October 8, 2021

In-person - CHCB 231 or by Zoom - Meeting ID: 989 7787 8251; Passcode: 239546

3:00 PM “Optimizing Field Coils in a Quasi-Helically Symmetric Stellarator”

M Couso, U of MT Physics Major
Magnetic fusion reactors utilize electromagnetic field coils to guide plasma through a torus-shaped containment vessel.  Stellarators are a type that employ shaped modular coils to create a helical magnetic field that rotates to counteract particle drift and minimize losses. Due to this stellarators are challenging to design and assemble. The software FOCUS is intended to optimize coil structures given the desired boundary and an ideal field shape and provide a more reasonably engineering design.  In this research, FOCUS was utilized to consider whether adding additional coils which follow the magnetic field, otherwise known as poloidal field coils, can help to reduce the complexity of the modular coils. Here a proposed new stellarator configuration is optimized with and without these additional coils to compare their viability.