Numerical data from: Numerical and Experimental Study of Facility Effects on a Gridded Ion Engine's Plasma Plume

Numerical data from: Numerical and experimental study of facility effects on a gridded ion engine's plasma plume Authors: Matteo Guaita, Konstantin Keil, Kristof Holste, Peter J. Klar, Eduardo Ahedo, Mario Merino Contact email: [e-mail] Date: 4/3/2026 Keywords: Plasma Physics, Plasma Plumes, Gridded Ion Engine, Cathode, Facility Effects, Particle in Cell Version: 1.0.0 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.5281/zenodo.17858773 License: This dataset is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License Abstract This dataset contains the data from the simulations presented in the article submitted for pubblicaiton in the Journal: Journal of Applied Physics (JAP): "Numerical and experimental study of facility effects on a gridded ion engine's plasma plume" The data in this repository is the result of several PIC simulations as described in the reference. For further information on the setup, numerical parameters and physical meaning of the simulations, please refer to the article. Dataset description The simulations that produced the datasets in this repository were run with the full PIC code Picaso. The majority of the data is at steady-state, and has been averaged over the last 7000 simulation time-steps to reduce numerical noise. This averaging has been performed as a first step directly by the code through time-step accumulation techniques, and at a later stage in post-processing by averaging over the last 20 print-outs of the code. The data inside the "time_dependent" folder is instead time-varying. Data files Each HDF5 data-group contains the mesh and time coordinates and plasma properties of a specific simulation. In particular, the naming convention coincides with the one employed in the article to distinguish between different scenarios and is summarised as follows: O1 P1 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 1 and electrically floating. O1 P2 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 2 and electrically floating. O1 P3 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 3 and electrically floating. O1 P1 V2.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V2 with respect to ground. O1 P1 V3.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V3 with respect to ground. O1 P1 V4.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V4 with respect to ground. O1 P1 V5.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 1, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V5 with respect to ground. O2 P1 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 2, background pressure 1 and electrically floating. O2 P2 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 2, background pressure 2 and electrically floating. O2 P3 F.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 2, background pressure 3 and electrically floating. O2 P1 V4.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 2, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V4 with respect to ground. O2 P1 V5.hdf5: Contains the results for the thruster working at operating point 2, background pressure 1 and at a voltage V5 with respect to ground. DLP1.hdf5: Contains the results for the case O1 P1 F, but with a double Langmuir probe located 10cm downstream of the thruster DLP3.hdf5: Contains the results for the case O1 P1 F, but with a double Langmuir probe located 30cm downstream of the thruster DLP6.hdf5: Contains the results for the case O1 P1 F, but with a double Langmuir probe located 60cm downstream of the thruster RIT10_2D_1.hdf5: Contains the results of the planar simulation with a neutralizer exhaust area of 6cm RIT10_2D_2.hdf5: Contains the results of the planar simulation with a neutralizer exhaust area of 2.4cm RIT10_2D_3.hdf5: Contains the results of the planar simulation with a neutralizer exhaust area of 1.2cm In each of these files the data is organised in a series of subfolders: Electrons_prim: Contains the steady-state properties of primary electrons Electrons_trap: Contains the steady-state properties of trapped electrons Ions_fast: Contains the steady-state properties of fast ions (ions injected through the thruster grids) Ions_slow: Contains the steady-state properties of slow ions (ions produced by collisions in the plume) Time_dependent: Contains the vector of time-stamps and spatially global data saved at the corresponding time The data files found in the outer simulation folder are: xs: Physical x coordinates [cm] zs: Physical z coordinates [cm] phi: electric potential [V] rho_el: space charge density [C/m³] nn: Total neutral density [1/m³] The data files for each particle population are: n: Plasma density [1/m³] f_x: Particle flux along x [1/(m² s)] f_y: Particle flux along y [1/(m² s)] f_z: Particle flux along z [1/(m² s)] m_xx: xx component of the momentum tensor [J/m³] m_yy: yy component of the momentum tensor [J/m³] m_zz: zz component of the momentum tensor [J/m³] The ion subfolders also include the velocity bins and VDF data (in [s m^(-4)]) at 5 different points: p1: at x=0, z =30cm p2: at x=0, z =60cm p3: at x=5cm, z =30cm p4: at x=5cm, z =60cm p1: at x=30cm, z =15cm The data files in the time-dependent folder are: t: Time coordinates [s] V_t: Floating potential of the thruster with respect to ground [V] I_w: Total current to facility walls [A] Note that all the other quantities shown in the article may be obtained from the ones saved here. We remind here that the gas employed is Xenon and that all ions are considered to be singly charged. Citation Any works using this dataset or any part of it in any form shall cite it as follows. The BibTeX entry is provided for convenience: @dataset{sim_data_guai26a, author = {Matteo Guaita and Konstantin Keil and Kristof Holste and Peter J. Klar and Mario Merino and Eduardo Ahedo}, title = {Numerical data from: Numerical and Experimental Study of Facility Effects on a Gridded Ion Engine's Plasma Plume}, month = {12}, year = {2025}, publisher = {Zenodo}, version = {1.0.1}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.17858773}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17858773}} The journal article associated with this data-set shall also be cited as follows: @article{guaita2026numerical, title={Numerical and experimental study of facility effects on a gridded ion engine’s plasma plume}, author={Guaita, M and Keil, K and Holste, K and Klar, PJ and Ahedo, E and Merino, M}, journal={Journal of Applied Physics}, volume={139}, number={9}, year={2026}, publisher={AIP Publishing} } Acknowledgments This work, and the corresponding dataset, has been supported by the ECOMODIS project, funded by the European Space Agency, under contract 4000137869/22/NL/RA