Suppression of edge localized mode crashes by multi-spectral non-axisymmetric fields in KSTAR

Abstract

Among various edge localized mode (ELM) crash control methods, only non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations (NAMPs) yield complete suppression of ELM crashes beyond their mitigation, and thus attract more attention than others. No other devices except KSTAR, DIII-D, and recently EAST have successfully achieved complete suppression with NAMPs. The underlying physics mechanisms of these successful ELM crash suppressions in a non-axisymmetric field environment, however, still remain uncertain. In this work, we investigate the ELM crash suppression characteristics of the KSTAR ELMy H-mode discharges in a controlled multi-spectral field environment, created by both middle reference and top/bottom proxy in-vessel control coils. Interestingly, the attempts have produced a set of contradictory findings, one expected (ELM crash suppression enhancement with the addition of n = 1 to the n = 2 field at relatively low heating discharges) and another unexpected (ELM crash suppression degradation at relatively high heating discharges) from the earlier findings in DIII-D. This contradiction indicates the dependence of the ELM crash suppression characteristics on the heating level and the associated kink-like plasma responses. Preliminary linear resistive MHD plasma response simulation shows the unexpected suppression performance degradation to be likely caused by the dominance of kink-like plasma responses over the island gap-filling effects.