2022/08/28 by Maryam Reza, Farbod Faraji, Reza, Maryam +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Aerosol Filtration and Electrostatic Precipitation #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Plasma Diagnostics and Applications #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2208.13106
openalex publication_date 2022/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Reduced-order particle-in-cell (PIC) scheme is a novel modeling approach that enables computationally efficient electrostatic kinetic simulations of plasma. In our previous publications, we demonstrated the potentials of a preliminary implementation of this PIC scheme to resolve the multi-dimensional plasma processes in a Hall thruster in a manner close to traditional multi-dimensional PIC simulations. In this work, we first introduce a mathematically mature formulation for the dimensionality reduction of Poisson's equation, which enables the generalized "quasi-multi-dimensional" PIC scheme. We present the proof that the dimensionally reduced Poisson's equation converges to the multi-dimensional one in the limit. A reduced-dimension Poisson solver incorporating the dimensionality-reduction formulation is then verified for general 2D Poisson problems. Next, we present the results of several quasi-2D axial-azimuthal simulations performed using the generalized reduced-order electrostatic PIC scheme. We show that the improvements in the formulation of the reduced-order PIC notably augments its predictive capability, enabling the approach to reproduce quite accurately the results from reference full-2D PIC simulations in several conditions using low-order approximations of the 2D problem. Moreover, higher order approximations allow us to recover the same characteristics and behaviors reported in the literature regarding the azimuthal instabilities in Hall thrusters with simulations offering several factors reduction in computational cost. Finally, we discuss a series of sensitivity analyses, including the influence of the cathode boundary condition and the azimuthal domain length on the quasi-2D simulations' predictions. Accordingly, we outline in the conclusions the ongoing activities on the reduced-order scheme toward cost-effective three-dimensional studies of Hall thrusters' physics.