Magnetized plasma flows and magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters

An axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model of the acceleration channel of an applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is presented. A set of general relationships between the flow features and the thruster performance is obtained. The boundary conditions and the flow regime, which depends on the Alfvén Mach number, are shown to provide the ideal limits of steady state thruster operation. In the present analysis, a Hamiltonian formulation of the MHD plasma flow model is adopted. This formulation makes it possible to cast the model equations in a variational form, which is then solved by using a finite element numerical algorithm.