Stability of spheromaks compressed by liquid walls
- LLNL
We consider Rayleigh-Taylor instability of the liquid-plasma interface of a spheromak ignited by slow compression discussed previously. We conclude that instability may indeed occur despite the stabilizing influence of magnetic shear in the spheromak. If it occurs, instability would be greatest for modes concentrated toward the midplane. As for the cylindrical LINUS configuration, rotation about the geometric axis would stabilize these modes, but at the price of roughly doubling the input energy and reducing the gain. However, even in the absence of rotation, in a sphere instability occurs only at the end of compression near the stagnation point. Revised estimates of the fusion energy gain taking this brief period of instability into account still give, within the uncertainties, a gain G {approx} 20 for our earlier example with an input energy of 150 MJ and fusion yield of 3 GJ.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 13826
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-135551; AT5015020; AT5015020
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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