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Results for “Plasma-Material Interactions”

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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86 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Orbital Debris IC Report

We started a simulation campaign in support of our ongoing plasma signatures of small orbital debris project SINTRA program funded by IARPA. This project aims to identify plasma signatures generated by the interaction of small orbital debris (>10cm) with space plasma that can be used for detection, tracking and eventually, develop technologies to remove these small but lethal objects. The small orbital debris problem is increasing exponentially threaten the current and future use of space.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Formation of Organic Compounds Through Meteoritic Atmospheric Shock

This document is a Final Technical Report for DoE award DE-SC0023375 “Formation of Organic Compounds Through Meteoritic Atmospheric Shock”. The document includes a summary of topics studied, specific tasks completed, challenges, and results from the project. The main goal of this project was to investigate the production of organic molecules and/or complex inorganic precursor molecules in a plasma environment reminiscent of the environment surrounding meteoroids during atmospheric entries. The specific hypothesis tested in this project was that meteoroid ablation during the entry and the chemical reactions in the meteoroid plasma tail could have produced significant amounts of organics or precursor inorganics in the Early Earth’s atmosphere. Investigation of these processes is essential in understanding the origins of life on Earth and the search for life beyond our planet. This project was focused on a set of experiments conducted at the Utilizing the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego, CA. The experiments aimed to study the interaction of carbonaceous and silica materials (typically found in meteoroids) with mixtures of hot plasma gases (mimicking atmospheric entry conditions. The material samples and gas mixtures were selected to investigate the synthesis of the organic compound urea – a key ingredient in the origin of life – or one of its precursor, the complex inorganic compound ammonia.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Three-dimensional cross-field flows at the plasma-material interface in an oblique magnetic field

This article describes experimental evidence that the magnetic presheath is a fully three-dimensional structure modified by ion–neutral collisions. Velocity distributions of both ions and neutrals, obtained via laser-induced fluorescence, show that cross field ion drifts do not result from entrainment of ions in a flowing neutral background. Ion flows parallel to E x B arise and accelerate to as much as 0.2c s within several ion gyroradii of the boundary surface, where c s is the sound speed. Within measurement resolution, the onset of the E x B aligned flow occurs at the same distance to the surface that ions begin to deflect from travel along magnetic field lines. Collisional fluid and particle-in-cell simulations of the boundary region are compared to the experimental measurements. We find that, in contrast to the classical collisionless Chodura model, collisional effects between the ions and the non-flowing neutral population are essential to quantitatively predict the observed ion drift velocities. No momentum coupling between ions and neutrals, separable from noise and other effects, is observed in either signal. Here, we discuss several explanations and implications of this observation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Overview of lithium injection and flowing liquid lithium results from the US–China collaboration on EAST

A multi-institutional team consisting of national labs and universities has been conducting research to understand and control the plasma-material interface (PMI) to improve long pulse discharge control and performance in the EAST device in Hefei, China. One particular focus of the group has been to evaluate the performance of different plasma-facing component (PFC) technologies and materials, particularly lithium. Flowing liquid lithium PFC technologies are currently into their third generation of development and deployment in EAST, demonstrating recycling control and mitigation of edge-localized modes (ELMs). A lithium powder dropper has also been used to control ELMs while a lithium granule injector has demonstrated ELM triggering and pacing. To support this work, the facilities at the Center for Plasma Material Interactions such as HIDRA are being commissioned and utilized to develop/test the technologies before deployment on EAST. This paper will present a summary of the collaborative lithium PMI program on EAST.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Control of the Plasma-Material Interface for Long Pulse Optimization in EAST and KSTAR

This project's major goal was to understand and control the plasma-material interface to improve long pulse discharge and performance in the EAST and KSTAR devices, emphasizing the unique strengths of each machine. In particular, MIT has developed implanted depth markers to diagnose the net erosion of high-Z materials. The goals included the characterization and utilization of these markers in various high-Z materials of interest, including TZM, tungsten, and refractory metal base high entropy alloys.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