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Astrophysics and Astronomy

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Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

2008

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Flow Dynamics And Plasma Heating Of Spheromaks In Ssx, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07 Jun 2008

Flow Dynamics And Plasma Heating Of Spheromaks In Ssx, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, David H. Cohen, Jason Alexander Horwitz , '07, Vernon Hampden Chaplin , '07

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

We report several new experimental results related to flow dynamics and heating from single dipole-trapped spheromaks and spheromak merging studies at SSX. Single spheromaks (stabilized with a pair of external coils, see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13 102503 (2006)) and merged FRC-like configurations (see Brown, Phys. Plasmas 13, 056503 (2006)) are trapped in our prolate (R = 0.2 m, L = 0.6 m) copper flux conserver. Local spheromak flow is studied with two Mach probes (r(1) = rho(i) ) calibrated by time-of-flight with a fast set of magnetic probes at the edge of the device. Both Mach probes feature six ion …