Experimental and Numerical Examination of the BHT-200 Hall Thruster Plume (Preprint)

The plume of a Busek BHT-200 xenon Hall thruster has been characterized through measurements from various plasma electrostatic probes. Ion current flux, plasma potential, plasma density, and electron temperatures were measured in the near-field of the plume to 60 cm downstream of the exit plane. These experimentally derived measurements were compared to simulations of the thruster/vacuum chamber environment using the plasma plume code DRACO. The goals of this study were to gain understanding of the effect of the vacuum facility on the thruster plume and to determine the fidelity of the DRACO numerical simulation. Prepared in collaboration with the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Polytechnical University, Blacksburg, VA. For presentation at the AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference (43rd), Cincinnati, OH, 8-11 Jul 2007. The original document contains color images.