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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

An adjoint method for determining the sensitivity of island size to magnetic field variations

An adjoint method to calculate the gradient of island width in stellarators is presented and applied to a set of magnetic field configurations. The underlying method for calculation of the island width is that of Cary & Hanson ( Phys. Fluids B, vol. 3, issue 4, 1991, pp. 1006–1014) (with a minor modification), and requires that the residue of the island centre be small. Therefore, the gradient of the residue is calculated in addition. Both the island width and the gradient calculations are verified using an analytical magnetic field configuration introduced by Reiman & Greenside ( Comput. Phys. Commun. , vol. 43, issue 1, 1986, pp. 157–167). The method is also applied to the calculation of the shape gradient of the width of a magnetic island in a National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) vacuum configuration with respect to positions on a coil. A gradient-based optimization is applied to a magnetic field configuration studied by Hanson & Cary ( Phys. Fluids , vol. 27, issue 4, 1984, pp. 767–769) to minimize stochasticity by adding perturbations to a pair of helical coils. Although only vacuum magnetic fields and an analytical magnetic field model are considered in this work, the adjoint calculation of the island width gradient could also be applied to a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium if the derivative of the magnetic field, with respect to the equilibrium parameters, is known. Using the island width gradient calculation presented here, more general gradient-based optimization methods can be applied to design stellarators with small magnetic islands. Moreover, the sensitivity of the island size may itself be optimized to ensure that coil tolerances, with respect to island size, are kept as high as possible.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres

Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon’s surface, forming shock-like discontinuities and reflecting incident SW protons. In this Letter, the results of high-resolution, 2D fully kinetic simulations show a bursty electron-only magnetic reconnection in the SW-LCMA interaction region, characterized by the quasiperiodic formation and ejection of magnetic islands and strong parallel electron flows along the X-point separator lines. The islands are observed to modify the magnetic pressure pileup and Hall electric field above the LCMA, leading to sharp increases in reflected protons that drive electromagnetic fluctuations downstream and short distances upstream in the SW.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Intermittent Electron-only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-magnetospheres

Abstract Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon’s surface, forming shock-like discontinuities and reflecting incident SW protons. In this Letter, the results of high-resolution, 2D fully kinetic simulations show a bursty electron-only magnetic reconnection in the SW-LCMA interaction region, characterized by the quasiperiodic formation and ejection of magnetic islands and strong parallel electron flows along the X-point separator lines. The islands are observed to modify the magnetic pressure pileup and Hall electric field above the LCMA, leading to sharp increases in reflected protons that drive electromagnetic fluctuations downstream and short distances upstream in the SW.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energetic electron transport in magnetic fields with island chains and stochastic regions

This paper investigates energetic electron transport in magnetized toroidal plasmas with magnetic fields characterized by island chains and regions of stochastic field lines produced by coil perturbations. We report on experiments performed in the DIII-D tokamak, which utilize electron cyclotron heating and current drive pulses to ‘tag’ electron populations within different locations across the discharge. The cross-field transport of these populations is then inferred from electron cyclotron emission measurements and gamma emission signals from scintillator detectors. Two types of energetic particles are distinguished and discussed: non-relativistic suprathermal electrons and relativistic runaway electrons. The magnetic field topology in each discharge is reconstructed with field-line tracing codes, which are also used to determine the location and scale of magnetic islands and stochastic regions. Comparison of simulations and experiments suggests that suprathermal transport is suppressed when the tagging is performed at a smaller radial location than the location of the $q = 1$ island chain and enhanced otherwise. Here q is the safety factor. We further demonstrate that increasing the width of the stochastic region within the edge plasma yields enhancement of the suprathermal electron transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Interactions Between Microturbulence and Magnetohydrodynamic Instabilities in Magnetized Plasmas (Final Technical Report)

The overall goal of this project was to develop a better understanding between small-scale microturbulence and large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities, particularly magnetic islands and tearing modes, in fusion relevant magnetically confined plasmas. This project advanced understanding through numerical simulations of different model equations. Questions addressed included how the magnitudes, spatial structures, and scalings of turbulent forcings and drags impact island dynamics, as well as what the "region of influence" of a tearing mode on the turbulence dynamics. A key finding of the project is that the microturbulence (and associated transport) exhibits spatial asymmetries for sufficiently large islands. The results have improved our fundamental understanding of plasma dynamics, motivated new experimental investigations, and will help inform future fusion predictive modeling efforts.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

