Radiation Heat Transfer and Vapor Shielding in a Two-Dimensional Model of an Electrothermal Plasma Source

Electrothermal (ET) plasma discharges are emerging as valuable mechanisms for pellet injection in magnetic confinement fusion reactors. They have been shown to be capable of achieving the required pellet velocities and pellet launch frequencies required for edge localized mode control. Another advantage of ET plasma discharges is their ability to simulate fusion disruption events by depositing large heat fluxes on exposed materials. A deeper understanding of the heat transfer processes occurring in ET plasma discharges will aid in this particular application. ET plasma discharges involve the passage of high currents (order of tens of kA) along the axis of a narrow, cylindrical channel. As the current passes through the channel, radiant heat is transferred from the plasma core to the capillary wall. Ablated particles eventually fill the plasma channel and the partially ionized plasma is ejected. It is well known that the ablated material separating the plasma core from the ablating surface can act as a vapor shield and limit the radiation heat flux reaching the ablating surface. In this work, the results from a two-dimensional simulation model for ET plasma discharges are presented. The simulation of the plasma in a two-dimensional domain combined with the diffusion approximation for radiation heat transfer is shown to successfully simulate the effects of the vapor shield layer that develops inside these devices.     

Characterization of Short Intense Pulsed Electrothermal Plasma Capillaries for Use as Fusion and Launchers Heat Flux Sources

Electrothermal plasma sources operating in the confined capillary arc regime are characterized by the magnitude and shape of the discharge current. The desired plasma parameters at the source exit, especially the pressure and heat flux, are highly dependent on the arc due to the effect of the arc radiant energy that ablates the inner wall of the source. These sources have applications in fusion as drivers for pellet injectors and as high heat flux sources for fusion materials studies. The high-pressure high heat flux flow is also of application in mass accelerators and launch technology systems. The 1-D, time-dependent ETFLOW capillary code models the plasma generation and flow inside the capillary discharges and determines the plasma parameters. The input file to the code is the discharge current density providing the Joule heating in the energy equation. A circuit module has been developed and incorporated in the code to generate desired current shapes and magnitudes. The current pulse length was varied between 5 and 100 μs at constant amplitude of 50 kA, and then the pulse amplitude was varied between 10 and 200 kA at a constant pulse length of 20 μs. Increasing the pulse length while maintaining its amplitude increases the plasma density and the total ablated mass, which have accumulation behavior by increasing the pulse length, and subsequently increases the exit pressure from 60 to 410 MPa in the cases studied herein. The pressure increase allows the thermalization of the plasma particles through more collisions, which reduces the plasma temperature by about 0.2 eV. The bulk velocity follows the trend of the plasma temperature, but at shorter pulse lengths the total ablated mass is lower and enables the plasma to carry the particles with increasing velocity. Increasing the pulse amplitude up to 200 kA increases the density to about 18 kg/m³ and the bulk velocity, which varies between 6.1 and 10.7 km/s. A sharp increase in most plasma parameters occurs as a result of the increase in the pulse amplitude.     

Optimization of Fusion Pellet Launch Velocity in an Electrothermal Mass Accelerator

Electrothermal mass accelerators, based on capillary discharges, that form a plasma propelling force from the ablation of a low-z liner material are candidates for fuelling magnetic fusion reactors. As lithium is considered a fusion fuel and not an impurity, lithium hydride and lithium deuteride can serve as good ablating liners for plasma formation in an electrothermal plasma source to propel fusion pellets. A comprehensive study of solid lithium hydride and deuteride as liner materials to generate a plasma to propel cryogenic fuel pellets is presented here. This study was conducted using the ETFLOW capillary discharge code. Relationships between propellants, source and barrel geometry, pellet volume and aspect ratio, and pellet velocity are determined for pellets ranging in volume from 5 to 100 mm³.     

