Blob distortion by radio-frequency induced sheared flow

Blob transport properties in the plasma edge in the presence and absence of radio-frequency (RF) convective cells are compared. For the first time, the interactions between RF convective cells and intermittent plasma blobs in the scrape-off layer (SOL) are observed with gas puff imaging in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. It is found that the RF convective cells induce a sheared flow in the far SOL, which is able to stretch, distort and even split the blobs poloidally. The observed phenomena indicate that an externally generated sheared flow in the SOL can be considered as a method to modify blob transport in a favorable way

Radiative heat exhaust in Alcator C-Mod I-mode plasmas

In order to more completely demonstrate the I-mode regime as a compelling fusion reactor operating scenario, the first dedicated attempts at I-mode radiative heat exhaust and detachment were carried out on Alcator C-Mod. Results conclusively show that within the parameter space explored, an I/L back-transition is triggered prior to meaningful reductions in parallel heat flux, q||, target temperature, Te;tar, and target pressure, pe;tar, at the outer divertor. The exact mechanism for the I/L trigger remains uncertain, but a multi-diagnostic investigation suggests the pedestal regulation physics is impacted promptly by small amounts of N2 seeded into the private flux region. The time delay between when N2 contacts the plasma and the I/L transition is triggered varied from 30-120 ms, approximately 0.7-3 x tE, and the delay varied inversely with I-mode pedestal-top pressure, pe;95. Power and nitrogen influx scans indicate that the I/L transitions are not linked to excessive bulk-plasma impurity radiation. It is also shown that in the subsequent L-mode following nitrogen seeding, q|| and Te;tar can be reduced by factors of ~10. The I/L transition and L-mode exhaust results using N2 are compared to similar attempts using Ne where such q|| and Te;tar reductions in L-mode are limited to factors of 2-3. Implications for the I-mode regime are discussed, including needs for follow-up experiments on other facilities

A fast low-to-high confinement mode bifurcation dynamics in the boundary-plasma gyrokinetic code XGC1

A fast edge turbulence suppression event has been simulated in the electrostatic version of the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code XGC1 in a realistic diverted tokamak edge geometry under neutral particle recycling. The results show that the sequence of turbulent Reynolds stress followed by neoclassical ion orbit-loss driven together conspire to form the sustaining radial electric field shear and to quench turbulent transport just inside the last closed magnetic flux surface. The main suppression action is located in a thin radial layer around ψN ≅ 0.96–0.98, where ψN is the normalized poloidal flux, with the time scale ~0.1 ms

Alcator C-Mod: research in support of ITER and steps beyond

This paper presents an overview of recent highlights from research on Alcator C-Mod. Significant progress has been made across all research areas over the last two years, with particular emphasis on divertor physics and power handling, plasma–material interaction studies, edge localized mode-suppressed pedestal dynamics, core transport and turbulence, and RF heating and current drive utilizing ion cyclotron and lower hybrid tools. Specific results of particular relevance to ITER include: inner wall SOL transport studies that have led, together with results from other experiments, to the change of the detailed shape of the inner wall in ITER; runaway electron studies showing that the critical electric field required for runaway generation is much higher than predicted from collisional theory; core tungsten impurity transport studies reveal that tungsten accumulation is naturally avoided in typical C-Mod conditions.United States. Department of Energy (DE-FC02-99ER54512-CMOD)United States. Department of Energy (DE-AC02-09CH11466)United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-96ER-54373)United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-94ER54235

Electron temperature fluctuations associated with the weakly coherent mode in the edge of I-mode plasmas

New measurements of electron temperature fluctuations associated with the weakly coherent mode (WCM) during improved mode, or I-mode plasmas (Whyte et al 2010 Nucl. Fusion. 50 105005) at Alcator C-Mod (Marmar et al 2007 Fusion. Sci. Technol. 51 3261) are presented in this paper. The measurements are made with a 32-channel, high-resolution profile electron cyclotron emission radiometer. The WCM electron temperature fluctuations are localized to a 1 cm region inside the last closed flux surface. The WCM electron temperature fluctuation level is measured in several different I-mode discharges and is in the range 1% [~ over T][subscript e/T[subscript e] < 2%, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the WCM density fluctuation level. The WCM edge fluctuations observed in I-mode are believed to play a role in increasing particle transport but not energy transport in the edge of I-mode plasmas. The large difference between normalized density and electron temperature fluctuation amplitudes provides new evidence that the WCM fluctuations can separately affect energy and particle transport.United States. Dept. of Energy (DE-FC02-99-ER54512-CMOD

