ASDEX Upgrade Plasmas Research Articles

New drive converter and digital control for the pulsed power supply system of ASDEX Upgrade

Safety and reliability are major issues for the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) pulsed power supply systems. To avoid long downtimes during an experimental campaign, fault-prone components have to be identified and treated early. This becomes even more important due to the AUG participation in the EUROfusion Medium Sized Tokamak (MST) program. Operating equipment which is up to 40 years old adds additional complications. This contribution describes one such example where a 35 year old flywheel generator at AUG was identified as fault-prone and pre-emptively upgraded with a new drive converter with integrated control. Most challenging was to adapt a modern converter, originally designed for wind turbines, toward a drive system for a flywheel-motor-generator system. To identify the layout of the controller and the control parameters, accurate modeling and comprehensive simulations were performed. This effort paid off during commissioning and measuring results verified the calculated design values. Finally, the system shows good performance during AUG plasma experiments.

Modelling neutral beams in fusion devices: Beamlet-based model for fast particle simulations

Neutral beam injection (NBI) will be one of the main sources of heating and non-inductive current drive in ITER. Due to high level of injected power the beam induced heat loads present a potential threat to the integrity of the first wall of the device, particularly in the presence of non-axisymmetric perturbations of the magnetic field. Neutral beam injection can also destabilize Alfvén eigenmodes and energetic particle modes, and act as a source of plasma rotation. Therefore, reliable and accurate simulation of NBI is important for making predictions for ITER, as well as for any other current or future fusion device. This paper introduces a new beamlet-based neutral beam ionization model called BBNBI. It takes into account the fine structure of the injector, follows the injected neutrals until ionization, and generates a source ensemble of ionized NBI test particles for slowing down calculations. BBNBI can be used as a stand-alone model but together with the particle following code ASCOT it forms a complete and sophisticated tool for simulating neutral beam injection. The test particle ensembles from BBNBI are found to agree well with those produced by PENCIL for JET, and those produced by NUBEAM both for JET and ASDEX Upgrade plasmas. The first comprehensive comparisons of beam slowing down profiles of interest from BBNBI + ASCOT with results from PENCIL and NUBEAM/TRANSP, for both JET and AUG, are presented. It is shown that, for an axisymmetric plasma, BBNBI + ASCOT and NUBEAM agree remarkably well. Together with earlier 3D studies, these results further validate using BBNBI + ASCOT also for studying phenomena that require particle following in a truly three-dimensional geometry.

The ASDEX upgrade digital video processing system for real-time machine protection

This paper describes the design, implementation, and operation of the Video Real-Time (VRT) diagnostic system of the ASDEX Upgrade plasma experiment and its integration with the ASDEX Upgrade Discharge Control System (DCS). Hot spots produced by heating systems erroneously or accidentally hitting the vessel walls, or from objects in the vessel reaching into the plasma outer border, show up as bright areas in the videos during and after the reaction. A system to prevent damage to the machine by allowing for intervention in a running discharge of the experiment was proposed and implemented. The VRT was implemented on a multi-core real-time Linux system. Up to 16 analog video channels (color and b/w) are acquired and multiple regions of interest (ROI) are processed on each video frame. Detected critical states can be used to initiate appropriate reactions – e.g. gracefully terminate the discharge. The system has been in routine operation since 2007.

Microtearing modes in spherical and conventional tokamaks

The onset and characteristics of microtearing modes (MTM) in the core of spherical (NSTX) and conventional tokamaks (ASDEX Upgrade and JET) are studied through local linear gyrokinetic simulations with GYRO (Candy and Belli 2011 General Atomics Report GA-A26818). For experimentally relevant core plasma parameters in the NSTX and ASDEX Upgrade tokamaks, in agreement with previous works, we find MTMs as the dominant linear instability. Also, for JET-like core parameters considered in our study an MTM is found as the most unstable mode. In all of these plasmas, finite collisionality is needed for MTMs to become unstable and the electron temperature gradient is found to be the fundamental drive. However, a significant difference is observed in the dependence of the linear growth rate of MTMs on electron temperature gradient. While it varies weakly and non-monotonically in JET and ASDEX Upgrade plasmas, in NSTX it increases with the electron temperature gradient.

Sawtooth control using electron cyclotron current drive in the presence of energetic particles in high performance ASDEX Upgrade plasmas

Sawtooth control using steerable electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) has been demonstrated in ASDEX Upgrade plasmas with a significant population of energetic ions in the plasma core and long uncontrolled sawtooth periods. The sawtooth period is found to be minimized when the ECCD resonance is swept to just inside the q = 1 surface. By utilizing ECCD inside q = 1 for sawtooth control, it is possible to avoid the triggering of neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs), even at significantly higher pressure than anticipated in the ITER baseline scenario. Operation at 25% higher normalized pressure has been achieved when only modest ECCD power is used for sawtooth control compared to identical discharges without sawtooth control when NTMs are triggered by the sawteeth. Modelling suggests that the destabilization arising from the change in the local magnetic shear caused by the ECCD is able to compete with the stabilizing influence of the energetic particles inside the q = 1 surface.

