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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Isotope effects on desorption kinetics of hydrogen isotopes implanted into stainless steel by glow discharge

In a fusion device the control of fuel particles implies to know the desorption rate of hydrogen isotopes by the plasma-facing materials. In this paper desorption kinetics of hydrogen isotopes implanted into type 316L stainless steel by glow discharge have been studied by experiment and numerical calculation. The temperature of a maximum desorption rate depends on glow discharge time and heating rate. Desorption spectra observed under various experimental conditions have been successfully reproduced by numerical simulations that are based on a diffusion-limited process. It is suggested, therefore, that desorption rate of a hydrogen isotope implanted into the stainless steel is limited by a diffusion process of hydrogen isotope atoms in bulk. Furthermore, small isotope effects were observed for the diffusion process of hydrogen isotope atoms. (authors)

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Development of miniaturized, spectroscopically assisted Penning gauges for fractional helium and hydrogen neutral pressure measurements

Direct measurements of the helium (He) fractional neutral pressure in the neutral gas around fusion devices is challenging because of the small mass difference between the abundant D{sub 2} molecules and the He ash which will be produced by deuterium-tritium fusion. To study He exhaust, an in situ Penning gauge system is being developed at UW-Madison that is optimized for good pressure and high spectroscopic sensitivity. Three different anode geometries have been studied regarding their vacuum electrostatic fields, light output, and ion current. The light output of the two new anode configurations are at least one order of magnitude above the currently available designs, hence improving the spectroscopic sensitivity at similar total neutral pressure resolution.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Computation of stationary 3D halo currents in fusion devices with accuracy control

This paper addresses the calculation of the resistive distribution of halo currents in three-dimensional structures of large magnetic confinement fusion machines. A Neumann electrokinetic problem is solved on a geometry so complicated that complementarity is used to monitor the discretization error. An irrotational electric field is obtained by a geometric formulation based on the electric scalar potential, whereas three geometric formulations are compared to obtain a solenoidal current density: a formulation based on the electric vector potential and two geometric formulations inspired from mixed and mixed-hybrid Finite Elements. The electric vector potential formulation is usually considered impractical since an enormous computing power is wasted by the topological pre-processing it requires. To solve this challenging problem, we present novel algorithms based on lazy cohomology generators that enable to save orders of magnitude computational time with respect to all other state-of-the-art solutions proposed in literature. Believing that our results are useful in other fields of scientific computing, the proposed algorithm is presented as a detailed pseudocode in such a way that it can be easily implemented.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Studies of sheath characteristics in a double plasma device with a negatively biased separating grid and a magnetic filter field

A double plasma device has two regions: Source region and target region. These two regions are divided by a magnetic filter field. A grid is placed coplanar to the magnetic filter. To study the sheath structure in the target region, a metallic plate is placed at the center, which can be biased with respect to the chamber (ground) potential. Plasma is created in the source region by filament discharge technique. Plasma diffusing from the source region to the target region is subjected to the magnetic filter field and also an electric field applied on the grid. Plasma thus obtained in the target region forms a sheath on the biased plate. The influence of both the magnetic filter field and the electric field, applied between the grid and the chamber wall, on the sheath structure formed on the biased plate is studied. It is found that the magnetic filter field and the electric field change the sheath structure in different ways.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Design and validation of the ball-pen probe for measurements in a low-temperature magnetized plasma

