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Upgrade of the Pulsed High Density FRC Experiment for FRC Merging and Compression Studies

Author: Samuel Andreason
Requested Type: Poster Only
Submitted: 2009-12-04 21:08:19

Co-authors: John Slough, Chris Pihl

Contact Info:
Univerity of Washington
Box 352400
Seattle, WA   98195
USA

Abstract Text:
The initial experimental work on PHD has been focused on generating an FRC that has sufficient lifetime, temperature and flux to reach fusion conditions after magneto-kinetic compression. The initial experiments on the device, even at reduced power, have attained the target parameters with equilibrium temperatures of 300 eV and 15 mWb of flux. Dynamic formation was employed to produce a rapidly translating FRC simultaneously with field reversal. This technique resulted in the production of a very high flux, high velocity plasmoid on exit from the formation section into a drift chamber. A long lived FRC equilibrium phase was observed for these FRCs during translation through the drift chamber and reflection off of a downstream mirror. With this initial startup aspect of the PHD concept successfully completed, the next step for the program is to demonstrate the compression of this FRC to higher temperatures and densities. Based on the successful merging and compression experiments on the IPA device at smaller scale [1], an upgrade of the PHD device into a double ended system was undertaken. This modification will provide for a way to take advantage of this new, efficient and robust method of forming and heating the FRC through the merging process. The PHD source section will thus be split to create two FRC formation sections using the existing 2.5 m long, 0.8 m diameter chamber, coils and energy storage modules. A 2.8 m long, 0.4 m diameter fused quartz chamber will be employed for the merging and compression chamber. A set of 28 additional energy storage modules from the LSX-mod facility will be modified for use as the compression bank. The 56 magnet set from the STX experiment will be utilized as the compression coils. The peak compression field attainable with this arrangement will be roughly 1.3 T. With this field it is anticipated that the final plasma temperature will exceed 1 keV at a density of 4x10^21 m^-3. The use of a quartz merging chamber, and the transparency of the STX magnets (~80%) will provide for an ideal test facility for studying the effect of a Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) on the equilibrium of a high s FRC as well as a possible role in providing stability to both the rotational and tilt instabilities. A 2 MW, high power, solid-state driven RMF system will be available for this purpose.

[1] G. Votroubek, J. Slough, S. Andreason, C. Pihl, J. of Fus. Energy, Vol. 27, No. 1-2, pg.123 (2007).

Characterization: A1

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