Investigation of the Three-Dimensional Structure of a Rotating Magnetic Field Driven Field-Reversed Configuration using Internal Magnetic Field Measurements

Abstract

The Translation, Confinement, Sustainment Upgrade device (TCSU) used a rotating magnetic field (RMF) to form and sustain plasma in a field-reversed configuration (FRC). The physics of RMF current drive can be modeled in terms of the torque acting on the FRC. A fully translatable three-axis internal magnetic probe was built and used to generate a full r-z map of the magnetic field in the FRC and open field line region. Probe measurements are used to calculate the torques acting on the FRC formed using even-parity and odd-parity RMF antenna configurations. Odd-parity current drive was found to be more efficient and yields a plasma with lower resistivity than in even-parity current drive. An extrapolation method was developed to generate 3D magnetic field line plots which show that unlike in even-parity, field lines in odd-parity sustained FRCs make multiple transits of the FRC. Analysis using the three-axis probe data has greatly expanded our understanding of the physics of RMF driven FRCs.