Engineering topics

Hanson, Gregory R.

Publications and source records attributed to Hanson, Gregory R..

4 records

DOE OSTI2018

Circular Corrugated Miter Bend and Gap Losses for Broadband Frequency Applications

Circular corrugated waveguides are often used in fusion applications at single, multiple, or broadband millimeter frequencies due to their low ohmic loss, expected large frequency bandwidth, and direct coupling to free-space Gaussian modes. For single-frequency corrugated waveguide systems, transmission line components can be optimized to the desired frequency. For broadband or multiple-frequency applications, this is not possible. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that the frequency bandwidth of circular corrugated waveguides can be compromised by diffraction losses to miter bends and gaps. It is shown that if the corrugation depth differs significantly from λ /4, a theory can substantially underpredict the gap and miter bend losses. The simulations are also shown to compare favorably to experimental measurements. To improve the transmission line performance in large frequency bandwidth systems, such as 33–165 GHz reflectometry, reducing the number of miter bends may, therefore, be necessary. For the improvement of performance in narrower frequency bandwidth or multiple-frequency systems, especially high-powered systems, wavelength-dependent techniques may be applicable. Furthermore, one such application is shown for a Bragg reflection technique to reduce the thermal load to insulating ceramic rings in a dc break component for multiple-frequency ITER electron cyclotron heating transmission lines.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Microwave Analysis with Monte Carlo Methods for ECH Transmission Lines

A new code framework, MORAMC, is presented which model transmission line (TL) systems consisting of overmoded circular waveguide and other components including miter bends and transmission line gaps. The transmission line is modeled as a set of mode converters in series where each component is composed of one or more converters. The parametrization of each mode converter can account for the fabrication tolerances of physically realizable components. These tolerances as well as the precision to which these TL systems can be installed and aligned gives a practical limit to which the uncertainty of the microwave performance of the system can be calculated. Because of this, Monte Carlo methods are a natural fit and are employed to calculate the probability distribution that a given TL can deliver a required power and mode purity. Several examples are given to demonstrate the usefulness of MORAMC in optimizing TL systems.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2017

Evaluation of low-frequency operational limit of proposed ITER low-field-side reflectometer waveguide run including miter bends

The present design concept for the ITER low-field-side reflectometer transmission line (TL) consists of an ~40 m long, 6.35 cm diameter helically corrugated waveguide (WG) together with ten 90° miter bends. This paper presents an evaluation of the TL performance at low frequencies (33-50 GHz) where the predicted HE11 mode ohmic and mode conversion losses start to increase significantly. Quasi-optical techniques were used to form a near Gaussian beam to efficiently couple radiation in this frequency range into the WG. We observed that the output beams from the guide remained linearly polarized with cross-polarization power levels of ~1.5%-3%. The polarization rotation due to the helical corrugations was in the range ~1°-3°. The radiated beam power profiles typically show excellent Gaussian propagation characteristics at distances >20 cm from the final exit aperture. The round trip propagation loss was found to be ~2.5 dB at 50 GHz and ~6.5 dB at 35 GHz, showing an inverse increase with frequency. This was consistent with updated calculations of miter bend and ohmic losses. At low frequencies (33-50 GHz), the mode purity remained very good at the exit of the waveguide, and the losses are perfectly acceptable for operation in ITER. Finally, the primary challenge may come from the future addition of a Gaussian telescope and other filter components within the corrugated guide, which will likely introduce additional perturbations to the beam profile and an increase in mode-conversion loss.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2017

ITER ECH Switch Design and Analysis

The electron cyclotron heating system (ECH) on ITER uses 24 evacuated microwave transmission lines carrying up to 1.4 MW of power each at 170 GHz to provide resonance heating of electrons in the ITER plasma and to enable plasma current drive. A critically important component in this system is the microwave switch that allows the microwaves to be directed from the gyrotrons to either dummy loads or between launchers in the upper and equatorial ports of the ITER tokamak while maintaining the vacuum integrity of the transmission lines. A moveable, water-cooled CuCrZr mirror is used to redirect the microwave transmission between two orthogonal waveguides. In this paper, we describe the optimized design of the mirror cooling passages produced by computational fluid dynamics analysis using ANSYS CFX with k-ε and k-ω shear stress transport turbulence models, and verify that the design parameters for mass flow rate, inlet temperature and pressure are adequate for good thermomechanical performance. Non-uniform heating of the mirror face from the incident microwaves induces deflections that should be less than 25 microns to meet the integrated transmission line efficiency specification. In the current 1.4 MW switch design, 0.03 kg/s of 36°C water at 10 bar inlet pressure can remove the 2660 W of ohmic heating in the mirror produced by the elliptical polarization power and maintain the surface temperature below 150°C. The water delta-T is 21°C with a 0.5 bar pressure drop in the mirror. Finally, the maximum predicted displacement in the center of the mirror face is less than 25 μm.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