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Hi. It might be good if you email me, as I'm not sure how much I can put into this post. I've followed a similar path to the one you want to take. I got fund
by FiatLuxDave 8y ago
Hi. It might be good if you email me, as I'm not sure how much I can put into this post.
I've followed a similar path to the one you want to take. I got funding and built a fusion reactor design with some similarities (see US patent 5818891 for some details). What you are describing is more similar to a Migma design (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migma). If you are not already aware of Migma, I recommend researching it to see what the problems were. See if figure 3a looks familiar here http://www.rexresearch.com/maglich/migma.htm http://www.rexresearch.com/maglich/migma.htm.
This type of design will have a few problems. First, to work the way you simulate, it will have to remain at low density. This is because of space charge (all those repulsions add up as you add more particles). Also, the particle velocities will smear out over time as the particles adopt a Maxwellian distribution (see https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11412 https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11412). You can get around the space charge issue by putting electrons into the mix, but then you have a large source of energy losses (bouncing electrons emit photons that leave the area).
I'd love to see someone crack the self-sustaining fusion problem. If you would like to talk fusion, feel free to email me.
- pontifier 8y agoWow, I like your idea... It's very similar in concept. Set up a system which naturally resonates at a specific frequency, then add energy at that frequency until something has to give... I am familiar with Migma, which has self-intersecting orbits. I believe the main difference is that my ions will have a thermal distribution from the start, yet still be able to self intersect. (Particle velocity does not change cyclotron orbit timing until much higher energies. So Rider's arguments are not as applicable) My hope is to exceed the Brillouin limit only very briefly, and that most of the time, the plasma will be diffuse enough that space charge won't be an issue... The size of the focus should be the diameter of the electron beam, and electron beams can be very narrow. If the beam diameter is made very very small (electron microscopes prove this is possible), density at the focus could be very high for very short amounts of time... higher than even the Z machine, yet would quickly drop to levels low enough that space charge is not an issue. The possibility of this periodic density spike is predicted in "Beyond the Brillouin limit with the penning fusion experiment" which implies that local density can exceed the limit in either space or time. They chose space, I've chosen time. I'd love to email you about this, but fear I'm falling well into crank territory as it is. I'm pontifier everywhere, including gmail.