MHD SIMULATIONS OF CORONAL SUPRA-ARCADE DOWNFLOWS INCLUDING ANISOTROPIC THERMAL CONDUCTION

Coronal supra-arcade downflows (SADs) are observed as dark trails descending toward hot turbulent-fan-shaped regions. Due to the large temperature values and gradients in these fan regions, the thermal conduction (TC) should be very efficient. While several models have been proposed to explain the triggering and the evolution of SADs, none of these scenarios address a systematic consideration of TC. Thus, we accomplish this task numerically simulating the evolution of SADs within this framework. That is, SADs are conceived as voided (subdense) cavities formed by nonlinear waves triggered by downflowing bursty localized reconnection events in a perturbed hot fan. We generate a properly turbulent fan, obtained by a stirring force that permits control of the energy and vorticity input in the medium where SADs develop. We include anisotropic TC and consider plasma properties consistent with observations. Our aim is to study whether it is possible to prevent SADs from vanishing by thermal diffusion. We find that this will be the case, depending on the turbulence parameters, in particular if the magnetic field lines are able to envelope the voided cavities, thermally isolating them from the hot environment. Velocity shear perturbations that are able to generate instabilities of the Kelvin–Helmholtz type help to produce magnetic islands, extending the lifetime of SADs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Transport and Dynamics in Toroidal Fusion Systems

The study entitled, "Transport and Dynamics in Toroidal Fusion Systems," (TDTFS) applied analytical theory and numerical computation to investigate topics of importance to confining plasma, the fourth state of matter, with magnetic fields. A central focus of the work is how non-thermal components of the ion particle distribution affect the "sawtooth" collective oscillation in the core of the tokamak magnetic configuration. Previous experimental and analytical research had shown and described how the oscillation frequency decreases and amplitude increases, leading to "monster" or "giant" sawteeth, when the non-thermal component is increased by injecting particle beams or by exciting ions with imposed electromagnetic waves. The TDTFS study applied numerical computation to self-consistently simulate the interaction between macroscopic collective plasma dynamics and the non-thermal particles. The modeling used the NIMROD code [Sovinec, Glasser, Gianakon, et al., J. Comput. Phys. 195, 355 (2004)] with the energetic component represented by simulation particles [Kim, Parker, Sovinec, and the NIMROD Team, Comput. Phys. Commun. 164, 448 (2004)]. The computations found decreasing growth rates for the instability that drives the oscillations, but they were ultimately limited from achieving experimentally relevant parameters due to computational practicalities. Nonetheless, this effort provided valuable lessons for integrated simulation of macroscopic plasma dynamics. It also motivated an investigation of the applicability of fluid-based modeling to the ion temperature gradient instability, leading to the journal publication [Schnack, Cheng, Barnes, and Parker, Phys. Plasmas 20, 062106 (2013)]. Apart from the tokamak-specific topics, the TDTFS study also addressed topics in the basic physics of magnetized plasma and in the dynamics of the reversed-field pinch (RFP) configuration. The basic physics work contributed to a study of two-fluid effects on interchange dynamics, where "two-fluid" refers to modeling independent dynamics of electron and ion species without full kinetic effects. In collaboration with scientist Ping Zhu, who received separate support, it was found that the rule-of-thumb criteria on stabilizing interchange has caveats that depend on the plasma density and temperature profiles. This work was published in [Zhu, Schnack, Ebrahimi, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 085005 (2008)]. An investigation of general nonlinear relaxation with fluid models was partially supported by the TDTFS study and led to the publication [Khalzov, Ebrahimi, Schnack, and Mirnov, Phys. Plasmas 19, 012111 (2012)]. Work specific to the RFP included an investigation of interchange at large plasma pressure and support for applications [for example, Scheffel, Schnack, and Mirza, Nucl. Fusion 53, 113007 (2013)] of the DEBS code [Schnack, Barnes, Mikic, Harned, and Caramana, J. Comput. Phys. 70, 330 (1987)]. Finally, the principal investigator over most of the award period, Dalton Schnack, supervised a numerical study of modeling magnetic island suppression [Jenkins, Kruger, Hegna, Schnack, and Sovinec, Phys. Plasmas 17, 12502 (2010)].

