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31. Modelling of Ablatant Deposition from Electromagnetically Driven Radiative Pellets for Disruption Mitigation Studies

Author(s):
Lunsford, Robert; Raman, Roger; Brooks, Arthur; Ellis, Robert A.; Lay, W-S;
Abstract:
The Electromagnetic Particle Injector (EPI) concept is advanced through the simulation of ablatant deposition into ITER H-mode discharges with calculations showing penetration past the H-mode pedestal for a range of injection velocities and granule sizes concurrent with the requirements of disruption mitigation. As discharge stored energy increases in future fusion devices such as ITER, control and handling of disruption events becomes a critical issue. An unmitigated disruption could lead to failure of the plasma facing components resulting in financially and politically costly repairs. Methods to facilitate the quench of an unstable high current discharge are required. With the onset warning time for some ITER disruption events estimated to be less than 10 ms, a disruption mitigation system needs to be considered which operates at injection speeds greater than gaseous sound speeds. Such an actuator could then serve as a means to augment presently planned pneumatic injection systems. The EPI uses a rail gun concept whereby a radiative payload is delivered into the discharge by means of the JxB forces generated by an external current pulse, allowing for injection velocities in excess of 1 km/s. The present status of the EPI project is outlined, including the addition of boost magnetic coils. These coils augment the self-generated rail gun magnetic field and thus provide a more efficient acceleration of the payload. The coils and the holder designed to constrain them have been modelled with the ANSYS code to ensure structural integrity through the range of operational coil cu
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
June 2019

32. Reduced Model for Direct Induction Startup Scenario Development on MAST-U and NSTX-U

Author(s):
Battaglia, D.J.; Thornton, A.J.; Gerhardt, S.P.; Kirk, A.; Kogan, L; Menard, J.E.
Abstract:
A reduced semi-empirical model using time-dependent axisymmetric vacuum field calculations is used to develop the prefill and feed-forward coil current targets required for reliable direct induction (DI) startup on the new MA-class spherical tokamaks, MAST-U and NSTX-U. The calculations are constrained by operational limits unique to each device, such as the geometry of the conductive elements and active coils, power supply specifications and coil heating and stress limits. The calculations are also constrained by semi-empirical models for sufficient breakdown, current drive, equilibrium and stability of the plasma developed from a shared database. A large database of DI startup on NSTX and NSTX-U is leveraged to quantify the requirements for achieving a reliable breakdown (Ip ~ 20 kA). It is observed that without pre-ionization, STs access the large E/P regime at modest loop voltage (Vloop) where the electrons in the weakly ionized plasma are continually accelerating along the open field lines. This ensures a rapid (order millisecond) breakdown of the neutral gas, even without pre-ionization or high-quality field nulls. The timescale of the initial increase in Ip on NSTX is reproduced in the reduced model provided a mechanism for impeding the applied electric field is included. Most discharges that fail in the startup phase are due to an inconsistency in the evolution of the plasma current (Ip) and equilibrium field or loss of vertical stability during the burn-through phase. The requirements for the self-consistent evolution of the fields in the weakly and full-ionized plasma states are derived from demonstrated DI startup on NSTX, NSTX-U and MAST. The predictive calculations completed for MAST-U and NSTX-U illustrate that the maximum Ip ramp rate (dIp/dt) in the early startup phase is limited by the voltage limits on the poloidal field coils on MAST-U and passive vertical stability on NSTX-U.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
August 2019

33. Study of liquid metal surface wave damping in the presence of magnetic fields and electrical currents

Author(s):
Fisher, A.E.; Hvasta, M.G.; Kolemen, E.
Abstract:
Experiments and predictions of surface wave damping in liquid metal due to a surface aligned magnetic field and externally regulated j × B force are presented. Fast-flowing, liquid-metal plasma facing components (LM-PFCs) are a proposed alternative to solid PFCs that are unable to handle the high heat flux, thermal stresses, and radiation damage in a tokamak. The significant technical challenges associated with LM-PFCs compared to solid PFCs are justified by greater heat flux management, self-healing properties, and reduced particle recycling. However, undesirable engineering challenges such as evaporation and splashing of the liquid metal introduce excessive impurities into the plasma and degrade plasma performance. Evaporation may be avoided through high-speed flow that limits temperature rise of the liquid metal by reducing heat flux exposure time, but as flow speed increases the surface may become more turbulent and prone to splashing and uneven surfaces. Wave damping is one mechanism that reduces surface disturbance and thus the chances of liquid metal impurity introduction into the plasma. Experiments on the Liquid Metal eXperiment Upgrade (LMX-U) examined damping under the influence of transverse magnetic fields and vertically directed Lorentz force.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
March 2019

