2-D Electromagnetic and Fluid Models for Inductively Coupled Plasma for RF Ion Thruster Performance Evaluation

A numerical model for the inductively coupled plasma in radio frequency (RF) ion thruster discharge chamber is developed to evaluate the plasma parameters for a 2-D axisymetric domain. The spatial distributions of various plasma parameters are obtained. The ion thruster performance is evaluated by calculating the discharge loss per ion for different deposited RF power values. The geometry of RIT-15LP is applied as the thruster configuration and the results are shown to have the same tendency as presented in the literature. The results of this paper proved that above a certain RF power deposition into the discharge chamber, there is a tradeoff between the thrust obtained from the ion engine and the discharge loss per ion.