Experimental Studies of an Ultrahigh-Speed Plasma Flow

In 1991, Turchi et al. reported evidence for a 2000 km/s aluminum plasma that originated from the upstream boundary of a wire array armature in a plasma flow switch (PFS). The 2008 article by Turchi et al. posits that if such high Z plasma could instead be composed of deuterium or a deuterium-tritiu...

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Published in:	IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 374 - 388
Main Authors:	Domonkos, Matthew T., Degnan, James H., Adamson, Paul E., Amdahl, David J., Blasy, Brian, Cooksey, Rufus, Grabowski, Theodore Chris, Lehr, Frederick Mark, Robinson, Paul Randy, Ruden, Edward L., White, William M., Frese, Michael H., Frese, Sherry D., Coffey, Sean K., Camacho, J. Frank, Makhin, Vladimir, Roderick, Norman, Parker, Jerald V., Lerma, Al, Gale, Donald, Kostora, Mark, McCullough, John, Ralph, Dale, Roth, Chris E., Sommars, Wayne E., Montoya, Thomas, Lynn, Alan G., Turchi, Peter J., Schroen, Diana
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York IEEE 01-01-2015 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:	Aluminum Arrays Controlled fusion Deuterium Electric currents Electrodes Experiments Feeds imploding liners magnetized plasma compression Plasma physics Plasmas Probes pulsed power Wires imploding liners magnetized plasma compression Controlled fusion pulsed power
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Summary:	In 1991, Turchi et al. reported evidence for a 2000 km/s aluminum plasma that originated from the upstream boundary of a wire array armature in a plasma flow switch (PFS). The 2008 article by Turchi et al. posits that if such high Z plasma could instead be composed of deuterium or a deuterium-tritium mixture, then the resultant multi-keV plasma would make an effective target for magnetized plasma compression to fusion conditions. This report documents several experiments executed in an effort to achieve an ultrahigh-speed flow in a deuterium plasma. The first phase of this research concentrated on extension of the earlier work to a lower current system that would emulate the PFS used in series with an imploding liner load. The apparatus was also modified to permit pulsed injection of deuterium gas along the insulated coaxial electrodes between the PFS armature and the vacuum power feed. The experiments met with limited success, exhibiting evidence of a 550 km/s plasma flow which convected a small fraction of the total magnetic field. Two subsequent tests were conducted using foam armatures. In both cases, current prematurely shunted upstream in the vacuum feed. Several possible causes were explored for the shunting of the current. Among the modifications implemented, the gas injection system was altered to increase both the quantity of gas adjacent to the armature while facilitating an increased pressure gradient between the armature and the current feed. A series of low-energy shots were conducted to examine the impact of several proposed design modifications on current delivery to the armature. These experiments demonstrated that the hardware assembled for this investigation was unlikely to forestall breakdown in the injected gas as required by Turchi et al. Nevertheless, two experiments were conducted to evaluate performance with foam armatures. Both experiments exhibited good current delivery to the armature, behaving initially like the low-energy experiments. The magnetic flux convected downstream was greater than in any of the prior experiments, though significant work remains to demonstrate the ultrahigh-speed plasma flow concept.
ISSN:	0093-3813 1939-9375
DOI:	10.1109/TPS.2014.2360648