34. Study of the impact of pre- and real-time deposition of lithium on plasma performance on NSTX

Author(s):
Canal, G.P.; Maingi, R.; Evans, T.E.; Kaye, S.M.; Mansfield, D.K.
Abstract:
The efficiency of two lithium (Li) injection methods used on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) are compared in terms of the amount of Li used to produce equivalent plasma performance improvements, namely Li evaporation over the divertor plates, prior to the initiation of the discharge, and real-time Li injection directly into the plasma scrape-off layer during the discharge. The measurements show that the real-time method can affect the energy confinement and edge stability of NSTX plasmas in a more efficient way than the Li evaporation method as it requires only a fraction of the amount of Li used by the evaporation method to produce similar improvements.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
January 2019

35. TRANSP-based closed-loop simulations of current profile optimal regulation in NSTX-Upgrade

Author(s):
Ilhan, Z.O.; Boyer. M.D.; Schuster, E.
Abstract:
Active control of the toroidal current density profile is critical for the upgraded National Spherical Torus eXperiment device (NSTX-U) to maintain operation at the desired high-performance, MHD-stable, plasma regime. Initial efforts towards current density profile control have led to the development of a control-oriented, physics-based, plasma-response model, which combines the magnetic diffusion equation with empirical correlations for the kinetic profiles and the non-inductive current sources. The developed control-oriented model has been successfully tailored to the NSTX-U geometry and actuators. Moreover, a series of efforts have been made towards the design of model-based controllers, including a linear-quadratic-integral optimal control strategy that can regulate the current density profile around a prescribed target profile while rejecting disturbances. In this work, the tracking performance of the proposed current-profile optimal controller is tested in numerical simulations based on the physics-oriented code TRANSP. These high-fidelity closed-loop simulations, which are a critical step before experimental implementation and testing, are enabled by a flexible framework recently developed to perform feedback control design and simulation in TRANSP.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
March 2019

36. Compact steady-state tokamak performance dependence on magnet and core physics limits

Author(s):
Menard, J.E.
Abstract:
Compact tokamak fusion reactors utilizing advanced high-temperature superconducting magnets for the toroidal field coils have received considerable recent attention due to the promise of more compact devices and more economical fusion energy development. Facilities with combined Fusion Nuclear Science (FNS) and Pilot Plant missions to provide both the nuclear environment needed to develop fusion materials and components while also potentially achieving sufficient fusion performance to generate modest net electrical power are considered. The performance of the tokamak fusion system is assessed using a range of core physics and toroidal field magnet performance constraints to better understand which parameters most strongly influence the achievable fusion performance.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
December 2018

37. ELM frequency enhancement and discharge modification through lithium granule injection into EAST H-modes

Author(s):
Lunsford; Hsu, J.S.; Sun, Z.; Maingi, R.; Mansfield, D.K.; Xu, W.; Zuo, G.Z.; Huang, M.; Diallo, A.; Osborne, T.; Tritz, K.; Canik, J.; Meng, X.C.; Gong, X.Z.; Wan, B.N.; Li, J.G.; EAST Team
Abstract:
The injection of impurity granules into fusion research discharges can serve as a catalyst for ELM events. For sufficiently low ELM frequencies, and granule sizes above a threshold, this can result in full control of the ELM cycle, referred to as ELM pacing. For this research, we extend the investigation to conditions where the natural ELM frequency is too high for ELM pacing to be realized. Utilizing multiple sizes of lithium granules and classifying their effects by granule size, we demonstrate that ELM mitigation through frequency multiplication can be used at ELM triggering rates that nominally make ELM pacing unrealizable. We find that above a size threshold, injected granules promptly trigger ELMs and commensurately enhance the ELM frequency . Below this threshold size, injection of an individual granule does not always lead to the prompt triggering of an ELM; however, collective ablation in the edge pedestal region does enhance the ELM frequency. Specifically, Li granules too small to individually trigger ELMs were injected into EAST H-mode discharges at frequencies up to 2.3 kHz; collectively the granules were observed to enhance the natural ELM frequency up to 620 Hz, resulting in a ~2.4x multiplication of the natural ELM frequency and a 50% decrease of the ELM size.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
October 2018

