Date of Award:

5-2013

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Physics

Committee Chair(s)

Eric D. Held

Committee

Eric D. Held

Committee

W. Farrell Edwards

Committee

D. Mark Riffe

Committee

James T. Wheeler

Committee

Joseph Koebbe

Abstract

A huge global increase in energy use is inevitable, so there is an urgent need to seek cleaner ways of producing energy on large scales. Fusion is the energy source of the universe and a promising way to fulfill energy needs of mankind for many centuries to come. It offers important advantages as a safe, sustainable, and environmentally friendly source of energy. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) aims to demonstrate magnetic fusion is an energy source of the future. The goal of ITER is to produce 500 MW of fusion power given 50 MW of input power—or ten times the amount of energy put in. The plasma in ITER is contained in a doughnut-shaped magnetic confinement device called a tokamak. It is important to understand heat transport parallel to the magnetic field in devices like this, since this can lead to degradation in heat confinement or drive instabilities that can cause the plasma to disrupt. This research contributes to our understanding of the underlying physics involved in parallel transport. Using a computer code, we solve the equations describing the plasma and calculate the parallel electron heat flow for different collisionality regimes. We also investigate the effect of magnetic wells on parallel electron heat flow.

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on 5/2013

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