Universität Stuttgart
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Item Open Access The influence of flow shear on drift-wave interactions in the stellarator TJ-K(2021) Ullmann, Til; Tovar, Günter (Prof. Dr.)The investigation of the interaction between shear flows and turbulence in magnetically confined fusion plasmas is motivated by the fact that shear flows can lead to a reduction or even suppression of the turbulent transport to the vessel wall. Thus they can significantly improve the performance of future nuclear fusion power plants. Therefore, in this thesis the influence of stationary background shear and time-dependent zonal flows on the wave interactions was investigated. The turbulence-generated zonal flows not only have the character of a shear flow, but in turn extract energy from the turbulence, while they themselves do not contribute to the transport of particles to the outside. Due to this special property, the dependence of this energy transfer on the background shearing rate was investigated experimentally. Because of its low-temperature plasmas, the stellarator experiment TJ-K offers the possibility of measuring the dynamics even within the confinement area by invasive diagnostics, such as Langmuir probes. This way, the tilting of turbulent eddy structures could be related to the background shear. The Reynolds stress, as a measure for the tilting, is linearly dependent on the shearing rate. Since the energy transfer between zonal flows and turbulence is composed of the product of the Reynolds stress and the background shear, a quadratic dependence of the energy transfer on the shearing rate was expected and here experimentally confirmed. In addition, the energy transfer between turbulence and zonal flows also led to a redistribution of the spectral power in favor of the zonal flows from ≈ 5% up to ≈ 40% of the total power for increasing shearing rate. In the picture of drift-wave turbulence, the non-linearity of the dynamics is reflected in three-wave interaction. The drift waves follow resonance conditions in the wavenumber and frequency space, which in turn are linked by the dispersion relation so that not all couplings are allowed. This defined coupling space is also called the resonant manifold. Theoretical considerations by Gürcan assumed that shear flows cause the coupling space of the nonlinear three-wave interaction to contract. Experimentally, this behavior could now be demonstrated on the basis of the shear-character of time-dependent zonal flows using the method of time-resolved wavenumber-frequency bicoherence. Here, it was shown that the effective coupling space actually shrinks with the occurrence of the shear flow and expands again with the decay of the zonal flow. The results in this thesis show that E×B background shear flows, as they occur during the transition from low to highly confined fusion plasmas, can trigger turbulence-driven zonal flows, whose Reynolds stress drive was initiated by a mean tilt of the vortex structure. At the same time, shear flows can restrict the coupling space of drift waves and thus increase the importance of large-scale structures, in particular e.g. zonal flows that do not contribute to turbulent transport, as possible energy sinks. If the shear flows are zonal flows themselves, self-amplification can become effective.Item Open Access Investigations and technical development of adsorption thermal energy storage systems with simulation and different control strategies(2021) Abou Elfadil, Mazen; Hirth, Thomas (Prof. Dr.)Thermal energy storage (TES) has been receiving an increasing worldwide attention, especially with the growing concerns about environmental problems caused by an inefficient utilization of energy. A major part of the energy consumption is considered as low temperature thermal energy. Thus, a better management of this energy by using thermal energy storage could provide a significant contribution to improve the overall efficiency of energy utilization in industrial processes and economies. The thermal energy can be stored in different forms e.g. sensible heat, latent heat or thermo-chemical, allowing variety of choices depending on the application. While the sensible and latent heat storage technologies are standard products, the thermo-chemical energy storage is still under development. Based on the method used, thermo-chemical energy storage can be divided into absorptive and adsorptive thermal energy storage systems. The adsorptive thermal energy storage systems have a great potential in both daily (short term) and seasonal (long term) applications. However, their implementation is still limited due to their low degree of applicability caused by lack of scientific knowledge on the thermal analysis level, as well as the absence of knowledge on the level of system integration, which has prevented the heat storage systems from reaching their maximum potential and from being fully commercialized. Consequently, there is still a big necessity for research and development in this field [Salvatore Vasta, 2018]. The principle of the adsorption storage system is based on a gaseous working fluid (e.g. water resp. vapor) which gets adsorbed by a highly porous material (e.g. zeolite). This adsorption process is an exothermal one, thus heat is being released and can be transferred and used. In order to recharge the heat storage system, desorption of the working fluid is done by heating the porous material. The heat storage system consists mainly of a reactor (where the porous material is located), a condenser/evaporator and other auxiliary components (e.g. water tank, pumps, sensors…). Efforts of development of the adsorptive TES were concentrated mainly on developing the adsorptive material, as the performance of the storage material has been the priority so far [Salvatore Vasta, 2018]. Little focus was put on heat power analysis and temperature behavior in the different system components, which have an impact on the overall system efficiency. Thus, system approach is still needed in order to combine and integrate this technology into industrial applications and products [Hauer, Andreas 2020] [Michelangelo Di Palo 2020]. With the aim of improving the heat storage efficiency (recovered heat to stored