Abstract: Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Thruster (ECRPT) is a new type of electromagnetic thruster with high specific impulse， high efficiency and simple structure. In order to study the discharge principle and working mechanism of the thruster， the microwave plasma discharge process is simulated by the drift-diffusion fluid simulation method. The simulation results show that the number of electrons reaches the order of 1016～1017m-3. They also show the electron density of xenon is 50% higher than that of argon. The electron density and the collision power loss increase with the increase of the pressure in the calculation domain. And the electron temperature decreases with the increase of the pressure. The electron number density and the collision power loss increase with the increase of the incident microwave power. In the future application of ECRPT， by using xenon， the appropriate increase in the thrust chamber cavity pressure and incident microwave power is advised， so that it has the best propulsion， specific impulse and work efficiency.

Key words: Electric propulsion；Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)；Microwave discharge；Drift-diffusion；Simulation

摘要： 电子回旋共振等离子体推力器(ECRPT)是一种高比冲、高效率且结构简单的新型电磁式推力器。为了研究推力器的放电原理和工作机制，采用漂移-扩散流体模拟方法，仿真模拟了微波等离子体放电过程。仿真结果表明，电子数密度达到1016～1017m-3数量级，氙气的电子数密度比氩气高50%；电子数密度、碰撞功率损耗均随着计算域内压强的增大而增大，电子温度随压强的增大而减小；电子数密度、碰撞功率损耗随着入射微波功率的增大而增大。在未来ECRPT的实际应用中，可以通过使用氙气，适当增大推力器腔内压强以及入射微波功率，使其具有最佳的推力、比冲和工作效率。

关键词: 电推进；电子回旋共振(ECR)；微波放电；漂移-扩散；仿真模拟