Time passed slowly.
Although Xiao Yi believed that Tokamak device had a big problem, he still tried to conduct more simulations in this direction.
After all, no matter what, Tokamak device is currently considered by the academic community to be the most likely device to achieve controllable nuclear fusion. It does have considerable advantages. Its structure is simple - at least much simpler than fusion devices such as Stellarator. It can also achieve strong confinement of plasma and so on.
If necessary, he would not completely abandon the tokamak.
To this end, he tried various tokamak structures such as spherical tokamak, double-ring tokamak, D-shaped, elliptical, etc. within a few days.
However, no matter how he changed, the end result was almost the same.
It is easy to constrain but difficult to extract.
"Do we still need to give up the tokamak in the end?"
Xiao Yi couldn't help but think of it in his mind.
In the midst of various thoughts, he finally began to change his mind and temporarily set his sights on Stellarator.
Stellarator is the most researched nuclear fusion device besides tokamak. Its biggest disadvantage is that it requires high manufacturing accuracy.
The name Stellarator comes from the simulation of nuclear fusion inside a star. Its English name is Stellarator, which means stellar generator.
Unlike tokamak, which mainly relies on toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields, Stellarator uses a series of twisted and deformed magnetic field coils to generate complex three-dimensional magnetic fields.
These twisted and deformed coils also bring considerable difficulty to the production process.
After all, the design purpose is for these coils to provide a sufficiently precise and stable magnetic field to control the internal high-temperature plasma.
However, if there is a slight deviation during the manufacturing process, then under extreme conditions such as hundreds of millions of degrees high temperature, it is very likely to cause huge damage to some internal parts that are not expected to be damaged, thereby reducing the life of Stellarator.
The possibility of accidents cannot even be ruled out.
Therefore, so far, no relatively successful Stellarator has been developed.
However, this doesn't matter to Xiao Yi. Anyway, he mainly learns from the internal structure of this device.
For a device like Stellarator, it was impossible to get the design drawings directly like Oriental Hyperloop. However, it was not particularly troublesome for Xiao Yi. Based on some papers and information available on the Internet, he directly launched Perfect Engineering and built one in his mind.
A few more days passed like this.
The time is gradually approaching the end of the year, and of course a lot has happened during this period.
In terms of the PDE Industrial Alliance, because Xiao Yi has completed the proof under generalized conditions of NS equation, more companies have become more optimistic about the prospects of the PDE Industrial Alliance, so it has once again attracted quite a few companies to join, and the proportion of foreign companies has also increased.
PDE Industrial Alliance can gradually be called an international organization.
On the other hand, the Joint Mathematics Meeting held in San Francisco this year in the United States has also ended.
For this Joint Mathematics Meeting, quite a few mathematicians were looking forward to seeing the NS equation proof report of Xiao Yi at this conference, but unfortunately, they did not receive relevant information until the day before the conference started.
Just when they were disappointed, they then learned the news from University of Science and Technology of China that Xiao Yi would hold a NS equation certification report meeting in mid-March.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted widespread attention in the academic community.
Although the description in the paper is detailed enough, people are still looking forward to the Xiao Yi report to provide more explanations to the academic community.
Immediately, quite a number of mathematicians and mathematics enthusiasts from various countries who wanted to attend this lecture bought tickets to China.
Coincidentally, there is now a 144-hour visa-free policy for China, which gives them six days, which is enough for them to attend a report meeting and even travel here for a few days.
The Hui Province and Fei City governments were even more happy after learning about this incident.
Just kidding, what virtue and ability do they have? They are actually able to hold such an international academic conference, and even attract top mathematicians from all over the world.
In the past, this kind of event was held at Shangjing, such as International Congress of Mathematicians in 2002, and the previous certification report meeting about Goldbach Conjecture at Xiao Yi.
They can only stand on the sidelines and envy such an important academic conference.
Unexpectedly, now they finally have such an opportunity.
It seems that the return on the money spent on Xiao Yi is still increasing!
So in order to welcome this important report meeting, the provincial government and the municipal government began to make relevant preparations.
Including the preparation of the venue, and how to welcome the international mathematicians.
Of course, not only mathematicians, but also Mathematical Physicist, fluid mechanics experts and other related researchers will not be absent from this report. Although they may not understand the mathematical proofs, this does not prevent them from learning Xiao's Space content from Xiao Yi.
As we all know, Xiao's Space is the key to proving NS equation. Similarly, using Xiao's Space to simulate fluids is also a well-recognized method.
All in all, the foreign tourists expected to come to China this time will cover a relatively wide range, and they will generally be highly educated. China is in need of such talents.
What if so few talents can be retained?
It's just a shame for the staff responsible for preparing for this report meeting.
The New Year is coming soon, and they still have to prepare for the report meeting that will start in March.