38. ELM-free and inter-ELM divertor heat flux broadening induced by Edge Harmonics Oscillation in NSTX

Author(s):
Gan, K.; Ahn, J.-W.; Gray, T.K.; Zweben, S.J.; Fredrickson, E.D.; Scotti, F.; Maingi, R.; Park, J.-K.; Canal, G.P.; Soukhanovskii, V.A.; McLean, A.G.; Wirth, B.D.
Abstract:
A new n=1 dominated Edge Harmonic Oscillation (EHO) has been found in NSTX. The new EHO, rotating toroidally in the counter-current direction and the opposite direction of the neutral beam, was observed during certain inter-ELM and ELM-free periods of H-mode operation. This EHO is associated with a significant broadening of the integral heat flux width (?_int) by up to 150%, and a decrease in the divertor peak heat flux by >60%. An EHO induced filament was also observed by the gas puff imaging diagnostic. The toroidal rotating filaments could change the edge magnetic topology resulting in toroidal rotating strike point splitting and heat flux broadening. Experimental result of the counter current rotation of strike points splitting is consistent with the counter-current EHO.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
December 2017

39. Electromagnetic Particle Injector for Fast Time Response Disruption Mitigation in Tokamaks

Author(s):
Raman, R.; Lay, W.-S.; Jarboe, T.R.; Menard, J.E.; Ono, M.
Abstract:
A novel, rapid time-response, disruption mitigation system referred to as the Electromagnetic Particle Injector (EPI) is described. This method can accurately deliver the radiative payload to the plasma center on a <10 ms time scale, much faster, and deeper, than what can be achieved using conventional methods. The EPI system accelerates a sabot electromagnetically. The sabot is a metallic capsule that can be accelerated to desired velocities by an electromagnetic impeller. At the end of its acceleration, within 2 ms, the sabot will release a radiative payload, which is composed of low-z granules, or a shell pellet containing smaller pellets. The primary advantage of the EPI concept over gas propelled systems is its potential to meet short warning time scales, while accurately delivering the required particle size and materials at the velocities needed for achieving the required penetration depth in high power ITER-scale discharges for thermal and runaway current disruption mitigation. The present experimental tests from a prototype system have demonstrated the acceleration of a 3.2 g sabot to over 150 m/s within 1.5 ms, consistent with the calculations, giving some degree of confidence that larger ITER-scale injector can be developed.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
November 2018

40. Electron-density-sensitive Line Ratios of Fe XIII--XVI from Laboratory Sources Compared to CHIANTI

Author(s):
Weller, M.E.; Beiersdorfer, P.; Soukhanovskii, V.A.; Scotti, F.; LeBlanc, B.P.
Abstract:
We present electron-density-sensitive line ratios for Fe XIII–XVI measured in the spectral wavelength range of 200–440 Å and an electron density range of (1–4)×10^13 cm^−3. The results provide a test at the high-density limit of density-sensitive line ratios useful for astrophysical studies. The measurements were performed on the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade, where electron densities were measured independently by the laser Thomson scattering diagnostic. Spectra were collected with a flat-field grazing-incidence spectrometer, which provided a spectral resolution of up to 0.3 Å, i.e., high resolution across the broad wavelength range. The response of the instrument was relatively calibrated using spectroscopic techniques in order to improve accuracy. The line ratios are compared to other laboratory sources and the latest version of CHIANTI (8.0.2), and an agreement within 30% is found.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
February 2018

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