Dust in Magnetised Plasmas.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Electrical Engineering and Electronics
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
| Paul Bryant (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Cowley C
(2020)
Robust impurity detection and tracking for tokamaks.
in Physical review. E
Harris B
(2019)
Ball pen probe in strongly magnetised RF plasmas
in Plasma Sources Science and Technology
| Description | Firstly, A new plasma diagnostic tool has been developed which enables the plasma parameters, such as electron density and temperature, to be readily obtained as maps by using fast visible cameras and optical filters, Standard methods for obtaining these maps rely on time consuming scanning through the plasma, data processing and usually only limited regions of the plasma can be accessed this way. This new method is able to obtain a complete 2 dimensional map without the need for scanning and has the potential to obtain 3 dimensional maps and measure fast plasma events such as turbulence and fluctuations. Comparison of the new diagnostic with conventional Langmuir probes showed good agreement. With our new diagnostic we have found a) the dust levitation height (above the electrode) depends on the magentic field strength b) the plasma to be non-uniform in both density and temperature c) the dust separation distance also depends on the magnetic field and d) the dust charge weakly depends on the magnetic field. This means that the levitation height of the dust changes because the electric field changes and not because of the dust charge. A paper is being prepared. Secondly, data analysis of the Magnum-PSI campaign data has showed good qualitative agreement between experimental and simulated (DTOKs) dust trajectories. Both theory and experiment agree with the general trend that increasing magnetic field causes an increase in the ion drag force on the dust. However, the predicted ion drag force magnitude was found to be 10 - 100 times greater than measured. Since the ion velocity could not be directly measured it is likely that the simulation used to predict the ion drag force could have overestimated the ion velocity. A paper is being prepared. |
| Exploitation Route | This optical imaging method can be used to provide plasma parameters in magnetised plasmas where standard diagnostics are limited in applicability or not applicable at all due to magnetic field interference. This technique has the potential to obtain 3 dimensional plasma parameter maps and to capture fast plasma events such as turbulence.A paper is being prepared to disseminate this information to the scientific community. The qualitative agreement with the Magnum dust experiments and DTOKs dust transport code has been useful in verifying (qualitatively) the DTOKs code which has been used to obtain good agreement with droplets ejected from spinning liquid dust particles in the JET tokamak. A new proposal (with international partners) capitalising on the uniqueness of this facility and the advance plasma diagnostics to study dust agglomerisation in astrophysical and fusion environments is being prepared. |
| Sectors | Energy,Other |
| Description | Eurofusion consortium |
| Amount | £31,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | EUROfusion |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 08/2018 |
| Description | Fusion CDT |
| Amount | £7,600 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Title | Optical imaging spectroscopy |
| Description | A fast gating ICCD camera was used with interference filters to image the plasma at selected wavelengths. By using a suitable spectroscopic model and diagnostic techniques we were able to obtain 2 dimension maps of the plasma density and temperature. This has the advantage of obtaining the plasma parameters remotely, without disturbing the plasma, , during fast transient events (fluctuations, waves etc) and throughout the whole plasma within the field of view. Previous methods used slower CCD cameras or only gave qualitative results with no numerical values for plasma density and temperatures. This technique is particularly useful in dusty magnetised plasmas where invasive methods, such as optical probes, would disturb the plasma. Traditional scanning optical probes would also be time consuming to both acquire and process the data and have limited access to the plasma volume. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | A professor from West Virginia University (USA) has expressed interest in this method and possible collaboration. |
| Description | Ball pen probe |
| Organisation | Culham Centre for Fusion Energy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Experiments were conducted using our magnetised plasma facility with different Ball pen designs (these diagnostic devices are used to obtain plasma properties withhin the fusion reactor) under different plasma conditions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A final year phd student (CCFE) participated in the experiments at Liverpool. Also, he will use his developed PIC code to simulate our plasma conditions and Ball pen designs to compare with experiment.. |
| Impact | Experiments produced new results not seen in the published literature. A peer reviewed paper has been published.. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAGNUM PSI |
| Organisation | Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Liverpool has successfully conducted experiments on the MAGNUM-PSI facility (Feb 2018) observing turbulence and introducing dust and using imaging techniques to observe dust transport under various fusion relevant conditions. Liverpool processed and analysed the data for candidates for further analysis. Working with ICL the data has now been fully analysed and a paper is being written. |
| Collaborator Contribution | KTH provided the dust samples used in the experiment. Imperial College (ICL) have developed a dust tracking code to analyse the image data. Imperial will also run dust transport simulations using their DTOKs code and compare to the experimental dust observations. York provided the initial plasma background (using experimental data) generated using their linear plasma code (HERMES and BOUT) which is required by DTOKs. DIFFER provided the experimental time and technical support and necessary technical information relating to the experiment. DIFFER has now taken over the role of providing the plasma background necessary for the DTOKs code. This part has now been completed with the final analysis and paper on going. |
| Impact | One journal paper has been published. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAGNUM PSI |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Department of Mathematics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Liverpool has successfully conducted experiments on the MAGNUM-PSI facility (Feb 2018) observing turbulence and introducing dust and using imaging techniques to observe dust transport under various fusion relevant conditions. Liverpool processed and analysed the data for candidates for further analysis. Working with ICL the data has now been fully analysed and a paper is being written. |
| Collaborator Contribution | KTH provided the dust samples used in the experiment. Imperial College (ICL) have developed a dust tracking code to analyse the image data. Imperial will also run dust transport simulations using their DTOKs code and compare to the experimental dust observations. York provided the initial plasma background (using experimental data) generated using their linear plasma code (HERMES and BOUT) which is required by DTOKs. DIFFER provided the experimental time and technical support and necessary technical information relating to the experiment. DIFFER has now taken over the role of providing the plasma background necessary for the DTOKs code. This part has now been completed with the final analysis and paper on going. |
