Investigation of pellet acceleration by an arc heated gas gun. An interim report of the investigations carried out to 31 August 1985

Deep penetration of pellets into the JET plasma may prove to be a useful tool for density and profile control. In JET deep penetration will require pellet velocities and sizes above those obtained so far. An experimental setup designed for a study of acceleration of 3 mm diameter pellets by an arc heated gas gun is described. The aim of the work is to obtain pellet velocities well above 2 km/s. To obtain this aim will require a much more powerful power unit than the one that was available for the present work. Only a few results, obtained mostly during testing of the various parts of the setup, are presented. Although the obtained velocities are low (∝1500 m/s) the results are encouraging because they demonstrate that pellets can stand a high acceleration pressure without disintegrating. With a suitable power supply which can maintain this high acceleration pressure as the pellet moves all the way through the barrel, velocities above 2 km/s would certainly be expected. (orig.)