Enhanced Performance of Electrothermal Plasma Sources as Fusion Pellet Injection Drivers and Space Based Mini-Thrusters via Extension of a Flattop Discharge Current

Electrothermal plasma sources have been introduced as a method to propel frozen hydrogenic pellets for fueling of future magnetic fusion reactors. These sources are also useful as mini-thrusters in space shuttles, pre-injectors in hypervelocity launchers and igniters in electrothermal-chemical Guns. The source is a capillary discharge that generates the plasma from the ablation of a liner in an ablation-dominated regime, or from the flow of gas into the capillary in an ablation-free regime. Most electrothermal plasma sources uses pulse power delivery system with a pulse length in the range of 100 μs with FWHM of 50 μs. This research is a computational study on the effect of extending the top of the discharge current pulse to the range of 1,000 μs on the source exit parameter to achieve higher pressures and better exit velocities. Calculations using 0.4 cm diameter, 9.0 cm length Lexan polycarbonate capillary source, using ideal and nonideal plasma models, show that extended flattop pulses at fixed amplitude produce more ablated mass which scales linearly with increased pulse length, however, other plasma parameters remain almost constant. Results suggest that quasi-steady state operation of an electrothermal plasma source may provide constant exit pressure and velocity for pellet injectors for future magnetic fusion reactors deep fueling.     

The Nonlinear Behaviors in Atmospheric Dielectric Barrier Multi Pulse Discharges

An in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the complex nonlinear behaviors in atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge is significant for the stable operation and effective control of the plasma. In this paper, we study the nonlinear behaviors in argon atmospheric dielectric barrier multi pulse discharges by a one-dimensional fluid model. Under certain conditions, the multi pulse discharge becomes very sensitive with the increase of frequency, and the multi pulse period-doubling bifurcation, inverse period-doubling bifurcation and chaos appear frequently. The discharge can reach a relatively steady state only when the discharges are symmetrical between positive and negative half cycle. In addition, the effects of the voltage on these nonlinear discharges are also studied. It is found that the amplitude of voltage has no effects on the number of discharge pulses in multi-pulse period-doubling bifurcation sequences; however, to a relatively stable periodic discharge, the discharge pulses are proportional to the amplitude of the applied voltage within a certain range.     

Initial Plasma Startup Test on SUNIST Spherical Tokamak

The goal of the Sino-United Spherical Tokamak (SUNIST) at Tsinghua University is to extend the understanding of toroidal plasma physics at a low aspect ratio (R/a ≈ 1.3) and to demonstrate a maintainable target plasma by non-inductive startup. The SUNIST device isdesigned to operate with up to 13 kA of ohmic heating field current, and to 0.15 T of toroidal field at 10 kA of discharge current. All of the poloidal fields can provide 30 mVs of Volt-seconds transformer. Experimental results of plasma startup show that SUNIST has remarkable characteristics of high ramp rate (dIp/dt ≈ 50 MA/s ), high normalized current IN of about 2.8 (IN = Ip/αBT)，and high-efficiency (Ip/IROD ≈ 0.4) production of plasma current while operating at a low toroidal field. Major disruption phenomena have not been observed from magnetic diagnostics of all testing shots. Initial discharges with 52 kA of plasma current (exceeding the designed value of 50 kA),2 ms of pulse length and 50 MA/s of ramp rate have been achieved easily with pre-ionized filament.     

A Computational Study of a Capillary Discharge Pellet Accelerator Concept for Magnetic Fusion Fueling

An ablation-dominated capillary discharge using low atomic number elements for plasma formation to flow into an ablation-free extension barrel is a concept that provides a high energy–density plasma flow sufficient to propel fuel pellets into the tokamak fusion plasma chamber. In this concept, the extension barrel is made from a non-ablating material by coating the interior wall of the barrel with nanocrystalline diamond to eliminate mixing the propelling plasma with any impurities evolving from the barrel ablation. The electrothermal plasma code ETFLOW models the plasma formation and flow in the capillary discharge and the flow into the extension barrel to accelerate frozen deuterium pellets. The code includes governing equations for both the capillary and the extension barrel, with the addition of the pellet’s terms. It also includes ideal and non-ideal plasma conductivity models. The joule heating term in the energy conservation equation is only valid in the capillary section. The pellet momentum and kinetic energy are included in the governing equations of the barrel, with the addition of the effect of viscous drag terms. The electrothermal capillary source generates the plasma via the ablation of a sleeve inside the main capillary housing. The acceleration of the pellet starts in the extension barrel when the pressure of the plasma flow from the capillary reaches the release limit. The code results show pellet exit velocities in excess of 2 km/s for source/barrel systems with low-Z liner materials in the source for 5, 20, 45, and 80 mg pellets. The study shows that an increase in the length of both the source and the extension barrel increases the pellet exit velocity with the limitation of slowdown effects for plasma expansion and cooling off inside the barrel.     

