Comparison of Numerical Simulation to Hall Thruster Plume Shield Experiment

The use of plume shields to protect spacecraft from the damaging effects of Hall thruster exhaust has been of recent interest. Experimental data of such a geometry has been taken to study the effect of a shield on plume structure. Using the AQUILA plume model, numerical simulations are run with the same configuration to see if the wake structure can be reproduced. AQUILA is well-suited to handle the wake region behind the shield where quasineutrality may break down. A new source model to represent the Hall thruster used in the experiment is generated using results from HPHall. Comparison of simulated results to measured experimental quantities are discussed, as well as a study of the effect of background pressure.