Global migration of 13C impurities in high-density L-mode plasmas in ASDEX Upgrade

We have studied the migration of 13C in ASDEX Upgrade after a global impurity injection experiment in 2011. The main chamber was observed to be the largest deposition region for carbon: almost 35% of the injected atoms end up there. Moreover, gaps between wall tiles account for surface densities which are comparable to those on the plasma-facing surfaces. SOLPS modeling of the experiment produced a set of background plasmas and poloidal flow profiles for simulating the transport of 13C with ASCOT; a match with measured deposition, however, required using an imposed flow profile. ASCOT reproduced the observed localized deposition at the outer midplane but work is needed to explain the measured deposition at the inner side of the torus and at the top of the vessel.

Estimation of edge electron temperature profiles via forward modelling of the electron cyclotron radiation transport at ASDEX Upgrade

We present a method to obtain reliable edge profiles of the electron temperature by forward modelling of the electron cyclotron radiation transport. While for the core of ASDEX Upgrade plasmas, straightforward analysis of electron cyclotron intensity measurements based on the optically thick plasma approximation is usually justified, reasonable analysis of the steep and optically thin plasma edge needs to consider broadened emission and absorption profiles and radiation transport processes. This is carried out in the framework of integrated data analysis which applies Bayesian probability theory for joint analysis of the electron density and temperature with data of different interdependent and complementary diagnostics. By this means, electron cyclotron radiation intensity delivers highly spatially resolved electron temperature data for the plasma edge. In H-mode, the edge gradient of the electron temperature can be several times higher than the one of the radiation temperature. Furthermore, we are able to reproduce the ‘shine-through’ peak—the observation of increased radiation temperatures at frequencies resonant in the optically thin scrape-off layer. This phenomenon is caused by strongly down-shifted radiation of Maxwellian tail electrons located in the H-mode edge region and, therefore, contains valuable information about the electron temperature edge gradient.

Management of complex data flows in the ASDEX Upgrade plasma control system

Establishing adequate technical and physical boundary conditions for a sustained nuclear fusion reaction is a challenging task. Phased feedback control and monitoring for heating, fuelling and magnetic shaping is mandatory, especially for fusion devices aiming at high performance plasmas. Technical and physical interrelations require close collaboration of many components in sequential as well as in parallel processing flows. Moreover, handling of asynchronous, off-normal events has become a key element of modern plasma performance optimisation and machine protection recipes.The manifoldness of plasma states and events, the variety of plant system operation states and the diversity in diagnostic data sampling rates can hardly be mastered with a rigid control scheme. Rather, an adaptive system topology in combination with sophisticated synchronisation and process scheduling mechanisms is suited for such an environment. Moreover, the system is subject to real-time control constraints: response times must be deterministic and adequately short.Therefore, the experimental tokamak device ASDEX Upgrade employs a discharge control system DCS, whose core has been designed to meet these requirements. In the paper we will compare the scheduling schemes for the parallelised realisation of a control workflow and show the advantage of a data-driven workflow over a managed workflow. The data-driven workflow as used in DCS is based on signals connecting process outputs and inputs. These are implemented as real-time streams of data samples. Consequently, real-time signal management forms the foundation of DCS. The paper explains the principal features such as tagged samples, signal groups, algorithmic blocks and processes as well as scheduling schemes which allow DCS control applications to be defined as self-contained modular building blocks glued together by a software framework.By virtue of this sound foundation, DCS is a mature but still evolving system for reliable, distributed control of an entire tokamak device coordinating and monitoring 20 diagnostic systems, 14 magnetic power supplies, 5 heating systems with a total power of more than 25MW, 8 gas fuelling channels, a pellet injector and a killer gas gun.

Poloidal distribution of recycling sources and core plasma fueling in DIII-D, ASDEX-Upgrade and JET L-mode plasmas

Deuterium fueling profiles across the separatrix have been calculated with the edge fluid codes UEDGE, SOLPS and EDGE2D/EIRENE for lower single null, ohmic and low-confinement plasmas in DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade and JET. The fueling profiles generally peak near the divertor x-point, and broader profiles are predicted for the open divertor geometry and horizontal targets in DIII-D than for the more closed geometries and vertical targets in AUG and JET. Significant fueling from the low-field side midplane may also occur when assuming strong radial ion transport in the far scrape-off layer. The dependence of the fueling profiles on upstream density is investigated for all three devices, and between the different codes for a single device. The validity of the predictions is assessed for the DIII-D configuration by comparing the measured ion current to the main chamber walls at the low-field side and divertor targets, and deuterium emission profiles across the divertor legs, and the high-field and low-field side midplane regions to those calculated by UEDGE and SOLPS.