Temporal Variation of the Current Sheet Inductance from PACO Plasma Focus Device

The temporal variation of the current sheet (CS) inductance in a plasma focus device can be calculated using the current derivative and the voltage signal acquired on the anode electrode, which are very common measurements in this type of device. The value of that inductance contains important information about the discharge performed including the CS lift-off from the insulator, voltage between the pinch extremes, maximum energy of the X-ray, energy delivered to the pinch and information about the actuating fusion mechanisms if the filling pressure is deuterium. This work discusses the values of the CS inductance extracted from several discharges of the Plasma Auto Confinado (PACO) plasma focus, installed in the National University of the Center of Buenos Aires—Argentina (2 kJ total energy, capacitor bank of 4 μF charged to 31 kV and a maximum current of 250 kA).     

Supersonic Flow Patterns from Electrothermal Plasma Source for Simulated Ablation and Aerosol Expansion Following a Fusion Disruption

A pulsed electrothermal plasma source of a capillary discharge operating in the confined controlled arc regime is investigated to simulate the source term for ablation-induced regime of fusion reactor following hard disruption, in which ablation of diverter surface produces large aerosol transporting into the vacuum vessel. The source is attached to a converging–diverging micro-nozzle transition region to allow for the plasma flow and expansion into a large volume simulating large chamber of fusion reactor aerosol expansion to facilitate modeling of the plasma transport. This transition region connects to a 4 mm diameter capillary source and has a 3.33 mm converging section with a 2° converging angle, followed by a 146.7 mm diverging section with a 60° diverging angle, thus making an overall transition length of ~150 mm. The diverging section has an exit diameter of 50.82 cm to open into a large volume of the same exit diameter and a length of 1 m. Preliminary computation results indicate about 21 Mach number at the diverging exit and drops down to 0.7 Mach number after suffering from multiple shocks in the large uniform expansion volume. The plasma parameters entering the large chamber are maintained constant along the axis of the chamber for a simulated 1-D condition.     

The Formation of a Tokamak-like Plasma in Initial Experiments Using an Outboard Plasma Gun Current Source

Solenoid-free tokamak startup via point-source DC helicity injection is demonstrated on the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment using a high current density, low impurity plasma gun mounted near the outboard midplane. A threshold in the vacuum vertical magnetic field strength that allows the injected current filament to relax into a tokamak-like topology is observed. A simple 2-D model of the vacuum magnetic field suggests this threshold is the maximum field strength that allows a toroidally connected field null to form. Discharges with I _p ≈ 17 kA are produced using less than 2 kA of injected current and no inductive drive. The tokamak-like discharges exhibit current decay times about five times longer than the injected current decay, expansion of the plasma into the vacuum region and a significant increase in the line-integrated density.     

Vapor Shield Models for Fusion Reactors Plasma-Facing Components

Radiant heat flux is a dominant mechanism by which energy transfers from the high-temperature core plasma to the interior critical components of the fusion reactor, which result in surface ablation and sever damage to the components. A vapor layer develops at the surface and provides a self-shielding mechanism at the plasma-material interface. Two models for the energy transmission factor through the boundary layer were developed and incorporated in the electrothermal plasma capillary code to predict the effectiveness of these models in surface self-protection. The electrothermal plasma capillary discharge simulates the typical conditions of fusion reactors disruption and quench phase and has been shown to be an adequate technique to evaluate the erosion of plasma-facing component. First model treats the radiant heat transport as it is affected by the variation of the plasma opacity, in which the vapor shield efficiency depends on the plasma optical thickness and the mean plasma opacity. The second model defines the vapor shield by the ratio of the energy reaching the surface to the total radiant energy emitted by the plasma with the inclusion of the plasma kinetic energy. The code can predict the axial and temporal variation of the transmission factor at each time step and mesh point, and predicts the plasma parameters with the effectiveness of the vapor shield at the boundary layer. The code prediction with implementation of both models has been used to compare the results with earlier ones and with some experimental data. Code results are in good correlation with experimentally measured ablation data.     

