This thesis presents an improved feedback system on HBT-EP and suppression of the fast rotating kink mode using this system. HBT-EP is an experimental tokamak at Columbia University designed to study the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities in confined fusion. The most damaging instabilities are global long wavelength kink modes, which break the toroidal symmetry of the magnetic structure and lead to plasma disruption and termination. When a tokamak is surrounded by a close fitting conducting wall, then the single helicity linear dispersion relation of the kink instability has two ominating branches: one is the "slow mode", rotating at the time scale of wall time, known as resistive wall mode (RWM), the other is the fast mode, that becomes unstable near the ideal wall stability limit. Both instabilities are required to be controlled by the feedback system in HBT-EP. In this thesis, improvements have been made upon the previous GPU-based system to enhance the feedback performance and obtain clear evidence of the feedback suppression effect. Specifically, a new algorithm is implemented that maintains an accurate phase shift between the applied perturbation and the unstable mode. This prevents the excitation of the slow kink mode observed in previous studies and results in high gain suppression for fast mode control at all frequency for the first time. When the system is turned off, suppression is lost and the fast mode is observed to grow back. The feedback performance is tested with several wall configurations including the presence of ferritic material. This provides the first comparison of feedback control between the ferritic and stainless wall. The effect of plasma rotation on feedback control is tested by applying a static voltage on a bias probe. As the mode rotation being slowed by the radial current flow, a higher gain on the kink mode is required to achieve feedback suppression. The change in plasma rotation also modifies the plasma response to the external perturbation. The optimal phase shift for suppression changes with the modified response and these observations are consistent with the predictions of the single helicity model.

Thesis. 1978. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND AERONAUTICS. / Includes bibliographical references. / Sc.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-120).

No description available.

The exact mechanisms responsible for heating the solar atmosphere in regions such as the chromosphere (partially ionized) and the corona (fully ionized) remain quantitatively unknown. This thesis demonstrates that the ions can be heated by Alfven waves with low frequencies in fully and partially ionized low beta plasmas, which is contrary to the customary expectation. For the partially ionized case, we find the heating process to be less efficient than the scenario with no ion-neutral collisions, and that the heating efficiency depends on the ratio of ion-neutral collision frequency to the ion gyrofrequency. For Alfven waves propagating obliquely to the background magnetic field in fully ionized plasmas, we find the heating process to be more efficient than the situation with Alfven waves propagating along the background magnetic field. Furthermore, the simulation results show the parallel kinetic temperature can become even larger than the perpendicular component for the case of obliquely propagating Alfven waves.

No description available.

In electromagnetic launcher (EML) systems, the behavior of the materials and forces at the armature-rail interface involves fluid mechanics, electromagnetics, thermal effects, contact mechanics and deformation mechanics. These factors must interact successfully in order for a launch to be successful. A lubricant film either deposited on the rails prior to launch or injected from the armature during launch has been suggested as a means of improving the electrical conductivity of the rail-armature interface and of avoiding the occurrence of arcing. The fluid pressure generated by such film, together with the magnetic force, the contact force and the uneven temperature field in the armature, deforms the armature and changes the interface gap shape. An analytical model to study the interfacial behavior under these influences is necessary in order to predict the performance of a potential EML design and to provide optimization information. Studies of this interfacial behavior have been done by a number of researchers. However, many critical factors were not included, such as surface roughness, cavitation, injection, magnetic lateral force, interface deformation and thermal effects. The three models presented in this study investigate the influence of those factors on the EML interface problem. The magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) model establishes a description of the lubrication process under electromagnetic stress but neglects interface deformation. The magneto-elastohydrodynamic (MEHD) model extends the MHD model by considering the lateral magnetic force, interface contact force and elastic deformation. Finally, the magneto-elastothermohydrodynamic (METHD) model adds the thermal effects to the deformation analysis. A coupled analysis of the interface behavior with the METHD model is developed and the history of a typical launch is studied. Detailed injection, lubrication and launch processes are revealed and the performance is predicted. A failed launch is simulated and the cause of failure is identified to be debris left on the rails. Several operation and design parameters, such as rail surface profile, electric current pattern, reservoir load, lubrication length, pocket size and geometry, injection conduit diameter, are analyzed and a recommended injection design procedure is developed. A scaling study is performed by doubling the dimensions to predict the scaling effects. In the end, the base case configuration and scaled configuration are optimized using the technique developed in this study.

