DISK MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC CONVERSION SYSTEMS FOR NERVA REACTOR

THE COMBINATION OF A MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC (MHD) GENERATOR OF THE DISK TYPE WITH A (NERVA) REACTOR YEILDS AN ADVANCED SPACE POWER SYSTEM WITH GIGAWATT PULSE AND MEGAWATT CONTINUOUS OPERATING CAPABILITY, AT LOW SPECIFIC MASS AND HIGH SPECIFIC ENTHALPY EXTRACTION. THE NOVEL ASPECT OF THISSYSTEM IS THE DISK MHD GENERATOR OPERATING IN THE NON-EQUILIBRIUM MODE WITH CESIUM SEEDED HYDROGEN AS THE WORKING FLUID. IN THIS STUDY, SYSTEMS AND ENGINEERING ISSUES ARE BEING INVESTIGATED IN ORDER TO COUPLE THE GENERATOR TO A NERVA HYDROGEN COOLED REACTOR. THE DISK GENERATOR OPERATING CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR AN OPTIMIZED SYSTEM ARE BEING DETERMINED AND MODELS ARE BEING SET UP FOR THE MULTI-COMPONENT WORKING FLUID. FEASIBILITY OF NON-EQUILIBRIUM IONIZATION IN HYDROGEN IS BEING DETERMINED AND CONDITIONS FOR STABLE PLASMA BEHAVIOR ARE BEING IDENTIFIED. DESIGN OF ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTS TO OBTAIN DATA ON PLASMA BEHAVIOR AND NON-EQUILIBRIUM DISK GENERATOR OPERATION ARE ALSO BEING UNDERTAKEN. THE FEASIBILITY OF OPERATING A NON-EQUILIBRIUM MHD DISK GENERATOR WITH HYDROGENAS THE WORKING FLUID WOULD BE ESTABLISHED FROM THIS ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL OF THE ADVANCED MULTI-MEGAWATT SPACE POWER SYSTEM COMPRISING A DISK MHD GENERATOR COUPLED TO A NERVA REACTOR. DEVELOPMENT OF A DISKGENERATOR COULD ALSO RESULT FROM A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM FOR TERRESTRIAL MHD SYSTEMS PARTICULARLY CENTRAL STATION ELECTRIC UTILITY APPLICATIONS.