Toroids in Tokamak Products - Toroids

Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach that generates fusion power with magnetic fields. The first attempt of building a confinement system was the stellarator, created by Lyman spritzer. The stellarator involved a torus that was cut in half then reattached. The stellarator was later replaced by the tokamak design. This design outmatched any existing competitor. The current is a tokamak that is driven through the plasma itself, which creates a field around the torus, combining with the toroidal field in order to produce a winding field.

Toroids

Tokomak products are devices that use magnetic fields to trap plasma in the shape of a torus. Two Russian scientists, Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov, invented the tokomak product in the 1950s. In a tokomak design, electromagnets that surround the torus creating a magnetic confinement, in which the plasma is contained in a circular shaped vacuum vessel. In order to achieve stable plasma equilibrium, it requires magnetic field lines to orbit the torus in a helical fashion. By adding toroidal fields, a helical shape can be generated. There are several different versions of magnetic confinement devices, but the tokomak is one of the most researched items for nuclear fusion.

Toroildal coils are key components of the Tokomak design. In order to maintain the fusion process in the system, particles from the hot plasma must be restricted to the central region. If the material is not constricted, it will rapidly cool. A simple toroidal field confines the plasma only if there is a twist in field lines. Since the toriodal field is curved, and decreases in axis, the plasma pressure results in a force that expands the torus; causing the plasma to slip between the field lines.

With a twist, there is no longer flux tubes that encircle the axis, and outward drift is counterweighed by an inward drift on the same flux surface.

Toroid

Toroid coils are a key component of any tokamak design. A toroid coil is a passive electronic components that consit of a circular magnetic core. These cores have high magnetic permeability and are typically made with iron or ferrite. Wire is then coiled around the magnetic material in order to make an inductor. Toroidal coils have a multitude of applications, across a wide range of industries. The help to make the magnetic field that is so important for these intricate desings. With out the toriodal coil, magnetic confinement fusion would be entirely impossible.

Toroid

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