Intermittent fluctuations in the Alcator C-Mod scrape-off layer

Fluctuations in the boundary region of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak have been analyzed using gas puff imaging data. It is found that the fluctuation amplitudes in the near scrape-off layer follow a normal distribution while the far scrape-off layer fluctuations are dominated by large amplitude bursts due to radial motion of blob-like structures and have a positively skewed and flattened amplitude probability distribution. Conditional averaging of the time series reveals burst wave forms with a fast rise and slow decay and exponentially distributed burst amplitudes and waiting times. Based on this, a stochastic model of the burst dynamics is constructed. The model predicts that fluctuation amplitudes should follow a Gamma distribution and that there is a parabolic relation between the skewness and the kurtosis moments of the fluctuations. This is shown to compare favorably with the gas puff imaging data over a range of line-averaged plasma densities

Rotation Reversal Bifurcation and Energy Confinement Saturation in Tokamak Ohmic L-Mode Plasmas

Direction reversals of intrinsic toroidal rotation have been observed in diverted Alcator C-Mod Ohmic L-mode plasmas following electron density ramps. For low density discharges, the core rotation is directed cocurrent, and reverses to countercurrent following an increase in the density above a certain threshold. Such reversals occur together with a decrease in density fluctuations with 2  cm[superscript -1]≤k[subscript θ]≤11  cm[superscript -1] and frequencies above 70 kHz. There is a strong correlation between the reversal density and the density at which the Ohmic L-mode energy confinement changes from the linear to the saturated regime.United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract No. DE-FC02-99ER54512

Edge-localized mode avoidance and pedestal structure in I-mode plasmas

I-mode is a high-performance tokamak regime characterized by the formation of a temperature pedestal and enhanced energy confinement, without an accompanying density pedestal or drop in particle and impurity transport. I-mode operation appears to have naturally occurring suppression of large Edge-Localized Modes (ELMs) in addition to its highly favorable scalings of pedestal structure and overall performance. Extensive study of the ELMy H-mode has led to the development of the EPED model, which utilizes calculations of coupled peeling-ballooning MHD modes and kinetic-ballooning mode (KBM) stability limits to predict the pedestal structure preceding an ELM crash. We apply similar tools to the structure and ELM stability of I-mode pedestals. Analysis of I-mode discharges prepared with high-resolution pedestal data from the most recent C-Mod campaign reveals favorable pedestal scalings for extrapolation to large machines—pedestal temperature scales strongly with power per particle P[subscript net] [over [bar over n][subscript e]], and likewise pedestal pressure scales as the net heating power (consistent with weak degradation of confinement with heating power). Matched discharges in current, field, and shaping demonstrate the decoupling of energy and particle transport in I-mode, increasing fueling to span nearly a factor of two in density while maintaining matched temperature pedestals with consistent levels of P[subscript net] [over [bar over n][subscript e]]. This is consistent with targets for increased performance in I-mode, elevating pedestal β [subscript p] and global performance with matched increases in density and heating power. MHD calculations using the ELITE code indicate that I-mode pedestals are strongly stable to edge peeling-ballooning instabilities. Likewise, numerical modeling of the KBM turbulence onset, as well as scalings of the pedestal width with poloidal beta, indicates that I-mode pedestals are not limited by KBM turbulence—both features identified with the trigger for large ELMs, consistent with the observed suppression of large ELMs in I-mode.United States. Dept. of Energy (Agreement DE-FC02-99ER54512)United States. Dept. of Energy (Agreement DE-FG02-99ER54309

Scaling of the power exhaust channel in Alcator C-Mod

Parametric dependences of the heat flux footprint on the outer divertor target plate are explored in EDA H-mode and ohmic L-mode plasmas over a wide range of parameters with attached plasma conditions. Heat flux profile shapes are found to be independent of toroidal field strength, independent of power flow along magnetic field lines and insensitive to x-point topology (single-null versus double-null). The magnitudes and widths closely follow that of the “upstream” pressure profile, which are correlated to plasma thermal energy content and plasma current. Heat flux decay lengths near the strike-point in H- and L-mode plasmas scale approximately with the inverse of plasma current, with a diminished dependence at high collisionality in L-mode. Consistent with previous studies, pressure gradients in the boundary scale with plasma current squared, holding the magnetohydrodynamic ballooning parameter approximately invariant at fixed collisionality—strong evidence that critical-gradient transport physics plays a key role in setting the power exhaust channel.United States. Dept. of Energy (Award DE-AC52-06NA25396)United States. Dept. of Energy (Coop. Agreement DE-FC02-99ER54512