Investigation of magnetic circuit for azimuthally homogeneous magnetic field in cylindrical Hall thrusters

Magnetic circuit components, such as outer yoke profile and number of outer iron cores, are simulated for an azimuthally homogeneous magnetic field in a low-power cylindrical Hall thruster. A discrete placement of outer iron cores produces multiple magnetic mirrors in the azimuthal direction and degrades the thruster performance. With the number of outer iron cores, the magnetic field becomes homogeneous in the azimuthal direction. The outer yoke profile is characterized by a width ratio k. When the width ratio k increases, the magnetic peaks usually seem to decrease, and the magnetic field becomes more inhomogeneous. The azimuthal magnetic distribution becomes the most homogeneous when the width ratio k is 0.2 and the number of outer iron cores is 6. However, the number of outer iron cores and the outer yoke profile have no influence on the axial magnetic distribution.