Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “PLASMA CONFINEMENT”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,441 records · Page 80
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Design of indirectly driven, high-compression Inertial Confinement Fusion implosions with improved hydrodynamic stability using a 4-shock adiabat-shaped drive

Experimental results from indirectly driven ignition implosions during the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) [M. J. Edwards et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 070501 (2013)] achieved a record compression of the central deuterium-tritium fuel layer with measured areal densities up to 1.2 g/cm{sup 2}, but with significantly lower total neutron yields (between 1.5 × 10{sup 14} and 5.5 × 10{sup 14}) than predicted, approximately 10% of the 2D simulated yield. An order of magnitude improvement in the neutron yield was subsequently obtained in the “high-foot” experiments [O. A. Hurricane et al., Nature 506, 343 (2014)]. However, this yield was obtained at the expense of fuel compression due to deliberately higher fuel adiabat. In this paper, the design of an adiabat-shaped implosion is presented, in which the laser pulse is tailored to achieve similar resistance to ablation-front instability growth, but with a low fuel adiabat to achieve high compression. Comparison with measured performance shows a factor of 3–10× improvement in the neutron yield (>40% of predicted simulated yield) over similar NIC implosions, while maintaining a reasonable fuel compression of >1 g/cm{sup 2}. Extension of these designs to higher laser power and energy is discussed to further explore the trade-off between increased implosion velocity and the deleterious effects of hydrodynamic instabilities.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Full-wave simulations of ICRF heating regimes in toroidal plasma with non-Maxwellian distribution functions

At the power levels required for significant heating and current drive in magnetically-confined toroidal plasma, modification of the particle distribution function from a Maxwellian shape is likely (Stix 1975 Nucl. Fusion 15 737), with consequent changes in wave propagation and in the location and amount of absorption. In order to study these effects computationally, both the finite-Larmor-radius and the high-harmonic fast wave (HHFW), versions of the full-wave, hot-plasma toroidal simulation code TORIC (Brambilla 1999 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41 1 and Brambilla 2002 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 44 2423), have been extended to allow the prescription of arbitrary velocity distributions of the form f(v(parallel to), v(perpendicular to) , psi, theta). For hydrogen (H) minority heating of a deuterium (D) plasma with anisotropic Maxwellian H distributions, the fractional H absorption varies significantly with changes in parallel temperature but is essentially independent of perpendicular temperature. On the other hand, for HHFW regime with anisotropic Maxwellian fast ion distribution, the fractional beam ion absorption varies mainly with changes in the perpendicular temperature. The evaluation of the wave-field and power absorption, through the full wave solver, with the ion distribution function provided by either a Monte-Carlo particle and Fokker-Planck codes is also examined for Alcator C-Mod and NSTX plasmas. Non-Maxwellian effects generally tend to increase the absorption with respect to the equivalent Maxwellian distribution.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Full-wave simulations of ICRF heating regimes in toroidal plasmas with non-Maxwellian distribution functions

At the power levels required for significant heating and current drive in magnetically-confined toroidal plasma, modification of the particle distribution function from a Maxwellian shape is likely [T. H. Stix, Nucl. Fusion, 15 737 (1975)], with consequent changes in wave propagation and in the location and amount of absorption. In order to study these effects computationally, both the finite-Larmor-radius and the high-harmonic fast wave (HHFW), versions of the full-wave, hot-plasma toroidal simulation code TORIC [M. Brambilla, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, 1 (1999) and M. Brambilla, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 44, 2423 (2002)], have been extended to allow the prescription of arbitrary velocity distributions of the form f(v||, v_perp, psi , theta). For hydrogen (H) minority heating of a deuterium (D) plasma with anisotropic Maxwellian H distributions, the fractional H absorption varies significantly with changes in parallel temperature but is essentially independent of perpendicular temperature. On the other hand, for HHFW regime with anisotropic Maxwellian fast ion distribution, the fractional beam ion absorption varies mainly with changes in the perpendicular temperature. The evaluation of the wave-field and power absorption, through the full wave solver, with the ion distribution function provided by either aMonte-Carlo particle and Fokker-Planck codes is also examined for Alcator C-Mod and NSTX plasmas. Non-Maxwellian effects generally tends to increase the absorption with respect to the equivalent Maxwellian distribution.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Flow and shear behavior in the edge and scrape-off layer of L-mode plasmas in National Spherical Torus Experiment

