Instability Studies on a Spherical Inertial Electrostatic Confinement

In order to evaluate the inertial electrostatic confinement concept, it is essential to develop a reliable and flexible instability analysis method for an equilibrium plasma in a potential well. Subsequently stability of this well can be studied. As a part of this study, methods are sought to avoid or suppress any destructive instabilities. Methods to be explored include modification/control of the well profile, control of the electron to ion beam density ratio, control of the angular momentum of the beam, etc. For this purpose, a perturbative (deltaf) particle simulation techniques for a kinetic analysis is applied to simulate completely the dynamic evolution of perturbed Vlasov-Poisson equations and, in addition, to achieve much more accurate simulations of the nonlinear dynamics using less simulation particles compared to conventional particle-in-cell method. This model is used to study the behavior of two-stream-like instabilities related to the trapped spherically converging ions. Results show that steady-state solutions of the self-consistent Vlasov-Poisson equation in which angular momentum of positively charged particle becomes lower correspond to the formation of a deep potential well. Also, it is shown that the growth rates are a decreasing function of angular momentum spread and an increasing function of longitudinal velocity spread.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nuclear Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Hyung Jin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Miley, George H.

• Engineering, Nuclear

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3250270

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85908