Recent measurements of electron density profiles of plasmas in PLADIS I, a plasma disruption simulator
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering; D.B. Efremov Inst. of Electrophysical Apparatus, St. Petersburg (Russian Federation)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Fusion Technology Dept.
Tokamak disruption simulation experiments are being conducted at the University of New Mexico (UNM) using the PLADIS I plasma gun system. PLADIS I is a high power, high energy coaxial plasma gun configured to produce an intense plasma beam. First wall candidate materials are placed in the beam path to determine their response under disruption relevant energy densities. An optically thick vapor shield plasma has been observed to form above the target surface in PLADIS I. Various diagnostics have been used to determine the characteristics of the incident plasma and the vapor shielding plasma. The cross sectional area of the incident plasma beam is a critical characteristic, as it is used in the calculation of the incident plasma energy density. Recently, a HeNe interferometer in the Mach-Zehnder configuration has been constructed and used to probe the electron density of the incident plasma beam and vapor shield plasma. The object beam of the interferometer is scanned across the plasma beam on successive shots, yielding line integrals of beam density on different chords through the plasma. Data from the interferometer is used to determine the electron density profile of the incident plasma beam as a function of beam radius. This data is then used to calculate the effective beam area. Estimates. of beam area, obtained from other diagnostics such as damage targets, calorimeter arrays and off-axis measurements of surface pressure, will be compared with data from the interferometer to obtain a better estimate of the beam cross sectional area.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 178190
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950612-; ISBN 0-7803-2669-5; TRN: 96:006685
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 22. international conference on plasma science, Madison, WI (United States), 5-8 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of IEEE conference record -- abstracts: 1995 IEEE international conference on plasma science; PB: 312 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Results from the US/USSR exchange for heat load material studies of simulated tokamak disruptions
Results from the US/USSR exchange for heat load material studies of simulated tokamak disruptions