Modeling of Ionic Thrusters in Atmosphere

Giuseppe Caliò

MOX - Dipartimento di Matematica - Politecnico di Milano

Monday 10th June 2024

15:50:00

Aula Saleri

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) propulsive systems could represent a cross-cutting technology in driving a new generation of airships and aircraft. This kind of thrusters is characterised by propulsive units without moving mechanical parts, therefore having extremely long operation times, low maintenance and very low pollution. The optimal design of such systems requires a lot of effort both in fundamental and applied research. An efficient and accurate simulation tool could help in the design and optimization process. In order to develop a predictive solver, a lot of effort must be done to gain a deeper understanding of the discharge behaviour. In particolar, the Direct-Current (DC) discharge at atmospheric pressure is widely documented in literature, but there are not detailed analysis of the ionization region and the effect of the boundary conditions. In this perspective, we propose a self-consistent 1D fluid model based on the Local Field Approximation to properly simulate the non-thermal plasma flow arising between the electrodes, considering an axisymmetric configuration. The numerical implementation is performed through MATLAB; the solver is based on a cell centered finite volume discretization and ode15s to integrate in time. Contatti: anna.scotti@polimi.it carlo.defalco@polimi.it