Realistic ‘Compressor’ efficiencies of LPP’s Dense Plasma Focus type devices?

[markus7]

My ill-informed, intuitive WAG (based on no calculations) is that the ratio of (joules delivered to the tiny fusing volume of the plasmoid) / (joules out of the capacitors), what I am referring to as ‘compressor’ efficiency, would likely be, at best, only a few percent. This seems low for practical machines.

What kind of ‘compressor’ efficiencies (or whatever the generally accepted parameters are called) are needed for practical machines? Could anyone point me to explanations of how these practical ‘compressor’ efficiencies are possible?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[markus7]

The LPP website has provided some answers to my question.

The highest quoted experimental fusion yield/gross input energy I saw quoted on the website was 0.067% from, as I understand it, several years ago. (This is not my ‘compression efficiency’ number, but close enough.)

However, LPP’s paper “Theory and experimental program for p-B11Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus” explains why this low experimental number is not surprising.

http://lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/images/stories/theory_and_experimental_program_for_focus_fusion__lpp_jan2011.pdf

As most readers here probably already know, it describes the device as exploiting a series of four “natural instabilities in the plasma, with each instability further concentrating the plasma and the magnetic field produced by the currents running through the plasma” into the plasmoid.

So optimizing the efficiency of the compression process requires the optimization of these four natural instabilities in sequence, where the efficiency of each is dependent on the plasma’s characteristics produced by the action of the previous instability.

This is an immense solution space with, based on the instability of plasmas, I expect superficially chaotic solution volumes.

I can now see how it is possible, even after 40 years, that recent advances and insights and the resulting improved simulations can reveal new ways to optimize the compression process in such a deceptively simple device.

[TimS]

I think the recent huge progess in the focus fusion DPF results following what appeared to be not so much (or reverse) progress for a time has as much to do with human factors (Mr Lerner moving his efforts to a different environment, changing the goal from more “researchy” to more “developy” which requires better infrastructure, funding) as the characteristics of the DPF process itself.

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