Particle simulation of ion thruster plume characteristics

With particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo collision method, a two dimensional axisymmetric model is established to study the ion thruster plume characteristics. The simulated results are compared with experimental data, which shows good agreement and suggests that, the model can evaluate the characteristics of ion thruster plume very well. The ion number density can reach 1014 m-3 in the backflow region, which can cause erosion of the spacecraft; the back pressure’s visible influence on the charge exchange ions outside the beam region can not be neglected.