Energy distributions and radiation emissions in an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device under low and moderate magnetic fields

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy 2017-07, Vol.42 (28), p.17874-17885
• Main Authors: Dursun, Bekir, Kurt, Erol, Kurt, Hilal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Deuterium; Energy distribution; IEC; Inertial electrostatic confinement; Magnetic field; Radiation
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.02.015

The energy distributions and electromagnetic emissions of deuterium ions and electrons in an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) unit are reported for low and moderate magnetic field cases. The IEC device has a central wire system inside the grid system of the chamber for the production of the azimuthal magnetic field. The real-time simulations are performed by time integration method by using a finite difference method (FDM) for the physical geometry of device. It is observed that the field induces helical trajectories on the particles especially at the central region where the magnetic force is maximized in a fully ionized Deuterium media. The results prove that the particles have rich dynamics in terms of their trajectories. The effect of negative potential and particle–particle interaction play important roles to determine the trajectories even for low number of ions and electrons. Ion temperatures are calculated as Ti = 6.9 keV after 6 μs for low field case and Ti = 1.517 MeV after 22 μs for medium field case. [Display omitted] •The effects of low and medium magnetic field strengths have been explored.•The Deuterons and electrons have different radiative behavior with different radiative power scales.•The ion temperatures differ with the applied magnetic field.•The medium field assists to increase the fusion event possibility by exerting helical trajectories on the particles.