4,938 research outputs found
Casting propellant in rocket engine
A method is described for casting a solid propellant in the casing of a rocket engine having a continuous wall with a single opening which is formed by leaves of a material which melt at a temperature of the propellant and with curved edges concentric to the curvature of the spherical casing. The leaves are inserted into the spherical casing through the opening forming a core having a greater width than the width of the single opening and with curved peripheral edges. The cast propellant forms a solid mass and then heated to melt the leaves and provide a central opening with radial projecting flutes
Structure of Micro-instabilities in Tokamak Plasmas: Stiff Transport or Plasma Eruptions?
Solutions to a model 2D eigenmode equation describing micro-instabilities in
tokamak plasmas are presented that demonstrate a sensitivity of the mode
structure and stability to plasma profiles. In narrow regions of parameter
space, with special plasma profiles, a maximally unstable mode is found that
balloons on the outboard side of the tokamak. This corresponds to the
conventional picture of a ballooning mode. However, for most profiles this mode
cannot exist and instead a more stable mode is found that balloons closer to
the top or bottom of the plasma. Good quantitative agreement with a 1D
ballooning analysis is found provided the constraints associated with higher
order profile effects, often neglected, are taken into account. A sudden
transition from this general mode to the more unstable ballooning mode can
occur for a critical flow shear, providing a candidate model for why some
experiments observe small plasma eruptions (Edge Localised Modes, or ELMs) in
place of large Type I ELMs.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Observation of magnetocoriolis waves in a liquid metal Taylor-Couette experiment
The first observation of fast and slow magnetocoriolis (MC) waves in a
laboratory experiment is reported. Rotating nonaxisymmetric modes arising from
a magnetized turbulent Taylor-Couette flow of liquid metal are identified as
the fast and slow MC waves by the dependence of the rotation frequency on the
applied field strength. The observed slow MC wave is damped but the observation
provides a means for predicting the onset of the Magnetorotational Instability
Development of a theory of the spectral reflectance of minerals, part 2
Theory of diffuse reflectance of particulate media including garnet, glass, corundum powders, and mixture
Microstability analysis of pellet fuelled discharges in MAST
Reactor grade plasmas are likely to be fuelled by pellet injection. This
technique transiently perturbs the profiles, driving the density profile hollow
and flattening the edge temperature profile. After the pellet perturbation, the
density and temperature profiles relax towards their quasi-steady-state shape.
Microinstabilities influence plasma confinement and will play a role in
determining the evolution of the profiles in pellet fuelled plasmas. In this
paper we present the microstability analysis of pellet fuelled H-mode MAST
plasmas. Taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the MAST Thomson
scattering system and the possibility of synchronizing the eight lasers with
the pellet injection, we were able to measure the evolution of the post-pellet
electron density and temperature profiles with high temporal and spatial
resolution. These profiles, together with ion temperature profiles measured
using a charge exchange diagnostic, were used to produce equilibria suitable
for microstability analysis of the equilibrium changes induced by pellet
injection. This analysis, carried out using the local gyrokinetic code GS2,
reveals that the microstability properties are extremely sensitive to the rapid
and large transient excursions of the density and temperature profiles, which
also change collisionality and beta e significantly in the region most strongly
affected by the pellet ablation.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. This is an author-created, un-copyedited
version of an article submitted for publication in Plasma Physics and
Controlled Fusion. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or
omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from i
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