Possible energy gain for a plasma-liner-driven magneto-inertial fusion concept

Knapp, Charles E.; Kirkpatrick, R.C.

doi:10.1063/1.4885075

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Plasma-jet requirements were determined largely based on the desire to build the lowest-cost experiment that would allow studies of plasma-liner formation and convergence in reactor-relevant physics limits inferred from the parameter regimes studied in [3]. These limits are: (1) plasma-jet merging occurs in the collisional limit, i.e., the jet interpenetration depth is small compared to the jet radius, (2) the plasma equation-of-state (EOS) has sufficient ionization and excitation states to provide a significant energy sink (including strong radiative losses) compared to the thermal energy of the jet, and (3) the plasma flow is strongly supersonic, i.e., the sonic Mach number M ≡ V jet /C s 10, where V jet is the directed jet speed and C s the jet internal sound speed.…”

Section: A Plasma-jet Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…S PHERICALLY imploding plasma liners formed by merging supersonic plasma jets are a proposed low-cost, high-shot-rate, standoff driver for plasma-jet-driven magnetoinertial fusion (PJMIF) [1]- [3]. Magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) [4]- [6] seeks to achieve fusion at ion densities intermediate between those of magnetic and inertial fusion, by combining attributes of both the latter approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Experiment to Form and Characterize a Section of a Spherically Imploding Plasma Liner

Hsu

Langendorf

Yates

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-We describe an experiment to form and characterize a section of a spherically imploding plasma liner by merging six supersonic plasma jets that are launched by newly designed contoured-gap coaxial plasma guns. This experiment is a prelude to forming a fully spherical imploding plasma liner using many dozens of plasma guns, as a standoff driver for plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion. The objectives of the six-jet experiments are to assess the evolution and scalings of liner Mach number and uniformity, which are important metrics for spherically imploding plasma liners to compress magnetized target plasmas to fusion conditions. This paper describes the design of the coaxial plasma guns, experimental characterization of the plasma jets, six-jet experimental setup and diagnostics, initial diagnostic data from three-and six-jet experiments, and the high-level objectives of associated numerical modeling.

show abstract

Section: A Plasma-jet Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiment to Form and Characterize a Section of a Spherically Imploding Plasma Liner

Hsu

Langendorf

Yates

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One-dimensional (1D) simulations of desired PJMIF configurations 15 indicated the possibility for suitable levels of fusion gain (≈ 30) with cm-thick plasma liners in the 40-100 MJ kinetic-energy range. Results based on an 1D analytical model of MIF implosions 5 also found promising energygain results, especially in spherical geometry.…”

Section: 9mentioning

confidence: 99%

Semi-analytic model of plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion

Langendorf

Hsu

2017

Physics of Plasmas

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A semi-analytic model for plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion is presented. Compressions of a magnetized plasma target by a spherically imploding plasma liner are calculated in one dimension (1D), accounting for compressible hydrodynamics and ionization of the liner material, energy losses due to conduction and radiation, fusion burn and alpha deposition, separate ion and electron temperatures in the target, magnetic pressure, and fuel burn-up. Results show 1D gains of 3-30 at spherical convergence ratio < 15 and 20-40 MJ of liner energy, for cases in which the liner thickness is 1 cm and the initial radius of a preheated magnetized target is 4 cm. Some exploration of parameter space and physics settings is presented. The yields observed suggest that there is a possibility of igniting additional dense fuel layers to reach high gain.

show abstract

“…MIF would also benefit significantly from a standoff, high-repetition-rate driver, which would improve the chances for an economic MIF-based fusion reactor. The use of a dynamically formed imploding spherical plasma liner has received attention recently [43]. The science and technology are ready for initial experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of forming imploding plasma liners via merging supersonic plasma jets, and to explore the ram pressure scaling and uniformity of these liners in order to assess their potential as a standoff MIF driver.…”

Section: Near Term (£5 Years)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magneto-Inertial Fusion

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this community white paper, we describe an approach to achieving fusion which employs a hybrid of elements from the traditional magnetic and inertial fusion concepts, called magneto-inertial fusion (MIF). The status of MIF research in North America at multiple institutions is summarized including recent progress, research opportunities, and future plans.Keywords Magneto-inertial fusion Á Magnetized target fusion Á Liner Á Plasma jets Á Fusion energy Á MagLIF DescriptionMagneto-inertial fusion (MIF) (aka magnetized target fusion) [1][2][3] is an approach to fusion that combines the compressional heating of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) with the magnetically reduced thermal transport and magnetically enhanced alpha heating of magnetic confinement fusion (MCF). From an MCF perspective, the higher density, shorter confinement times, and compressional heating as the dominant heating mechanism reduce the impact of instabilities. From an ICF perspective, the primary benefits are potentially orders of magnitude reduction in the difficult to achieve qr parameter (areal density), and potentially significant reduction in velocity requirements and hydrodynamic instabilities for compression drivers. In fact, ignition becomes theoretically possible from qr B 0.01 g/cm 2 up to conventional ICF values of qr * 1.0 g/cm 2 , and as in MCF, Br rather than qr becomes the key figure-of-merit for ignition because of the enhanced alpha deposition [4]. Within the lower-qr parameter space, MIF exploits lower required implosion velocities (2-100 km/s, compared to the ICF minimum of 350-400 km/s) allowing the use of much more efficient (g C 0.3) pulsed power drivers, while at the highest (i.e., ICF) end of the qr range, both higher gain G at a given implosion velocity as well as lower implosion velocity and reduced hydrodynamic instabilities are theoretically possible. To avoid confusion, it must be emphasized that the wellknown conventional ICF burn fraction formula does not apply for the lower-qr ''liner-driven'' MIF schemes, since it is the much larger mass and qr of the liner (and not that of the burning fuel) that determines the ''dwell time'' and fuel burnup fraction. In all cases, MIF approaches seek to satisfy/ exceed the inertial fusion energy (IFE) figure-of-merit gG * 7-10 required in an economical plant with reasonable recirculating power fraction. A great advantage of MIF is indeed its extremely wide parameter space which allows it greater versatility in overcoming difficulties in implementation or technology, as evidenced by the four diverse approaches and associated implosion velocities shown in Fig. 1.MIF approaches occupy an attractive region in thermonuclear q-T parameter space, as shown in a paper by

show abstract

Possible energy gain for a plasma-liner-driven magneto-inertial fusion concept

Cited by 18 publications

References 27 publications

Experiment to Form and Characterize a Section of a Spherically Imploding Plasma Liner

Experiment to Form and Characterize a Section of a Spherically Imploding Plasma Liner

Semi-analytic model of plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion

Magneto-Inertial Fusion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About