Studies of axial pressure profiles and flows during gas-puff-fueled discharges in LAPD

POSTER

Abstract

The Large Plasma Device (LAPD) has been upgraded with a LaB6 plasma source and with gas-puff-fueling capabilities; the combination of these two has provided a range of new operational regimes. In some regimes, strong parallel flows and axial pressure gradients are observed. Axial uniformity and plasma column length are important parameters to control for many experiments conducted at LAPD. We present data on how discharge power, electron pressure gradients, and plasma flows affect the plasma column length and axial uniformity. A variety of fiber based probes in concert with spectroscopy are employed to study the distribution of neutral gas in the machine.

*Experiments performed on LAPD at the Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF) at UCLA. BaPSF is supported by US DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science, with major facility instrumentation developed under an NSF MRI award.

Presenters

  • Thomas R Look

    • University of California, Los Angeles

Authors

  • Thomas R Look

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Walter N Gekelman

    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • UCLA

  • Troy A Carter

    • University of California, Los Angeles