The Sheared-Flow Stabilized Z-Pinch

Shumlak, U.; Chadney, Joshua; Golingo, R.P.; Hartog, D. J. Den; Hughes, M.C.; Knecht, Sean D.; Lowrie, Weston; Lukin, V. S.; Nelson, B. A.; Oberto, R.J.; Rohrbach, J.L.; Ross, M. P.; Vogman, G. V.

doi:10.13182/fst12-a13407

Cited by 30 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The effect of sheared flow on current-driven MHD instabilities has previously been investigated theoretically and demonstrated experimentally. [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Linear MHD calculations show that a sheared axial flow has a stabilizing effect on the kink mode, while a uniform axial flow has no effect on the instability growth. The main prior conclusion is that an axial plasma flow with a linear shear of dV z /dr > 0.1kV A is required for jet stabilization, where k is the axial wave number and V A is the Alfvén velocity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent kink stability of a magnetized plasma jet injected into a transverse background magnetic field

et al. 2017

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We report experimental results on the injection of a magnetized plasma jet into a transverse background magnetic field in the HelCat linear plasma device at the University of New Mexico [M. Gilmore et al., J. Plasma Phys. 81, 345810104 (2015)]. After the plasma jet leaves the plasma-gun muzzle, a tension force arising from an increasing curvature of the background magnetic field induces in the jet a sheared axial-flow gradient above the theoretical kink-stabilization threshold. We observe that this emergent sheared axial flow stabilizes the n = 1 kink mode in the jet, whereas a kink instability is observed in the jet when there is no background magnetic field present.

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confidence: 99%

Emergent kink stability of a magnetized plasma jet injected into a transverse background magnetic field

et al. 2017

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“…Finally, we could include the z-component of the momentum equation. This would involve adding many additional viscous and heating terms, but it would allow us to study transport in sheared-flow Z pinches [39][40][41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MITNS: Multiple-Ion Transport Numerical Solver for Magnetized Plasmas

Kolmes,

Ochs,

Fisch

2020

Preprint

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“…ZaP plasmas are observed to be stable for thousands of times longer than the instability growth times [13], [14]. It is hypothesized that the heating of the Z -pinch plasma is a result of adiabatic compression [19] during the pinch formation process. ZaP operational parameters are shown in Table I.…”

Section: Zap Flow Z -Pinch Experimental Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calculation of the Equilibrium Evolution of the ZaP Flow $Z$ -Pinch Using a Four-Chord Interferometer

Knecht

Golingo

Nelson

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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A four-chord interferometer and measurements from an array of surface-mounted magnetic probes were used in conjunction with equations of radial heat conduction and radial force balance to calculate the equilibrium evolution of a pinch plasma in the ZaP flow Z-pinch. A multiple shooting method was used to solve the nonlinear coupled differential equation system, with ohmic heating and bremsstrahlung radiation as sources and sinks, respectively. Data from a single ZaP pulse are reported including profiles of magnetic field and temperature and their evolution. Profiles are dominated by high thermal conductivity near the axis which quickly decreases with radius. This is due to the plasma being weakly magnetized near the axis which increases thermal conductivity and flattens the temperature profile, but strongly magnetized near the characteristic radius, significantly reducing thermal conductivity and resulting in a large temperature gradient. The equilibrium evolution indicates that plasmas in ZaP heat and compress with increasing current as a result of magnetic compression during the quiescent period.

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The Sheared-Flow Stabilized Z-Pinch

Cited by 30 publications

References 6 publications

Emergent kink stability of a magnetized plasma jet injected into a transverse background magnetic field

Emergent kink stability of a magnetized plasma jet injected into a transverse background magnetic field

MITNS: Multiple-Ion Transport Numerical Solver for Magnetized Plasmas

Calculation of the Equilibrium Evolution of the ZaP Flow $Z$ -Pinch Using a Four-Chord Interferometer

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