Pyrotron with translational closure fields

摘要

860,840. Pulse-producing circuits. UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. Jan. 1, 1959 [Feb. 13, 1958], No. 37/59. Class 40 (6). [Also in Group XL (a)] A pulse circuit for a thermonuclear reactor comprising an elongated vacuum chamber surrounded by a solenoid formed of a number of solenoidal segments connected in series, comprises programming circuitry for supplying electrical energy to the segments in succession whilst simultaneously energizing the remaining segments that have not had said electrical energy applied to them, thereby providing in the chamber a magnetic field with a reflector field closure moving along the axis of the chamber. Fig. 2 shows a circuit which may be used for energizing the solenoidal segments 17-23, of which each except the centre one is connected to a capacitor bank 28-33 through an ignitron 36-41. A central capacitor bank, which may be divided into two sub-banks 43, 44, is connected to the junctions between adjacent segments through ignitrons 47-52. Each segment is shunted by an ignitron 53-58 which is triggered by a peak current detector such as a diode 61-67. Diodes 61-64 are connected in series with transformers, the secondaries of which are connected to trigger circuits 72-75. Capacitor banks 28-33 and 43, 44 may be charged from a power source through a programmed switch, and ignitrons 36, 37, 47, 48 fired from a pulse generator. When ignitrons 36, 37 are fired, capacitor banks 28, 29 discharge through segments 17, 18 whilst at the same time, due to the firing of ignitrons 47, 48, capacitor banks 43, 44 begin to discharge through the remaining segments. When the current through segments 17, 18 reaches its peak the voltage reverses and causes ignitrons 53, 54 to fire, and, through trigger circuits 72, 73, causes ignitrons 38, 39, 49, 50 to fire. When ignitrons 38, 39 fire, capacitor banks 30, 31 discharge through segments 19, 20 and the simultaneous firing of ignitrons 49, 50 cause capacitor banks 43, 44 to continue discharging through segments 21- 23. Similarly, when the current through segments 19, 20 reaches its peak, ignitrons 55, 56 fire and, through trigger circuits 74, 75, ignitrons 40, 41, 51, 52 also fire causing capacitor banks 32, 33 to discharge through segments 21, 22 and capacitor banks 43, 44 to discharge through segment 23. The effect of this is to produce a magnetic field through the solenoid which is constant in the middle and rises to peaks at each end, and the peaks move towards each other in two steps. Short-circuited coils 83-85 may be inductively coupled to the three central segments 21-23 and serve to retard the decay of the magnetic field. In a modified circuit, Fig. 4 (not shown), electrical overlap of the segments is achieved by connecting a further series of ignitrons and capacitor banks between the mid-points of adjacent segments.