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1986

Rapid fluctuations in solar flares

Study of rapid fluctuations in the emission of radiation from solar flares provides a promising approach for probing the magneto-plasma structure and plasma processes that are responsible for a flare. It is proposed that elementary flare bursts in X-ray and microwave emission may be attributed to fine structure of the coronal magnetic field, related to the aggregation of photospheric magnetic field into magnetic knots. Fluctuations that occur on a subsecond time-scale may be due to magnetic islands that develop in current sheets during magnetic reconnection. The impulsive phase may sometimes represent the superposition of a large number of the elementary energy-release processes responsible for elementary flare bursts. If so, the challenge of trying to explain the properties of the impulsive phase in terms of the properties of the elementary processes must be faced. Magnetic field configurations that might produce solar flares are divided into a number of categories, depending on: whether or not there is a filament; whether there is no current sheet, a closed current sheet, or an open current sheet; and whether the filament erupts into the corona, or is ejected completely from the Sun's atmosphere. Analysis of the properties of these possible configurations is compared with different types of flares, and to Bai's subdivision of gamma-ray/proton events.

Sturrock, Peter A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Targeted Optimization of Quasi-Symmetric Stellarators

The proposed research focuses on targeted areas of plasma physics dedicated to improving the stellarator concept. Research was pursued in the technical areas of edge/divertor physics in 3D configurations, magnetic island physics in stellarators, the role of 3D shaping on microinstabilities and turbulent transport and energetic ion confinement in stellarators.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the behavior of plasma with a negative current in the L-2M stellarator

The behavior of plasma with a negative current in the range of 5 kA ≤ vertical bar J vertical bar ≤ 16 kA in the L-2M stellarator is studied. Plasma is created and heated by means of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Here, the definition “negative” stands for a toroidal current directed in such a way that it reduces the initial rotational transform µ in absolute value. It is shown that, only at relatively small values of the negative current ( vertical bar J vertical bar ∼ 6 kA), the increase in the shear leads to a reduction in electromagnetic turbulence. As vertical bar J vertical bar rises, the average level of magnetic fluctuations in the stationary phase of the discharge gradually increases. After ECRH is switched off (i.e., when plasma cools down), there is a time interval in which the amplitude of magnetic field fluctuations increases. No coherent three-dimensional modes (e.g., double tearing modes) that could accompany the penetration of the current into the plasma were observed. As for axisymmetric perturbations with m ≠ 0, analysis of the experimental data shows that they are absent at vertical bar J vertical bar ≤ 8 kA, appear in some discharges at vertical bar J vertical bar = 9 kA, and are observed in each discharge at vertical bar J vertical bar ≥ 10 kA. The frequency of these oscillations is on the order of 10 kHz, the poloidal mode number is m = 2, and the duration is 4–6 ms. The absence of oscillations with m = 1 and the small value of the external magnetic field for the m = 2 perturbation indicate that the radial size of the magnetic island is less than 1 cm. This, in turn, suggests that the radial profile of the plasma current changes with increasing vertical bar J vertical bar.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Numerical experiments on the detailed energy conversion and spectrum studies in a corona current sheet

In this paper, we study the energy conversion and spectra in a corona current sheet (CS) by 2.5 dimensional MHD numerical simulations. Numerical results show that many Petschek-like fine structures with slow-mode shocks mediated by plasmoid instabilities develop during the magnetic reconnection process. The termination shocks can also be formed above the primary magnetic island and at the head of secondary islands. These shocks play important roles in generating thermal energy in a corona CS. For a numerical simulation with initial conditions close to the solar corona environment, the ratio of the generated thermal energy to the total dissipated magnetic energy is around 1/5 before secondary islands appear. After secondary islands appear, the generated thermal energy starts to increase sharply and this ratio can reach a value of about 3/5. In an environment with a relatively lower plasma density and plasma β, the plasma can be heated to a much higher temperature. After secondary islands appear, the one-dimensional energy spectra along the CS do not behave as a simple power law and the spectrum index increases with the wave number. The average spectrum index for the magnetic energy spectrum along the CS is about 1.8. The two-dimensional spectra intuitively show that part of the high energy is cascaded to large kx and ky space after secondary islands appear. The plasmoid distribution function calculated from numerical simulations behaves as a power law closer to f(ψ)∼ψ{sup −1} in the intermediate ψ regime. By using η{sub eff}=v{sub inflow}⋅L, the effective magnetic diffusivity is estimated to be about 10{sup 11} ∼ 10{sup 12} m{sup 2} s{sup −1}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The tokamak density limit: A thermo-resistive disruption mechanism

