Experimental studies on closed cycle MHD power generation with Fuji-1 facility

Experimental studies on closed cycle MHD power generation with "Fuji-1" blow-down facility at the Tokyo Institute of Technology are presented. Recently, a new disk generator (Disk-F4) has been installed and a new seed injection system has been introduced from IVTAN (Institute of High Temperature in Russia). The design concept of the new generator channel is focused mainly on the reliability of high power generation. The Mach number at the generator inlet and the thermal input are increased up to /spl sim/2.8 and /spl sim/3.0 MW, respectively. In the new seeding system, a melted seed material is pushed by a piston dozator, instead of being gas-pressure-driven as in the previous system. The controllability of seed fraction is markedly improved, and the large fluctuation as has been observed previously is diminished. In power generation experiments with these new components, a maximum power output of 502 kW and an enthalpy extraction ratio of 16.7% have been obtained. These values at the present stage are lower than the maximum values previously achieved in the facility. However, reliable high power generation can be expected with the new generator. The behavior of plasma and fluid under high MHD interaction taking place in the generator channel is also discussed.