The Focus Fusion Society Forums Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Experiment (LPPX) What about some more amps in the device

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  • #30663
    PlasmaLord
    Participant

    Something I often wonder about is, What would happen if you turn up the amps in the device.
    1. First of all, how would it affect the reaction. Higher magnetic field, we know and therefore more dense plasma. Other effects? How about X-rays and how about reaction yield. Maybe some more effects?
    2. Teare of the device. Could it damage the electrodes or do you need longer recovery times between the shots? I don’t just get it, how can you send over 1 million amps thrugh a small piece of metal without blowing it away at once
    3. How to do it and what would it cost to get let’s say 10 million Amps. When you see LPP power banks it doesen’t look very powerful, sorry. When you look at powerbank at Sandia Z-pinch device then contrast get pretty big. Is that what you need to get 20 million or more Amps

    #30664
    Breakable
    Keymaster

    AFAIK is exactly what LPP plans to do to increase density after impurities are eliminated. They could not do it before because higher current would mean greater erosion of electrodes and therefore more contamination. With beryllium electrode impurities will not matter so much and hopefully any mechanical stress will not be too severe to damage the electrodes

    #30666
    PlasmaLord
    Participant

    Thanks
    That is what is going to happen mechanically and how you going to achieve more amps.
    I’m also interested how the process will improve with higher amps and lot of that had been said but one thing is not so much explained and that is about the X rays. What I read and heard the X rays emission could also be reduced, but I don’t get how.

    #30668
    Breakable
    Keymaster

    The X ray (bremsstrahlung) suppression is due to ultra-high magnetic field that Eric theorized occurs during the pinch. Because with a stronger magnetic field, electrons as charged particles will have to closely orbit the magnetic field lines and wont be able to hit atoms nucleus (I think) so much, and reducing collisions will reduce the amount of X-rays. This was widely theorized, but not sure sure how much it was tested due to difficulty of achieving these level of magnetic fields:
    http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.862333

    Also beryllium electrode is X-ray transparent so it will reduce the corrosion due to X-ray heating and thermal evaporation.

    #30700
    PlasmaLord
    Participant

    I hope LPPX soon can afford a better bigger power bank. It would be really interesting to see what a stronger and tighter magnetic field will accomplish.

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