Electrostatic and particle interaction modeling of inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion reactor

Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) fusion reactors are fusion-powered devices that produce energy and radioactivity by using electric fields to confine ions and induce particle collisions. The primary objective of this research is to simulate a multi-grid IEC device in order to evaluate the neutrons production rate (NPR) using XOOPIC software and to study the variables affecting neutron production within the IEC, including: the voltage supplied to grid, the ions current supplied into the system, and the radius of the innermost cathode grid. The scope of this study includes the simulation of an IEC device with 1 mm grid diameter, 25 cm exterior grid radius as anode, a continuous injection of deuterium ions into the system, and a high vacuum pressure of the background gas. From simulation results, it was found that supplying highly negative voltage to the cathode grid affected the depth of potential well and ion confinement. The neutron production rate tended to increase linearly as more negative potential was applied to the grid. The IEC device was able to increase the neutron production rate from 1.73 x 104 n/s to 1.41 x 105 n/s when the supply voltage to the cathode grid was reduced from -200 kV to -500 kV. Increasing the depth of potential well results in greater ion confinement in the core region of the IEC device where neutrons are generated the most because the kinetic energy of the ions is at their highest, thus maximizing the probability of fusion reaction. By modifying the radius of the cathode grid, the neutron production rate was increased from 1.21 x 105 n/s to 2.19 x 105 n/s when the cathode radius was increased from 50 mm to 80 mm. The effect of increasing fusion reactions in the core region is the same as adding a more negative potential to the cathode grid. However, the difference is that it does not increase the ion density of the core. Rather, it increases the extent to which the reaction can take place becomes larger. Increasing ion current affected the ion density within the system. The IEC device was able to increase the neutron production rate from 1.38 x 105 n/s to 1.96 x 105 n/s when the ion current was increased from 0.1 A to 2 A. This is due to the increase of ion density in the system, which increases the possibility of ions colliding and causing the fusion reaction.