Influence of a power supply model on simulated Hall thruster discharge voltage oscillations

Abstract

Hall thrusters are spacecraft propulsion devices that generate and accelerate plasma to provide thrust. Despite the use of constant voltage supplies to power these devices, complex finite-rate and convective effects lead to significant discharge current oscillations in most operating modes. In this paper, we demonstrate the interaction of finite impedance in the electrical harness with fundamental oscillatory behavior of the thruster by implementing a self-consistent harness model in a physics-based Hall thruster code. Results confirm previous work that voltage ripple is directly proportional to the total impedance for the majority of reasonable harnesses lengths. However, for extremely long harness lengths, results indicate that nonlinear coupling eventually dominates to reduce the voltage ripple with increased impedance.