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Surface damage of W exposed to combined stationary D plasma and ELMs-like pulsed plasma
Get PDFThe surface damage of W under D plasma and ELMs-like transient heat loads was studied by combined stationary and pulsed D plasma. Low-flux transient heat loads will promote blister formation due to the gas expansion inside the blisters. On the contrary, high-flux transient heat loads will mitigate blistering due to the high surface temperature. Therefore, blistering on W surface first increased and then decreased with the increasing transient heat loads. The promotion effect of pulsed plasma on blistering is more obvious on [001] and [110] surfaces than on [111] surface, and the orientation dependence of blisters was mitigated by the transient heat loads. Surface modification induced by transient heat loads only formed on [001] and [110] surfaces, but did not form on [111] surface. The orientation dependence of surface modification was mainly due to the slipping system of dislocations.</p
Video analysis of dust events in full-tungsten ASDEX Upgrade
No full textFast video data recorded during seven consecutive operation campaigns (2008–2012) in full-tungsten ASDEX Upgrade have been analyzed with an algorithm developed to automatically detect and track dust particles. A total of 2425 discharges have been analyzed, corresponding to 12 204 s of plasma operation. The analysis aimed at precisely identifying and sorting the discharge conditions responsible of the dust generation or remobilization. Dust rates are found to be significantly lower than in tokamaks with carbon PFCs. Significant dust events occur mostly during off-normal plasma phases such as disruptions and particularly those preceded by vertical displacement events (VDEs). Dust rates are also increased but to a lower extent during type-I ELMy H-modes. The influences of disruption energy, heating scenario, vessel venting and vessel vibrations are also presented
Oscillatory vapour shielding of liquid metal walls in nuclear fusion devices
No full textProviding an efficacious plasma facing surface between the extreme plasma heat exhaust and the structural materials of nuclear fusion devices is a major challenge on the road to electricity production by fusion power plants. The performance of solid plasma facing surfaces may become critically reduced over time due to progressing damage accumulation. Liquid metals, however, are now gaining interest in solving the challenge of extreme heat flux hitting the reactor walls. A key advantage of liquid metals is the use of vapour shielding to reduce the plasma exhaust. Here we demonstrate that this phenomenon is oscillatory by nature. The dynamics of a Sn vapour cloud are investigated by exposing liquid Sn targets to H and He plasmas at heat fluxes greater than 5 MW m−2. The observations indicate the presence of a dynamic equilibrium between the plasma and liquid target ruled by recombinatory processes in the plasma, leading to an approximately stable surface temperature
The effect of H and J-aggregation on the photophysical and photovoltaic properties of small thiophene-pyridine-DPP molecules for bulk-heterojunction solar cells
No full textSpectroscopic investigations of divertor detachment in TCV
No full textThe aim of this work is to provide an understanding of detachment at TCV with emphasis on analysis of the Balmer line emission. A new Divertor Spectroscopy System has been developed for this purpose. Further development of Balmer line analysis techniques has allowed detailed information to be extracted from the three-body recombination contribution to the n = 7 Balmer line intensity. During density ramps, the plasma at the target detaches as inferred from a drop in ion current to the target. At the same time the Balmer 6 → 2 and 7 → 2 line emission near the target is dominated by recombination. As the core density increases further, the density and recombination rate are rising all along the outer leg to the x-point while remaining highest at the target. Even at the highest core densities accessed (Greenwald fraction 0.7) the peaks in recombination and density may have moved not more than a few cm poloidally away from the target which is different to other, higher density tokamaks, where both the peak in recombination and density continue to move towards the x-point as the core density is increased. The inferred magnitude of recombination is small compared to the target ion current at the time detachment (particle flux drop) starts at the target. However, recombination may be having more localized effects (to a flux tube) which we cannot discern at this time. Later, at the highest densities achieved, the total recombination does reach levels similar to the particle flux
Mitigation of divertor heat loads by strike point sweeping in high power JET discharges
No full textDeliberate periodic movement (sweeping) of the high heat flux divertor strike lines in tokamak plasmas can be used to manage the heat fluxes experienced by exhaust handling plasma facing components, by spreading the heat loads over a larger surface area. Sweeping has recently been adopted as a routine part of the main high performance plasma configurations used on JET, and has enabled pulses with 30 MW plasma heating power and 10 MW radiation to run for 5 s without overheating the divertor tiles. We present analysis of the effectiveness of sweeping for divertor temperature control on JET, using infrared camera data and comparison with a simple 2D heat diffusion model. Around 50% reduction in tile temperature rise is obtained with 5.4 cm sweeping compared to the un-swept case, and the temperature reduction is found to scale slower than linearly with sweeping amplitude in both experiments and modelling. Compatibility of sweeping with high fusion performance is demonstrated, and effects of sweeping on the edge-localised mode behaviour of the plasma are reported and discussed. The prospects of using sweeping in future JET experiments with up to 40 MW heating power are investigated using a model validated against existing experimental data
Enhanced electrochemical water oxidation: the impact of nanoclusters and nanocavities
Get PDFThe structures of transition metal surfaces and metal oxides are commonly believed to have a significant effect on the catalytic reactions. Density functional theory calculations are therefore used in this study to investigate the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) over nanostructured, i.e. nanocluster and nanocavity, surfaces of hematite (Fe2O3). The calculated results demonstrate an optimum nanocluster size with respect to the OER overpotential. The presence of nanoclusters on the electrode is regarded as an attractive strategy for increasing the activity in photoelectrochemical water splitting. However, in this work, we found that the presence of a nanocavity is a more effective strategy for lowering the overpotential compared to nanoclusters. This finding of the nanocavity-favoured OER for hematite surfaces is verified by similar simulations of WO3 surfaces.</p
