A reversed gas-feed configuration for Hall thrusters is proposed and studied numerically. As an alternative to standard direct injection, we investigate the effect of injecting the propellant near the channel exit and directing it backwards, towards the anode. The resulting neutral density and average velocity fields are studied with the direct simulation Monte Carlo method for both cold and warm anode conditions. The residence time of neutral particles inside the channel and in the ionization region is computed using a test-particle Monte Carlo method. The computations indicate that the reversed injection allows for increasing the mass utilization efficiency of a standard feed configuration from 2–5% to a maximum of 20–30% depending on the initial efficiency.

提出并数值研究了霍尔推进器的反向供气配置。作为标准直接注入的替代方案，我们研究了在通道出口附近注入推进剂并将其向后导向阳极的效果。使用直接模拟 Monte Carlo 方法针对冷阳极和暖阳极条件研究产生的中性密度和平均速度场。使用测试粒子蒙特卡罗方法计算通道内和电离区域中中性粒子的停留时间。计算表明，根据初始效率，反向喷射允许将标准进料配置的质量利用效率从 2-5% 提高到最大 20-30%。