Hall field limitations in MHD generators

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

OSTI ID:6135698

Hermina, W L

An experimental and theoretical study of Hall field limitations in clean fuel combustion-driven MHD generators has been completed. The purpose of this study has been to understand the processes leading up to both insulator and plasma initiated interelectrode breakdown. The present work has been most concerned with insulator initiated breakdown as a result of the lower breakdown thresholds for this breakdown mode as compared to the plasma initiated breakdown mode. The experimental work consisted of two sets of experiments. In the first set, several interelectrode insulator cooling techniques were studied for the purpose of extending the insulator initiated breakdown threshold to higher voltages. The second set of experiments dealt with the dependence of the Hall field behavior on generator parameters such as magnetic field, insulator size and transverse current density. The theoretical work consisted of developing a computer program to model the processes leading up to both insulator and plasma initiated breakdown. The program has been used to explain the trends observed in the experiments and also to predict the dependence of the Hall field behavior on generator parameters for both an experimental scale and a large scale generator. The results of the research demonstrate the effectiveness of several interelectrode insulator cooling techniques in preventing insulator initiated breakdown. Experimental and theoretical results have also been obtained that indicate the dependence of the Hall behavior on several generator parameters.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6135698
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300102* -- MHD Generators-- Performance & Testing
COMBUSTION CHAMBERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COOLING
CURRENT DENSITY
DATA
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL INSULATORS
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HALL EFFECT
INFORMATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MHD GENERATORS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLASMA
SIMULATION
THEORETICAL DATA