133:. Additionally, a complex triple joint seal may exist at the breech of the bore, which can often pose an extreme engineering challenge. Coaxial accelerators require insulators only at the breech, but the plasma armature in that case is subject to the "blow-by" instability. This is an instability in which the magnetic pressure front can out-run or "blow-by" the plasma armature due to the radial dependence of acceleration current density, drastically reducing device efficiency. Coaxial accelerators use various techniques to mitigate this instability. In either design, a plasma armature is formed at the breech. As plasma railguns are an open area of research, the method of armature formation varies. However, techniques including exploding foils, gas cell burst disk injection, neutral gas injection via fast gas valve, and plasma capillary injection have been employed.
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31:, or hot, ionized, gas-like particles, instead of a solid slug of material. Scientific plasma railguns are typically operated in vacuum and not at air pressure. They are of value because they produce muzzle velocities of up to several hundreds of kilometers per second. Because of this, these devices have applications in
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Plasma railguns appear in two principal topologies, linear and coaxial. Linear railguns consist of two flat plate electrodes separated by insulating spacers and accelerate sheet armatures. Coaxial railguns accelerate toroidal plasma armatures using a hollow outer conductor and a central, concentric,
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After armature formation, the plasmoid is then accelerated down the length of the railgun by a current pulse driven through one electrode, through the armature, and out the other electrode, creating a large magnetic field behind the armature. Since the driver current through the armature is also
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High velocity jets of controllable density and temperature allow astrophysical phenomena such as solar wind, galactic jets, solar events and astrophysical plasma to be partially simulated in the laboratory and measured directly, in addition to astronomic and satellite observations.
153:, depending on device design configuration and operating parameters, and the upper limits may be higher. Plasma rail guns are being evaluated for applications in magnetic confinement fusion for disruption mitigation and tokamak refueling.
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seeks to implode a magnetized D-T fusion target using a spherically symmetric, collapsing, conducting liner. Plasma railguns are being evaluated as a possible method of implosion linear formation for fusion.
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Linear plasma railguns place extreme demands on their insulators, as they must be an electrically insulating, plasma-facing vacuum component which can withstand both thermal and
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Arrays of plasma railguns could be used to create pulsed implosions of ~1 Megabar peak pressure, allowing more access to chart this opening area of plasma physics.
27:, uses two long parallel electrodes to accelerate a "sliding short" armature. However, in a plasma railgun, the armature and ejected projectile consists of
581:
Liu, D; Xiao, C; Hirose, A. (January 2008). "Performance of the
University of Saskatchewan compact torus injector with curved acceleration electrodes".
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141:, accelerating them down the length of the gun. Accelerator electrode geometry and materials are also open areas of research.
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Controlled jets from plasma rail guns can have peak densities in the 10 to 10 particles/m range, and velocities from 5 to
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Witherspoon, F. D.; Case, A.; Messer, S.; Bomgardner II, R.; Phillips, M. W.; Brockington, S.; Elton, R. (2009).
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Witherspoon, F. D.; Case, A.; Messer, S.; Bomgardner II, R.; Phillips, M. W.; Brockington, S.; Elton, R. (2009).
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moving through and normal to a self-generated magnetic field, the armature particles experience a
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Molvik, A. W.; Eddleman, J. L.; Hammer, J. H.; Hartman, C. W.; McLean, H. S. (14 January 1991).
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Development of Merged
Compact Toroids for Use as a Magnetized Target Fusion Plasma
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Compact Torus
Injection Experiments on the H.I.T. teststand and the JFT-2M tokamak
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Marshall, J. (January 1960). "Performance of a
Hydromagnetic Plama Gun".
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Compact Torus
Accelerator Driven Inertial Confinement Fusion Power Plant
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514:"Compact toroid dynamics in the Compact Toroid Injection Experiment"
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738:"A Contoured Gap Coaxial Plasma Gun with Injected Plasma Armature"
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691:"A Contoured Gap Coaxial Plasma Gun with Injected Plasma Armature"
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628:. American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics Meeting.
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Two stage plasma gun as the fuelling tool of Globus-M tokamak
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35th
European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics
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Conceptual Design
Description of a CT Fueler for JT-60U
450:(Report). Albuquerque: Logicon RDA. Archived from
23:is a linear accelerator which, like a projectile
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676:Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshops (ICC)
448:Support to Survivability/Vulnerability Program
665:Howard, Stephen; et al. (25 June 2008).
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467:"Quasistatic compression of a compact torus"
267:Pulsed High Density Fusion Experiment (PHD)
624:Fukumoto, N.; et al. (November 1997).
225:Compact Toroid Injection Experiment (CTIX)
93:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
559:Logan, B.G.; et al. (1 April 2005).
512:Baker, K.L.; et al. (January 2002).
113:Learn how and when to remove this message
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422:Voronin, A.V.; et al. (June 2008).
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239:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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91:adding citations to reliable sources
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795:Plasma technology and applications
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256:Compact Torus Injector (HIT-CTI)
742:Review of Scientific Instruments
695:Review of Scientific Instruments
583:Review of Scientific Instruments
235:Compact torus accelerator (CTA)
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43:research (HEDP), laboratory
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291:HyperJet Fusion Corp., USA
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41:high energy density physics
33:magnetic confinement fusion
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538:10.1088/0029-5515/42/1/313
491:10.1103/PhysRevLett.66.165
299:NearStar Fusion Inc., USA
249:University of Saskatchewan
648:"PHD Experiment Homepage"
446:Seiler, S. (April 1993).
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652:University of Washington
347:Combustion light-gas gun
271:University of Washington
49:plasma propulsion engine
748:(8): 083506–083506–15.
701:(8): 083506–083506–15.
471:Physical Review Letters
277:Fusion Plasma Injector
245:Compact Torus Injector
209:Kirtland Air Force Base
157:Magneto-inertial fusion
37:magneto-inertial fusion
589:(1): 013502–013502–6.
365:R. Raman and K. Itami
337:Pulsed plasma thruster
87:improve this section
754:2009RScI...80h3506W
707:2009RScI...80h3506W
634:1997APS..DPPkWP205F
595:2008RScI...79a3502L
530:2002NucFu..42...94B
483:1991PhRvL..66..165M
393:1960PhFl....3..134M
16:Linear accelerator
762:10.1063/1.3202136
715:10.1063/1.3202136
603:10.1063/1.2828056
570:. UCRL-TR-211025.
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186:Marshal gun
181:Institution
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145:Applications
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85:Please help
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45:astrophysics
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322:Mass driver
47:, and as a
784:Categories
678:. Reno NV.
566:(Report).
353:References
103:April 2020
546:250808512
524:(1): 94.
283:, Canada
251:, Canada
74:does not
790:Railguns
770:19725654
723:19725654
611:18248029
499:10043527
342:MARAUDER
306:See also
262:, Japan
204:MARAUDER
171:Examples
151:200 km/s
750:Bibcode
703:Bibcode
630:Bibcode
591:Bibcode
526:Bibcode
479:Bibcode
409:4191479
389:Bibcode
317:Coilgun
178:Device
95:removed
80:sources
39:(MIF),
35:(MCF),
25:railgun
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369:(2000)
55:Theory
29:plasma
672:(PDF)
564:(PDF)
542:S2CID
429:(PDF)
215:RACE
766:PMID
719:PMID
607:PMID
495:PMID
405:OSTI
78:any
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