Fluctuations in the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) of L-mode plasmas in the National Spherical Torus Experiment [Kaye et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 1977 (2001)] as observed by the gas puff imaging (GPI) diagnostic are studied. Calculation of local, time resolved velocity maps using the hybrid optical flow and pattern matching velocimetry code enables analysis of turbulent flow and shear behavior. Periodic reversals in the direction of the poloidal flow near the separatrix are observed. Also, poloidal velocities and their radial shearing rate are found to be well correlated with the fraction of D{sub {alpha}} light contained in the SOL, which acts as a measure of turbulent bursts. The spectra of GPI intensity and poloidal velocity both have a strong feature near 3 kHz, which appears to correspond with turbulent bursts. This mode exhibits a poloidal structure with poloidal wavenumber of 7.7 m{sup -1} for GPI intensity and 3.4 m{sup -1} for poloidal velocity, and the poloidal velocity fluctuations near 3 kHz remain coherent over length scales in excess of the turbulent scales. Furthermore, recent SOL turbulence simulations find a parameter regime that exhibits periodic bursty transport and shares many qualitative similarities with the experimental data. Strong correlations between the shearing rate and the turbulent bursts are observed for time periods of {approx}2 ms, but the relationship is complicated by several factors. Finally, measurements of the radial profiles of the Reynolds shear stresses are reported. These radial profiles exhibit many similarities for several shots, and a region with positive radial gradient is seen to be coincident with local flow shear.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Design of a new high repetition rate Nd:YAG Thomson scattering system for Heliotron J

A new high repetition rate Nd:YAG Thomson scattering system has been designed for the Heliotron J helical device. The main purpose of installing the new Thomson scattering system is an investigation of an improved confinement physics such as the edge transport barrier (H-mode) or the internal transport barrier of the helical plasma. The system has 25 spatial points with {approx}10 mm resolution. Two high repetition Nd:YAG lasers (>550 mJ at 50 Hz) realize the measurement of the time evolution of the plasma profile with 10 ms time interval. Scattered light is collected with a large concave mirror (D=800 mm, f/2.25) with a solid angle of {approx}100 msr. The laser beam is injected from obliquely downward to upward, and obliquely backscattered light is detected (scattering angle is 20 deg.). Model simulation of the polychromator shows the measurable electron temperature and density range are from10 eV to 10 keV, >5x10{sup 18} m{sup -3} within 3% error for the temperature measurement, respectively.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2012

The effects of neutral gas heating on H mode transition and maintenance currents in a 13.56 MHz planar coil inductively coupled plasma reactor

The H mode transition and maintenance currents in a 13.56 MHz laboratory 6 turn planar coil inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor are simulated for low pressure argon discharge range of 0.02-0.3 mbar with neutral gas heating and at ambient temperature. An experimentally fitted 3D power evolution plot for 0.02 mbar argon pressure is also shown to visualize the effects of hysteresis in the system. Comparisons between simulation and experimental measurements show good agreement in the pressure range of 0.02-0.3 mbar for transition currents and 0.02-0.1 mbar for maintenance currents only when neutral gas heating is considered. This suggests that neutral gas heating plays a non-negligible role in determining the mode transition points of a rf ICP system.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Modelling of radiative divertor operation towards detachment in experimental advanced superconducting tokamak

In order to actively control power load on the divertor target plates and study the effect of radiative divertor on plasma parameters in divertor plasmas and heat fluxes to the targets, dedicated experiments with Ar impurity seeding have been performed on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak in typical L-mode discharge with single null divertor configuration, ohmic heating power of 0.5 MW, and lower hybrid wave heating power of 1.0 MW. Ar is puffed into the divertor plasma at the outer target plate near the separatrix strike point with the puffing rate 1.26 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 20} s{sup -1}. The radiative divertor is formed during the Ar puffing. The SOL/divertor plasma in the L-mode discharge with radiative divertor has been modelled by using SOLPS5.2 code package [V. Rozhansky et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 025007 (2009)]. The modelling shows the cooling of the divertor plasma due to Ar seeding and is compared with the experimental measurement. The changes of peak electron temperature and heat fluxes at the targets with the shot time from the modelling results are similar to the experimental measurement before and during the Ar impurity seeding, but there is a major difference in time scales when Ar affects the plasma in between experiment and modelling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

