Planet Packing Revisited

Ross Eckler discusses a problem in his article Planet Packing in the May 2001 Word Ways: given a list of words, such as the names of the planets, how efficiently can they be packed into a single string of characters so that each word on the list can be read off left to right (but not necessarily contiguously)? He hypothesizes there is no guarantee that any algorithm will end up with a minimum string. Since the design and analysis of algorithms has been my area of research for some 25 years, this caught my attention. Informally, an algorithm is a terminating procedure that could be coded as a computer program. (However, the procedure in the Planet Packing article does not contain enough tie-breaking rules to qualify as an algorithm)

Beryllium migration in JET ITER-like wall plasmas

JET is used as a test bed for ITER, to investigate beryllium migration which connects the lifetime of first-wall components under erosion with tokamak safety, in relation to long-term fuel retention. The (i) limiter and the (ii) divertor configurations have been studied in JET-ILW (JET with a Be first wall and W divertor), and compared with those for the former JET-C (JET with carbon-based plasma-facing components (PFCs)). (i) For the limiter configuration, the Be gross erosion at the contact point was determined in situ by spectroscopy as between 4% (E-in = 35 eV) and more than 100%, caused by Be self-sputtering (E-in = 200 eV). Chemically assisted physical sputtering via BeD release has been identified to contribute to the effective Be sputtering yield, i.e. at E-in = 75 eV, erosion was enhanced by about 1/3 with respect to the bare physical sputtering case. An effective gross yield of 10% is on average representative for limiter plasma conditions, whereas a factor of 2 difference between the gross erosion and net erosion, determined by post-mortem analysis, was found. The primary impurity source in the limiter configuration in JET-ILW is only 25% higher (in weight) than that for the JET-C case. The main fraction of eroded Be stays within the main chamber. (ii) For the divertor configuration, neutral Be and BeD from physically and chemically assisted physical sputtering by charge exchange neutrals and residual ion flux at the recessed wall enter the plasma, ionize and are transported by scrape-off layer flows towards the inner divertor where significant net deposition takes place. The amount of Be eroded at the first wall (21 g) and the Be amount deposited in the inner divertor (28 g) are in fair agreement, though the balancing is as yet incomplete due to the limited analysis of PFCs. The primary impurity source in the JET-ILW is a factor of 5.3 less in comparison with that for JET-C, resulting in lower divertor material deposition, by more than one order of magnitude. Within the divertor, Be performs far fewer re-erosion and transport steps than C due to an energetic threshold for Be sputtering, and inhibits as a result of this the transport to the divertor floor and the pump duct entrance. The target plates in the JET-ILW inner divertor represent at the strike line a permanent net erosion zone, in contrast to the net deposition zone in JET-C with thick carbon deposits on the CFC (carbon-fibre composite) plates. The Be migration identified is consistent with the observed low long-term fuel retention and dust production with the JET-ILW.EURATOM 63305

Dynamics of erosion and deposition in tokamaks

In recent years, a general qualitative understanding has been reached about the major pathways of material migration in divertor tokamaks. Main chamber wall components have been identified as the major source of material erosion. The eroded material is transported by scrape-off layer flows, in the case of the ion B x del B drift pointing towards the X-point, predominately towards the inner divertor leg, where it is deposited in the form of amorphous layers. On JET, where carbon is the main plasma-facing material, it has been found that the presence of deposited carbon rich layers determines the dynamic characteristics of further re-distribution of carbon, in particular towards remote areas. The transport from the strike point to the deposition location is mainly line-of-sight. The amount of eroded carbon depends on the surface type, with lower rates for the bare CFC and higher rates for deposited layers. The erosion rates in the inner divertor increase non-linearly with increasing ELM energies. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Kompetenznetz E-Learning Hessen

Mit dem Kompetenznetz e-learning-hessen.de vernetzen sich die hessischen Hochschulen mit Hilfe der Koordination und Unterstützung durch das httc und Förderung durch das Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst rund um das Thema E-Learning. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Ziele des Netzwerks, dessen Maßnahmen und Elemente und die bisherigen Erfahrungen und seine Entwicklung seit dem Jahr 2000. Mit der abschließenden Bewertung werden Anhaltspunkte für eine erfolgreiche Vernetzung von Hochschulen und ein Ausblick auf die geplanten Aktivitäten des hessischen Netzwerkes in den nächsten Jahren gegeben. (DIPF/ Orig.