Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

On the Ablation Models of Fuel Pellets

Journal Article · · Plasma Physics Reports
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/1.2147645· OSTI ID:20718865
;  [1]
  1. St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 29, St. Petersburg, 195251 (Russian Federation)
The neutral gas shielding model and neutral-gas-plasma shielding model are analyzed qualitatively. The main physical processes that govern the formation of the shielding gas cloud and, consequently, the ablation rate are considered. For the neutral gas shielding model, simple formulas relating the ablation rate and cloud parameters to the parameters of the pellet and the background plasma are presented. The estimates of the efficiency of neutral gas shielding and plasma shielding are compared. It is shown that the main portion of the energy flux of the background electrons is released in the plasma cloud. Formulas for the ablation rate and plasma parameters are derived in the neutral-gas-plasma shielding model. The question is discussed as to why the neutral gas shielding model describes well the ablation rate of the pellet material, although it does not take into account the ionization effects and the effects associated with the interaction of ionized particles with the magnetic field. The reason is that the ablation rate depends weakly on the energy flux of hot electrons; as a result, the attenuation of this flux by the electrostatic shielding and plasma shielding has little effect on the ablation rate. This justifies the use of the neutral gas shielding model to estimate the ablation rate (to within a factor of about 2) over a wide range of parameters of the pellet and the background plasma.
OSTI ID:
20718865
Journal Information:
Plasma Physics Reports, Journal Name: Plasma Physics Reports Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 31; ISSN PPHREM; ISSN 1063-780X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Neutral and plasma shielding model for pellet ablation
Technical Report · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987 · OSTI ID:5607034

Near-field models and simulations of pellet ablation in tokamaks
Journal Article · Mon Jan 11 19:00:00 EST 2021 · Physics of Plasmas · OSTI ID:1755145

Pellet ablation and temperature profile measurements in TFTR
Conference · Thu Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1987 · OSTI ID:6439538