Preliminary Evidence of Angular Momentum Effect
(10) CommentsLPP has obtained the first preliminary evidence that the injection of angular momentum into the DPF considerably increases the efficiency of energy transfer into the plasmoid, the size of the plasmoid and thus the fusion energy yield. On Feb. 19 and 22, the team fired Focus-Fusion-1 at 24 kV with a pressure of 8 torr of deuterium in the vacuum chamber. In some shots, they connected the angular momentum coil (AMC) to the power supply, so current could flow through it. In other shots, they left the coil circuit open, so no current could flow. The shots with the AMC connected have a neutron yield 8-10 times that of those with the AMC disconnected, so this is a large and very promising effect.
What they believe is happening is that the current in the coil is producing a small magnetic field along the axis of the device. The interaction of the currents with this field induces angular momentum—spin—in the plasma sheath. This in turn diverts the current in the sheath in the same direction as the current in the coils, amplifying the field. The angular momentum, conveyed ultimately to the tiny plasmoid, creates a centrifugal force that balances the compressive magnetic forces. The bigger the centrifugal force, the bigger the magnetic field that can be balanced and the bigger the plasmoid. However, if the centrifugal force is too big, it will prevent the plasmoid from forming at all. Thus only small fields are effective.
In the few shots the team has taken, so far they have not seen a difference in the neutron yield with the power supply to the AMC providing different levels of current. This may be because the current induced in the coil by the DPF’s own current pulse is higher that the imposed current. They will need to investigate this with more shots under varying connections. However, the fact that they have already obtained a factor of ten improvement in yield through he use of the AMC is very encouraging and is an initial confirmation of the proposal that LPP VP Aaron Blake made four years ago. It is also a further confirmation of their general theory of the DPF.
ICC recap and Bill Gates TED talk review
Fusion Confidence Monitor
Comments
For a more in depth discussion, start a thread in the forums.Excellent! The AMC coil is the heart of control system. Glad to see that part of the theory pan out experimentally.
There is presumably an optimum AMC energy level to maximise net Q. Is that what is being sought here?
The coil’s optimum energy will vary with electrode length, diameter(s), fill pressure, and cap bank voltage, just for openers.
It’s purpose is to greatly minimize, if not eventually eliminate the shot to shot output variations under identical conditions which the team believes is due to varying magnetic conditions.
The finer the control software can vary the effective coil energy and resulting plasmoid parameters, the smoother the power output in industrial settings, where the magnetic environment is anything but stable, predictable, or mild.
This is also the key to one or two microsecond load tracking response times when used to generate commercial power. So something like 8 or 16 bit resolution could eliminate the distinction between baseload and peakload generators.
What if the AMC is connected, but the current is zero through the AMC? This would validate that the effect is field related. nothing like the stupid tests to validate the basic assumptions.
If sheath forming is a problem, maybe a ring at the base of the DPF around cathodes could help, like discussed in the forums:
http://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/396/
Or maybe triggering the AMC a few nanoseconds after initial discharges, so that the sheath forming isn’t disturbed.
One of Nardi’s patents had to do with a knife edge at the base to increase neutron yield.
LPP’s patent specifically mentions something like a 400G nominal coil field. The theory is that the existing angular magnetic field at switching time gets incredibly magnified, and was an uncontrolled variable that was suspected to be the reason why DPFs have so much yield variation from shot to shot. 10:1 variations in some cases. You can see this in the Texas results.
Now we’ve shown what appears to be some control over that variable. I’m sure they’re going to nail this coil’s operation down in the next month or few, as the theory predicts it is that important to precisely specifying plasmoid parameters on a shot by shot basis, and can easily be engineered into the controller PLC software.
Great news!
Now if just those switches would stop acting up, we would have q>1 in your hands….
The firing of the switches seems to depend on the formation of an ionized path through the gas barrier. I wonder if a MEMS device might not be inherently less chaotic and variable in its operation.
Technical question: How do you measure the strength of the magnetic field in the plasmoid?
I’m wondering if it might be stronger (all other things being equal) when this method is used. If this is true it might take fewer Joules to achieve x-ray suppression than originally modeled. ==> easier to achieve break even.
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