https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-02092-y
Regular Article
Numerical simulation of two-stage coupling in spiral-wave plasma thruster
1
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
2
Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
3
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, 050043, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China
a
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b
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Received:
10
August
2025
Accepted:
1
December
2025
Published online:
15
December
2025
Abstract
In the current thruster simulation work, the fluid model of the spiral-wave plasma source is dominated by a two-dimensional model, and the fluid simulation of the electric thruster is carried out in a hierarchical form. The two-dimensional helical wave plasma source simulation model cannot show the propagation of helical waves in the plasma and does not show the mode-hopping effect of the plasma; the velocity at the entrance boundary of the magnetic nozzle is usually specified as the normal component only, which does not connect the results of the predecessor well, which is a big deviation from the actual experiments. In this paper, we first complete the numerical simulation of the fluid model of the spiral-wave plasma source using a helical antenna, which demonstrates the mode-hopping process and the propagation of the spiral wave. Taking the intersecting cross-section of the spiral-wave plasma source and the magnetic nozzle as the data selection interface, a two-stage coupled three-dimensional fluid model is proposed, and the simulation calculations of the two stages are carried out separately through the COMSOL finite-element software with the focusing-type magnetic field type as the background magnetic field. A more reliable numerical simulation method and theoretical basis are provided for the experimental optimization of the laboratory spiral-wave thruster.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