First experiences with the new W7-X like control system at the WEGA stellarator

The new quality of the superconducting fusion device Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is its capability of steady state operation. Additionally the fusion device W7-X is a very complex technical system. The modular and strongly hierarchical control system has been designed to cope with these two requirements unique for fusion devices.To minimize the risks before commissioning the control and data acquisition system at W7-X it will be thoroughly tested in a prototype installation at the WEGA stellarator. WEGA is a classical stellarator which allows steady state plasma pulses at a magnetic field of 0.5 T. Despite its lesser complexity WEGA has the same main components, e.g. magnetic coil systems, ECRH, and diagnostics as W7-X and is therefore considered to be a suitable test-bed for the control system.The installation of the new W7-X like control and data acquisition system has been finished in March this year. Individual components of the control system have already been commissioned during the installation phase. In April final commissioning and testing of the complete system took place. First discharges fully controlled by the prototype control system have been realized.The contribution will focus on first discharges controlled by the new system. Furthermore it presents first experiences that will incorporate into the further development of the control system and the tools for planning, preparation, and realization of plasma discharges.     

MHD Properties of Low-aspect Ratio RFP in RELAX

The low-aspect-ratio (A) reversed field pinch (RFP) offers attractive properties such as enhanced bootstrap current and simpler MHD mode dynamics. The RELAX (REversed field pinch of Low-Aspect ratio eXperiment) machine with the world’s lowest A of 2 (R/a = 0.5 m/0.25 m) has been constructed to explore the RFP properties in low-A regime. In flat-topped low-A RFP discharges in RELAX, plasma current of ~50 kA has been attained with discharge duration of ~2 ms. In round-topped discharges with plasma current of ~70 kA, quasi-periodic growth of a single helical mode has been observed. When the dominant m = 1/n = 4 mode grows, the toroidal mode spectrum looks like that of the quasi-single helicity (QSH) RFP state with higher amplitude. MHD equilibrium analyses using a reconstruction code have shown that the bootstrap current fraction is lower than ~5% in the present RELAX plasmas, and it will be ~25% if we could achieve the plasma density of 4 × 10¹⁹ m⁻³ and electron temperature of 300 eV at plasma current of ~100 kA.     

Microwave preionization and electron cyclotron resonance plasma current startup in the EXL-50 spherical tokamak

Preionization has been widely employed to create initial plasma and help the toroidal plasma current formation. This research focuses on implementing a simple, economical and practical electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) preionization technique on the newly constructed EXL-50 spherical tokamak, and evaluating the effectiveness on improving the plasma current startup. Two types ECR microwave preionization experiments for the plasma initialization without the central solenoid are reported: (1) 2.45 GHz microwave preionization and current startup with 2.45 GHz ECR source; (2) 2.45 GHz microwave preionization and current startup with 28 GHz ECR source. Application of the 2.45 GHz ECR microwave preionization to the experiments has contributed to (1) getting rid of the plasma breakdown delay; (2) the significant improvement of the discharge quality: the discharge is much longer and more stable while the driven plasma current is larger, compared to the discharge without preionization.     

Frequency dependence of plasma characteristics at different pressures in cylindrical inductively coupled plasma source

The effects of driving frequency on plasma parameters and electron heating efficiency are studied in cylindrical inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source. Measurements are made in an Ar discharge for driving frequency at 13.56/2 MHz, and pressures of 0.4–1.2 Pa. In 13.56 MHz discharge, higher electron density (n_e) and higher electron temperature (T_e) are observed in comparison with 2 MHz discharge at 0.6–1.2 Pa. However, slightly highern_e andT_e are observed in 2 MHz discharge at 0.4 Pa. This observation is explained by enhanced electron heating efficiency due to the resonance between the oscillation of 2 MHz electromagnetic field and electron-neutral collision process at 0.4 Pa. It is also found that the variation ofT_e distribution is different in 13.56 and 2 MHz discharge. For ICP at 13.56 MHz, T_e shows an edge-high profile at 0.4–1.2 Pa. For 2 MHz discharge,T_e remains an edge-high distribution at 0.4–0.8 Pa. However, the distribution pattern involves into a center-high profile at 0.9–1.2 Pa. The spatial profiles ofn_e remain a center-high shape in both 13.56 and 2 MHz discharges, which indicates the nonlocal kinetics at low pressures. Better uniformity could be achieved by using 2 MHz discharge. The effects of gas pressure on plasma parameters are also examined. An increase in gas pressure necessitates the rise ofn_e in both 13.56 and 2 MHz discharges. Meanwhile, T_e drops when gas pressure increases and shows a flatter distribution at higher pressure.     

