ISSN:
1089-7666
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Magnetic compression of S-1 spheromak plasmas [Nucl. Fusion 22, 1407 (1982)] was performed to extend the investigation of confinement properties of the spheromak to plasmas with larger current density and higher plasma pressure than obtained before. Evolution of the magnetic configuration was mapped using internal-probe-based flux plots, and it was found that the plasma compression was approximately self-similar. The Taylor equilibrium state was maintained without flux conversion or relaxation phenomena. With a compression factor of up to 1.6, a significant increase of plasma pressure was observed. The peak electron temperature rose from approximately 40 eV before compression to about 100 eV, and the peak density increased somewhat less than the adiabaticity based scaling, which suggests the presence of an enhanced particle loss mechanism. In general, the electron's beta value was approximately constant during the compression; that is, ne0Te0∝B20. This result is consistent with the S-1 scaling obtained earlier without compression. The ion temperature measured by Doppler broadening of low Z impurity line radiation was observed to rise as high as 0.5 keV.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.859218
Permalink
