Recent advances in high-βN experiments and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities with hybrid scenarios in the HL-2A Tokamak

Over the past several years, high-βN experiments have been carried out on HL-2A. The high-βN is realized using double transport barriers (DTBs) with hybrid scenarios. A stationary high-βN (>2) scenario was obtained by pure neutral-beam injection (NBI) heating. Transient high performance was also achieved, corresponding to βN≥3, ne/neG∼0.6, H98∼1.5, fbs∼30%, q95∼4.0, and G∼0.4. The high-βN scenario was successfully modeled using integrated simulation codes, that is, the one modeling framework for integrated tasks (OMFIT). In high-βN plasmas, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities are abundant, including low-frequency global MHD oscillation with n = 1, high-frequency coherent mode (HCM) at the edge, and neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) and Alfvénic modes in the core. In some high-βN discharges, it is observed that the NTMs with m/n=3/2 limit the growth of the plasma energy and decrease βN. The low-n global MHD oscillation is consistent with the coupling of destabilized internal (m/n = 1/1) and external (m/n = 3/1 or 4/1) modes, and plays a crucial role in triggering the onset of ELMs. Achieving high-βN on HL-2A suggests that core-edge interplay is key to the plasma confinement enhancement mechanism. Experiments to enhance βN will contribute to future plasma operation, such as international thermonuclear experimental reactor

Investigation of energetic ion losses induced by long-lived saturated internal mode with energetic particle diagnostics in the HL-2A tokamak

ORCID　0000-0002-7547-701XSeveral sets of energetic particle diagnostics, including a set of neutron flux monitoring systems, a solid-state neutral particle analyzer and a fast ion loss probe (FILP), have been used to investigate the energetic ion losses induced by the long-lived saturated internal mode (LLM) in the HL-2A tokamak. Clear experimental evidence for different levels of energetic ion losses induced by LLM, sawtooth and minor disruption has been observed. A numerical calculation for the evolution of neutron emissions was carried out with the FBURN code, and it shows that the neutron emission drop rate linearly increases with the LLM amplitude and no threshold perturbation amplitude exists, illustrating that the loss mechanism for LLM induced energetic ion loss is dominantly convective. In addition, measurement results of the FILP demonstrate that LLM tends to expel energetic ions with relatively low energy ($E \lt 27\,$keV) and high pitch angle ($\theta\gt60^{\circ}$), and can suppress the prompt loss of energetic ions with high energy and low pitch angle to a certain degree. Furthermore, the physical process for LLM induced energetic ion loss can be explained by orbit calculations, which show that LLM induced lost energetic ions will transport from center to peripheral region first, and then get lost out of plasma. The experimental observations are successfully reproduced by calculations using the ORBIT code combined with both the NUBEAM code and the MARS-K code. The paper clearly describes the whole physical process of LLM induced energetic ion loss for the first time in the HL-2A tokamak