Studies of large, non-circular, reversed field pinch discharges

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6566876

Almagri, A; Assadi, S; Dexter, R N; Prager, S C; Sarff, J S; Sprott, J C

Reversed field pinch discharges have been produced in a large (1.39 meter major radius, 0.56 meter average minor radius), thick-walled (5 cm), aluminum vacuum vessel with indented sides. The discharges are self-reversed and ramped up to a current of 300 kA over a time of 10 ms. Reversal is sustained for greater than or equal to 10 resistive diffusion times, despite the presence of large magnetic fluctuations. The influence of the bad poloidal magnetic curvature on RFP stability is examined by measurement of magnetic fluctuations near the plasma edge in the separate bad and good curvature regions of the noncircular plasma for RFP and non-reversed discharges with edge safety factor of 0.4 and 1.4. For q approx. 1.4 discharges, poloidal field curvature should be small. The large size permits RFP startup at a low toroidal loop voltage (less than or equal to 200 V), which is applied to a gap exposed to plasma, but successfully protected against arcing (up to 300 V). RFP plasmas have also been obtained with toroidal limiters.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA). Dept. of Physics
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-85ER53198
• OSTI ID: 6566876
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/53198-105; ON: DE87009102
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
ALLOYS
ANNULAR SPACE
CHROMIUM ALLOYS
CONFIGURATION
CORROSION RESISTANT ALLOYS
DATA
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
INFORMATION
INSTABILITY
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
LIMITERS
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC FLUX
NUMERICAL DATA
PINCH DEVICES
PINCH EFFECT
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
REVERSE-FIELD PINCH
SPACE
STAINLESS STEELS
STEELS
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOROIDAL CONFIGURATION