Granted Patent
B2
US 12,620,498 · App. 18/395,510 · Granted May 5, 2026
Planar coil stellarator
Assignee:
THE TRUSTEES OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a stellarator comprising two sets of coils, namely a set of encircling coils which encircle the plasma axis, and a set of shaping coils which do not encircle any other coil or the plasma. In some embodiments, the encircling coils include a structural element to maintain their shape under magnetic forces. In some embodiments, the shaping coils are mounted onto one or more structural elements which, together with the shaping coils, constitute a field shaping unit. Also disclosed is a controller which may modify the electrical current flowing in one or more subsets of the coils in order to achieve target plasma parameters. Also disclosed is a method of designing a set of shaping coils by discretizing a surface dipole or current potential distribution.
Claims (10)
1 . A method for designing a stellarator including one or more planar coils and an array of encircling coils, comprising:
(a) obtaining for the stellarator (i) a target plasma, and (ii) a configuration of the array of encircling coils;
(b) using a surface current or a surface current potential, determining a continuous surface dipole distribution that produces one or more magnetic fields for confining the target plasma
(c) receiving one or more parameters selected from a resolution of the surface to be discretized into coils, a cutoff current, and/or a maximum coil linear dimension; and
(b) based on the received one or more parameters, defining a configuration of the one or more planar coils by discretizing the determined continuous surface dipole distribution.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a model of the plasma confined by the configuration of the one or more planar coils and the array of encircling coils.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the generating of the model of the plasma comprises using a free-boundary plasma solver.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising optimizing the target plasma by iteratively defining the configuration of the one or more planar coils.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising defining forces on the one or more planar coils.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising designing mechanical supports to react to the forces on the one or more planar coils.
Continuity (3)
Provisional Application
63319580
· Mar 14, 2022
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