However, considering that this report was derived from the proof of a world-class mathematical problem and was related to Xiao Yi, they felt less uncomfortable.
After all, it was a report meeting to make them proud of the Chinese people.
February 5, 2024.
Plasma Institute.
There are only four days left until Lunar New Year's Eve on February 9th.
The Oriental Super Ring has also made all preparations for the early stage of ignition.
Xiao Yi was also invited on this day.
According to what Li Jiangan said before, he will be responsible for pressing the ignition button today to ignite this artificial sun.
Control Center.
"Vacuum Group, reporting current vacuum status."
Zhao Zhanyou held the walkie-talkie in his hand and asked inside.
"Vacuum Group is in place, and the main reaction chamber pressure is stable at 1.0*10^-6 Torr, which meets the experimental requirements." Vacuum Group's team leader replied.
"Received in the control room, have you completed checking the operating status of the magnetic constraint group and magnetic field coil?"
"Still checking the magnetic field distribution map, it will be completed soon." The voice of the magnetic constraint team engineer came from the intercom.
"Speed up."
Zhao Zhanyou said, then he looked at Xiao Yi next to him, and asked with a smile, "Professor Xiao, I heard that you will hold NS equation's report meeting in March?"
Xiao Yi nodded. "Yes, March 15th."
"Tsk, I heard that the whole province is now preparing for this matter." Zhao Zhanyou sighed with emotion, "As expected of Millennium Prize Problems, the momentum is huge."
Xiao Yi laughed, "When the day when controllable nuclear fusion is realized, I'm afraid even if Riemann Hypothesis is proven, it won't be able to compare."
Zhao Zhanyou shrugged and said, "These two things, one is further away than the other."
He also didn't forget to incite Xiao Yi to study nuclear fusion, so he took advantage of the topic and said, "But Professor Xiao, if you come to help us study nuclear fusion first, you might be able to see such a day."
Xiao Yi couldn't laugh or cry, and said, "Then why don't I study Riemann Hypothesis? After all, don't forget that I am a mathematician."
"Uh... that's true."
Zhao Zhanyou was stunned.
But at this moment, the voice of the engineer from the magnetic restraint team came over the intercom.
"The magnetic constraint team reports: All superconducting magnets are cooling normally, the spiral magnetic field coils and toroidal magnetic field coils have reached the preset current intensity, and the magnetic field distribution map shows no abnormalities."
"Control room received!"
After hearing the report on the intercom, Zhao Zhanyou stopped chatting with Xiao Yi, became serious, and said to the intercom, "Plasma heating group, prepare to start the neutral beam injection and radio frequency heating system."
"The plasma heating pack is ready, neutral beam injectors and radio frequency heaters are calibrated and awaiting start commands."
"Diagnostic team, confirm all sensors and detectors are functioning properly."
"The diagnostic team reports: All diagnostic equipment, including Thomson scatterometers, interferometers and flexible X-ray detectors, have passed the test and the data acquisition system is normal."
"Okay!" Zhao Zhanyou said, "Now that all groups are ready, I will hand over the command to Professor Xiao Yi."
Then he handed the walkie-talkie in his hand to Xiao Yi next to him.
"Ready to light the fire."
Xiao Yi nodded, took the walkie-talkie, and walked to the console.
There is a switch on the console that controls the flow of current.
As long as this switch is pulled, a huge current will be quickly input to each coil to heat the interior.
The so-called input value in nuclear fusion Q value refers to this part of the input current.
Xiao Yi took a deep breath. It was the first time for him to do such a thing, and he was still a little excited.
Then, he said into the intercom, "Hello everyone, my name is Xiao Yi, and I will be in charge of the command next."
Responses from each group came from the intercom. "Hello, Professor Xiao! We are all just waiting for your order!"
Xiao Yi smiled, and then said, "Okay, all groups, pay attention, prepare for ignition, and all personnel will enter the highest alert state."
"Start the countdown now!"
"10!"
"9!"
"8!"
"..."
"1!"
"Light the fire!"
As Xiao Yi pulled the gate, the lights in the entire control room dimmed, and all eyes were focused on the large screen in the center, which displayed real-time plasma data.
The voices of each group quickly came over the intercom.
"Start the vacuum pump and start pumping out air."
"The magnetic field coil warms up and the current rises to the set value."
"Start neutral beam injection and start the radio frequency heating system simultaneously!"
On the screen, the plasma gradually took shape and its temperature rose rapidly.
On the large central screen, the plasma electron density and temperature are also rising, approaching the expected ignition conditions.
About forty seconds later, the excited voice of the person in charge of the diagnostic team rang out. "The plasma temperature reaches 100 million degrees!"
One hundred million degrees!
Basically meet the requirements of nuclear fusion reaction.
