Dynamics of an axially wall-limited theta pinch compressed by a metallic liner

Energy losses occurring in high-temperature plasma in contact with a rapidly moving wall are studied. It is found that thermal-conduction and radiation losses prevent reaching thermonuclear temperatures unless the wall moves at a very high speed. On the other hand, re-absorption in high-density systems and relatively weak magnetic fields reduce these losses. A thermonuclear regime can be reached with wall velocities of 25 km/s, attainable by electromagnetic techniques.

Section: Presentation Of the Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 84%

Losses of a thermonuclear plasma imploded by a high-velocity wall

Rioux

Jablon

1975

“…This avoids plasma loss but not heat loss from the ends due to parallel field electron heat transport. Reference [5] gives a detailed numerical calculation of the axial heat and plasma flows during compression. A treatment of the end loss problem as well as alpha particle heating in a fusing plasma similar to those considered here is given in Ref.…”

Section: B End Heat Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have used these formulas to test and summarize our numerical calculations in various limits. Reference [5] found that Eq. (23a) represented their end loss calculations quite well.…”

Section: T B R 2 F Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For well over a decade various groups (Frascati [1], Kurchatov [2][3][4][5][6], NRL [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], GA [16][17][18], LLL [19]) have discussed the use of an imploding liner to obtain fusion plasmas and megagauss fields with near adiabatic heating and flux compression. The early work [ 1 ] did not gain wide acceptance because of the emphasis on explosively-driven liners with throw-away components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Transport calculations for a wall-confined liner-compressed plasma

Waltz¹

1978

Theory and computations for a wall-confined slow-liner-compressed plasma are presented. The liner device considered has axial open-ended field lines. The numerical calculations include cross-field diffusion of magnetic field, heat, and impurities; compressional effects; heat loss to materially plugged ends; and radiation loss (including coronal impurity radiation). Both insulating and conducting liner boundary conditions are treated. The formation of a cold dense boundary layer is particularly severe in the former case. The heat transport is treated classically with some comparison to possible anomalous behaviour. While impurities are driven out of a straight high-β plasma by thermal forces, critical trace level amounts present at injection can be catastrophic. Some simple scaling laws for various loss mechanisms are given.

“…Inertial confinement of magnetized plasma objects has attracted interest for many years, and is now gaining recognition as a promising path towards fusion energy. The basic principles of this rather broad field have been discussed in articles by Alikhanov and Konkashbaev [1] and Ribe and Sherwood [2], and more recently in a concept survey by Lindemuth and Kirkpatrick [3]. With magnetized DT fuel, the density and confinement times needed for ignition lie between those of traditional magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion (ICF).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-similar adiabatic compression of highly elongated field reversed configurations

Parks

1999

A theoretical model of an elongated field reversed configuration (FRC) adiabatically compressed to high density by an imploding liner is presented. Compression is assumed to be self-similar, equal along length and radius, and is accomplished by means of a shaped liner [D.D. Ryutov, R.P. Drake, et al., Fusion Technol. 30 (1996) 310]. In particular, the model here takes into account the special magnetic topology of the FRC, and the nonuniformity of the radial plasma profiles in order to quantify final to initial compression ratios of the fluid quantities.