Water-cooled U-tube grids for continuously operated neutral-beam injectors

A design for water-cooled extractor grids for long-pulse and continuously operated ion sources for neutral-beam injectors is described. The most serious design problem encountered is that of minimizing the thermal deformation (bowing) of these slender grid rails, which have typical overall spans of 150 mm and diameters on the order of 1 mm. A unique U-tube design is proposed that offers the possibility of keeping the thermal bowing down to about 0.05 mm (about 2.0 mils). However, the design requires high-velocity cooling water at a Reynolds number of about 3 x 10/sup 4/ and an inlet pressure on the order of 4.67 x 10/sup 6/ Pa (677 psia) in order to keep the axial and circumferential temperature differences small enough to achieve the desired small thermal bowing. It appears possible to fabricate and assemble these U-tube grids out of molybdenum with high precision and with a reasonably small number of brazes.