Electric Propulsion Simulation

Validating numerical predictions against experimental data in Hall thruster research has historically been a significant challenge. In particular, the literature includes only a limited number of predictive simulation tools that do not rely on artificial tuning of the electron anomalous transport coefficient. In this work, we compare the results of three different simulation codes, a 2D axial-azimuthal Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code, a 1D non-stationary axial code, and a 1D stationary axial code, against experimental measurements of key thruster parameters, such as discharge current, thrust, and specific impulse.

Our findings show a strong agreement between simulated and experimental results. Notably, the stationary and non-stationary 1D codes yield very similar outputs. All three codes successfully capture the trends of the macroscopic quantities across the operating conditions examined, although the agreement deteriorates slightly at low mass flow rates. In several operating points where the match between simulation and experiment is excellent, the associated estimates of plasma parameters, including electron temperature and plasma density, are likely to be highly reliable. For this reason, by performing a comparative analysis among the three codes, we investigate how the internal parameters vary when the operating conditions do, and we infer from that significant insights about the HT physics.

Funding acknowledgement

The work of FP was partially supported by Agence de l'Innovation de Defense – AID - via Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes pour la Défense et la Sécurité – CIEDS - (project 2023 – validHETion). This project was provided with computer and storage resources by GENCI at TGCC thanks to the grant 2024-A0160510439 and 2025-A0180510439 on the supercomputer Joliot Curie's the Irene-ROME partition.