Determination of electron thermal diffusivity at the WEGA stellarator

Abstract

For determining the thermal diffusivity in WEGA the electron cyclotron resonance heating power from a 28 GHz gyrotron is square-wave modulated to provide a periodically varying energy source at the plasma centre causing a modulation mainly of the electron temperature Te. A fast Si-diode bolometer system, whose 16 channel view the entire plasma cross-section, is employed to monitor the heat propagation process. A fast Fourier transform analysis shows clear coherency of the line-integrated signals among different channels and monotonic radial increment of the phase delays of the fundamental components in the central channel signals, allowing the determination of the electron thermal diffusivity coefficient D. A purely diffusive heat transport is assumed and is simulated using a Monte Carlo method. The thermal diffusivity is determined by matching the simulated results to the measured ones. A typical value of D = 1.9 m2 s−1 is obtained. This value is then compared with the result based on a local power balance analysis. Within the error bars the local power balance calculation yields a similar diffusivity value. The limitations and conditions of using bolometric diagnostic for this purpose are discussed.