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Register a new userELM triggering conditions for the integrated modeling of H-mode plasmas
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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.
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Pellet ELM triggering is a well established scheme for decreasing the time between two successive ELM crashes below its natural value. Reliable ELM pacing has been demonstrated experimentally in several devices increasing the ELM frequency considerably. However, it was also shown that the frequency cannot be increased arbitrarily due to a so-called lag-time. During this time after a preceding natural or triggered ELM crash, neither a natural ELM crash occurs nor the triggering of an ELM crash by pellet injection is possible. For this article, pellet ELM triggering simulations are advanced beyond previous studies in two ways. Firstly, realistic ExB and diamagnetic background flows are included. And secondly, the pellet is injected at different stages of the pedestal build-up. This allows to recover the lag-time for the first time in simulations and investigate it in detail. A series of non-linear extended MHD simulations is performed to investigate the plasma dynamics resulting from an injection at different time points during the pedestal build-up. The experimentally observed lag-time is qualitatively reproduced well. In particular, a sharp transition is observed between the regime where no ELMs can be triggered and the regime where pellet injection causes an ELM crash. Via variations of pellet parameters and injection time, the two regimes are studied and compared in detail revealing pronounced differences in the non-linear dynamics. The toroidal mode spectrum is significantly broader when an ELM crash is triggered enhancing the stochasticity and therefore also the losses of thermal energy along magnetic field lines. In the heat fluxes to the divertor targets, pronounced toroidal asymmetries are observed. In case of high injection velocities leading to deep penetration, also the excitation of core modes like the $2/1$ neoclassical tearing mode is observed.
The interaction between Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) and Resonant Magnetic Perturbations (RMPs) is modeled with the magnetohydrodynamic code JOREK using experimental parameters from ASDEX Upgrade discharges. The ELM mitigation or suppression is optimal when the amplification of both tearing and peeling-kink responses result in a better RMP penetration. The ELM mitigation or suppression is not only due to the reduction of the pressure gradient, but predominantly arises from the toroidal coupling between the ELMs and the RMP-induced mode at the plasma edge, forcing the edge modes to saturate at a low level. The bifurcation from ELM mitigation to ELM suppression is observed when the RMP amplitude is increased. ELM mitigation is characterized by rotating modes at the edge, while the mode locking to RMPs is induced by the resonant braking of the electron perpendicular flow in the ELM suppression regime.
The application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) with a toroidal mode number of n=4 or n=6 to lower single null plasmas in the MAST tokamak produces up to a factor of 5 increase in Edge Localized Mode (ELM) frequency and reduction in plasma energy loss associated with type-I ELMs. A threshold current for ELM mitigation is observed above which the ELM frequency increases approximately linearly with current in the coils. Despite a large scan of parameters, complete ELM suppression has not been achieved. The results have been compared to modelling performed using either the vacuum approximation or including the plasma response. During the ELM mitigated stage clear lobe structures are observed in visible-light imaging of the X-point region. The size of these lobes is correlated with the increase in ELM frequency observed. The characteristics of the mitigated ELMs are similar to those of the natural ELMs suggesting that they are type I ELMs which are triggered at a lower pressure gradient. The application of the RMPs in the n=4 and n=6 configurations before the L-H transition has little effect on the power required to achieve H-mode while still allowing the first ELM to be mitigated.
The distribution of particles and power to plasma-facing components is of key importance in the design of next-generation fusion devices. Power and particle decay lengths have been measured in a number of MAST L-mode and H-mode discharges in order to determine their parametric dependencies, by fitting power and particle flux profiles measured by divertor Langmuir probes, to a convolution of an exponential decay and a Gaussian function. In all discharges analysed, it is found that exponential decay lengths mapped to the midplane are mostly dependent on separatrix electron density and plasma current (or parallel connection length). The widths of the convolved Gaussian functions have been used to derive an approximate diffusion coefficient, which is found to vary from 1m2/s to 7m2/s, and is systematically lower in H-mode compared with L-mode.
A first-principles method to calculate the critical temperature gradient for the onset of the ion-temperature-gradient mode (ITG) in linear gyrokinetics is presented. We find that conventional notions of the connection length previously invoked in tokamak research should be revised and replaced by a generalized correlation length to explain this onset in stellarators. Simple numerical experiments and gyrokinetic theory show that localized spikes in shear, a hallmark of stellarator geometry, are generally insufficient to constrain the parallel correlation length of the mode. ITG modes that localize within bad drift curvature wells that have a critical gradient set by peak drift curvature are also observed. A case study of nearly helical stellarators of increasing field period demonstrates that the critical gradient can indeed be controlled by manipulating magnetic geometry, but underscores the need for a general framework to evaluate the critical gradient. We conclude that average curvature and global shear set the correlation length of resonant ITG modes near the absolute critical gradient, the physics of which is included through direct solution of the gyrokinetic equation. Our method, which handles general geometry and is more efficient than conventional gyrokinetic solvers, could be applied to future studies of stellarator ITG turbulence optimization.
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