Burner End Tanks
The end tanks terminate each end of the machine, housing the converter, handling exhaust, and maintaining the axial vacuum.
The ends of the axis
The end tanks are the large vacuum chambers that cap each end of the burner's long axis. They enclose the direct-energy converter, provide the volume the expanded plasma flows into, pump away neutral gas and unconverted particles, and hold the vacuum that the whole linear plasma requires.
What they contain and do
- House the direct-energy converter and its electrodes.
- Provide the large volume the expander flow needs.
- Pump exhaust gas and helium ash to keep the plasma clean.
- Maintain the axial vacuum against gas load.
Vacuum and pumping
A linear machine has two open ends where plasma and neutral gas collect, so the end tanks carry a heavy pumping duty. Keeping the pressure low there prevents neutral gas from streaming back up the axis into the central cell and cooling the burn. The tanks are sized for this pumping load as much as for the converter they hold.
Symmetry
The burner is symmetric about the center of its central cell, so there is an end tank at each end, each with its own throat, expander, and converter. In the coordinate frame the two tanks sit at positive and negative extremes of the axial coordinate, mirror images across the origin at the central cell's center.
In the model
The end tanks are the large chambers terminating each end of the model. Selecting one and cutting away reveals the converter inside and the pumping connections. See the direct-energy converter they house and the burner overview for the full axis.