Fast steady-state simulation of electrospray thruster plumes using tracer particles
Abstract
This paper presents a new method for steady-state simulation of an electrospray thruster exhaust plume. The method, iterative tracer particle (ITP), leverages the similarity between an electrospray thruster exhaust plume and a heavy ion beam to employ tracer particles in order to determine the charge density distribution in the steady-state plume. The solutions from ITP are validated against the commonly used particle-in-cell method for an axisymmetric simulation domain, demonstrating solution consistency (
Fields of Study & Subjects
Electrohydrodynamics and Fluid Dynamics
Plasma Diagnostics and Applications
Vacuum and Plasma Arcs
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Volume
- 139
- Issue
- 8
- Publication date
- 24 February 2026
- Language
- EN