Abstract: The temperature distribution significantly influences the operational stability and reliability of the high-power Hall thruster(HPHET). To investigate the thermal dissipation and temperature distribution of LHT-200E Hall thruster under rated power conditions, finite element analysis (FEA) is employed. The thermal model of the thruster is first validated and calibrated under a 12.5kW operating condition. Subsequently, thermal characteristic analysis and thermal design optimization are conducted for the 15kW rated condition. Through simulations, the temperature field distribution under three thermal design approaches, i.e., changing the material of the discharge chamber support, adding heat sinks or heat plates at different positions, and segmenting the magnetic base, is analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the thermal designs. The results show that, under the 12.5kW condition, the total heat dissipation is 2510W, accounting for 20.1% of the total power, and the simulated temperature results are the closest to the measured values with a maximum error of 6.2% occurring in the inner coil, primarily attributing to inaccuracies in contact thermal resistance settings, which are within the permissible range of thermal model establishment. Comparative simulations for the 15kW condition demonstrate that, when the three thermal design approaches are appropriately applied, the temperature of the magnetic base can be reduced by approximately 50℃, and the temperature of the inner coil can be reduced by approximately 40℃.Among the three thermal design methods, adding heat plates is the most effective cooling approach, whereas changing the discharge-chamber support material and segmenting the magnetic base produce only moderate improvements. Comparing the three methods shows that combining a high-thermal-conductivity bracket for the discharge chamber with a heat-plate design effectively lowers the temperatures of critical thruster components, evens out their temperature distribution and enhances mission reliability.

Key words: Hall thruster, thermal characteristics, finite element analysis, thermal analysis, thermal design