Impurity feedback control for enhanced divertor and edge radiation in DIII-D discharges

Long pulse and steady state fusion ignition devices will require a significant radiated power fraction to minimize heat flux to, and sputtering of, the first wall. While impurity gases have been proposed to enhance radiation, precise control of impurity gas injection is essential to achieve an adequate radiative power fraction while maintaining good energy confinement and low central impurity concentration. We report here the first experiments in the DIII-D tokamak using feedback control of the rate of impurity gas injection. These experiments were carried out with active divertor pumping using the in-situ DIII-D cryopump. The radiated power fraction was controlled by sensing either UN edge line radiation (Ne{sup +7}) or mantle radiation from selected bolometer channels and using the DIII-D digital plasma control system to calculate radiated power real-time and generate an error signal to control an impurity gas injector valve

Behavior of electron and ion transport in discharges with an internal transport barrier in the DIII-D tokamak

The authors report results of experiments to further determine the underlying physics behind the formation and development of internal transport barriers (ITB) in the DIII-D tokamak. The initial ITB formation occurs when the neutral beam heating power exceeds a threshold value during the early stages of the current ramp in low-density discharges. This region of reduced transport, made accessible by suppression of long-wavelength turbulence by sheared flows, is most evident in the ion temperature and impurity rotation profiles. In some cases, reduced transport is also observed in the electron temperature and density profiles. If the power is near the threshold, the barrier remains stationary and enclosed only a small fraction of the plasma volume. If, however, the power is increased, the transport barrier expands to encompass a larger fraction of the plasma volume. The dynamic behavior of the transport barrier during the growth phase exhibits rapid transport events that are associated with both broadening of the profiles and reductions in turbulence and associated transport. In some, but not all, cases, these events are correlated with the safety factor q passing through integer values. The final state following this evolution is a plasma exhibiting ion thermal transport at or below neoclassical levels. Typically, the electron thermal transport remains anomalously high. Recent experimental results are reported in which rf electron heating was applied to plasmas with an ion ITB, thereby increasing both the electron and ion transport. Although the results are partially in agreement with the usual {rvec E} x {rvec B} shear suppression hypothesis, the results still leave questions that must be addressed in future experiments

Stability of a radiative mantle in ITER

We report results of a study to evaluate the efficacy of various impurities for heat dispersal by a radiative mantle and radiative divertor(including SOL). We have derived a stability criterion for the mantle radiation which favors low Z impurities and low ratios of edge to core thermal conductivities. Since on the other hand the relative strength of boundary line radiation to core bremsstrahlung favors high Z impurities, we find that for the ITER physics phase argon is the best gaseous impurity for mantle radiation. For the engineering phase of ITER, more detailed analysis is needed to select between krypton and argon

Nanoscale piezoelectric response across a single antiparallel ferroelectric domain wall

Surprising asymmetry in the local electromechanical response across a single antiparallel ferroelectric domain wall is reported. Piezoelectric force microscopy is used to investigate both the in-plane and out-of- plane electromechanical signals around domain walls in congruent and near-stoichiometric lithium niobate. The observed asymmetry is shown to have a strong correlation to crystal stoichiometry, suggesting defect-domain wall interactions. A defect-dipole model is proposed. Finite element method is used to simulate the electromechanical processes at the wall and reconstruct the images. For the near-stoichiometric composition, good agreement is found in both form and magnitude. Some discrepancy remains between the experimental and modeling widths of the imaged effects across a wall. This is analyzed from the perspective of possible electrostatic contributions to the imaging process, as well as local changes in the material properties in the vicinity of the wall

Metamorphosis of plasma turbulence-shear flow dynamics through a transcritical bifurcation

The structural properties of an economical model for a confined plasma turbulence governor are investigated through bifurcation and stability analyses. A close relationship is demonstrated between the underlying bifurcation framework of the model and typical behavior associated with low- to high-confinement transitions such as shear flow stabilization of turbulence and oscillatory collective action. In particular, the analysis evinces two types of discontinuous transition that are qualitatively distinct. One involves classical hysteresis, governed by viscous dissipation. The other is intrinsically oscillatory and non-hysteretic, and thus provides a model for the so-called dithering transitions that are frequently observed. This metamorphosis, or transformation, of the system dynamics is an important late side-effect of symmetry-breaking, which manifests as an unusual non-symmetric transcritical bifurcation induced by a significant shear flow drive.Comment: 17 pages, revtex text, 9 figures comprised of 16 postscript files. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Burning Plasma Projections Using Drift Wave Transport Models and Scalings for the H-Mode Pedestal

OAK-B135 The GLF23 and Multi-Mode (MM95) transport models are used along with a model for the H-mode pedestal to predict the fusion performance for the ITER, FIRE, and IGNITOR tokamak designs. The drift-wave predictive transport models reproduce the core profiles in a wide variety of tokamak discharges, yet they differ significantly in their response to temperature gradient (stiffness). Recent gyro-kinetic simulations of ITG/TEM and ETG modes motivate the renormalization of the GLF23 model. The normalizing coefficients for the ITG/TEM modes are reduced by a factor of 3.7 while the ETG mode coefficient is increased by a factor of 4.8 in comparison with the original model. A pedestal temperature model is developed for type I ELMy H-mode plasmas based on ballooning mode stability and a theory-motivated scaling for the pedestal width. In this pedestal model, the pedestal density is proportional to the line-averaged density and the pedestal temperature is inversely related to the pedestal density

The effects of main-ion dilution on turbulence in low q95 C-Mod ohmic plasmas, and comparisons with nonlinear GYRO

Recent experiments on C-mod seeding nitrogen into ohmic plasmas with [subscript q]95 = 3.4 found that the seeding greatly reduced long-wavelength (ITG-scale) turbulence. The long-wavelength turbulence that was reduced by the nitrogen seeding was localized to the region of r/a≈0.85, where the turbulence is well above marginal stability (as evidenced by Q[subscript i]/Q[subscript GB]≫1). The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GYRO was used to simulate the expected turbulence in these plasmas, and the simulated turbulent density fluctuations and turbulent energy fluxes quantitatively agreed with the experimental measurements both before and after the nitrogen seeding. Unexpectedly, the intrinsic rotation of the plasma was also found to be affected by the nitrogen seeding, in a manner apparently unrelated to a change in the electron-ion collisionality that was proposed by other experiments.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Award E-FG02-94-ER54235

ELM triggering conditions for the integrated modeling of H-mode plasmas

Recent advances in the integrated modeling of ELMy H-mode plasmas are presented. A model for the H-mode pedestal and for the triggering of ELMs predicts the height, width, and shape of the H-mode pedestal and the frequency and width of ELMs. Formation of the pedestal and the L-H transition is the direct result of ExB flow shear suppression of anomalous transport. The periodic ELM crashes are triggered by either the ballooning or peeling MHD instabilities. The BALOO, DCON, and ELITE ideal MHD stability codes are used to derive a new parametric expression for the peeling-ballooning threshold. The new dependence for the peeling-ballooning threshold is implemented in the ASTRA transport code. Results of integrated modeling of DIII-D like discharges are presented and compared with experimental observations. The results from the ideal MHD stability codes are compared with results from the resistive MHD stability code NIMROD.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France