Description
P. Brinker, H. He, R. D. Smirnov, A. Marinoni, S. I. Krasheninnikov
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
The simplicity of the magnetic plasma confinement in a dipolar configuration makes such plasma quite attractive for the application to magnetic fusion [1-5]. However, it has a significant downside – the necessity to levitate the coil producing the dipolar magnetic field to avoid plasma-material interactions. Whereas such a drawback of the dipolar plasma confinement is manageable for small-scale experiments, it can result in a severe issue for a large-scale fusion reactor.
Recently [6], a novel dipole-like toroidally symmetric magnetic configuration suitable for a fusion plasma confinement was suggested. In this configuration, the dipolar-like magnetic field is formed by the combination of the magnetic field provided by structurally supported current-carrying coils and the plasma diamagnetic current. As a result, a separatrix disconnects the plasma-occupied magnetic flux surfaces from the rest of the magnetic field lines. Therefore, plasma is “free” and not wrapped around any coil as it does in the original dipolar configuration [1-5].
In this work, we present the results of the plasma equilibria simulations with the Grad-Shafranov equation for different magnitudes of plasma pressure and the interchange stable pressure profiles P(ψ). We consider different settings of two and three coils, which produce the vacuum magnetic field with standard and triple-X points. We find a maximum normalized plasma pressure, which still can be confined in such configurations, and evaluate an effective plasma β.
SK thanks Prof. M. Mauel for providing the original version of the G-Sh solver used in this study.
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[3] D. T. Garnier, et al., Phys. Plasmas 13 (2006) 056111.
[4] J. Kesner, et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 (2010) 124036.
[5] M. S. Davis, et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 56 (2014) 095021.
[6] S. I. Krasheninnikov, et al., Phys. Plasmas 32 (2025) 114501.