Hydrogen Plasma Stream Heat Source from Pulsed Plasma Accelerator at CPPIPR

Hydrogen plasma stream as a heat source has an importance in the fusion devices A high-density pulsed hydrogen plasma stream is being generated in a pulsed plasma accelerator (PPA) facility at CPPIPR. The PPA is powered by a 200 kJ pulsed power system (PPS) which provides a discharge current pulse with a time period ~1 ms and a peak current of 100 kA. The gas discharge in the PPA produces a high density ~1020/m3 hydrogen plasma stream with a high energy density. The plasma stream is characterized using different diagnostics methods such as OES to estimate the different plasma parameters and high-speed imaging to know the morphology of the plasma stream. The effect of an external longitudinal magnetic field on the plasma stream is also observed. Calorimetric measurement is carried out to estimate the heat generated from this plasma stream. A maximum energy density of 0.224 MJ/m2 is achieved in the presence of the magnetic field at a plenum (gas storage unit of gas injection valve) pressure of 2.4 bar. The observed heat load from the hydrogen plasma stream is comparable to the heat load imparted to material surface in tokamaks during the frequent outburst of plasma called ELMs with energy density ~0.2 to 1 MJ/m2.