Edge Localized Mode Mitigation Research Articles

Investigation on the roles of equilibrium toroidal rotation during edge-localized mode mitigated by resonant magnetic perturbations

The effects of equilibrium toroidal rotation during edge-localized mode (ELM) mitigated by resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) are studied with the experimental equilibria of the EAST tokamak based on the four-field model in the BOUT++ code. As the two main parameters to determine the toroidal rotation profiles, the rotation shear and magnitudes were separately scanned to investigate their roles in the impact of RMPs on peeling–ballooning (P-B) modes. On one hand, the results show that strong toroidal rotation shear is favorable for the enhancement of the self-generated shearing rate with RMPs, leading to significant ELM mitigation with RMP in the stronger toroidal rotation shear region. On the other hand, toroidal rotation magnitudes may affect ELM mitigation by changing the penetration of the RMPs, more precisely the resonant components. RMPs can lead to a reduction in the pedestal energy loss by enhancing the multimode coupling in the turbulence transport phase. The shielding effects on RMPs increase with the toroidal rotation magnitude, leading to the enhancement of the multimode coupling with RMPs to be significantly weakened. Hence, the reduction in pedestal energy loss by RMPs decreased with the rotation magnitude. In brief, the results show that toroidal rotation plays a dual role in ELM mitigation with RMP by changing the shielding effects of plasma by rotation magnitude and affecting by rotation shear. In the high toroidal rotation region, toroidal rotation shear is usually strong and hence plays a dominant role in the influence of RMP on P-B modes, whereas in the low rotation region, toroidal rotation shear is weak and has negligible impact on P-B modes, and the rotation magnitude plays a dominant role in the influence of RMPs on the P-B modes by changing the field penetration. Therefore, the dual role of toroidal rotation leads to stronger ELM mitigation with RMP, which may be achieved both in the low toroidal rotation region and the relatively high rotation region that has strong rotational shear.

Influence of lower hybrid wave injection on peeling-ballooning modes

The high-confinement mode (H-mode) significantly enhances the energy and particle confinement in fusion plasma compared with the low-confinement mode (L-mode), and it is the basic operation scenario for ITER and CFETR. Edge localized mode (ELM) often appears in H-mode, helping to expel impurities to maintain a longer stable state. However, the particle burst and energy burst from ELM eruptions can severely damage the first wall of fusion device, so, it is necessary to control the ELM. Experiments on EAST tokamak and HL-2A tokamak have been conducted with ELM mitigation by lower hybrid wave (LHW), confirming the effect of LHW on ELMs, but the physical mechanism of ELM mitigation by LHW is still not fully understood. In this paper, the influences of LHW injection on the linear and nonlinear characteristics of peeling-ballooning mode (P-B mode) are investigated in the edge pedestal region of H-mode plasma in tokamak by using the BOUT++ code. The simulations take into consideration both the conventional main plasma current driven by LHW and the three-dimensional perturbed magnetic field generated by the scrape-off layer helical current filament (HCF) on the P-B mode. The linear results show that the core plasma current driven by LHW moves the linear toroidal mode spectrum towards higher mode numbers and lower growth rates by reducing the normalized pressure gradient and magnetic shear of the equilibrium. Nonlinear simulations indicate that due to the broadening of the linear mode spectrum, the core current driven by LHW can reduce the pedestal energy loss caused by ELM through globally suppressing different toroidal modes of the P-B mode, and the three-dimensional perturbed magnetic field generated by LHW-driven HCF can reduce the energy loss caused by ELMs through promoting the growth of modes other than the main mode and enhancing the coupling between different modes. It is found in the study that the P-B mode promoted by the three-dimensional perturbed magnetic field generated by HCF has a mode number threshold, and when the dominant mode of the P-B mode is far from the mode number threshold driven by the three-dimensional perturbed magnetic field, the energy loss due to ELMs is more significantly reduced. These results contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the physical mechanism in ELM control experiment by LHW.