The behavior of magnetic islands with 3D electron temperature and the corresponding 3D resistivity effects on growth are examined for islands with near-zero net heating in the island interior. We refer to the resulting class of non-linearities as thermo-resistive effects. In particular, the effects of varying impurity mix on the previously proposed local island onset threshold [Gates and Delgado-Aparicio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 165004 (2012)] are examined and shown to be consistent with the well established experimental scalings for tokamaks at the density limit. A surprisingly simple semi-analytic theory is developed which imposes the effects of heating/cooling in the island interior as well as the effects of island geometry. For the class of current profiles considered, it is found that a new term that accounts for the thermal effects of island asymmetry is required in the modified Rutherford equation. The resultant model is shown to exhibit a robust onset of a rapidly growing tearing mode—consistent with the disruption mechanism observed at the density limit in tokamaks. A fully non-linear 3D cylindrical calculation is performed that simulates the effect of net island heating/cooling by raising/suppressing the temperature in the core of the island. In both the analytic theory and the numerical simulation, the sudden threshold for rapid growth is found to be due to an interaction between three distinct thermal non-linearities which affect the island resistivity, thereby modifying the growth dynamics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

The magnetic furnace: intense core dynamos in B stars

The dynamo action achieved in the convective cores of main-sequence massive stars is explored here through three-dimensional (3D) global simulations of convective core dynamos operating within a young 10 M{sub ⊙} B-type star, using the anelastic spherical harmonic code. These simulations capture the inner 65% of this star by radius, encompassing the convective nuclear-burning core (about 23% by radius) and a portion of the overlying radiative envelope. Eight rotation rates are considered, ranging from 0.05% to 16% of the surface breakup velocity, thereby capturing both convection that barely senses the effects of rotation and other situations in which the Coriolis forces are prominent. The vigorous dynamo action realized within all of these turbulent convective cores builds magnetic fields with peak strengths exceeding a megagauss, with the overall magnetic energy (ME) in the faster rotators reaching super-equipartition levels compared to the convective kinetic energy (KE). The core convection typically involves turbulent columnar velocity structures roughly aligned with the rotation axis, with magnetic fields threading through these rolls and possessing complex linkages throughout the core. The very strong fields are able to coexist with the flows without quenching them through Lorentz forces. The velocity and magnetic fields achieve such a state by being nearly co-aligned, and with peak magnetic islands being somewhat displaced from the fastest flows as the intricate evolution proceeds. As the rotation rate is increased, the primary force balance shifts from nonlinear advection balancing Lorentz forces to a magnetostrophic balance between Coriolis and Lorentz forces.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

THE ROLE OF KELVIN–HELMHOLTZ INSTABILITY FOR PRODUCING LOOP-TOP HARD X-RAY SOURCES IN SOLAR FLARES

We propose a model for the formation of loop-top hard X-ray (HXR) sources in solar flares through the inverse Compton mechanism, scattering the surrounding soft X-ray (SXR) photons to higher energy HXR photons. We simulate the consequences of a flare-driven energy deposit in the upper chromosphere in the impulsive phase of single loop flares. The consequent chromosphere evaporation flows from both footpoints reach speeds up to hundreds of kilometers per second, and we demonstrate how this triggers Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the loop top, under mildly asymmetric conditions, or more toward the loop flank for strongly asymmetric cases. The KHI vortices further fragment the magnetic topology into multiple magnetic islands and current sheets, and the hot plasma within leads to a bright loop-top SXR source region. We argue that the magnetohydrodynamic turbulence that appears at the loop apex could be an efficient accelerator of non-thermal particles, which the island structures can trap at the loop-top. These accelerated non-thermal particles can upscatter the surrounding thermal SXR photons emitted by the extremely hot evaporated plasma to HXR photons.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Identification of important error fields in stellarators using the Hessian matrix method

