Inductive current drive of pinch plasmas

The one-dimensional equilibrium code BPROF is used to calculate the plasma inductance as a function of beta and pinch parameter θ, and the results are represented by an algorithm. The attainable poloidal flux is calculated for a variety of cases, using the CCOIL code, to derive simple algorithms representing the ohmic heating (OH) and equilibrium field (EF) fluxes in terms of dimensionless parameters. Assuming a temperature scaling relationship with plasma current and size, the loop voltage equation is integrated to find the flux consumed versus the pulse length. This plasmas equation is combined with the flux and inductance algorithms to estimate the attainable plasma pulse length, in terms of the peak magnetic field at the coil and the plasma and coil dimensions. The attainable pulse length depends mainly on the major radius. With R = 4 m, a/R = 0.12, and I = 10 MA, a pulse length of -- 15 s is predicted