Ce travail de thèse s’articule autour de plusieurs questions relatives à l’instabilité dynamo dans des écoulements turbulents en métaux liquides. Cette instabilité de conversion d’énergie cinétique en énergie magnétique dans les fluides électriquement conducteurs est à l’origine, par exemple, des champs magnétiques terrestre et solaire. En particulier, nous abordons l’estimation du seuil de l’instabilité, l’influence de l’écoulement et des conditions aux limites ainsi que les mécanismes de saturation du champ magnétique. Ces travaux expérimentaux s’appuient sur deux écoulements turbulents de type von Kármán : en sodium liquide à Cadarache (collaboration VKS) et en gallium liquide à l’ENS de Lyon.Dans un premier temps, l’étude est consacrée à l’analyse de critères permettant d’estimer la distance au seuil de l’instabilité dynamo, à travers la mesure de la réponse magnétique du système à une excitation pour la dynamo auto-entretenue VKS. Ces critères ont été validés dans les configurations dynamos de l’expérience puis appliquées aux configurations non-dynamo.Ensuite, nous illustrons l’influence de l’écoulement sur le champ dynamo à travers l’étude de bifurcations globales. Une bistabilité hydrodynamique, pilotant deux branches dynamos d’amplitude différentes, est décrite ainsi que les liens entre les états magnétiques et hydrodynamiques.Nous portons notre attention sur l’étude des mécanismes de saturation à travers la dynamo semi- synthétique de Bullard-von Karman mettant en jeu un mécanisme d’induction turbulente et un mécanisme de bouclage artificiel permettant l’observation d’une dynamo à faible nombre de Reynolds magnétique. L’instabilité démarre à travers un régime intermittent et sature par la rétroaction des forces de Lorentz sur l’écoulement. Nous donnons les lois d’échelle et le bilan de puissance de ce régime. Un régime d’instabilité sous-critique est aussi introduit et caractérisé.Nous détaillons dans une dernière partie, les techniques de mesure spécifiques aux métaux liquides utilisées et développées au cours de la thèse. / This PhD thesis deals with several problems relative to the dynamo instability in liquid metals turbulent flows. This instability converts kinetic energy into magnetic one in electrically conductive flows. It is the root of the magnetic field of the Earth and the Sun.We address the estimation of threshold of the instability, the influence of the flow configuration and of the electromagnetic boundary conditions as well as the saturation mechanism of the magnetic field. This experimental work rely on two turbulent flows of von Kármán type: in liquid sodium located in Cadarache (VKS collaboration) and in liquid gallium in ENS de Lyon.First we analyze several criteria about the estimation of the distance to threshold of the dynamo instability with the magnetic response of the system to a magnetic excitation for the self sustained dynamo in the VKS experiment. These method have been checked for dynamo configurations and then applied for non-dynamo configurations. Then, we study the influence of the flow on the dynamo field under the action of global hydrodynamic bifurcations. We describe a bistability of the flow which triggers two dynamo branches of different amplitude and the dynamics of the transitions between both hydrodynamic and magnetic states.We then focus on the saturation mechanism with the semi-synthetic Bullard-von Karman dynamo, involving a turbulent induction mechanism and an artificial electronic feedback. This setup allows to observe dynamo action for very low magnetic Reynolds number, far below the natural threshold of the instability.We observe an intermittent regime close to threshold and a fluid saturation by Lorentz force feedback on the flow. We specify the scaling laws and a power budget estimation of this regime. A sub-critical regime is also introduced and characterized.In the last section we detailed several measurement techniques in liquid metals developed and used during the PhD.

