Open AccessFree-boundary Full-pressure Island Healing in a Stellarator: Coil-healing
Author(s) -
S. R. Hudson,
Allan Reiman,
D. J. Strickler,
A. Brooks,
D. Monticello,
Hirshman
Publication year - 2002
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/798164
Subject(s) - stellarator , magnetohydrodynamic drive , electromagnetic coil , magnetic field , physics , plasma , mechanics , magnetohydrodynamics , boundary (topology) , magnetic confinement fusion , computational physics , tokamak , mathematics , mathematical analysis , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
The lack of axisymmetry in stellarators guarantees that in general magnetic islands and chaotic magnetic field lines will exist. As particle transport is strongly tied to the magnetic field lines, magnetic islands and chaotic field lines result in poor plasma confinement. For stellarators to be feasible candidates for fusion power stations it is essential that, to a good approximation, the magnetic field lines lie on nested flux-surfaces, and the suppression of magnetic islands is a critical issue for stellarator coil design, particularly for small aspect ratio devices. A procedure for modifying stellarator coil designs to eliminate magnetic islands in free-boundary full-pressure magnetohydrodynamic equilibria is presented. Islands may be removed from coil-plasma free-boundary equilibria by making small changes to the coil geometry and also by variation of trim coil currents. A plasma and coil design relevant to the National Compact Stellarator Experiment is used to illustrate the technique