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Superconducting magnet, employed in conjunction with five types of superconducting cables in a nested solenoid configuration, produces total, central magnetic field strengths approaching 70 kG. The multiple coils permit maximum information on cable characteristics to be gathered from one test.
Design of magnetic mirror machines for controlled fusion research apparatus, and optimization of magnetic field coils by adiabatic confinement of largest number of particles for given cost
Split pair of superconducting magnetic field coils of zirconium alloy wire for plasma physics research
Shielding effectiveness and system mass of different magnetic field configurations - Electric properties and magnetic behavior of superconducting coils of niobium-zirconium alloy
Pulsed inductive plasma accelerators are spacecraft propulsion devices in which energy is stored in a capacitor and then discharged through an inductive coil. The device is electrodeless, inducing a current s heet in a plasma located near the face of the coil. The propellant is accelerated and expelled at a high exhaust velocity (order of 10 km/s) through the interaction of the plasma current and the induced magne tic field, The Faraday Accelerator with RF-Assisted Discharge (FARAD) thruster is a type of pulsed inductive plasma accelerator in which t he plasma is preionized by a mechanism separate from that used to for m the current sheet and accelerate the gas. Employing a separate preionization mechanism allows for the formation of an inductive current s heet at much lower discharge energies and voltages than those used in previous pulsed inductive accelerators like the Pulsed Inductive Thr uster (PIT). In this paper, we present the design of a benchtop FARAD thruster with all the subsystems (mass injection, preionization, and acceleration) integrated into a single unit. Design of the thruster follows the guidelines and similarity performance parameters presented elsewhere. The system is designed to use the ringing, RF-frequency s ignal produced by a discharging Vector Inversion Generator (VIG) to p reionize the gas. The acceleration stage operates on the order of 100 J/pulse and can be driven by several different pulsed powertrains. These include a simple capacitor coupled to the system, a Bernardes and Merryman configuration, and a pulsecompression circuit that takes a temporally broad, low current pulse and transforms it into a short, h igh current pulse. A set of applied magnetic field coils are integrated into the system to guide the preionized propellant as it spreads ov er the face of the inductive acceleration coil. The coils are operate d in a pulsed mode, and the thruster can be operated without using the coils to determine if there is a performance improvement gain realiz ed when an applied field is present.
Effective generation of helicon waves for high density plasma sources is determined by the dispersion relation and plasma power balance. Helicon wave plasma sources inherently require an applied magnetic field of .01-0.1 T, an antenna properly designed to couple to the helicon wave in the plasma, and an rf power source in the 10-100 s of MHz, depending on propellant choice. For a plasma thruster, particularly one with a high specific impulse (>2000 s), the physics of the discharge would also have to address the use of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heating and magnetic expansion. In all cases the system design includes an optimized magnetic field coil, plasma source chamber, and antenna. A preliminary analysis of such a system, calling on experimental data where applicable and calculations where required, has been initiated at Glenn Research Center. Analysis results showing the mass scaling of various components as well as thruster performance projections and their impact on thruster size are discussed.
Effective generation of helicon waves for high density plasma sources is determined by the dispersion relation and plasma power balance. Helicon wave plasma sources inherently require an applied magnetic field of .01-0.1 T, an antenna properly designed to couple to the helicon wave in the plasma, and an rf power source in the 10-100 s of MHz, depending on propellant choice. For a plasma thruster, particularly one with a high specific impulse (>2000 s), the physics of the discharge would also have to address the use of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heating and magnetic expansion. In all cases the system design includes an optimized magnetic field coil, plasma source chamber, and antenna. A preliminary analysis of such a system, calling on experimental data where applicable and calculations where required, has been initiated at Glenn Research Center. Analysis results showing the mass scaling of various components as well as thruster performance projections and their impact on thruster size are discussed.
The development and application of a multidimensional numerical simulation code for investigating near-field plasma processes in magnetic nozzles are presented. The code calculates the time-dependent evolution of all three spatial components of both the magnetic field and velocity in a plasma flow, and includes physical models of relevant transport phenomena. It has been applied to an investigation of the behavior of plasma flows found in high-power thrusters, employing a realistic magnetic nozzle configuration. Simulation of a channel-flow case where the flow was super-Alfvenic has demonstrated that such a flow produces adequate back-emf to significantly alter the shape of the total magnetic field, preventing the flow from curving back to the magnetic field coil in the near-field region. Results from this simulation can be insightful in predicting far-field behavior and can be used as a set of self-consistent boundary conditions for far-field simulations. Future investigations will focus on cases where the inlet flow is sub-Alfvenic and where the flow is allowed to freely expand in the radial direction once it is downstream of the coil.
The performance of Transition-Edge Sensors (TES) and their SQUID multiplexed read-outs are very sensitive to the ambient magnetic field from Earth and fluctuations that can arise due to fluctuating magnetic fields outside of the focal plane assembly from the Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR).Thus, the experimental platform we are building to test the FPA of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) of the Athena mission needs to include a series of shields and a coil in order to meet the following requirement of magnetic field density and uniformity.
Discussion of a method for the ignition of a thermonuclear microbomb by means of an intense relativistic electron beam with regard to its potential application to rocket propulsion. With such a system, exhaust velocities up to 1000 km/sec, corresponding to a specific impulse of 100,000 sec, seem to be within the realm of possibility. The rocket is propelled by a chain of thermonuclear microbombs exploded in a concave magnetic mirror produced by superconducting field coils. The magnetic pressure of the field reflects the fireball generated by the explosion. For the large capacitor bank required to generate the intense relativistic electron beam, a desirable lightweight design may be possible through use of ferroelectric materials. Because of the high cost of the T-D and He 3-D thermonuclear material, the system has to be optimized by minimizing the T-D and He 3-D consumption by a proper TD and He 3-D fuel to hydrogen propellant mass ratio, leading to a larger total system mass than would be absolutely necessary.
Magnetoresistive Perm-alloy sensor monitors bias field required to maintain bubble memory. Sensor provides error signal that, in turn, corrects magnitude of bias field. Error signal from sensor can be used to control magnitude of bias field in either auxiliary set of bias-field coils around permanent magnet field, or current in small coils used to remagnetize permanent magnet by infrequent, short, high-current pulse or short sequence of pulses.
Superconducting magnetic bottle consisting of two mirror coils, central field coil and quadrupole cusp field coil
Dimensions of coil systems necessary to produce uniform magnetic field
Magnetic coil testing and experiment preparations for magnet facility in simulation of large high field superconducting magnet operation
An electromagnetic projectile launcher provides acceleration of a superconducting projectile through the diamagnetic repulsion of the superconducting projectile. A superconducting layer is provided aft of the projectile, either directly on the projectile or on a platform upon which the projectile is carried, and a traveling magnetic field is caused to propagate along a magnetic field drive coil in which the projectile is disposed. The resulting diamagnetic repulsion between the superconducting projectile and the traveling magnetic field causes the projectile to be propelled along the coil. In one embodiment, a segmented drive coil is used to generate the traveling magnetic field.
Space magnetic environment simulation coil facility for spacecraft testing by mapping magnetic fields
Turns-ratio and flux density parameters for four circular coil systems