A Review of Research on the Vacuum Plume

Chemical and electrical thrusters are generally utilized to control the attitude orbit of spacecraft in aerospace. When they firing, exhaust expands into vacuum environment, known as plume. The plume flow can collide with surfaces due sufficient expansion, exerting adverse effects on spacecraft, such heating load, force/torque, contamination, sputtering. Therefore, it is vital investigate ensure function safety spacecraft. This review introduces ground test numerical simulation methods for chemical thrusters. invasive, non-invasive (optical) measurements concluded. Numerical its exampled. hybrid CFD-DSMC (computational fluid dynamics direct Monte Carlo) algorithm employed simulate gas spanning continuum transitional free molecular regimes By contrast, PIC-DSMC (particle-in-cell plus used plasma containing charged particles exhausted by Moreover, topics fast prediction plume, plume–surface interaction, plume–Lunar/Mars regolith interaction proposed future research.