group
What campus are you from?
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Shepard Summers, Senior Chris Anderson, Senior
Lead Presenter's Name
Shepard Summers
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Chen
Abstract
Pulsed Low-Temperature Plasma (LTP) has become a subject of interest in various fields, including propulsion, material processing, and medical technology. LTP flows are challenging to accurately simulate due to their physical complexities and multiscale nature, spanning scales ranging from meters on the system level to nanoscale when investigating the interactions between ions and electrons. The conventional models for simulating LTP flow are not able to handle this wide range of scales in a computationally efficient manner. The Boltzmann method, which is rooted in kinetic theory rather than Newtonian, can efficiently tackle the multiscale properties of LTP flow by directly solving the particle distribution functions. Not only is the Boltzmann method able to handle multiscale natures, but it is also significantly faster than conventional models due to its compatibility with parallelization. In this work, a two-dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) model is developed with the goal of simulating LTP flow in a modified Hall thruster. Three species are considered: electrons, ions, and neutral particles. To benchmark and assess the LBM model, a Gaussian distribution of electrons is allowed to diffuse over time with an external electric and magnetic field. The performance and results are compared to a conventional particle-in-cell (PIC) model, which shows a good agreement.
Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
No
Low Temperature Plasma Simulation using the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Pulsed Low-Temperature Plasma (LTP) has become a subject of interest in various fields, including propulsion, material processing, and medical technology. LTP flows are challenging to accurately simulate due to their physical complexities and multiscale nature, spanning scales ranging from meters on the system level to nanoscale when investigating the interactions between ions and electrons. The conventional models for simulating LTP flow are not able to handle this wide range of scales in a computationally efficient manner. The Boltzmann method, which is rooted in kinetic theory rather than Newtonian, can efficiently tackle the multiscale properties of LTP flow by directly solving the particle distribution functions. Not only is the Boltzmann method able to handle multiscale natures, but it is also significantly faster than conventional models due to its compatibility with parallelization. In this work, a two-dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) model is developed with the goal of simulating LTP flow in a modified Hall thruster. Three species are considered: electrons, ions, and neutral particles. To benchmark and assess the LBM model, a Gaussian distribution of electrons is allowed to diffuse over time with an external electric and magnetic field. The performance and results are compared to a conventional particle-in-cell (PIC) model, which shows a good agreement.