Ball-pen probes have been used in fusion devices for direct measurements of the plasma potential. Their application in low-temperature magnetized plasma devices is still subject to studies. In this context, a ball-pen probe has been recently implemented on the linear plasma device Mirabelle. Produced by a thermionic discharge, the plasma is characterized by a low electron temperature and a low density. Plasma confinement is provided by an axial magnetic field that goes up to 100 mT. The principle of the ball-pen probe is to adjust the saturation current ratio to 1 by reducing the electron current contribution. In that case, the floating potential of the probe is close to the plasma potential. A thorough study of the ball-pen probe operation is performed for different designs of the probe over a large set of plasma conditions. Comparisons between ball-pen, Langmuir, and emissive probes are conducted in the same plasma conditions. The ball-pen probe is successfully measuring the plasma potential in these specific plasma conditions only if an adapted electronics and an adapted probe size to the plasma characteristic lengths ({lambda}{sub D}, {rho}{sub ce}) are used.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A near infra-red video system as a protective diagnostic for electron cyclotron resonance heating operation in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator is a large nuclear fusion device based at Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik in Greifswald in Germany. The main plasma heating system for steady state operation in W7-X is electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). During operation, part of plama facing components will be directly heated by the non-absorbed power of 1 MW rf beams of ECRH. In order to avoid damages of such components made of graphite tiles during the first operational phase, a near infra-red video system has been developed as a protective diagnostic for safe and secure ECRH operation. Both the mechanical design housing the camera and the optical system are very flexible and respect the requirements of steady state operation. The full system including data acquisition and control system has been successfully tested in the vacuum vessel, including on-line visualization and data storage of the four cameras equipping the ECRH equatorial launchers of W7-X.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

First-Principles Calculations on the Wettability of Li Atoms on the (111) Surfaces of W and Mo Substrates

Comprehension over the interactions between lithium (Li) atoms and tungsten (W) or molybdenum (Mo) are crucial to improve the wettability of the flowing liquid Li, a candidate plasma facing material in fusion devices, on the surfaces of supported substrate metals. In this work, we utilize first-principles density- functional theory calculations to figure out the adsorption and diffusion properties of Li atoms and clusters on the (111) surfaces of W and Mo. It is found that single Li atom in the fcc-hollow site is the most favored configuration. For the multiple Li atoms adsorption on the substrates, the planar construction is more stable than the stacking one. The electronic structure analysis shows that the lateral interaction between Li atoms is very weak and the binding between Li atom and the substrates is strong; therefore, it can be inferred that the liquid Li is “wetting” intrinsically on the surfaces of the W and Mo substrates. We also investigate the effect of defects (vacancy, H, C, and O) and find that the preexisted vacancy in the substrates has little effect on the wettability; however, the impurities (especially O atom) will hinder the movement of Li atoms on the metal substrates.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Numerical Study of Cracks Appearance on Tungsten Surface After High Intense Pulsed Ion Beam Irradiation

Due to the outstanding physical properties, Tungsten has been proposed for use in the divertor of future fusion devices. However, tungsten shall face strong particle bombardment from the plasma, which causes severe damage to the material. The purpose of this work is to build such an accurate analytical model which can predict the damages in target material like crack production and propagation after high intense pulsed ion beam irradiation. Hence, a two-dimensional finite element method is used to study the effect of high intense pulsed ion beam on tungsten surface numerically. To judge temperature and stress distribution in material, thermal conduction model is combined with non-linear fracture mechanics model and J-Integral parameter is used as a criterion to judge the crack propagation. Simulation results reveal that different crack heights and sizes can affect the results and there is a critical depth for crack propagation. The model gives good results to real experimental observations and has potential applications for different intense pulsed electron/plasma beams and different target materials as well.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Investigation of the effects of a thin dielectric layer on low-pressure hydrogen capacitive discharges driven by combined radio frequency and pulse power sources

Negative hydrogen ion sources, for instance for fusion devices, currently attract considerable attention. To generate the precursors—highly rovibrationally excited hydrogen molecules—for negative hydrogen ions effectively by electron excitation, a thin dielectric layer is introduced to cover the surface of the electrically grounded electrode of two parallel metal plates in a low-pressure hydrogen capacitive discharge driven by combined rf and pulse power sources. To understand the characteristics of such discharges, particle-in-cell simulations are conducted to study the effects that the single dielectric layer would bring onto the discharges. The simulation results show that the dielectric layer leads to a much higher plasma density and a much larger production rate of highly vibrationally excited hydrogen molecules compared to discharges without the dielectric layer on the electrode. Further investigation indicates that the nonlinear oscillation of the electrons induced by the nanosecond-pulse continues until it is finally damped down and does not show any dependence on the pulse plateau-time, which is in stark contrast to the case without the dielectric layer present. The physical reason for this phenomenon is explored and explained.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cryogenic pellet production developments for long-pulse plasma operation

