Radial magnetic compression in the expelled jet of a plasma deflagration accelerator
- High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
A spectroscopic study of a pulsed plasma deflagration accelerator is carried out that confirms the existence of a strong compression in the emerging jet at the exit plane of the device. An imaging spectrometer is used to collect broadened Hα emission from a transaxial slice of the emerging jet at high spatial resolution, and the radial plasma density profile is computed from Voigt fits of the Abel inverted emissivity profiles. The plasma temperature, determined via Doppler broadening of impurity line emission, is compared against the temperature predictions of a radial magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium model applied to the measured density profiles. Empirical scaling laws developed for the plasma density, combined with the measured and predicted temperatures, indicate that a radially equilibrated Z-pinch is formed within the expelled plasma jet at the exit plane during the deflagration process.
- OSTI ID:
- 22591773
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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