Numerical study of tearing mode seeding in tokamak X-point plasma

A detailed understanding of island seeding is crucial to avoid (N)TMs and their negative consequences like confinement degradation and disruptions. In the present work, we investigate the growth of 2/1 islands in response to magnetic perturbations. Although we use externally applied perturbations produced by resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) coils for this study, results are directly transferable to island seeding by other MHD instabilities creating a resonant magnetic field component at the rational surface. Experimental results for 2/1 island penetration from ASDEX Upgrade are presented extending previous studies. Simulations are based on an ASDEX Upgrade L-mode discharge with low collisionality and active RMP coils. Our numerical studies are performed with the 3D, two fluid, non-linear MHD code JOREK. All three phases of mode seeding observed in the experiment are also seen in the simulations: first a weak response phase characterized by large perpendicular electron flow velocities followed by a fast growth of the magnetic island size accompanied by a reduction of the perpendicular electron velocity, and finally the saturation to a fully formed island state with perpendicular electron velocity close to zero. Thresholds for mode penetration are observed in the plasma rotation as well as in the RMP coil current. A hysteresis of the island size and electron perpendicular velocity is observed between the ramping up and down of the RMP amplitude consistent with an analytically predicted bifurcation. The transition from dominant kink/bending to tearing parity during the penetration is investigated

Low frequency sawtooth precursor activity in ASDEX Upgrade

This paper describes the precursor activity observed in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak before sawtooth crashes in various neutral beam heated plasmas, utilizing the soft x-ray diagnostic. In addition to the well-known (m, n) = (1,1) internal kink mode and its harmonics, a lower frequency mode is studied in detail. Power modulation of this mode is found to correlate with the power modulation of the (1, 1) kink mode in the quasistationary intervals indicating possible nonlinear interaction. Throughout the studied sawtooth crashes, the power of the lower frequency mode rose by several orders of magnitude just before the crash. In addition to its temporal behaviour, its spatial structure was estimated and the most likely value was found to be (1, 1). A possible role of this mode in the mechanism of the sawtooth crash is discussed

Model occupancy agreement A model agreement for use by Scottish housing associations, co-operatives and their partner agencies

Revised April 2000SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/26505 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Bulk ion heating with ICRF waves in tokamaks

Heating with ICRF waves is a well-established method on present-day tokamaks and one of the heating systems foreseen for ITER. However, further work is still needed to test and optimize its performance in fusion devices with metallic high-Z plasma facing components (PFCs) in preparation of ITER and DEMO operation. This is of particular importance for the bulk ion heating capabilities of ICRF waves. Efficient bulk ion heating with the standard ITER ICRF scheme, i.e. the second harmonic heating of tritium with or without 3He minority, was demonstrated in experiments carried out in deuterium-tritium plasmas on JET and TFTR and is confirmed by ICRF modelling. This paper focuses on recent experiments with 3He minority heating for bulk ion heating on the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak with ITER-relevant all-tungsten PFCs. An increase of 80% in the central ion temperature Ti from 3 to 5.5 keV was achieved when 3 MW of ICRF power tuned to the central 3He ion cyclotron resonance was added to 4.5 MW of deuterium NBI. The radial gradient of the Ti profile reached locally values up to about 50 keV/m and the normalized logarithmic ion temperature gradients R/LTi of about 20, which are unusually large for AUG plasmas. The large changes in the Ti profiles were accompanied by significant changes in measured plasma toroidal rotation, plasma impurity profiles and MHD activity, which indicate concomitant changes in plasma properties with the application of ICRF waves. When the 3He concentration was increased above the optimum range for bulk ion heating, a weaker peaking of the ion temperature profile was observed, in line with theoretical expectations.This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.Peer Reviewe

Dependence on plasma shape and plasma fueling for small edge-localized mode regimes in TCV and ASDEX Upgrade

\u3cp\u3eWithin the EUROfusion MST1 work package, a series of experiments has been conducted on AUG and TCV devices to disentangle the role of plasma fueling and plasma shape for the onset of small ELM regimes. On both devices, small ELM regimes with high confinement are achieved if and only if two conditions are fulfilled at the same time. Firstly, the plasma density at the separatrix must be large enough (n\u3csub\u3ee,sep\u3c/sub\u3e/n\u3csub\u3eG\u3c/sub\u3e ∼ 0.3), leading to a pressure profile flattening at the separatrix, which stabilizes type-I ELMs. Secondly, the magnetic configuration has to be close to a double null (DN), leading to a reduction of the magnetic shear in the extreme vicinity of the separatrix. As a consequence, its stabilizing effect on ballooning modes is weakened.\u3c/p\u3

Overview of progress in European medium sized tokamaks towards an integrated plasma-edge/wall solution

\u3cp\u3eIntegrating the plasma core performance with an edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) that leads to tolerable heat and particle loads on the wall is a major challenge. The new European medium size tokamak task force (EU-MST) coordinates research on ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), MAST and TCV. This multi-machine approach within EU-MST, covering a wide parameter range, is instrumental to progress in the field, as ITER and DEMO core/pedestal and SOL parameters are not achievable simultaneously in present day devices. A two prong approach is adopted. On the one hand, scenarios with tolerable transient heat and particle loads, including active edge localised mode (ELM) control are developed. On the other hand, divertor solutions including advanced magnetic configurations are studied. Considerable progress has been made on both approaches, in particular in the fields of: ELM control with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), small ELM regimes, detachment onset and control, as well as filamentary scrape-off-layer transport. For example full ELM suppression has now been achieved on AUG at low collisionality with n = 2 RMP maintaining good confinement . Advances have been made with respect to detachment onset and control. Studies in advanced divertor configurations (Snowflake, Super-X and X-point target divertor) shed new light on SOL physics. Cross field filamentary transport has been characterised in a wide parameter regime on AUG, MAST and TCV progressing the theoretical and experimental understanding crucial for predicting first wall loads in ITER and DEMO. Conditions in the SOL also play a crucial role for ELM stability and access to small ELM regimes.\u3c/p\u3