THE HARD-CORE PINCH. PART II

Technical Report · Fri Jul 31 04:00:00 EDT 1959

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4207300· OSTI ID:4207300

Birdsall, D H; Colgate, S A; Furth, H P

The toroidal version of the hard-core pinch tube is created by levitating a ring conductor inside a toroidal shell. The magnitude of induced H/ sub theta / necessary for levi-tation is small in terms of field strengths normally desired for energetic pinches. In a 3-in. glass-and-copper toroid of square cross section a 3/4-in. hollow copper ring has been levitated with a 60- cycle current of 3 kiloamperes. A 12-in stainless steel tube of round cross section is being built. The stability of nearvacuum field hard-core configurations is best investigated in toroidal geometry. At high power levels and low plasma densities, the conventional toroidal stabilized pinch'' is subject to an anomalous plasma energy leakage to the wall, which cannot be explained by the observed ultraviolet radiation alone. A critical question is, therefore, whether the relative stability of some hard-core pinches, as reflected by the smoothness and reproducibility of magnetic probe traces, is reflected by an improved containment of the plasma en-ergy leading to high temperature. A toroidal hard-core tube is also useful in studying the nature of the nonhydromagnetic instabilities observed in the linear inverse stabilized pinch.'' The presence and condition of electrodes appear to have a substantial effect on the magnitude of these instabilities, as would be expected if they were, for instance, of electrostatic origin. In order to complement the plasma study of the hard-core pinch, we have developed an analogue method using sodium tubes to simulate the current-carrying layer. In this way the purely hydromagnetic aspect of the plasma behavior can be isolated. (auth)

• Research Organization: California. Univ., Livermore. Lawrence Radiation Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• NSA Number: NSA-13-020013
• OSTI ID: 4207300
• Report Number(s): UCRL-5602
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

COILS
CONFIGURATION
CONFINEMENT
CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR PROCESSES
COPPER
CURRENTS
DENSITY
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRODES
GLASS
HARD CORE PINCH
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INDUCTION
LAYERS
LEAKAGE
LOSSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MEASURED VALUES
OSCILLATIONS
PINCH
PLASMA
POWER
PROBES
SHELLS
SIGNALS
SODIUM
STABILITY
STAINLESS STEELS
TORUS
TUBES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VESSELS