To optimize plasmoid performance, I recommend a plasmoid rise time of under 50 nanoseconds with a very short duration to produce the most powerful plasmoid discharge and a proportional forceful compression of the gas.
It is not the energy that the pulse discharge carries in joules. It is how fast this energy is delivered to the gas. This is analogous to how explosives perform. Low explosives are compounds where the rate of decomposition proceeds through the material at less than the speed of sound. The decomposition is propagated by a flame front (deflagration) which travels much more slowly through the explosive material than a shock wave of a high explosive. High explosives are explosive materials that detonate, meaning that the explosive shock front passes through the material at a supersonic speed. To get a better shockwave, we are interested in Pulsed power. Pulse power is the science and technology of accumulating energy over a relatively long period of time and releasing it very quickly, thus increasing the instantaneous power. Instantaneous power is what is important. Steady accumulation of energy followed by its rapid release can result in the delivery of a larger amount of instantaneous power over a shorter period of time (although the total energy is the same). For example, if one joule of energy is stored within a capacitor and then evenly released to a load over one second, the peak power delivered to the load would only be 1 watt. However, if all of the stored energy were released within one microsecond, the peak power would be one megawatt, a million times greater. The release of all the power stored in the focus fusion capacitors should be released in 10 nanoseconds or less. The higher the voltage rating of the discharge capacitors, the faster is the speed of the discharge and the larger is the instantaneous power pulse. The capacitors that focus fusion should use should be rated at 3 million volts or more, the capacity in amps is not that important. Currently, the FF capacitors are only rated at a maximum of 45,000 volts. The speed of the spark will keep the electrode material close to the electrode through inertia thereby eliminating contamination of the plasma by electrode material. By the way, the high voltage strategy (a few nanoseconds) is what Brillouin Energy is using to keep their wire from melting. This pulse power weakness, contamination of the plasma, and slow pulse repetition rate can be fixed by using the Dynamitron. IMHO, The Dynamitron is the top of the line pulse power system. The Dynamitron can be operated in e-beam or x-ray modes to produce high current pulses in the range from 1 ms to continuous. One future problem that FF will have is the limited rate of the charge/discharge cycles that its capacitor bank can accomplish in a given timeframe. A large volume of amperage must be pumped into those capacitors and the charge rate is exponentially slow. The Dynamitron can produce pulses at a minimum of 1000 times a second all the way up to continuous operation. Unlike today, a future Lawrenceville Plasma Physics system using a Dynamitron will not be limited by a limited pulse power system. On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 11:21 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Latest Update and Plans to Demonstrate > Net Gain Nuclear Fusion in 2014 and a commercial reactor in 2018 > > http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/01/lawrenceville-plasma-physics-latest.html > > LPP Dec 10-11, 2013 Focus Fusion Presentation Slides > (Slide #38 - Commercial Prototype by 2015-2016) > http://fire.pppl.gov/FPA13_Lerner_plasma_focus.pdf > > >
