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Thursday, June 06, 2013
09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Seminar

Two-fluid simulations of merging-compression start-up in the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak

Adam Stanier
University of Manchester

MAST is a spherical tokamak (ST) that can start up using a merging-compression technique, in which two plasma tori with parallel currents are produced around poloidal field coils. These tori are attracted to each other and merge at the mid-plane of the vessel through magnetic reconnection. This reconnection process leads to extremely rapid plasma heating, with temperatures rising from a few eV to more than 1 keV on millisecond timescales.

We describe two-dimensional fluid simulations of the merging of two flux ropes, with parameters approximating those of the MAST device. These simulations were performed using the HiFi framework. We will discuss two-fluid effects and compare our results with experimental data from MAST.

Host: Tom Intrator