Adiabatic Compression of Compact Tori for Current Drive and Heating

Several critical issues stand in the development path for compact tori. An important one is the production of strong magnetic fields, (or large flux amplifications) by use of a low current source. The Pulsed Build-up Experiment is a Phase II SBIR project in which we aim to show a new means for generating strong magnetic fields from a low current source, namely, the repetitive injection of helicity-bearing plasma that also undergoes an acceleration and compression. In the Phase I SBIR, advanced computations were benchmarked against analytic theory and run to determine the best means for the acceleration and compression of a compact torus plasma. The study included detailed simulations of magnetic reconnection. In Phase II, an experiment has been designed and is being built to produce strong magnetic fields in a spheromak by the repetitive injection of magnetic helicity from a low current coaxial plasma source. The plasma will be accelerated and compressed in a similar manner to a traveling wave adiabatic compression scheme that was previously applied to a mirror plasma [1]. [1] P. M. Bellan Scalings for a Traveling Mirror Adiabatic Magnetic Compressor Rev. Sci. Instrum. 53(8) 1214 (1982) Work supported by DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER84449.