Numerical investigation of toroidal plasma response for ELM control via magnetic perturbations in the DTT Tokamak

Linear plasma response modeling is exploited in this work to assess the effect of different coil configurations on edge localized mode (ELM) stability in full power operational scenarios for the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT) facility, presently under construction at the ENEA site of Frascati (Italy). The MARS-F code is used to compute, in toroidal geometry and including flow, the resistive plasma response to different vacuum fields with toroidal mode numbers . Peeling-like response in particular, correlated with ELM control, is found to be significant for perturbations while induces a large core response in the investigated scenarios. Two metrics are used to link plasma response to ELM control. Namely the local normal plasma displacement in the x-point region and the Chirikov parameter in PEST-like straight-field-line coordinates. These criteria are used to predict optimal phasing of the active coil arrays and current thresholds based on empirical evidence. Depending on the number of active coils and on the scenario, coil currents between 20 and 40 kAt are predicted to be effective for ELM mitigation in DTT.

The effect of the plasma response on peeling–ballooning modes during edge localized modes mitigated by resonant magnetic perturbations

The effects of resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) fields on peeling–ballooning (P–B) modes are studied with the experimental equilibria of EAST based on the four-field model in BOUT++ code. As the two basic types of plasma responses, the magnetic and the transport response to RMP are considered in our simulation to reveal the roles of the plasma response during edge localized mode mitigation. On the one hand, the results show that RMP can reduce the linear growth rates of the P–B modes and the pedestal energy loss in the nonlinear process by directly coupling with the P–B modes. The magnetic response can weaken the impacts of RMPs on the P–B modes by partially screening the applied RMP fields more precisely the resonant components. On the other hand, RMP can further reduce the linear growth rates of the P–B modes and the pedestal energy loss by changing the equilibrium pressure profiles through the transport response. More detailed analysis suggests that, compared with other resonant components of RMPs, the components whose corresponding rational surfaces are located at the top of the pedestal can lead to stronger reductions in the linear growth rates of the P–B modes, and can reduce pedestal energy loss more significantly by enhancing multi-mode coupling in the nonlinear process. Finally, the multi-mode coupling increases with the strength of the resonant components, so one can change the RMP poloidal spectrum by adjusting the phase difference between the upper and low RMP coils from to , and hence obtain the optimal coil phase difference that leads to the strongest reductions in the linear growth rates of the P–B modes and the pedestal energy loss through maximizing the strength of resonant components, especially the resonant components whose corresponding rational surfaces are located at the top of the pedestal.

The effectiveness of D2 pellet injection in reducing intra-ELM and inter-ELM tungsten divertor erosion rates in DIII-D during the Metal Rings Campaign

Edge localized modes (ELMs) in H-mode plasmas erode plasma-facing components (PFCs) and lead to impurities in the core, reducing confinement. This study analyzes D2 pellet injection on the DIII-D fusion experiment used as an ELM mitigation technique applied during the 2016 tungsten Metal Rings Campaign to reduce W erosion during ELMs. The 400.9 nm photon wavelength line emission intensity of tungsten atoms (WI) filterscope channels and Langmuir probes were used to infer the gross erosion rate of tungsten-coated tiles installed in the divertor of DIII-D. D2 mass injection rates ranging from 34 to 41 arbitrary units (A.U.) and no D2 injection resulted in a similar total W erosion rate during ELMs (intra-ELM). On average, results show a 29% increase in the total gross W erosion rate with intermediate mass injection rates (∼13–23 A.U.) compared to the no pellets and the highest injection rate cases. On average, the fast D2 mass injection rate cases had 15% less erosion in the inter-ELM phase than the case with no pellets. Generally, higher D2 mass injection rates increased the ELM frequency, and the highest injection rates reduced the average erosion per ELM and fractional carbon impurities at the top of the pedestal by nearly 40% when compared to the no-pellet case. As expected, a higher D2 pellet injection rate led to a higher plasma density and lower plasma temperature in the divertor. Additionally, an increasing divertor inter-ELM plasma electron density directly correlated to more frequent pellet injection and a decrease in both the average gross intra-ELM W erosion and the total gross intra-ELM W erosion rate. Simulations of intra-ELM erosion using the ‘free-streaming plus recycling model’ (FSRM) underestimate W erosion during pellet injection by about 30% on average. The discrepancies between the experimental measurements and the FSRM intra-ELM W erosion predictions are postulated to be due to C/W material mixing. A simple analytic mixed-material model is presented and results in better agreement with the experimental data. These results highlight the importance of incorporating the effects of a mixed-material layer in the analysis of PFC erosion.

