Research of ICRH Based on Simulation with VSim Programming

Nowadays, normal particle acceleration methods mostly used are chemical and conventional electric acceleration methods, whereas the chemical and traditional electric acceleration methods are limited by the chemical energy of the propellant and electrode erosion, respectively; so they are not suitable for the interplanetary travel. Ion cyclotron resonant heating (ICRH) is a mature plasma heating method that has been used in nuclear fusion for many years. It is realized by launching radio frequency waves into magnetoplasma and then accelerating it by increasing the rotational speed of the ions around the magnetic field lines. In this paper, we illustrate the principle of particle-in-cell (PIC) method first, and, then, simulate the plasma ICRH process with the software VSim using the PIC method. The acceleration of the plasma is studied from the three aspects of the incident velocity, ICRH electric field as well as background magnetic field, and the effect that different values of aforementioned parameters have on the ICRH acceleration is analyzed as well. The settings of these ICRH parameters are analyzed and summarized, which can lay the foundation for the optimal design of the experimental device for future work.