Mainz 2022 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 19: Poster II

P 19.9: Poster

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 16:00–17:30, P

Optimizing quasi-isodynamic stellarators — •Alan Goodman, Rogerio Jorge, Per Helander, and Sophia Henneberg — Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Wendelsteinstraße 1, 17491 Greifswald

Stellarators are a class of plasma confinement devices that, if designed properly, may be viable nuclear fusion reactors. The W7-X stellarator's successes indicate that stellarators designed to be ``quasi-isodynamic'' (QI) --- which, amongst other things, have minimal plasma boostrap currents --- may be a viable path forward for future stellarators. QI configurations have contours of constant magnetic field strength wrapping around the device poloidally (the short way around) with a special symmetry.

Experimental measurements from the W7-X and HSX stellarators have shown that optimization methods are powerful tools in finding configurations with desirable properties. W7-X's optimized QI configuration has proven effective in confining particles trapped in magnetic wells (which is essential for a viable fusion reactor), but further improvements are now possible.

Unfortunately, optimized QI configurations tend to have unintended undesirable properties, such as large elongations and high mirror ratios, so care must be taken to limit these values. We present several objective measures which have shown promise in generating optimized QI stellarators and the results thereof.