Planar coil stellarator
AssigneeThe Trustees of Princeton University
InventorDavid Gates
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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.
Claims20
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;
- and
- (b) a plurality of planar encircling coils which encircle the field-shaping coil system.
A stellarator comprising:
- (a) a plurality of structural supports;
- (b) one or more field shaping units operably connected to the plurality of structural supports, each of the one or more field shaping units comprising one or more planar, surface-mounted shaping coils;
- and
- (c) a plurality of planar encircling coils;
- wherein the plurality of structural supports, the one or more field shaping units, and the plurality of encircling coils collectively define a void adapted to confine a plasma.
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 shaping coils disposed on a surface of the one or more structural mounting elements;
- and
- (b) a plurality of encircling coils which encircle the plasma and the field-shaping coil system;
- wherein the one or more shaping coils and the plurality of encircling coils are comprised of one or more superconducting materials.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.