Long pulse plasma operation on large magnetic fusion devices require multiple forms of cryogenically formed pellets for plasma fueling, on-demand edge localized mode (ELM) triggering, radiative cooling of the divertor, and impurity transport studies. The solid deuterium fueling and ELM triggering pellets can be formed by extrusions created by helium cooled, twin-screw extruder based injection system that freezes deuterium in the screw section. A solenoid actuated cutter mechanism is activated to cut the pellets from the extrusion, inserting them into the barrel, and then fired by the pneumatic valve pulse of high pressure gas. Fuel pellets are injected at a rate up to 10 Hz, and ELM triggering pellets are injected at rates up to 20 Hz. The radiative cooling and impurity transport study pellets are produced by introducing impurity gas into a helium cooled section of a pipe gun where it deposits in-situ. A pneumatic valve is opened and propellant gas is released downstream where it encounters a passive punch which initially accelerates the pellet before the gas flow around the finishes the pellet acceleration. This paper discusses the various cryogenic pellet production techniques based on the twin-screw extruder, pipe gun, and pellet punch designs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Three-dimensional two-fluid Braginskii simulations of the large plasma device

The Large Plasma Device (LAPD) is modeled using the 3D Global Braginskii Solver code. Comparisons to experimental measurements are made in the low-bias regime in which there is an intrinsic E × B rotation of the plasma. In the simulations, this rotation is caused primarily by sheath effects and may be a likely mechanism for the intrinsic rotation seen in LAPD. Simulations show strong qualitative agreement with the data, particularly the radial dependence of the density fluctuations, cross-correlation lengths, radial flux dependence outside of the cathode edge, and camera imagery. Kelvin Helmholtz (KH) turbulence at relatively large scales is the dominant driver of cross-field transport in these simulations with smaller-scale drift waves and sheath modes playing a secondary role. Plasma holes and blobs arising from KH vortices in the simulations are consistent with the scale sizes and overall appearance of those in LAPD camera images. The addition of ion-neutral collisions in the simulations at previously theorized values reduces the radial particle flux by about a factor of two, from values that are somewhat larger than the experimentally measured flux to values that are somewhat lower than the measurements. This reduction is due to a modest stabilizing contribution of the collisions on the KH-modes driving the turbulent transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermal island destabilization and the Greenwald limit

Magnetic reconnection is ubiquitous in the magnetosphere, the solar corona, and in toroidal fusion research discharges. A magnetic island saturates at a width which produces a minimum in the magnetic energy of the configuration is evident in a fusion device. At saturation, the modified current density profile, a function of the flux in the island, is essentially flat, the growth rate proportional to the difference in the current at the O-point and the X-point. Furthermore, modification of the current density profile in the island interior causes a change in the island stability and additional growth or contraction of the saturated island. Because field lines in an island are isolated from the outside plasma, an island can heat or cool preferentially depending on the balance of Ohmic heating and radiation loss in the interior, changing the resistivity and hence the current in the island. A simple model of island destabilization due to radiation cooling of the island is constructed, and the effect of modification of the current within an island is calculated. In addition destabilization effect is described, and it is shown that a small imbalance of heating can lead to exponential growth of the island. A destabilized magnetic island near the plasma edge can lead to plasma loss, and because the radiation is proportional to plasma density and charge, this effect can cause an impurity dependent density limit.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

CICART Center For Integrated Computation And Analysis Of Reconnection And Turbulence