Argon–seeded detachment during ELM control by RMPs in KSTAR

In this study, we demonstrate argon-seeded discharges that exhibited a detached divertor during the full suppression and mitigation of edge-localized modes (ELMs) by an International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor-like, three-row resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) configuration in KSTAR. During the ELM suppression phase, the peak heat flux on the divertor target was successfully reduced from 1.6 MW m−2–0.5 MW m−2 via argon seeding. Further, the ion saturation current densities corresponding to the particle fluxes on both targets were reduced by more than 50%. During the RMP grassy-ELM regime, a further reduction to 0.1 MW m−2 in the divertor heat load was successfully achieved. A highly localized radiation zone near the X-point was also observed during divertor detachment. The calculated degree of detachment based on the two-point model increased to levels of approximately 3 and 2.3 for the outer target and inner target cases, respectively. These results provide valuable information regarding the effect of mid-Z impurities on RMP-detachment-compatible discharges.

Iterative approach to linear ideal MHD modeling of plasma response to 3D magnetic perturbations in tokamaks

The class of plasma instabilities known as edge-localized modes (ELMs) is of special concern in tokamaks operating in high-confinement mode, such as ASDEX Upgrade and ITER. One strategy for ELM mitigation is the application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) via external coils. Kinetic modeling accurately describes the plasma response to these RMPs ab initio, particularly the parallel shielding currents at resonant surfaces. Away from resonant surfaces, ideal magnetohydrodynamics (iMHD) is expected to yield sufficiently accurate results, providing a computationally less expensive option that could complement kinetic modeling.The code MEPHIT has been developed to solve the linearized iMHD equations in a way that is compatible with iterative kinetic modeling approaches. We consider an axisymmetric iMHD equilibrium in realistic tokamak geometry under the influence of a quasi-static non-axisymmetric external perturbation from ELM mitigation coils. The plasma responds to this external magnetic perturbation with a current perturbation, which in turn produces a magnetic field perturbation. The resulting fixed-point equation can be solved in a self-consistent manner by preconditioned iterations in which Ampère’s equation and the magnetic differential equations for pressure and current are solved in alternation until convergence is reached. After expansion in toroidal Fourier harmonics, these equations are solved on a triangular mesh in the poloidal plane using finite elements. These results are then benchmarked against established codes.

Simulations on edge localized modes mitigation with impurity seeding in the HL-2A tokamak

Impurity seeding has been confirmed to be a potential way for edge localized modes (ELMs) to be mitigated in tokamaks. This paper mainly combines the integrated equilibria reconstruction framework and edge simulation codes such as BOUT++ to dive deeper into the mechanism of the ELM mitigation by impurity injection. On the one hand, impurity injection changes the pedestal pressure and current profiles that are closely related to ELM activities. The nonlinear simulation result shows that ELM size decreases by a factor of 2 to 4 when the current exceeds a threshold after impurity injection. On the other hand, the decrease of E r shear is supposed to cause a larger ELM size for a less stabilized effect. However, ELMs are mitigated with smaller E r shear as observed in the HL-2A experiment. This indicates that changes in the profiles of pressure gradient and hence the current density may play a more important role than E r shear in this ELM mitigation process. In contrast to the high n modes destabilized by the pellet pacing, metallic impurity seeding leads to more unstable low n modes. The simulation results indicate that the combination of changes in pressure/current and E r shear is a plausible explanation for the ELM mitigation by metallic impurity seeding.

