An Analytic Model for the Compression of Plasma Toroids

Abstract

An expression for the energy required to compress a plasma toroid in the MARAUDER experiment has been derived. The analysis assumes that the plasma follows the ideal magneto-hydrodynamics approximation, that the magnetic forces are the only ones of interest, and that the toroid is in a confined equilibrium at the start and end of the compression. All dimensions of the toroid are force to collapse linearly, and the magnetic energy in the toroid is found to be inversely proportional to the inner radius-- or any other dimension. This analysis gives an estimate to help limit the parameter space of a computational study of the compression process. Keywords: Plasma torus compression, Force free configuration, Plasma gun.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA229500

Entities

People

  • Carl R. Sovinec

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Bessel Functions
  • Boundaries
  • Compression
  • Differential Equations
  • Energy
  • Equations
  • Geometry
  • Governments
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Magnetic Forces
  • Magnetic Induction
  • Simulations
  • Two Dimensional
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster