Rotating field current drive in spherical plasmas

The technique of driving a steady Hall current in plasmas using a rotating magnetic field is studied both numerically and analytically in the approximation of negligible ion flow. The authors consider a spherical plasma bounded by an insulating wall and immersed in a uniform magnetic field which has both a rotating component (for current drive) and a constant 'vertical' component (for MHD equilibrium). They formulate the problem in terms of an expansion of field quantities in vector spherical harmonics. The numerical code SPHERE solves the resulting pseudo-harmonic equations by a multiple shooting technique. The results presented, in addition to being relevant to non-inductive current drive generally, have a direct relevance to the rotamak experiments.

[1]  P. Watterson,et al.  Studies of equilibrium in the AAEC rotamak , 1987 .

[2]  Dutch,et al.  Double-helix current drive for tokamaks. , 1986, Physical review letters.

[3]  I. Jones,et al.  Investigations of the magnetic field structure of high‐power, short‐duration rotamak discharges , 1986 .

[4]  M. Dutch,et al.  Steady toroidal current drive with m=1 radio frequency travelling wave structures , 1986 .

[5]  W. Hugrass,et al.  The steady currents driven in a conducting sphere placed in a rotating magnetic field , 1984 .

[6]  R. Storer.  Compact torus equilibria set up in the Rotamak by rotating magnetic fields , 1983 .

[7]  I. Jones,et al.  Experimental observations of rotamak equilibria , 1982 .

[8]  R. Storer.  Pressure balance equilibria in the Rotamak , 1982 .

[9]  R. Grimm,et al.  A numerical study of the generation of an azimuthal current in a plasma cylinder using a transverse rotating magnetic field , 1981, Journal of Plasma Physics.

[10]  W. Hugrass,et al.  Steady-state solutions for the penetration of a rotating magnetic field into a plasma column , 1981, Journal of Plasma Physics.

[11]  W. Hugrass,et al.  An experimental investigation of current production by means of rotating magnetic fields , 1980, Journal of Plasma Physics.

[12]  I. Jones,et al.  Compact Torus Configuration Generated by a Rotating Magnetic Field: The Rotamak , 1980 .

[13]  W. Hugrass,et al.  The generation of screw-pinch/high-beta-tokamak configurations using a transverse rotating magnetic field , 1979 .

[14]  D. A. Dunnett.  Classical Electrodynamics , 2020, Nature.