Electromagnetic railgun hydrogen pellet injector: Progress and prospect
A two-stage, fuseless, plasma-arc-driven electromagnetic railgun system suitable for hydrogen pellet acceleration has been developed and successfully tested. The first stage is a combination of a hydrogen pellet generator and a gas gun, which is responsible for injecting a medium-velocity hydrogen pellet into the second-stage railgun through a coupling piece. As the pellet enters the railgun, a specially designed arc-initiation scheme electrically breaks down the propellant gas which has followed the pellet from the gas gun into the railgun, thus forming a conducting plasma-arc armature immediately behind the pellet. This arc formation event coincides with the triggering of the main railgun current and allows the plasma-arc armature to subsequently propel the hydrogen pellet to a high velocity. Using this two-stage acceleration scheme with a 1-m-long railgun barrel, solid hydrogen pellet velocities in excess of 2.2 km/s have been achieved for a pellet 3.2 mm in diameter and 4 mm in length. The objectives of this paper are two-fold: first, a critical review of the achievements thus far on the railgun hydrogen-pellet injector and second, a description of the most recent technological developments and their implications for future work, in particular, the prospect of employing a railgun pellet injector for future large devices. 6 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.
- Research Organization:
- Illinois Univ., Urbana (USA). Fusion Technology Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-84ER52111
- OSTI ID:
- 6438801
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8810231-9; ON: DE89009536
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: IAEA technical committee meeting on pellet injection and toroidal confinement, Gut Ising, F.R. Germany, 24 Oct 1988; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
PELLET INJECTION
FUEL PELLETS
HYDROGEN
PROGRESS REPORT
RAILGUN ACCELERATORS
TOROIDAL CONFIGURATION
ACCELERATORS
ANNULAR SPACE
CLOSED CONFIGURATIONS
CONFIGURATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
NONMETALS
PELLETS
SPACE
700205* - Fusion Power Plant Technology- Fuel
Heating
& Injection Systems