The heating and flow process in a continuous wave laser powered thruster using argon as propellant was modeled numerically.A model of physical mechanisms including laser absorption

chemical reaction

high-temperature thermodynamics properties

viscosity

diffusion

heat conduction and the effect of radiation was built up.The two-dimensional axisymmetric flow filed described by Navier-Stokes equations was solved by pressure-based SIMPLEC(semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations consistent) algorithm.The thrust was computed by integrating the pressure and viscosity stress all over the wall

and the value was consistent with the experimental result of a similar configuration.Then the characteristics of the filed of a thruster under different mass flow rates were analyzed

and the methods for performance improvement were presented.