A LIGHT METAL FUELED NONEQUILIBRIUM PLASMA GENERATOR

A LIGHT METAL FUELED NONEQUILIBRIUM PLASMA GENERATOR (NPG) IS BEING STUDIED. THE NPG CONCEPT BURNS HIGH ENERGY METALS (E.G., ALUMINUM), MIXING THE METAL OXIDE PRODUCTS WITH AN INERT GAS STREAM TO PRODUCE A PLASMA CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING NONEQUILIBRIUM IONIZATION IN A MAGNETOHYDRO-DYNAMIC (MHD) GENERATOR. LIGHT METAL COMBUSTION PRODUCES EXTREMELY HIGH FLAME TEMPERATURES. WHEN AN INERT GAS (AR,HE) IS VITIATED WITH COMBUSTION METAL OXIDES AND EXPANDED TO MHD GENERATOR INLET CONDITIONS, THE METAL OXIDES CONDENSE IN FINITE-SIZE PARTICLES YIELDING AN ELECTROPHYSICALLY CLEAN PLASMA THAT CAN DRIVE THE NONEQUILIBRIUM MHD PROCESS. THE NPG CONCEPT PROMISES STEADY-STATE PRODUCTION OF NONEQUILIBRIUM PLASMAS WITH TEMPERATURES THAT ARE HIGHER THAN ARE ACHIEVABLE WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. THE NONEQUILIBRIUM PLASMAS WILL STABILIZE THE MHD NONEQUILIBRIUM IONIZATION PROCESS AND LEND HIGHER EFFICIENCY AND POWER DENSITY TO THE MHD DISK GENERATOR. PHASE I RESEARCH WILL COMPLETE THE FRONT-END WORK NECESSARY TO DEVELOP THE LIGHT METAL NPG. NPG IS BEING DEFINED IN TERMS OF ITS PHYSICS, OPERATION, AND DESIGN REQUIREMENTS. PHASE I IS ALSO DETERMINING THE MARKET POTENTIAL FOR NPG AS A COMMERCIAL PRODUCT. METAL FUELS AND GASES ARE BEING SCREENED FOR USE IN THE NPG CONCEPT BASED ON COMBUSTION PROPERTIES, PLASMADYNAMIC, AND NONEQUILIBRIUM IONIZATION PRINCIPLES. PHASE II WILL INCLUDE STUDIES OF THE FEASIBILITY OF LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE NPG PLASMA ELECTROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND THE DIRECT TESTING OF NPG COUPLED TO A NONEQUILIBRIUM IONIZATION DISK MHD GENERATOR. IN PHASE II, A POWDERED ALUMINUM FUELED NPG WILL BE DESIGNED AND FABRICATED, AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST TRAIN WILL BE ASSEMBLED AND READIED, AND PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE TESTS WILL BE CONDUCTED.