Effects of CT injector acceleration electrode configuration on tokamak penetration

Through compact toroid (CT) injection experiments on the TEXT-U tokamak (with BT approx. 10 kG and IP approx. 100 kA), it has been shown that the acceleration electrode configuration, particularly in the vicinity of the toroidal field (TF) coils of the tokamak, has a strong effect on penetration performance. In initial experiments, premature stopping of CTs within the injector was seen at anomalously low TF strengths. Two modifications were found to greatly improve performance: (a) removal of a section of the inner electrode and (b) increased diameter of the 'drift tube' (which guides the CT into the tokamak after acceleration). It is proposed that the primary drag mechanism slowing CTs is toroidal flux trapping, which occurs when a CT displaces transverse TF trapped within the flux conserving walls of the acceleration electrodes (or drift tube). For a simple two dimensional (2-D) geometry, a magnetostatic analysis produces a CT kinetic energy requirement of 1/2pv2≥α(B20/2μ0), with α=2/(1-a2/R2) a dimensionless number that is dependent on the CT radius a normalized by the drift tube radius R. For a typical CT, this can greatly increase the required energies. A numerical analysis in 3-D confirms the analytical result for long CTs (with length L such that L/a approx. 10). In addition to flux trapping, the CT shape is also shown to affect the energy criterion. These findings indicate that a realistic assessment of the kinetic energy required for a CT to penetrate a particular tokamak TF must take into account the interaction of the magnetic field with the electrode walls of the injector. (author)