Planar coil stellarator
AssigneeThe Trustees of Princeton University
InventorDavid Gates
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims30
A stellarator comprising 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, wherein the one or more shaping coils do not interlock with each other, and where each of the one or more shaping coils do not individually encircle the plasma.
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, surface-mounted shaping coils;
- and
- (c) one or more additional coils;
- wherein the plurality of structural supports, the one or more field shaping units, and the one or more additional coils collectively are adapted to confine a plasma;
- and
- wherein the one or more additional coils do not interlock each other;
- but where each of the one or more additional coils interlocks the 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) one or more additional coils;
- wherein the one or more additional coils do not interlock each other;
- but where each of the one or more additional coils interlocks the plasma confined in the void;
- wherein the one or more shaping coils do not interlock with each other;
- and
- wherein each of the one or more shaping coils do not individually encircle the plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.