Transport and equilibrium in field reversed mirrors

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5937023

Boyd, J A.K.

The field reversed mirror is a toroidal, closed magnetic field line plasma confinement device in the compact torus class. It has no conductors linking the plasma as in other toroidal devices such as the tokamak. The transport and equilibrium in field reversed mirrors is described in this work by two models. In both models the aspect ratio is one and axisymmetry is assumed. The first model considers the plasma to have a large collision frequency and small Larmor radius. The plasma is then modeled as an adiabatic hydromagnetic fluid and both toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields are allowed. The computer code and computational methods used to solve the equilibrium and transport equations are described. The computer code results are discussed for several cases considering the effects of natural beam injection and magnetic field shaping. The second model considers the plasma to have a small collision frequency, a large Larmor radius and only poloidal magnetic field is allowed. Ion species are described by distribution functions which must be calculated and electrons are modeled as an inertialess fluid. The ion distribution function is expanded in terms of collision frequency and at second order a kinetic equation for the time evolution of the Zero order distribution function is obtained. This equation is the large Larmor radius analog of the small Larmor radius drift kinetic equation which describes the tokamak neoclassical diffusion regime.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Davis (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5937023
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101 -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
700105* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Plasma Kinetics-Theoretical-- (-1987)
BEAM INJECTION
EQUILIBRIUM PLASMA
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
LARMOR RADIUS
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL
MAGNETIC MIRRORS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NEUTRAL ATOM BEAM INJECTION
OPEN PLASMA DEVICES
PLASMA
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TRANSPORT THEORY