Upgrade of an integrated Langmuir probe system on the closed divertor target plates in the HL-2A tokamak

A newly designed divertor Langmuir probe diagnostic system has been installed in a rare closed divertor of the HL-2A tokamak and steadily operated for the study of divertor physics involved edge-localized mode mitigation, detachment and redistribution of heat flux, etc. Two sets of probe arrays including 274 probe tips were placed at two ports (approximately 180° separated toroidally), and the spatial and temporal resolutions of this measurement system could reach 6 mm and 1 μs, respectively. A novel design of the ceramic isolation ring can ensure reliable electrical insulation property between the graphite tip and the copper substrate plate where plasma impurities and the dust are deposited into the gaps for a long experimental time. Meanwhile, the condition monitoring and mode conversion between single and triple probe of the probe system could be conveniently implemented via a remote-control station. The preliminary experimental result shows that the divertor Langmuir probe system is capable of measuring the high spatiotemporal parameters involved the plasma density, electron temperature, particle flux as well as heat flux during the ELMy H-mode discharges.

The simulation of ELMs mitigation by pedestal coherent mode in EAST using BOUT++

A general phenomenon that the edge localized modes (ELMs) can be effectively mitigated with the enhanced coherent modes (CMs) has been observed on EAST. For this phenomenon, the experimental statistical analysis and electromagnetic (EM) simulations have been performed. There is a threshold value of the CM intensity in the experiments, which plays a key role in ELMs mitigation. Through the ELITE and conventional BOUT++ analysis, we found that when the insignificant ELM and enhanced CM co-exist, the pedestal is located in unstable P–B region and the ELM is relatively large. The simulation results only using the experimental profiles without considering other factors cannot reproduce the no significant ELM experiment. The CM enhances the edge turbulence, which can control ELMs. Therefore, the effects of CM are considered to explain the ELM mitigation. Modifying the three-field reduced model in BOUT++, an imposed perturbation is added as the CM. The simulation results indicate that: without the CM, the ELM size belongs to the relative large ELM region; after considering the CM, the ELM is mitigated and the energy loss is reduced by about 44.5%. Analysis shows that the CM enhances the three-wave nonlinear interactions in the pedestal and reduces the phase coherence time (PCT) between the pressure and potential, which lead the perturbation to tend to be ‘multiple-mode’ coupling. The competition of free energy between the multiple modes leads to the lack of obvious filament structures and the decreased energy loss. The above reveals that there is a competitive relationship between turbulence and ELMs, and the CM-enhanced turbulence can effectively reduce ELM energy loss. In addition, through the parameter scanning, there is a threshold of the amplitude A, which is consistent with the statistical results in the experiments.

The simulation of ELMs mitigation by pedestal coherent mode in EAST using BOUT++

Abstract A general phenomenon that the edge localized modes (ELMs) can be effectively mitigated with the enhanced coherent modes (CMs) has been observed on EAST. For this phenomenon, the experimental statistical analysis and electromagnetic (EM) simulations have been performed. There is a threshold value of the CM intensity in the experiments, which plays a key role in ELMs mitigation. Through the ELITE and conventional BOUT++ analysis, we found that when the insignificant ELM and enhanced CM co-exist, the pedestal is located in unstable P-B region and the ELM is relatively large. The simulation results only using the experimental profiles without considering other factors cannot reproduce the no significant ELM experiment. The CM enhances the edge turbulence, which can control ELMs. Therefore, the effects of CM are considered to explain the ELM mitigation. Modifying the three-field reduced model in BOUT++, an imposed perturbation is added as the CM. The simulation results indicate that: without the CM, the ELM size belongs to the relative large ELM region; after considering the CM, the ELM is mitigated and the energy loss is reduced by about 44.5%. Analysis shows that the CM enhances the three-wave nonlinear interactions in the pedestal and reduces the phase coherence time (PCT) between the pressure and potential, which lead the perturbation to tend to be ‘multiple-mode’ coupling. The competition of free energy between the multiple modes leads to the lack of obvious filament structures and the decreased energy loss. The above reveals that there is a competitive relationship between turbulence and ELMs, and the CM-enhanced turbulence can effectively reduce ELM energy loss. In addition, through the parameter scanning, there is a threshold of the amplitude A, which is consistent with the statistical results in the experiments.

