Regular Article

Effect of magnetic-field intensity near an intermediate electrode on the discharge characteristics of a Hall thruster with a double-peaked magnetic field

¹ Plasma Propulsion Lab, Institute of Advanced Power, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, P.R. China
² Electric Drive & Propulsion Technology Lab, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, P.R. China

^a e-mail: dingyongjie@hit.edu.cn

Received: 26 March 2019
Revised: 13 June 2019
Published online: 10 September 2019

Abstract

The effect of the magnetic-field intensity near an intermediate electrode in the discharge channel of a Hall thruster with a double-peaked configuration, on the thruster discharge and performance is investigated by applying the particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision model. The result shows that by increasing the magnetic-field intensity near the intermediate electrode while keeping the magnetic-field peak intensity and position unchanged, the current received by the intermediate electrode is gradually reduced, whereas the propellant utilization and thrust are increased. Thus, the specific impulse and efficiency are improved. The efficiency can be increased by more than 10%. Increasing the magnetic-field strength near the intermediate electrode is conducive to improving the performance of the thruster, which provides a reference for the design of a Hall thruster with a double-peaked magnetic field.