CICART is a partnership between the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Dartmouth College. CICART addresses two important science needs of the DoE: the basic understanding of magnetic reconnection and turbulence that strongly impacts the performance of fusion plasmas, and the development of new mathematical and computational tools that enable the modeling and control of these phenomena. The principal participants of CICART constitute an interdisciplinary group, drawn from the communities of applied mathematics, astrophysics, computational physics, fluid dynamics, and fusion physics. It is a main premise of CICART that fundamental aspects of magnetic reconnection and turbulence in fusion devices, smaller-scale laboratory experiments, and space and astrophysical plasmas can be viewed from a common perspective, and that progress in understanding in any of these interconnected fields is likely to lead to progress in others. The establishment of CICART has strongly impacted the education and research mission of a new Program in Integrated Applied Mathematics in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at UNH by enabling the recruitment of a tenure-track faculty member, supported equally by UNH and CICART, and the establishment of an IBM-UNH Computing Alliance. The proposed areas of research in magnetic reconnection and turbulence in astrophysical, space, and laboratory plasmas include the following topics: (A) Reconnection and secondary instabilities in large high-Lundquist-number plasmas, (B) Particle acceleration in the presence of multiple magnetic islands, (C) Gyrokinetic reconnection: comparison with fluid and particle-in-cell models, (D) Imbalanced turbulence, (E) Ion heating, and (F) Turbulence in laboratory (including fusion-relevant) experiments. These theoretical studies make active use of three high-performance computer simulation codes: (1) The Magnetic Reconnection Code, based on extended two-fluid (or Hall MHD) equations, in an Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) framework, (2) the Particle Simulation Code, a fully electromagnetic 3D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code that includes a collision operator, and (3) GS2, an Eulerian, electromagnetic, kinetic code that is widely used in the fusion program, and simulates the nonlinear gyrokinetic equations, together with a self-consistent set of Maxwell’s equations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Self consistent radio-frequency wave propagation and peripheral direct current plasma biasing: Simplified three dimensional non-linear treatment in the 'wide sheath' asymptotic regime

A minimal two-field fluid approach is followed to describe the radio-frequency (RF) wave propagation in the bounded scrape-off layer plasma of magnetic fusion devices self-consistently with direct current (DC) biasing of this plasma. The RF and DC parts are coupled by non-linear RF and DC sheath boundary conditions at both ends of open magnetic field lines. The physical model is studied within a simplified framework featuring slow wave (SW) only and lateral walls normal to the straight confinement magnetic field. The possibility is however kept to excite the system by any realistic 2D RF field map imposed at the outer boundary of the simulation domain. The self-consistent RF + DC system is solved explicitly in the asymptotic limit when the width of the sheaths gets very large, for several configurations of the RF excitation and of the target plasma. In the case of 3D parallelepipedic geometry, semi-analytical results are proposed in terms of asymptotic waveguide eigenmodes that can easily be implemented numerically. The validity of the asymptotic treatment is discussed and is illustrated by numerical tests against a quantitative criterion expressed from the simulation parameters. Iterative improvement of the solution from the asymptotic result is also outlined. Throughout the resolution, key physical properties of the solution are presented. The radial penetration of the RF sheath voltages along lateral walls at both ends of the open magnetic field lines can be far deeper than the skin depth characteristic of the SW evanescence. This is interpreted in terms of sheath-plasma wave excitation. Therefore, the proper choice of the inner boundary location is discussed as well as the appropriate boundary conditions to apply there. The asymptotic scaling of various quantities with the amplitude of the input RF excitation is established.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Asymptotic and spectral analysis of the gyrokinetic-waterbag integro-differential operator in toroidal geometry