Error fields are predominantly attributed to inevitable coil imperfections. Controlling error fields during coil fabrication and assembly is crucial for stellarators. Excessively tight coil tolerance increases time and cost, and, in part, led to the cancellation of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment and delay of W7-X. In this paper, we improve the recently proposed Hessian matrix method to rapidly identify important coil deviations. Two of the most common figures of merit, magnetic island size and quasi-symmetry, are analytically differentiated over coil parameters. By extracting the eigenvectors of the Hessian matrix, we can directly identify sensitive coil deviations in the order of the eigenvalues. The new method is applied to the upcoming Chinese First Quasi-axisymmetric Stellarator configuration. Important perturbations that enlarge n/m = 4/11 islands and deteriorate quasi-axisymmetry of the magnetic field are successfully determined. The results suggest each modular coil should have separate tolerance and some certain perturbation combinations will produce significant error fields. By relaxing unnecessary coil tolerance, this method will hopefully lead to a substantial reduction in time and cost.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Direct stellarator coil optimization for nested magnetic surfaces with precise quasi-symmetry

We present a robust optimization algorithm for the design of electromagnetic coils that generate vacuum magnetic fields with nested flux surfaces and precise quasi-symmetry. The method is based on a bilevel optimization problem, where the outer coil optimization is constrained by a set of inner least squares optimization problems whose solutions describe magnetic surfaces. The outer optimization objective targets coils that generate a field with nested magnetic surfaces and good quasi-symmetry. The inner optimization problems identify magnetic surfaces when they exist, and approximate surfaces in the presence of magnetic islands or chaos. We show that this formulation can be used to heal islands and chaos, thus producing coils that result in magnetic fields with precise quasi-symmetry. We show that the method can be initialized with coils from the traditional two-stage coil design process, as well as coils from a near-axis expansion optimization. We present a numerical example where island chains are healed and quasi-symmetry is optimized up to surfaces with aspect ratio 6. Another numerical example illustrates that the aspect ratio of nested flux surfaces with optimized quasi-symmetry can be decreased from 6 to approximately 4. In conclusion, the last example shows that our approach is robust and a cold-start using coils from a near-axis expansion optimization.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fast neural Poincaré maps for toroidal magnetic fields

Poincaré maps for toroidal magnetic fields are routinely employed to study gross confinement properties in devices built to contain hot plasmas. In most practical applications, evaluating a Poincaré map requires numerical integration of a magnetic field line, a process that can be slow and that cannot be easily accelerated using parallel computations. We propose a novel neural network architecture, the HénonNet, and show that it is capable of accurately learning realistic Poincaré maps from observations of a conventional field-line-following algorithm. After training, such learned Poincaré maps evaluate much faster than the field-line integration method. Moreover, the HénonNet architecture exactly reproduces the primary physics constraint imposed on field-line Poincaré maps: flux preservation. Furthermore, this structure-preserving property is the consequence of each layer in a HénonNet being a symplectic map. We demonstrate empirically that a HénonNet can learn to mock the confinement properties of a large magnetic island by using coiled hyperbolic invariant manifolds to produce a sticky chaotic region at the desired island location. This suggests a novel approach to designing magnetic fields with good confinement properties that may be more flexible than ensuring confinement using KAM tori.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2019

Magnetic Reconnection in a Quasi‐Parallel Shock: Two‐Dimensional Local Particle‐in‐Cell Simulation

Magnetic reconnection in a quasi‐parallel bow shock is investigated with two‐dimensional local particle‐in‐cell simulations. In the shock transition and downstream regions, large amplitude magnetic fluctuations exist, and abundant current sheets form. In some current sheets, reconnection occurs, and ion‐scale and electron‐scale magnetic islands are generated. In electron‐scale island regions, only electron outflow jets are observed, producing a quadrupolar out‐of‐plane magnetic field pattern, while in ion‐scale islands, both ions and electrons are involved and energized in reconnection. Normalized reconnection rates are obtained to be between around 0.1 to 0.2, and particle acceleration signatures are seen in distribution functions.

Bessho, N.↗