Effect of Airflows on Repetitive Nanosecond Volume Discharges

Atmospheric pressure discharges excited by repetitive nanosecond pulses have attracted significant attention for various applications.In this paper,a plate-plate discharge with airflows is excited by a repetitive nanosecond pulse generator.Under different experiment conditions,the applied voltages,discharge currents,and discharge images are recorded.The plasma images presented here indicate that the volume discharge modes vary with airflow speeds,and a diffuse and homogeneous volume discharge occurs at the speed of more than 35 m/s.The role of airflows provides different effects on the 2-stage pulse discharges.The 1st pulse currents nearly maintain consistency for different airflow speeds.However,the 2nd pulse current has a change trend of first decreasing and then rapidly increasing,and the value difference for 2nd pulse currents is about 20 A under different airflows.In addition,the experimental results are discussed according to the electrical parameters and discharge images.     

Plasma-wall interaction in ATC during high power neutral beam injection

Measurements of the elemental composition of samples of the vacuum vessel wall surface and of relative impurity influx rates into ATC during high power beam-heated discharges are combined with a computer simulation of the plasma and previous measurements of power balance and scaling laws to give a model of the main plasma-wall interactions in ATC. It is shown that plasma and beam charge exchange neutrals are the primary causes of impurity influx during neutral beam injection.     

Discharge Characteristics of SF6 in a Non-Uniform Electric Field Under Repetitive Nanosecond Pulses

The characteristics of high pressure sulphur hexafluoride (SF ₆ ) discharges in a highly non-uniform electric field under repetitive nanosecond pulses are investigated in this paper. The influencing factors on discharge process, such as gas pressure, pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and number of applied pulses, are analyzed. Experimental results show that the corona intensity weakens with the increase of gas pressure and strengthens with the increase of PRF or number of applied pulses. Spark discharge images suggest that a shorter and thicker discharge plasma channel will lead to a larger discharge current. The number of applied pulses to breakdown descends with the increase of PRF and ascends with the rise of gas pressure. The reduced electric field (E/p) decreases with the increase of PRF in all circumstances. The experimental results provide significant supplements to the dielectric characteristics of strongly electronegative gases under repetitive nanosecond pulses.     

Initial plasma start-up using partial solenoid coils in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST)

Initial plasma start-up experiments based on ohmic discharge using partial solenoid coils located at both vertical ends of a center stack have been carried out in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) at Seoul National University. Ohmic discharges with the help of microwave pre-ionization have been performed according to the pre-programed start-up scenario which was experimentally verified by a series of vacuum field measurements using an internal magnetic probe array. A plasma current of around 0.4 kA has been achieved by ohmic discharge using partial solenoid coils, under the toroidal magnetic field of 0.1 T. The vacuum field calculation and fast camera image have revealed that the small plasma current even with significant amount of loop voltage up to 9.7 V is attributed to the imbalance of poloidal field for equilibrium. Modification of the start-up scenario and upgrade of power supplies are proposed to be carried out in order to achieve higher plasma current in the future experiments.     

Two-Dimensional Simulation of Spatial-Temporal Behaviors About Period Doubling Bifurcation in an Atmospheric-Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge

As a spatially extended dissipated system, atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharges （DBDs） could in principle possess complex nonlinear behaviors. In order to improve the stability and uniformity of atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharges, studies on tem- poral behaviors and radial structure of discharges with strong nonlinear behaviors under different controlling parameters are much desirable. In this paper, a two-dimensional fluid model is devel- oped to simulate the radial discharge structure of period-doubling bifurcation, chaos, and inverse period-doubling bifurcation in an atmospheric-pressure DBD. The results show that the period-2n （n = 1, 2... ） and chaotic discharges exhibit nonuniform discharge structure. In period-2n or chaos, not only the shape of current pulses doesn＇t remains exactly the same from one cycle to an- other, but also the radial structures, such as discharge spatial evolution process and the strongest breakdown region, are different in each neighboring discharge event. Current-voltage characteris- tics of the discharge system are studied for further understanding of the radial structure.