The reason why nuclear fusion requires high temperatures is to take advantage of the extremely high kinetic energy of various particles at such high temperatures, which can overcome the strong interaction between particles, thereby colliding together and causing a fusion reaction.
The higher the temperature, the stronger the kinetic energy of the particles, the higher the probability of collision, and the more intense the fusion reaction.
Of course, nuclear fusion will actually occur at tens of millions of degrees. For example, the core of the sun reaches 15 million degrees. However, the sun has an atmospheric pressure of hundreds of billions of times in its center. Under this atmospheric pressure, the probability of nuclear fusion is higher.
As for the artificial sun, it will definitely not be able to meet those conditions in terms of air pressure. There are still several orders of magnitude in between. What's more, even if it can really be achieved, even from a safety perspective, it is estimated that no government will allow such a facility to be built within the territory.
Just kidding, if we can really build a device with a pressure of hundreds of billions of times the atmosphere, it will really bring the sun to the earth. If it explodes, it will really be equivalent to the sun exploding on the earth.
Within the Eastern Super Ring.
As the temperature reached over 100 million degrees, the plasma density began to rise rapidly, and similarly, the nuclear fusion reaction gradually became more intense.
A red line on the large central screen kept rising, and everyone almost held their breath, waiting for the critical moment to arrive.
Until the above value exceeded the data of 1.57×10^20/m^3, the entire control room burst into cheers.
"The plasma density has exceeded the previous Greenwald limit! And the current plasma flow is still stable!"
"Awesome!"
"Nais!"
"..."
Amidst the cheers, Xiao Yi also smiled slightly, but his eyes were fixed on another screen next to him. This screen displayed real-time modeling of the internal plasma through an infrared detector.
It allows them to visually see the trajectory of the internal plasma flow.
Xiao Yi looked at the fluid trajectory above and started to activate Perfect Engineering, simulating these trajectory processes in his mind, and thinking about how to use the energy in this trajectory?
But the final conclusion is that there is still no good way.
Wear is still a key issue, and due to the structure of the tokamak itself, such wear will become more serious.
"Materials are still the key..."
Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes.
"But just solving the material problem is far from enough. The degree of wear of the tokamak will be too serious."
"And the key problem is that it is not convenient to replace the worn inner wall material inside the tokamak."
"So, it is necessary to add a buffer zone. When the wall material is replaced inside the fusion device, the plasma flow can be controlled in the buffer zone without entering the power generation area."
"Besides..."
Xiao Yi gradually began to think about it.
"But the most important thing is the material!"
"If the problem of the first wall material is not solved, the realization of nuclear fusion will always only be 50 years later!"
Material! Material!
Looking at everything on the road of human development, materials are the eternal key issue.
The imaginative super technologies in science fiction works also require more advanced materials.
For example, the super strong carbon nanotubes involved in the space elevator.
Another example is the super strong material required by Dyson Sphere.
There are also room temperature superconductors and so on.
Even if it is not so science fiction, just talking about the materials and technology required in spacecraft is still a problem that always exists.
But could those incredible-sounding materials actually exist?
Xiao Yi couldn't help but wonder, Fermi, where are the aliens in the paradox?
Maybe those aliens are also thinking about how far material technology can break through?
"The plasma density has exceeded 2×10^20/m^3!"
Another burst of excited sounds sounded around, waking up Xiao Yi.
Looking at the big screen, it is quite close to the number 2.12.
He sighed, forget it, why do you think so much?
Just keep your mind on the present.
But no matter what, he had to try to study the first wall material.
As to how far the development of science and technology can go, the first wall material may be able to give a simple answer.
Success means the road ahead is endless.
Unsuccessful...
Let's talk about it then.
But in short, he has now truly
"2.12! The new limit has arrived!"
The voice next to him reminded Xiao Yi.
He immediately picked up the walkie-talkie. "Okay, now start to control the fuel injection and keep the plasma density stable at 2.12×10^20/m^3!"
"Yes!"
After about a hundred seconds.
This ignition experiment is over.
The end result is undoubtedly gratifying.
The first is the achievement of running above 100 million degrees for 150 seconds.
This included running at 160 million degrees for 39 seconds.
In addition, the most important result is the verification of the new Greenwald limit.
At a density of 2.12×10^20/m^3, the plasma flow is still quite stable and very safe. This shows that under the same conditions, the energy that nuclear fusion can output can be even higher!
As soon as the relevant news was sent out, it quickly appeared on the domestic hot search list.
Of course, the verification of Greenwald's new limit has once again attracted the attention of the whole world.
However, compared to these good news, Plasma Institute feels that the better news is——
Xiao Yi decided to accept the invitation, become a researcher of Plasma Institute, and join the research on controllable nuclear fusion!