Control of the resistive wall mode with internal coils in the DIIID tokamak

Abstract. New coils were installed inside the vacuum vessel of the DIII-D device for producing nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields. These " Internal-Coils" are predicted to stabilize the Resistive Wall Mode (RWM) branch of the long-wavelength external kink mode with plasma beta close to the ideal wall limit. Feedback using these new Internal-Coils was found to be more effective when compared with using the External-Coils located outside the vacuum vessel, because the location inside the vessel allows faster response and their geometry also couples better to the helical mode structure. A proper choice of feedback gain increased the plasma beta above the no-wall limit to C β ≥ 0.9, where C β is a measure of achievable beta above no-wall limit defined as (β-β nowall.limit )/(β ideal.wall.limit -β no.wall.limit ). The feedback system with Internal-Coils can suppress the RWM up to the normalized growth rate γτ w ~ 10 (τ w is the resistive flux penetration time of the wall). The feedback-driven dynamic error field correction helps to stabilize the RWM by reducing the rotational drag for Ω rot > Ω crit , where Ω rot is the angular rotation frequency of plasma and Ω crit is the critical value for the rotational stabilization. When Ω rot < Ω crit /2, the feedback system must stabilize the RWM mainly through direct magnetic control of the mode. The estimated Ω crit /Ω A is ≈ 2.5% by the MARS-F code analysis with experimentally observed profiles, where Ω A is the Alfvén angular rotational frequency at q = 2 surface. The MARS-F code also predicts that for successful RWM magnetic feedback control the power supply characteristic time should be a fraction of the growth time of the targeted RWM

Equilibrium and global MHD stability study of KSTAR high beta plasmas under passive and active mode control

The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, KSTAR, is designed to operate a steady-state, high beta plasma while retaining global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability to establish the scientific and technological basis of an economically attractive fusion reactor. An equilibrium model is established for stability analysis of KSTAR. Reconstructions were performed for the experimental start-up scenario and experimental first plasma operation using the EFIT code. The VALEN code was used to determine the vacuum vessel current distribution. Theoretical high beta equilibria spanning the expected operational range are computed for various profiles including generic L-mode and DIII-D experimental H-mode pressure profiles. Ideal MHD stability calculations of toroidal mode number of unity using the DCON code shows a factor of 2 improvement in the wall-stabilized plasma beta limit at moderate to low plasma internal inductance. The planned stabilization system in KSTAR comprises passive stabilizing plates and actively cooled in-vessel control coils (IVCCs) designed for non-axisymmetric field error correction and stabilization of slow timescale MHD modes including resistive wall modes (RWMs). VALEN analysis using standard proportional gain shows that active stabilization near the ideal wall limit can be reached with feedback using the midplane segment of the IVCC. The RMS power required for control using both white noise and noise taken from NSTX active stabilization experiments is computed for beta near the ideal wall limit. Advanced state-space control algorithms yield a factor of 2 power reduction assuming white noise while remaining robust with respect to variations in plasma beta.X111513sciescopu

Control of the resistive wall mode with internal coils in the DIII-D tokamak

Internal coils, 'I-Coils', were installed inside the vacuum vessel of the DIII-D device to generate non-axisymmetric magnetic fields to act directly on the plasma. These fields are predicted to stabilize the resistive wall mode (RWM) branch of the long-wavelength external kink mode with plasma beta close to the ideal wall limit. Feedback using these I-Coils was found to be more effective as compared to using external coils located outside the vacuum vessel. Locating the coils inside the vessel allows for a faster response and the coil geometry also allows for better coupling to the helical mode structure. Initial results were reported previously (Strait E.J. et al 2004 Phys. Plasmas 112505). This paper reports on results from extended feedback stabilization operations, achieving plasma parameters up to the regime of C beta approximate to 1.0 and open loop growth rates of gamma(open) tau(w) greater than or similar to 25 where the RWM was predicted to be unstable with only the 'rotational viscous stabilization mechanism'. Here C beta approximate to (beta - beta(no-wall.limit))/(beta(ideal.limit) - beta(no-wall.limit)) is a measure of the beta relative to the stability limits without a wall and with a perfectly conducting wall, and tau(w) is the resistive flux penetration time of the wall. These feedback experimental results clarified the processes of dynamic error field correction and direct RWM stabilization, both of which took place simultaneously during RWM feedback stabilization operation. MARS-F modelling provides a critical rotation velocity in reasonable agreement with the experiment and predicts that the growth rate increases rapidly as rotation decreases below the critical. The MARS-F code also predicted that for successful RWM magnetic feedback, the characteristic time of the power supply should be limited to a fraction of the growth time of the targeted RWM. The possibility of further improvements in the presently achievable range of operation of feedback gain values is also discussed

Investigation of MHD instabilities and control in KSTAR preparing for high beta operation

Initial H-mode operation of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is expanded to higher normalized beta and lower plasma internal inductance moving towards design target operation. As a key supporting device for ITER, an important goal for KSTAR is to produce physics understanding of MHD instabilities at long pulse with steady-state profiles, at high normalized beta, and over a wide range of plasma rotation profiles. An advance from initial plasma operation is a significant increase in plasma stored energy and normalized beta, with W-tot = 340 kJ, beta(N) = 1.9, which is 75% of the level required to reach the computed ideal n = 1 no-wall stability limit. The internal inductance was lowered to 0.9 at sustained H-mode duration up to 5 s. In ohmically heated plasmas, the plasma current reached 1 MA with prolonged pulse length up to 12 s. Rotating MHD modes are observed in the device with perturbations having tearing rather than ideal parity. Modes with m/n = 3/2 are triggered during the H-mode phase but are relatively weak and do not substantially reduce W-tot. In contrast, 2/1 modes to date only appear when the plasma rotation profiles are lowered after H-L back-transition. Subsequent 2/1 mode locking creates a repetitive collapse of beta(N) by more than 50%. Onset behaviour suggests the 3/2 mode is close to being neoclassically unstable. A correlation between the 2/1 mode amplitude and local rotation shear from an x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer suggests that the rotation shear at the mode rational surface is stabilizing. As a method to access the ITER-relevant low plasma rotation regime, plasma rotation alteration by n = 1, 2 applied fields and associated neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) induced torque is presently investigated. The net rotation profile change measured by a charge exchange recombination diagnostic with proper compensation of plasma boundary movement shows initial evidence of non-resonant rotation damping by the n = 1, 2 applied field configurations. The result addresses perspective on access to low rotation regimes for MHD instability studies applicable to ITER. Computation of active RWM control using the VALEN-3D code examines control performance using midplane locked mode detection sensors. The LM sensors are found to be strongly affected by mode and control coil-induced vessel current, and consequently lead to limited control performance theoreticallyclose3