Nonlinear simulations and anomalous transport in hall thruster plasma

The plasma inside a Hall thruster is a complex environment full of instabilities and interesting physical phenomena such as anomalous transport. To better understand this complex plasma dynamics, a nonlinear fluid model has been developed. The model contains the effect of electron inertia, electron collisions, electron temperature and density gradients as well as nonlinearities in the ion velocity and the electron advection term that arises from the ExB drift. The model is simulated using BOUT++, a framework for plasma simulations developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The linear limits of the model correspond to the lower hybrid mode rendered unstable by collisions and to the density gradient drift instabilities.