Passive Feedback Control of a Drift-Type Instability in a Q-Machine Plasma Column,
Abstract
A passive feedback instability control, driven by the plasma instability itself, is applied to drift-type oscillations in a Q-machine. Instability amplification and partial suppression and a change of the equilibrium plasma density with the feedback controlled oscillation amplitude are measured. The passive feedback control mechanism can be described by the stationary solution of the Van der Pol differential equation for non-linear oscillation phenomena. The efficiency of the oscillation control was found to be small in this experiment because only a single feedback loop was applied. Various proposals are discussed in order to improve the stabilization efficacy of the passive feedback method and especially for an application to the collision-dominated drift instability. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0729444
Entities
People
- G. L. Mueller
- R. S. Palmer
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory