9504050 Taylor The proposal training and research plan is intended to provide the research associate with a through grounding in parallel computational techniques. It is expected to yield innovative methods and software for applying high performance, scalable architectures to large-scale problems in plasma dynamics, fluid dynamics, rarefied gas dynamics, and electromagnetics. In the proposed research, we are specifically interested in computing the plasma backflow from multiple electric propulsion thruster configurations around realistic spacecraft geometries. The primary goal is to develop a portable computational tool that will enable spacecraft designers to accurately estimate the backflow contamination from electric propulsion thrusters onto spacecraft. Another goal of this research is to develop scalable implementation techniques for existing numerical methods, and to validate these with experimental data.
