
0.019
0.019
0.031
0.031
0.031
0.043
0.043
0.056
0.056
0.056
0.068
0.068
0.068
0.093
0.093
0.081
0.081
0.081
0.043
0.043
0.023
0.023
0.023
0.023
0.038
0.038
0.038
0.054
0.054
0.085
0.085
0.1
0.069
0.069
0.069
0.085
0.116
0.054
0.5
0 0.5
1.0
0.032
0.82
0.13
0.5
0 0.5
1.0
0.026
0.066
0.11
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
0 0.5 1.0 0.5
1.0
0.5
0
0.5
1.0 0 0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0
486
COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Vol. 47 No. 3 2007
ARKHIPOV, BISHAEV
To conclude, we note that the possibility of storing multidimensional arrays of distribution functions has
motivated intensive development of nonstationary numerical methods for rareed gas dynamics and kinetic
theory. Therefore, the next step in the simulation of electric thruster plumes should be concerned with the
creation of nonstationary methods for solving problem (1.1)(1.6). The main difculty to overcome is to
take into account the delta-function character of the boundary ion distribution function and the large differ-
ence between the ion and neutral velocity scales. The standard versions of the particle-in-cell method are
not applicable in this case.
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