Computational studies of collisional processes in inertial electrostatic glow discharge fusion devices

Author

Miley, G.H. ; DeMora, John M. ; Jurczyk, Brian E. ; Nieto, Martin

Author_Institution

Fusion Studies Lab., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

23

Lastpage

26

Abstract

Computational studies of the inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) devices have yielded amazing results. An analytical model of charge exchange collisions in the IEC plasma has been developed to include ion time-of-flight and fusion neutron generation rates. Results from the model simulating 10 mA of D₂⁺ ion current in a 30-cm diameter IEC device at 50 kV match the experimental results of 10⁶ fusion neutrons per second. The model has also been used to find the effects of grid diameter on neutron yield and show that it scales as diameter^-0.4058. This factor is very close to the experimental scaling factor of diameter^-0.4171

Keywords

fusion reactor theory; plasma collision processes; plasma inertial confinement; 30 cm; 50 kV; D; D₂⁺ ion current; charge exchange collisions; fusion neutron generation; grid diameter; inertial electrostatic confinement devices; inertial electrostatic glow discharge fusion devices; ion time-of-flight; neutron yield; scaling factor; Analytical models; Computational modeling; Electrostatics; Fusion power generation; IEC; Inertial confinement; Neutrons; Plasma confinement; Plasma devices; Plasma simulation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Fusion Engineering, 1999. 18th Symposium on

Conference_Location

Albuquerque, NM

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5829-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FUSION.1999.849784

Filename

849784