| Impact | One journal paper has been published. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAGNUM PSI |
| Organisation | Royal Institute of Technology |
| Country | Sweden |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Liverpool has successfully conducted experiments on the MAGNUM-PSI facility (Feb 2018) observing turbulence and introducing dust and using imaging techniques to observe dust transport under various fusion relevant conditions. Liverpool processed and analysed the data for candidates for further analysis. Working with ICL the data has now been fully analysed and a paper is being written. |
| Collaborator Contribution | KTH provided the dust samples used in the experiment. Imperial College (ICL) have developed a dust tracking code to analyse the image data. Imperial will also run dust transport simulations using their DTOKs code and compare to the experimental dust observations. York provided the initial plasma background (using experimental data) generated using their linear plasma code (HERMES and BOUT) which is required by DTOKs. DIFFER provided the experimental time and technical support and necessary technical information relating to the experiment. DIFFER has now taken over the role of providing the plasma background necessary for the DTOKs code. This part has now been completed with the final analysis and paper on going. |
| Impact | One journal paper has been published. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAGNUM PSI |
| Organisation | University of York |
| Department | Department of Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Liverpool has successfully conducted experiments on the MAGNUM-PSI facility (Feb 2018) observing turbulence and introducing dust and using imaging techniques to observe dust transport under various fusion relevant conditions. Liverpool processed and analysed the data for candidates for further analysis. Working with ICL the data has now been fully analysed and a paper is being written. |
| Collaborator Contribution | KTH provided the dust samples used in the experiment. Imperial College (ICL) have developed a dust tracking code to analyse the image data. Imperial will also run dust transport simulations using their DTOKs code and compare to the experimental dust observations. York provided the initial plasma background (using experimental data) generated using their linear plasma code (HERMES and BOUT) which is required by DTOKs. DIFFER provided the experimental time and technical support and necessary technical information relating to the experiment. DIFFER has now taken over the role of providing the plasma background necessary for the DTOKs code. This part has now been completed with the final analysis and paper on going. |
| Impact | One journal paper has been published. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAST Dust transport |
| Organisation | Culham Centre for Fusion Energy |
| Department | Theory and Modelling Department |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration between members of the MAST Diagnostic Science Facility team at CCFC (Culham Science Center), Liverpool and Imperial college has successfully obtained experimental time on MAST-U. Liverpool will introduce dust into the MAST tokamak and study dust transport and dust mobilisation from within slots in the recently upgraded MAST fusion reactor using stereoscopic imaging techniques. The dust injector has been designed by Liverpool. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Imperial will compare the observed dust transport with their predictive DTOKS dust transport code in order to bench mark and improve it. CCFE (Culham) Team will provide experimental time and technical support to assist in the design of the dust injector. |
| Impact | No outputs yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | MAST Dust transport |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Department | Plasma Physics Research Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration between members of the MAST Diagnostic Science Facility team at CCFC (Culham Science Center), Liverpool and Imperial college has successfully obtained experimental time on MAST-U. Liverpool will introduce dust into the MAST tokamak and study dust transport and dust mobilisation from within slots in the recently upgraded MAST fusion reactor using stereoscopic imaging techniques. The dust injector has been designed by Liverpool. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Imperial will compare the observed dust transport with their predictive DTOKS dust transport code in order to bench mark and improve it. CCFE (Culham) Team will provide experimental time and technical support to assist in the design of the dust injector. |
| Impact | No outputs yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Mirror probe |
| Organisation | Culham Centre for Fusion Energy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The magnetised plasma rig will be used to test a newly developed Mirror probe in strong magnetic fields as part of a phd collaborative project between university of Liverpool and CCFE. This is a continuation of a previous phd project between these institutions. A phd student has started on the project this year. |
| Collaborator Contribution | To develop and test the Mirror probe including hardware and software... |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | IOP Plasma Physics Conference (Isle of Skye) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A poster was presented by the PDRA to make the UK plasma physics community aware of the magnetised plasma facility at Liverpool, the project as well as to show initial results from this grant. This generated interest from the UK as well as from a US participant. An informal invitation to give a speech was offered to the PDRA when next visiting the US. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Institute of Physics Plasma Physics Conference Oxford April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | National conference covering all aspects of the UK's plasma physics activities. Poster was presented on ball pen probe which generated interest.. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://plasma2017.iopconfs.org/home |
| Description | International plasma physics conference ICPIG held in Estoril (Portugal) 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Poster presented describing results from dust grant generated interest. Use and relevant information obtained which was relevant to research and useful contacts were made.. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://icpig2017.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/ |
| Description | IoP Plasma Physics Conference Belfast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I presented a talk entitled 'Optical imaging of Magnetised plasmas' in which I showed our research into developing a new diagnostic method for obtaining plasma density and temperature maps. There was interest and several questions from the audience and the general feedback was positive. A professor from West Virginia University (USA) was impressed by the talk and possible collaboration/visits were discussed. A poster was also presented entitled 'Tracking Dust grains in Magnum-PSI' (presented by phd student from imperial college) describing our latest dust experiment results on the Magnum-PSI facility. This generated interest from other researches who view/asked questions on the poster. This student won the best poster award. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://plasma2018.iopconfs.org/home |