Dual effects of impurity seeding on pedestal turbulence and ELMs in the HL-2A tokamak

The control of the edge localized mode (ELM) in tokamaks has been intensively investigated with different techniques. Recently, ELM control with impurity seeding has also raised to be a hot topic. This paper reports the effect of the laser blow-off impurity seeding on the pedestal turbulence and ELMs. It has been found that the seeded impurity could have dual impacts on pedestal instabilities, depending on the quantity of the injected impurity. The impurity enhances the pedestal turbulence and further mitigates the ELMs when its quantity exceeds a lower threshold. Instead, the impurities suppress the pedestal turbulence and suppress ELMs when the quantity of the injected particles reaches a second higher threshold. It has also been observed that the ion toroidal velocity increases due to the impurity seeding while the collision rate is increasing. In addition, the impurities reduce the velocity shear rate by changing the toroidal velocity term rather than by changing the pressure gradient term as observed in ELM mitigation with LHCD. The reduction of the E × B velocity shear rate enhances the pedestal turbulence possibly through the turbulence spectral shift process during ELM mitigation.

Wall conditioning and ELM mitigation with boron nitride powder injection in KSTAR

Results from KSTAR powder injection experiments, in which tens of milligrams of boron nitride (BN) were dropped into low-power H-mode plasmas, show an improvement in wall conditions in subsequent discharges and, in some cases, a reduction or elimination of edge-localized modes (ELMs). Injected powder is distributed by the plasma flow and is deposited on the wall and, over the course of several discharges, was observed to gradually reduce recycling by 33%, and decrease both the ELM amplitude and frequency. This is the first demonstration of the use of BN for ELM mitigation. In all of these experiments, an Impurity Powder Dropper (IPD) was used to introduce precise, controllable amounts of the materials into ELMy H-mode KSTAR discharges. The plasma duration was between 10 s and 15 s, Ip=500 kA, BT=1.8 T, PNBI=1.6 MW, and PECH=0.6 MW. Plasma densities were between 2 and 3×1019 m−3. In all cases, the pre-fill and startup gas-fueling was kept constant, suggesting that the decrease in baseline Dα emission is in fact due to a reduction in recycling. The results presented herein highlight the viability of powder injection for intra-shot and between-shot wall conditioning.

Suppression and mitigation of inter-ELM high-frequency Alfvén-like mode by resonant magnetic perturbation in EAST

Suppression and mitigation of a high-frequency Alfvén-like mode (HFAM) between type-I edge localized modes (ELMs) during ELM mitigation by resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) is observed for the first time in the EAST tokamak. This mode is located near the edge pedestal region. The modeling result of the Alfvén continuum shows that the HFAM is located near the elipical Alfvén eigenmode (EAE) gap. During the application of n = 1 RMP for ELM mitigation, the HFAM can be fully suppressed when the RMP amplitude exceeds a threshold, below which the HFAM is mitigated. The suppression is caused by a reduction of pedestal height induced by RMP. In the case using n = 3 RMP, the mode is localized toroidally at specific phase depending on the phase of applied RMP, i.e. locked in the three-dimensional equilibrium formed by RMP. The dominant toroidal mode number of HFAM is around n = −6 and it reduces to −3 during the application of n = 3 RMP, which indicates the existence of possible nonlinear coupling between the HFAM and RMP. Here the negative mode number denotes that the mode rotates in electron diamagnetic drift direction. The observation reported here improves the understanding of pedestal dynamics and its stability in RMP ELM control.

Observation of enhanced pedestal turbulence during ELM mitigation with resonant magnetic perturbation on EAST

Edge localized mode (ELM) mitigation accompanied by density pump-out has been achieved during the application of resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) with a toroidal mode number of n = 4 on EAST recently. The mean ELM frequency increases by a factor of 2.7 from 86 to 235 Hz with a decreased reduction in ELM loss. The evolution of pedestal electron density measured by a profile reflectometer before and after turning on the RMP current is presented. Both the pedestal density and density gradient show a decrease with application of RMP. The density fluctuation in the pedestal region has been measured by an O-mode fluctuation reflectometer. The broadband density fluctuation with a frequency range of 20–115 kHz is enhanced at the later period of the inter-ELM phase during ELM mitigation. This phenomenon is also observed for magnetic fluctuation measured by magnetic probes mounted in the vacuum vessel. A further study shows that the enhanced broadband fluctuations lead to a decrease in the growth rate of the pedestal density and an increase in divert or particle flux. This result implies that these enhanced broadband fluctuations could lead to an enhancement of outward particle transport. The possible roles of the enhanced fluctuations observed in ELM mitigation are also discussed.

