Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigation into Fusion Feasibility of a Magnetized Target Fusion Reactor: A Preliminary Numerical Framework

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of Fusion Energy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The efforts to engineer devices to produces conditions suitable for nuclear fusion on earth have made significant leaps and bounds in recent years due to improved technology and engineering methods. Magnetized target fusion, or magneto-inertial fusion, involves the inertial compression of a pre-magnetized plasma, using high magnetic fields to insulate the plasma, thereby allowing slower and lower convergence compression than achievable by inertial techniques alone. One particular form of MTF (suggested by general fusion) involves using an intense pressure wave transmitted through a dense medium, growing in intensity due to focusing, and finally reaching a plasma and compressing it. Our model consists of a spherically symmetric domain with moving boundaries that we solve numerically through a coordinate transformation and a flux-limited finite volume method. Our work ventures towards a proof of concept, both of a mathematical technique to solve nonlinear conservation laws with moving boundaries and of the notion that current designs being considered show potential for successful fusion conditions. Our work also includes a sensitivity analysis to estimate the optimal conditions for such a reactor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. L. Artsimovich, Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions (Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd., UK, 1964)

    Google Scholar 

  2. M. Laberge, An acoustically driven magnetized target fusion reactor. J. Fusion Energy 27, 65–68 (2007)

  3. M. Laberge, Experimental results for an acoustic driver for MTF. J. Fusion Energy 28, 179–182 (2008)

  4. L. Landau, E. Lifshitz, Fluid Mechanics (Pergamon Press, NY, 1959)

    Google Scholar 

  5. J. Lawson, Some Criteria for a Power Producing Thermonuclear Reactor (Proceedings of the Physics Society, Section B, 1957), p. 70

  6. D. Mansfield et al., Enhancement of Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor performance by lithium conditioning. Phys. Plasmas 3, 1892–1897 (1996)

  7. R.J. LeVeque, Finite Volume Methods for Hyperbolic Problems (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  8. S.D. Rothman, J.-P. David, J. Maw, C.M. Robinson, K. Parker, J. Palmer, Measurement of the principal isentropes of lead and lead-antimony alloy to \(\sim 400\) kbar by quasi-isentropic compression. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 38, 733–740 (2005)

  9. S. Tan, C. Shu, Inverse Lax-Wendroff procedure for numerical boundary conditions of hyperbolic equations: survey and new developments (pre-print)

  10. E. Herbeert, S. Balibar, F. Caupin, Cavitation Pressure in Water (2006) (pre-preint)

  11. V. Suponitsky, A. Froese, S. Barsky, Richtmyer–Meshkov instability of a liquid–gas interface driven by a cylindrical imploding pressure wave. Comput. Fluids 89C, 1–19 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. M.J. Edwards et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 070501 (2013)

  13. S. Woodruff, A. Macnab, N. Mattor, Adiabatic compression of a doublet field reversed configuration (FRC). J. Fusion Energy 27, 128–133 (2008)

  14. T. Gray, M.R. Brown, C.D. Cothran, G. Marklin, M.J. Schaffer, Stable spheromak formation by merging in an oblate flux conserver. Phys. Plasmas 17, 032510 (2010)

Download references

Acknowledgments

Michael Lindstrom would like to thank Westcoast Energy Inc. for a scholarship during this research. Brian Wetton would like to thank NSERC for a research grant. Michael Lindstrom is grateful to Michael Ward and David Seal for insightful discussions, and would also like to express a huge thanks to Randy LeVeque for a nice discussion and for writing such a clear book on the complex subject of numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws. The authors would like to thank Aaron Froese of General Fusion for helpful literature references and clarifications, and the reviewers for their extremely helpful and constructive comments in making this manuscript clearer and more accurate; as lead author, not being a plasma physicist, Michael Lindstrom is most appreciative for the insights shared by the reviewers to make the discussions more physically accurate and application-relevant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Michael Lindstrom & Brian Wetton

  2. General Fusion, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Sandra Barsky

Authors
  1. Michael Lindstrom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sandra Barsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Brian Wetton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Lindstrom.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lindstrom, M., Barsky, S. & Wetton, B. Investigation into Fusion Feasibility of a Magnetized Target Fusion Reactor: A Preliminary Numerical Framework. J Fusion Energ 34, 76–83 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-014-9760-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-014-9760-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation