Simulations of Electron Heating in a Capacitively Coupled Radio Frequency Micro-Thruster using Computational Fluid Dynamics

摘要

A 2D fluid simulation of a capacitively coupled radio frequency (rf) electrothermal plasma micro-thruster has been performed using the CFD-ACE package for a preliminary analysis of the localized electron heating profiles. A 1.5 Torr argon plasma with 10 W (V_o=240 V) power input at 13.56 MHz was modeled assuming a Maxwellian electron distribution with a secondary electron emission co-efficient of 0.1. During the rf cycle, hot ion-induced secondary electrons with energies of 33 eV were responsible for most ionization and excitation events. The peak plasma density reached 4×10~(18) m~(-3), matching previous global model density estimates to within a factor of two. A 1D fluid simulation matching a previously benchmarked PIC code simulation was also performed as a validation tool for the 2D simulation.