LHCD and ICRF heating experiments in H-mode plasmas on EAST

An ICRF system with power up to 6.0 MW and a LHCD system up to 4MW have been applied for heating and current drive experiments on EAST. Intensive lithium wall coating was intensively used to reduce particle recycling and Hydrogen concentration in Deuterium plasma, which is needed for effective ICRF and LHCD power absorption in high density plasmas. Significant progress has been made with ICRF heating and LHW current drive for realizing the H-mode plasma operation in EAST. In 2010, H-mode was generated and sustained by LHCD alone, where lithium coating and gas puffing launcher mouth were applied to improve the LHCD power coupling and penetration into the core plasmas at high density of H-modes. During the last two experimental campaigns, ICRF Heating experiments were carried out at the fixed frequency of 27MHz, achieving effective ions and electrons heating with the H Minority Heating (H-MH) mode, where electrons are predominantly heated by collisions with high energy minority ions. The H-MH mode gave the best plasma performance, and realized H-mode alone in 2012. Combination of ICRF and LHW power injection generated the H-mode plasmas with various ELMy characteristics. The first successful application of the ICRF Heating in the D (He3) plasma was also achieved. The progress on ICRF heating, LHCD experiments and their application in achieving H-mode operation from last two years will be discussed in this report.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Kinetic neoclassical transport in the H-mode pedestal

Multi-species kinetic neoclassical transport through the QH-mode pedestal and scrape-off layer on DIII-D is calculated using XGC0, a 5D full-f particle-in-cell drift-kinetic solver with self-consistent neutral recycling and sheath potentials. Quantitative agreement between the flux-driven simulation and the experimental electron density, impurity density, and orthogonal measurements of impurity temperature and flow profiles is achieved by adding random-walk particle diffusion to the guiding-center drift motion. The radial electric field (E{sub r}) that maintains ambipolar transport across flux surfaces and to the wall is computed self-consistently on closed and open magnetic field lines and is in excellent agreement with experiment. The E{sub r} inside the separatrix is the unique solution that balances the outward flux of thermal tail deuterium ions against the outward neoclassical electron flux and inward pinch of impurity and colder deuterium ions. Particle transport in the pedestal is primarily due to anomalous transport, while the ion heat and momentum transport are primarily due to the neoclassical transport. The full-f treatment quantifies the non-Maxwellian energy distributions that describe a number of experimental observations in low-collisionallity pedestals on DIII-D, including intrinsic co-I{sub p} parallel flows in the pedestal, ion temperature anisotropy, and large impurity temperatures in the scrape-off layer.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Comparison of beam emission spectroscopy and gas puff imaging edge fluctuation measurements in National Spherical Torus Experiment

In this study, the close physical proximity of the Gas Puff Imaging (GPI) and Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) diagnostics on the National Spherical torus Experiment (NSTX) is leveraged to directly compare fluctuation measurements, and to study the local effects of the GPI neutral deuterium puff during H-mode plasmas without large Edge Localized Modes. The GPI and BES views on NSTX provide partially overlapping coverage of the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) regions above the outboard midplane. The separation in the toroidal direction is 16°, and field lines passing through diagnostic views are separated by ∼20 cm in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. Strong cross-correlation is observed, and strong cross-coherence is seen for frequencies between 5 and 15 kHz. Also, probability distribution functions of fluctuations measured ∼3 cm inside the separatrix exhibit only minor deviations from a normal distribution for both diagnostics, and good agreement between correlation length estimates, decorrelation times, and structure velocities is found at the ±40% level. While the two instruments agree closely in many respects, some discrepancies are observed. Most notably, GPI normalized fluctuation levels exceed BES fluctuations by a factor of ∼9. BES mean intensity is found to be sensitive to the GPI neutral gas puff, and BES normalized fluctuation levels for frequencies between 1 and 10 kHz are observed to increase during the GPI puff.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

First hydrogen operation of NIO1: Characterization of the source plasma by means of an optical emission spectroscopy diagnostic

NIO1 (Negative Ion Optimization 1) is a compact and flexible radio frequency H{sup −} ion source, developed by Consorzio RFX and INFN-LNL. The aim of the experimentation on NIO1 is the optimization of both the production of negative ions and their extraction and beam optics. In the initial phase of its commissioning, NIO1 was operated with nitrogen, but now the source is regularly operated also with hydrogen. To evaluate the source performances, an optical emission spectroscopy diagnostic was installed. The system includes a low resolution spectrometer in the spectral range of 300-850 nm and a high resolution (50 pm) one, to study, respectively, the atomic and the molecular emissions in the visible range. The spectroscopic data have been interpreted also by means of a collisional-radiative model developed at IPP Garching. Besides the diagnostic hardware and the data analysis methods, the paper presents the first plasma measurements across a transition to the full H mode, in a hydrogen discharge. The characteristic signatures of this transition in the plasma parameters are described, in particular, the sudden increase of the light emitted from the plasma above a certain power threshold.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effects of external magnetic fields on the multi-mode Rayleigh–Taylor instability

The magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instability (mRTI) is a key process in inertial confinement fusion and is thought to be widespread in the interstellar medium, where it can concentrate plasma into discrete structures. We present resistive MHD simulations of the nonlinear evolution of multi-mode mRTI in both two and three dimensions, examining the effects of uniform external magnetic fields oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the initial interface. In both 2D and 3D, weak parallel fields enhance mixing-zone growth, whereas stronger fields suppress it. For perpendicular fields, growth is initially inhibited but becomes enhanced at later times. These behaviors arise from magnetic tension, which modifies flow anisotropy, buoyancy, drag, and vortex dynamics. The interplay of these mechanisms governs the distinct ways in which magnetic fields influence mRTI evolution.

Flow instabilities↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scattering of radio frequency waves by density filaments

Here, we present an abbreviated review of recent studies on the scattering of radio frequency waves by plasma turbulence. The plasma turbulence occurs in the scrape-off layer and in the edge region of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Radio frequency waves are used for delivering energy and momentum to the core plasma. As the waves propagate through a turbulent plasma, their propagation characteristics are affected. The studies reported in this paper are on the various changes that occur due to turbulence.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Signatures of Wigner molecule formation in interacting Dirac fermion quantum dots

We study N interacting massless Dirac fermions confined in a two-dimensional quantum dot. Physical realizations of this problem include a graphene monolayer and the surface state of a strong topological insulator. We consider both a magnetic confinement and an infinite mass confinement. The ground-state energy is computed as a function of the effective interaction parameter {alpha} from the Hartree-Fock approximation and, alternatively, by employing the Mueller exchange functional. For N=2, we compare those approximations to exact diagonalization results. The Hartree-Fock energies are highly accurate for the most relevant interaction range {alpha} < or approx. 2, but the Mueller functional leads to an unphysical instability when {alpha} > or approx. 0.756. Up to 20 particles were studied using Hartree-Fock calculations. Wigner molecule formation was observed for strong but realistic interactions, accompanied by a rich peak structure in the addition energy spectrum.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Preferential turbulence enhancement in two-dimensional compressions

When initially isotropic three-dimensional (3D) turbulence is compressed along two dimensions, the compression supplies energy directly to the flow components in the compressed directions, while the flow component in the noncompressed direction experiences the effects of compression only indirectly through the nonlinearity of the hydrodynamic equations. Here we present our study of such 2D compressions using numerical simulations. For initially isotropic turbulence, we find that the nonlinearity can be insufficient to maintain isotropy, with the energy components parallel to the compression coming to dominate the turbulent energy, with a number of consequences. Among these are the possibilities for stronger and more easily sustained growth of turbulent energy than in 3D compressions and for an increasing turbulent Mach number even in a compression without thermal losses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Thermal Temperature Measurements of Inertial Fusion Implosions

Accurate measurement of the thermal temperature in inertially confined fusion plasmas is essential for characterizing ignition performance and validating the basic physics understanding of the stagnation conditions. Here we present experimental results from cryogenic deuterium-tritium implosions on the National Ignition Facility using a differential filter spectrometer designed to measure the thermal electron temperature from x-ray continuum emission from the stagnated plasma. Furthermore, electron temperature measurements, used in conjunction with the Doppler-broadened DT neutron spectra, allow one to infer the partition of energy in the hot spot between internal energy and unconverted kinetic energy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Visualization of Fast Ion Phase-Space Flow Driven by Alfvén Instabilities

Fast ion phase-space flow, driven by Alfven eigenmodes (AEs), is measured by an imaging neutral particle analyzer in the DIII-D tokamak. The flow firstly appears near the minimum safety factor at the injection energy of neutral beams, and then moves radially inward and outward by gaining and losing energy, respectively. The flow trajectories in phase space align well with the intersection lines of the constant magnetic moment surfaces and constant E – (ω/n)P ζ surfaces, where E, P ζ are energy and toroidal canonical momentum of ions; ω and n are angular frequencies and toroidal mode numbers of AEs. It is found that the flow is so destructive that the thermalization of fast ions is no longer observed in regions of strong interaction. Here, the measured phase-space flow is consistent with nonlinear hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics simulation. Calculations of the relatively narrow phase-space islands reveal that fast ions must transition between different flow trajectories to experience large-scale phase-space transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