Type-I ELM mitigation by continuous lithium granule gravitational injection into the upper tungsten divertor in EAST

Large edge-localized modes (ELMs) were mitigated by gravitational injection of lithium granules into the upper X-point region of the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) device with tungsten plasma-facing components. The maximum ELM size was reduced by ∼70% in high β N H-mode plasmas. Large ELM stabilization was sustained for up to about 40 energy confinement times, with constant core radiated power and no evidence of high-Z or low-Z impurity accumulation. The lithium granules injection reduced the edge plasma pedestal density and temperature and their gradients, due to increased edge radiation and reduced recycling from the plasma-facing components. Ideal stability calculations using the ELITE code indicate that the stabilization of large ELMs correlates with improved stability of intermediate-n peeling-ballooning modes, due to reduced edge current resulting from the profile changes. The pedestal pressure reduction was partially offset by a core density increase, which resulted in a modest ∼7% drop in core stored energy and normalized energy confinement time. We surmise that the remnant small ELMs are triggered by the penetration of multiple Li granules just past the separatrix, similar to small ELMs triggered by deuterium pellet Futatani et al (2014 Nucl. Fusion 54 073008). This study extends previous ELM elimination with Li powder injection Maingi et al (2018 Nucl. Fusion 58 024003) in EAST because (1) use of small, dust-like powder and the related potential health hazards were eliminated, and (2) use of macroscopic granules should be more applicable to future devices, due to deeper penetration than dust particles, e.g. inside the separatrix with velocities ∼10 m s−1 in EAST.

Impact of ELM mitigation on the ITER monoblock thermal behavior and the tungsten recrystallization depth

Type I Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) occur naturally in H-mode plasmas, the operational regime envisaged for ITER, and lead to high temporal heat load peaks on plasma-facing components that might induce surface melting and deteriorated material properties due to recrystallization. ELM mitigation techniques are being developed that either attempt to fully suppress the ELM, e.g. using resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), or to trigger the ELM at higher frequencies, intending to reduce its energy content and hence the heat load peak. In this paper, the effect of the increased ELM frequency achieved by ELM mitigation techniques on the ITER tungsten divertor monoblock thermal and recrystallization behavior is numerically analyzed by solving the unsteady heat conduction equation when repeatedly exposing the monoblock to ELM-like heat loads under ITER baseline burning plasma operating conditions. The impinging heat load is based on a set of empirical relations readily found in literature and the recrystallization fraction is computed using an empirical data fit which is based on the non-isothermal JMAK equation as function of temperature and time. Uncertainties such as the statistical spread on empirical relations and the unknown inter-ELM heat load, as well as the effect of the ELM frequency, are quantified by a parameter scan. Adopting the recently developed concept of a ‘recrystallization budget’ to determine the allowed monoblock heat loads [G. De Temmerman et al., PPCF 60 (2018) 0044018], it was found that ELM frequencies between 25 – 50 Hz are allowed for inter-ELM heat loads between 9 – 6 MW m − 2 , respectively, when assuming that the scaling for the peak ELM target energy density in [T. Eich et al., NME 12 (2017) 84-90] holds. This provides a new limit for ELM mitigation strategies in ITER. • The ITER monoblock is analyzed numerically under repeated mitigated ELM heat loads. • An empirical heat load model is developed for mitigated ELMs using Eich’s scaling. • ELM mitigation techniques increase the time-averaged peak heat load. • A novel recrystallization budget limits the permissible ELM mitigation frequency.

