Halbach Transformer Coil Support for Cusp Plasma Confinement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cusped plasma confinement devices face challenges in minimizing impurity buildup, high-voltage breakdown, and efficient plasma heating and current drive, primarily due to the exposure of support structures to hot dense plasma, which leads to impurity generation and voltage degradation.
Innovation Solution
The placement of primary confinement field coil supports outboard of the plasma cusp region using lobed flanges from Bitter-type electromagnetic field coils, forming Halbach transformers that modulate the magnetic field for plasma heating and current drive, reducing impurity formation and improving voltage holding characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If coil support is placed through the field coil in the cusp region, then the field coil can be supported structurally, but impurity buildup increases and voltage holding deteriorates due to plasma bombardment of the support
Solution Approach 1:
The coil support is extracted from the cusp region and placed in the outboard region instead. The lobed flange structure provides passageways that allow the support to be positioned outside the plasma-confined cusp region, eliminating direct plasma bombardment of the support structure while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The lobed flange acts as an intermediary structure that connects the field coil to the support while providing protected passageways. This intermediary structure allows the support to be positioned in the outboard region while still providing structural support to the field coil in the cusp region.
2Reliability
If high voltages are applied across the confinement field for cusp plugging or rotation, then plasma confinement is improved, but high-voltage breakdown occurs on support structures and antennae
Solution Approach 1:
The coil support is extracted from the high-voltage region to the outboard region, removing it from the area where high voltages are applied for cusp plugging or rotation. This eliminates the support structure as a potential site for high-voltage breakdown while maintaining its structural function.
3Strength
If support structures are exposed to hot dense plasma, then structural support is provided, but plasma heating efficiency decreases due to energy loss through ablation and impurity generation
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is extracted from the hot dense plasma region and positioned in the outboard region. This eliminates energy loss through ablation and impurity generation while maintaining the structural support function through the lobed flange passageways.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration minimizes impurity generation, enhances voltage holding, and provides flexible options for plasma heating and current drive, improving plasma confinement and stability in cusp reactors.
Implementation Method 1
cusp-shaped magnetic fields are formed by at least three current-carrying magnetic field coils held in proximity along a shared cylindrical axis
Implementation Method 2
Cusp reactors, for example linear sets of multiple ring cusps such as the Jupiter series of reactors, have the benefit of good magnetohydrodynamic stability
Implementation Method 3
stacked helical assemblies of lobed flanges formed into Bitter-type electromagnetic transformers provide an option for modulating the primary field inside the reactor at frequencies for heating or driving current
Implementation Method 4
Resonant frequencies of, for example, ion cyclotron resonance, transit-time damping resonance, or at other frequencies, for heating, stirring, or otherwise manipulating the plasma
Implementation Method 5
Cusp reactors also have the benefit of being amenable to means of direct energy conversion by means of particle transport radially through open cusps into outboard regions containing electrostatic deceleration electrodes
Data Source
AI summary
A device and method for the heating of plasma by resonance using Halbach transformers for magnetic field modulation. Forming the Halbach transformers of heating to the primary magnetic field coils of confinement in a typical ring cusp confinement device configuration may reduce high-voltage breakdown along coil supports. By heating the plasma transverse to the confinement field a greater number of particle species may be retained. The primary confinement field coil support is placed outboard of the plasma cusp region by extending lobed flanges from the plates of Bitter-type primary electromagnetic field coils into the outboard region and placing the holes for the coil supports through these flanges. This arrangement of coil and flange moves plasma bombardment from the cusp region to the outboard region thus moving impurity generation by coil support bombardment from the cusp region to an outer radius where impurity effects are less detrimental.