Planar coil stellarator
AssigneeThe Trustees of Princeton University
InventorDavid Gates
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a stellarator comprising two sets of coils, namely a set of encircling coils which encircle the plasma axis, and a set of shaping coils which do not encircle any other coil or the plasma. In some embodiments, the encircling coils include a structural element to maintain their shape under magnetic forces. In some embodiments, the shaping coils are mounted onto one or more structural elements which, together with the shaping coils, constitute a field shaping unit. Also disclosed is a controller which may modify the electrical current flowing in one or more subsets of the coils in order to achieve target plasma parameters. Also disclosed is a method of designing a set of shaping coils by discretizing a surface dipole or current potential distribution.
Claims21
A stellarator comprising:
- (a) a field-shaping coil system including one or more field shaping units which define a void adapted to confine a plasma, wherein each field shaping unit comprises:
- (i) one or more structural mounting elements;
- and
- (ii) one or more planar shaping coils disposed on a surface of the one or more structural mounting elements, wherein the one or more planar shaping coils do not interlock with each other, and where each of the one or more shaping coils do not individually encircle the plasma;
- and
- (b) a plurality of planar encircling coils which encircle the field-shaping coil system, and wherein each planar encircling coil of the plurality of planar encircling coils do not interlock with each other.
A stellarator comprising:
- (a) a void adapted to confine a plasma having a plasma axis;
- (b) a plurality of planar shaping coils, wherein an array comprising the plurality of planar shaping coils encircles the plasma axis, but where any individual planar shaping coil of the plurality of planar shaping coils does not encircle the plasma axis;
- and
- (c) a plurality of planar encircling coils, wherein each individual planar encircling coil of the plurality of encircling coils encircles the plasma axis.
A stellarator comprising:
- (a) a void adapted to confine a plasma, wherein the void comprises at least two faces;
- (b) at least two planar shaping coils, wherein a first of the at least two planar shaping coils is proximal to a first of the at least two faces but does not encircle the void, and wherein a second of the at least two planar shaping coils is proximal to a second of the at least two faces but does not encircle the void;
- and
- (c) a plurality of planar encircling coils, wherein each individual planar encircling coil of the plurality of encircling coils encircles the plasma axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.