The impact of ELM mitigation on tungsten source in the EAST divertor

Divertor tungsten (W) erosion source during edge localized mode (ELM) bursts in EAST is investigated based on optical emission spectroscopy on atomic neutral tungsten line emission at 400.9 nm. Both temporal evolution and total source strength are analyzed and compared in three different ELM mitigation schemes including natural ELMs, resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) and 2.45 GHz lower hybrid wave (LHW). The mitigation of W source caused by single ELM impact at the divertor target is mainly attributed to the reduction of the W source production in the ELM decay phase. However, with the increase of ELM frequency, the time-averaged intra-ELM W source during an ELM cycle rises and dominates the evolution of the total W source with increasing fraction, which exhibits strong correlation with the core W level in the RMP scheme. In the natural ELM scheme, the pedestal electron temperature is found not only to control the effective W sputtering yield at target during ELMs, thus influencing the intra-ELM W source, but also to be related to the delay time between the divertor ELM WI emission and the core extreme ultraviolet bolometer (XUV) signal which can scale with the parallel ion transit time. Furthermore, the delay time is found to have more consistent dependence on the pedestal plasma collisionality. The rise time of intra-ELM WI emission increases when RMP or LHW is applied, revealing a different ELM mitigation mechanism in comparison with the natural ELM scheme. The temporal profiles of the intra-ELM WI emission in different ELM mitigation schemes are compared and the potential mechanism is discussed. Besides, the ELM mitigation effects with RMP are found to be asymmetric at the outer and inner divertor targets, which is characterized by the different variations of the intra-ELM W source strength and the rise time of WI emission with the ramp-up of RMP coil current. Divertor partial detachment is achieved simultaneously with strong ELM mitigation under a suitable RMP phase difference without additional gas puff.

Edge-coherent oscillation providing nearly continuous transport during edge-localized mode mitigation by n = 1 resonant magnetic perturbation in HL-2A

An edge-coherent oscillation (ECO) with a bursting feature was observed in the steep-gradient pedestal region of H-mode plasmas in the HL-2A tokamak, where the type-I edge-localized modes (ELMs) were mitigated by application of n = 1 (n is the toroidal mode number) resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP). Utilizing a newly developed beam emission spectroscopy (BES) system, it was found that the ECO with a frequency of about 2 kHz is located at the edge pedestal region, and is excited by three-wave interaction of turbulence enhanced by the RMP field through the change of electron density gradient in the pedestal region because of the pump-out effect. The oscillation drives a significant outflow of particles as directly measured by probes, thus providing a channel for nearly continuous extra particle transport across the pedestal during ELM mitigation by RMP.

Field amplification effect of resonant magnetic perturbation on ion orbits in tokamak plasma

<sec> The fast ion transport associated with resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) contains rich physical spanning single particle motion of fast particle and plasmas response physics with RMP and their interaction. Full numerical simulation considering such physical ingredients should be performed in a long run for clarifying the underlying physical features of the fast ion confinement with RMP. Thus, the appropriate application of RMP is not only to avoid the detrimental effects but also to serve as an actuator to exert targeted control over the energetic particle profile. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive knowledge of the effects of RMP including plasma response on fast ions is necessary. </sec> <sec> In this work, the plasma response to RMP in HL-2A device is simulated by the MARS-F code under different parameters including finite resistivity, toroidal rotation frequency and toroidal mode number, and the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field topology considering RMP is obtained. Then, Boris algorithm is used to track the ion orbit under these 3D fields, and the physical mechanism of ion orbit characteristics changed by the perturbed field is explored in detail. It is found that with the increase of finite resistivity, the average value of perturbed magnetic field decreases, and the orbit radial expansion turns smaller. The variation of toroidal rotation frequency can change the distribution of perturbed magnetic field, resulting in different orbit radial expansions for different kinds of orbits. What is more, if the toroidal mode number increases, the amplitude of perturbed magnetic field after response decreases obviously, thus resulting in little effect on orbit radial expansion. In a word, the plasma responded RMP field enhances the orbit radial expansion, and the maximum orbital radial expansion increases with the augment of average value of perturbed magnetic field on the orbit. Meanwhile, the amplitude of orbit expansion increases significantly when the ions pass through the region where the perturbed magnetic field is strongly amplified. This effect can explain the increase of ion prompt loss and enhancement of plasma radial transport in edge localized mode mitigation experiments by RMP. </sec>