Effect of kinetic resonances on the stability of Resistive Wall Mode in Reversed Field Pinch

The kinetic effects, due to the mode resonance with thermal particle drift motions in the reversed field pinch (RFP) plasmas, are numerically investigated for the stability of the resistive wall mode, using a non-perturbative MHD-kinetic hybrid formulation. The kinetic effects are generally found too weak to substantially change the mode growth rate, or the stability margin, re-enforcing the fact that the ideal MHD model is rather adequate for describing the RWM physics in RFP experiments.Comment: Submitted to: Plasma Phys. Control. Fusio

Exploration of the Equilibrium and Stability Properties of Spherical Tokamaks and Projection for MAST-U

In preparation for high fusion plasma performance operation of the newly operating spherical tokamak MAST-U, the equilibrium and stability properties of plasmas in the MAST database, as well as projections for MAST-U, are explored. The disruption event characterization and forecasting (DECAF) code is utilized to map disruptions in MAST, particularly with regard to vertical displacement events. Loss of vertical stability control was not found to be common in MAST, providing reassurance for MAST-U operation. MAST equilibria were reconstructed with magnetic diagnostics, adding kinetic diagnostics, or finally also adding magnetic pitch angle data. The reconstructions work well for MAST and the procedures are set up for MAST-U, including determination of the plasma current in the first MAST-U discharges. A 3D wall model of MAST-U has been constructed in the VALEN code, indicating that significant toroidal currents may be induced in the conducting structure. Rotation measurements may also be included in the reconstructions, and a test with the FLOW code of a rotating MAST plasma indicates a modest shift of the pressure contours off of the magnetic flux surfaces may be expected. Unstable resistive wall modes (RWMs) may constrain the performance of high pressure MAST-U plasmas. A machine learning (ML) assisted algorithm for stability calculation developed for the NSTX spherical tokamak has been applied to MAST plasmas. Improvements and expansion of the ML techniques continue, including semi-supervised learning techniques and a detection algorithm for unstable RWMs. Finally, projections of MAST-U plasma stability have been performed, indicating that a region of high pressure operational space exists in which the new passive stabilization plates act to stabilize ideal kink modes and RWMs may be stabilized by kinetic effects or active control

Numerical Calculations Demonstrating Complete Stabilization of the Ideal Magnetohydrodynamic Resistive Wall Mode by Longitudinal Flow

The cylindrical ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability problem, including ow and a resistive wall, is cast in the standard mathematical form, ωA⋅x = B⋅x, without discretizing the vacuum regions surrounding the plasma. This is accomplished by means of a finite element expansion for the plasma perturbations, by coupling the plasma surface perturbations to the resistive wall using a Green's function approach, and by expanding the unknown vector, x, to include the perturbed current in the resistive wall as an additional degree of freedom. The ideal MHD resistive wall mode (RWM) can be stabilized when the plasma has a uniform equilibrium ow such that the RWM frequency resonates with the plasma's Doppler-shifted sound continuum modes. The resonance induces a singularity in the parallel component of the plasma perturbations, which must be adequately resolved. Complete stabilization within the ideal MHD model (i.e. without parallel damping being added) is achieved as the grid spacing in the region of the resonance is extrapolated to 0 step siz