Achieving plasmas with good stability and confinement properties is a key research goal for magnetic fusion devices. The underlying equations are the Vlasov–Poisson and Vlasov–Maxwell (VPM) equations in three space variables, three velocity variables, and one time variable. Even in those somewhat academic cases where global equilibrium solutions are known, studying their stability requires the analysis of the spectral properties of the linearized operator, a daunting task. We have identified a model, for which not only equilibrium solutions can be constructed, but many of their stability properties are amenable to rigorous analysis. It uses a class of solution to the VPM equations (or to their gyrokinetic approximations) known as waterbag solutions which, in particular, are piecewise constant in phase-space. It also uses, not only the gyrokinetic approximation of fast cyclotronic motion around magnetic field lines, but also an asymptotic approximation regarding the magnetic-field-induced anisotropy: the spatial variation along the field lines is taken much slower than across them. Together, these assumptions result in a drastic reduction in the dimensionality of the linearized problem, which becomes a set of two nested one-dimensional problems: an integral equation in the poloidal variable, followed by a one-dimensional complex Schrödinger equation in the radial variable. We show here that the operator associated to the poloidal variable is meromorphic in the eigenparameter, the pulsation frequency. We also prove that, for all but a countable set of real pulsation frequencies, the operator is compact and thus behaves mostly as a finite-dimensional one. The numerical algorithms based on such ideas have been implemented in a companion paper [D. Coulette and N. Besse, “Numerical resolution of the global eigenvalue problem for gyrokinetic-waterbag model in toroidal geometry” (submitted)] and were found to be surprisingly close to those for the original gyrokinetic-Vlasov equations. The purpose of the present paper is to make these new ideas accessible to two readerships: applied mathematicians and plasma physicists.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Energy levels, lifetimes and radiative data of W LV

Calculations of energy levels, radiative data and lifetimes are reported for tungsten Ca-like ion (W LV) by using multi-configuration Dirac–Fock (MCDF) method. The GRASP2K package is adopted to carry out a large-scale systematic computation with a restricted active space treatment; the Breit interaction and QED effects are included in subsequent relativistic configuration interaction calculations. The energies and lifetimes of the lowest 119 levels are listed; the main leading configuration of the levels is of the ground state configuration [Ne]3s{sup 2}3p{sup 6}3d{sup 2} and the first excited configuration [Ne]3s{sup 2}3p{sup 5}3d{sup 3}. The wavelengths, radiative rates and oscillator strengths for relatively strong E1, E2, M1, and M2 transitions are listed. Comparisons with earlier experimental and theoretical values are made. The average relative deviations of energy levels from the NIST results and E1 transition wavelengths from the EBIT experimental results have turned to be only 0.20% and 0.13%, respectively. The other present results are in reasonable agreement with available data. These agreements confirm the reliability and accuracy of the current results. The present datasets may help us with the investigation of the electron–electron correlation effects in complex multi-electron highly charged heavy ions and of the diagnosis of tungsten impurity plasmas in fusion science.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Massively-parallel Lagrangian particle code and applications

Massively-parallel, distributed-memory algorithms for the Lagrangian particle hydrodynamic method (Samulyak et al., 2018) have been developed, verified, and implemented. The key component of parallel algorithms is a particle management module that includes a parallel construction of octree databases, dynamic adaptation and refinement of octrees, and particle migration between parallel subdomains. The particle management module is based on the p4est (parallel forest of k-trees) library. The massively-parallel Lagrangian particle code has been applied to a variety of fundamental science and applied problems. A summary of Lagrangian particle code applications to the injection of impurities into thermonuclear fusion devices and to the simulation of supersonic hydrogen jets in support of laser-plasma wakefield acceleration research has also been presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effects of the relative motion of different particles on the wave instability in dusty plasmas

Theoretical study is carried out for the dust acoustic waves in a dusty plasma. The dispersion relation is obtained from the fluid dynamical model. It is found that the wave frequency depends on the electron number density, wave number, and the speed of electrons or ions. The dependencies of the instability on the system parameters are also discussed. It is found that the long wavelength wave is usually unstable, which may be useful in the plasma physics, especially in the magnetic confined fusion system or the charged beam dynamics in the accelerated driven system.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