A New Lumped Approach for the Simulation of the Magnetron Injection Gun for MegaWatt-Class EU Gyrotrons

Nicolò Badodi, Antonio Cammi, Alberto Leggieri, Francisco Sanchez and Laura Savoldi
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Nicolò Badodi: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, via la Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy
Antonio Cammi: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, via la Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy
Alberto Leggieri: Microwave & Imaging Sub-Systems, THALES Vélizy-Villacoublay, F-78141 Vélizy-Villacoublay, France
Francisco Sanchez: Fusion for Energy (F4E), Josep Pla 2, 08019 Barcelona, Spain
Laura Savoldi: MAHTEP Group, Dipartimento Energia, Politecnico di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: In the framework of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project, one of the key components of the reactor is the ECRH (Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating). This system has the duty to heat the plasma inside the tokamak, using high frequency and power radio waves, produced by sets of 1MW gyrotrons. One of the main issues related to the gyrotron operation is the output power drop that happens right after the beginning of a pulse. In this work, we study the underlying phenomena that cause the power drop, focusing on the gyrotron’s MIG (Magnetron Injection Gun) of the 1MW, 170 GHz European Gyrotron prototype for ITER. It is shown how the current emission and the temperature of the emitter are tightly bound, and how their interaction causes the power drop, observed experimentally. Furthermore, a simple yet effective lumped-parameter model to describe the MIG’s cathode thermal dynamics is developed, which is able to predict the power output of the gyrotron by simulating the propagation of the heat inside this component. The model is validated against test results, showing a good capability to reproduce the measured behavior of the system, while still being open to further improvements.

Keywords: ECRH; gyrotrons; magnetron injection gun; lumped model; ITER (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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