Supersonic Gas Injector for Plasma Fueling in the National Spherical Torus Experiment. (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Soukhanovskii, V. A.; Blanchard, W. R.; Dong, J. K.; Kaita, R.; Kugel, H. W.; Menard, J. E.; Provost, T. J.; Raman, R.; Roquemore, A. L.; Sichta, P.
• Is Part Of: Fusion science and technology. Volume 75:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: — tokamak -- fueling -- gas injection -- supersonic gas jet; Fusion reactors -- Periodicals; Nuclear fusion -- Periodicals; Fusion reactors; Nuclear fusion; Periodicals; 621.48405
• DOI: 10.1080/15361055.2018.1502034
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1536-1055

Abstract

Abstract: A supersonic gas injector (SGI) has been developed for fueling and diagnostic applications on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). It is comprised of a graphite converging-diverging Laval nozzle and a commercial piezoelectric gas valve mounted on a movable probe at a low-field-side midplane port location. Also mounted on the probe is a diagnostic package: a Langmuir probe, two thermocouples, and five pick-up coils for measuring toroidal, radial, vertical magnetic field components and magnetic fluctuations at the location of the SGI tip. The SGI flow rate is up to 33.25 Pa m 3 / (1.75 × 10 22 euterium particles/s), comparable to conventional NSTX gas injectors. The nozzle operates in a pulsed regime at room temperature and a reservoir gas pressure up to 665 kPa (5000 Torr). The deuterium jet Mach number of about 4 and the divergence half-angle of 5 to 25 deg have been measured in laboratory experiments simulating the NSTX environment. Reliable operation of the SGI and all mounted diagnostics at distances 0.01 to 0.20 m from the plasma separatrix has been demonstrated in NSTX experiments. The SGI has been used for fueling of ohmic and 2- to 4-MW neutral beam injection–heated L- and H-mode plasmas. Fueling efficiency in the range 0.1 to 0.3 has been obtained from the plasma electron inventory analysis. The SGI-fueling–based plasma discharge scenarios enabling better density control have been developed.