Nous présentons dans ce travail différentes configurations utilisées pour étudier des éxperiences, pertinentes d'un point de vue astrophysique, mettant en jeu des plasma produits par laser ainsi que des champs magnétiques intenses. les outils théoriques et numériques sont d'abord présentés avec la dérivation complète du modèle de magnétohydrodynamique (mhd) résistive à deux températures. nous décrivons aussi les nouveaux modules de physique implémentés au cours de cette thèse. la configuration de base utilisée pour notre travail consiste en une ou plusieurs cibles solides sur lesquelles un laser intense est envoyé dans le but de générer un plasma se propageant dans le vide. on montre que l'ajout d'un champ magnétique de plusieurs dizaines de teslas influence fortement la dynamique de ce plasma et que selon l'orientation initiale du champ, il est possible de générer différentes structures telles que des jets supersonic/superalfvenic ou encore des «crêpes» de plasma. par exemple, les jets ainsi produits sont caractérisés par des régimes tels que des lois d'échelles entre le système du laboratoire et le système astrophysique (jeunes étoiles connues sous le nom de t tauri) sont applicables. un sujet important et inédit traité dans cette thèse concerne la génération de chocs d'accrétion magnétisés en utilisant les jets mentionnés ci-dessus comme flots accrétant sur des cibles solides. nous mettons notamment l'accent, contrairement à la plupart des travaux précédents, sur la structure 3d de ces chocs et els instabilités présentes. pour chaque cas étudié, nous présentons des nouveaux résultats expérimentaux obtenus par notre collaboration sur le laser elfie du luli. / We present in this work different configurations used as a mean to study astrophysically-relevant (by scaling) experiments using laser-produced plasmas and strong magnetic fields. This work is a contribution to the relatively recent field known as high energy density laboratory astrophysics (hedla). The theoretical and numerical framework used in this this work is first introduced with a detailed derivation of the magnetohydrodynamic (mhd) model for bi-temperature and resistive plasmas. The three-dimensional mhd code gorgon and the new physical modules implemented during this thesis are presented. The basic setup studied here involve one or several solid slabs being used as targets for a joule-class laser. The expanding plasma thus produced is embedded in magnetic fields of strengths up to 40 t. Depending on the orientation of the field relative to the target surface, we show that the resulting plasma dynamic, relatively well described by ideal mhd, is strongly modified by the presence of the field. The first topic treated is related to the production, when the field is perpendicular to the target surface, of super-sonic/alfvenic jets relevant in the context of astrophysical jets observed around young star objects (t tauri stars). When the field is oriented parallel to the surface, we show that the configuration results in the formation of thin unstable plasma slabs. We also studied the possibility to generate magnetized accretion shocks in the laboratory and we detail the 3d structure obtained in this case. Alongise the numerical work, we present for each case mentioned previously, new experimental results obtained by the collaboration on the elfie laser facility (luli).

<p>This article-based dissertation provides a review on the broad subject of magnetars-their characteristics, giant flares (GFs) and associated observations of X-ray, gamma-ray, and radio emissions and their proposed physical mechanisms. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to provide an extensive description of the two research projects I undertook during my tenure as a Graduate Research Assistant, under the guidance of my advisor. Broadly, my research was focused on building analytical models and running three-dimensional (3-D), high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations using the astrophysical PLUTO code to investigate the physical mechanisms behind high-energy (X-ray and gamma-ray) and radio emissions associated with magnetar GFs using observational constraints. This, in turn, aided in either validating or disfavoring existing theories behind such energetic explosions.</p><p>Chapter 1 provides a review on magnetars, their GFs and associated high-energy and radio emissions, largely based on excellent reviews by [1]–[5]. I summarize interesting observational features of magnetars, specifically those of soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), along with known aspects of their X-ray and gamma-ray activity. I focus on the December 27, 2004 GF emitted by SGR 1806-20, the most energetic GF out of the three that occurred to date, describe its energetics and summarize existing theories behind the physical mechanisms that give rise to two emission characteristics associated with the GF - (i) quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) seen in the tail, and (ii) a radio afterglow detected a week after the GF. Lastly, I describe the methods I used to hypothesize the physical mechanisms behind QPOs and the radio emission and compare and contrast them with those suggested previously.</p><p>In chapter 2, I present a version of the research article in preparation and pending publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The work titled “Radio afterglow of magnetars’ giant flares”, undertaken under the supervision of Dr. Maxim Lyutikov and in collaboration with Dr. Maxim Barkov, explores the possible physical mechanisms behind the radio afterglow associated with the SGR 1806-20 GF using high-resolution 3-D MHD simulations.</p><p>In chapter 3, I present a version of the research article previously published by the Journal of Plasma Physics. The work titled “Tilting instability of magnetically confined spheromaks”, undertaken under the supervision of Dr. Maxim Lyutikov, in collaboration with Dr. Lorenzo Sironi and Dr. Maxim Barkov, investigates the tilting instability of a magnetically confined spheromak using 3-D MHD and relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with an application to astrophysical plasmas, specifically to explain the QPOs arising in the tail of the SGR 1806-20 GF.</p><p>I summarize the main results and conclusions of the two research projects and describe future prospects in chapter 4, followed by appendices A and B which describe additional theoretical concepts and simulation results for a better understanding of the nature of radio afterglows associated with GFs, and structure of spheromaks. References are compiled after the appendices in order that they are first cited, followed by a brief autobiographical sketch, and a list of publications.<br></p>