heat ratio), both numerical (simulations) and experimental (technical modifications) approaches were applied, which have enabled the system to achieve an optimal operational status in terms of energy utilization and efficiency. These approaches were later on used to define a fully automated control system assisting the adsorption TES to instantly react with the continuously varying parameters in such a way to assure an optimal performance. Hence, in the first stage of this investigation, process-modeling and simulation of the whole heat storage system were carried out, so that the total performance of the heat storage system can be predicted and evaluated for any future applications, including the possibility of combining different reactors or heat storage units. In the second stage, different experiments and technical modifications of the system were conducted. This includes testing various possibilities of TES setups (e.g. storage cascades), where the different pressure and temperature behavior in the reactor were evaluated. With the help of experiments, a detailed numerical 3D-model of the packed bed was created, giving an insight into the heat and mass transfer in the reactor during both adsorption and desorption. As a result, a new heat exchanger design was developed, which has improved the temperature distribution and the heating/cooling power. Additionally, the simulation’s results suggested the separation between the evaporator and the condenser to achieve an enhanced water vapor transfer between the reactor and condenser. On a parallel stage of this investigation, comprehensive heat power analysis during both adsorption and desorption processes was carried out, which has showed that the sensible heat left in the reactor, contributes to ca. 50% of the total stored heat. Consequently, multiple reactor concept was introduced, in order to enable the sensible heat recovery. As a conclusion, process simulation enabled tests with different parameters to be performed within much shorter time than the real experimental time. Thus, it was possible to cover numerous application-scenarios and help improving the system overall efficiency. The experimental results have shown that the developed heat exchanger design has increased the maximum power of the heat exchanger about 74%. Moreover, by improving the fluid dynamics between the reactor and condenser, the efficiency of desorption ηd and overall efficiency ηo were increased by 32% and 9% respectively. Furthermore, about 36% of the sensible heat left in the reactor after desorption was recovered by using multiple reactors with sequential configuration, which has led to a reduction in the total invested heat by ca. 9%. For future work it’s recommended to investigate the possibility of controlling the amount of discharged heat from the system by regulating the water uptake during adsorption. In addition, trying a different approach to the reactor’s design (e.g. moving bed reactor) could bring significant improvements to the system.Item Open Access Simulation of Electron Bernstein Waves in FLiPS with various numerical methods(2021) Rumiantsev, Kirill; Hirth, Thomas (Prof. Dr.)The plasma generation and heating by microwaves is an important research topic in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. All modern fusion plasma devices such as Wendelstein 7-X use microwave heating. The microwave plasma-heating primarily occurs at the resonances, where the microwaves are efficiently absorbed. The heating scenario must be designed such that the microwaves can reach the resonance. When the plasma exceeds the cutoff density, the microwaves will be reflected, and the resonance becomes inaccessible. However, it is possible to perform heating by Electron Bernstein Waves (EBWs), since these electrostatic waves propagate even in overdense plasmas, unlike the electromagnetic plasma waves. EBWs cannot propagate in the vacuum and must be created through a coupling process. Both O- and X-mode can couple to EBWs. The thesis investigates the coupling of the O- and X-mode to EBWs as well as the EBW propagation with various numerical methods. The application of only one numerical method is not sufficient as the coupling involves very different wavelength scales. The optimal coupling scheme for the expected plasma parameters was determined using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) code. Since EBWs are not included in the code, a Boundary-Value Problem (BVP) code was developed. Using the BVP code, the effect of the collisions on EBWs was studied. The field amplification at the upper-hybrid resonance (UHR), where EBWs couple to the electromagnetic waves, and the effect of the magnetic field on EBWs could be directly visualized. The propagation of the EBW was investigated using the novel ray-tracing code RiP. The ray-tracing simulations provided a clear picture of the essential features of the wave propagation. For the O- and X-mode coupling, the importance of the axial plasma inhomogeneity was shown. For the first time, the method of the Wigner function was applied to calculate the intensity distribution of EBWs. Both, ray-tracing and the Wigner function simulations showed that the inhomogeneous magnetic can cause focusing of EBWs. The focusing effect can have practical applications e.g. for controlled local heating of the plasma. Additionally, the focusing effect can cause a parametric decay due to the field enhancement in the focal regions. In this thesis, the simulations were focused on excitation and propagation of EBWs in the geometry of the linear plasma device FLiPS located at the University of Stuttgart. Measurements were carried out to study the predicted focusing of the EBWs in the FLiPS plasma with monopole antennas. The measurements provided the density profile used in the simulations. The expected amplification of the signal at the UHR was not detected, indicating either the complete collisional absorption of the X-mode at the upper-hybrid resonance, or the turbulent plasma density oscillations that reduce the coupling efficiency to EBWs. These effects can be studied further using the developed tools since they provide a complete toolbox to study the full coupling process to EBWs in an actual experimental geometry.