Avoidance of disruptions at high βN in ASDEX Upgrade with off-axis ECRH

Experiments on disruption avoidance have been carried out in H-mode ASDEX Upgrade plasmas: the localized perpendicular injection of ECRH (1.5 MW ∼ 0.2Ptot) onto the q = 2 resonant surface has led to the delay and/or complete avoidance of disruptions in a high βN scenario (Ip = 1 MA, Bt = 2.1 T, q95 ∼ 3.6, with NBI ∼7.5 MW). In these discharges (at low q95 and low density) neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) are excited: the growth and locking of the m/n = 2/1 mode leads to the disruption. The scheme of the experiment is successfully applied in the same way as in previous disruption avoidance experiments in FTU and ASDEX Upgrade. As soon as the disruption precursor signal (the locked mode detector and/or the loop voltage) reaches the preset threshold, the ECRH power is triggered by real-time control. A poloidal scan in deposition location (ρdep) has been carried out by setting the poloidal launching mirrors at different angles in each discharge. The results depend on ρdep: complete disruption avoidance can be achieved when the power is injected close to or onto the 2/1 island. When ECRH is injected outside the island (either at radii inside or outside the q = 2 surface), the discharge is disrupted as in the reference case.

Measurements and modeling of Alfvén eigenmode induced fast ion transport and loss in DIII-D and ASDEX Upgrade

Neutral beam injection into reversed magnetic shear DIII-D and ASDEX Upgrade plasmas produces a variety of Alfvénic activity including toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes and reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes (RSAEs). These modes are studied during the discharge current ramp phase when incomplete current penetration results in a high central safety factor and increased drive due to multiple higher order resonances. Scans of injected 80 keV neutral beam power on DIII-D showed a transition from classical to AE dominated fast ion transport and, as previously found, discharges with strong AE activity exhibit a deficit in neutron emission relative to classical predictions. By keeping beam power constant and delaying injection during the current ramp, AE activity was reduced or eliminated and a significant improvement in fast ion confinement observed. Similarly, experiments in ASDEX Upgrade using early 60 keV neutral beam injection drove multiple unstable RSAEs. Periods of strong RSAE activity are accompanied by a large (peak δSn/Sn≈60%) neutron deficit. Losses of beam ions modulated at AE frequencies were observed using large bandwidth energy and pitch resolving fast ion loss scintillator detectors and clearly identify their role in the process. Modeling of DIII-D loss measurements using guiding center following codes to track particles in the presence of ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculated AE structures (validated by comparison to experiment) is able to reproduce the dominant energy, pitch, and temporal evolution of these losses. While loss of both co and counter current fast ions occurs, simulations show that the dominant loss mechanism observed is the mode induced transition of counter-passing fast ions to lost trapped orbits. Modeling also reproduces a coherent signature of AE induced losses and it was found that these coherent losses scale proportionally with the amplitude; an additional incoherent contribution scales quadratically with the mode amplitude.

Extension of the pulsed power supply network of ASDEX Upgrade by a set of compact modular generators

Some years ago, ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) examined its future power supply needs. The experimental program could make use of an extension of the IPP pulsed energy storage, both to allow new scenarios at higher plasma current to be investigated, as well as to allow longer plasma flat-top time. Studies performed in 2001 and 2002 by IPP and external collaborators showed that an attractive solution for this extension is a parallel connection of commercially available compact flywheel generators. Especially the main challenges of this system will be explained in the paper. Further on, the paper will present the parallel and stand-alone mode of operation, analyse the results of measurements obtained during commissioning, compare them to the calculated design values and report on the performance achieved during AUG plasma experiments and Additional Heating operation.

Fast-ion D-alpha measurements at ASDEX Upgrade

A fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) diagnostic has been developed for the fully tungsten coated ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak using 25 toroidally viewing lines of sight and featuring a temporal resolution of 10 ms. The diagnostic's toroidal geometry determines a well-defined region in velocity space which significantly overlaps with the typical fast-ion distribution in AUG plasmas. Background subtraction without beam modulation is possible because relevant parts of the FIDA spectra are free from impurity line contamination. Thus, the temporal evolution of the confined fast-ion distribution function can be monitored continuously. FIDA profiles during on- and off-axis neutral beam injection (NBI) heating are presented which show changes in the radial fast-ion distribution with the different NBI geometries. Good agreement has been obtained between measured and simulated FIDA radial profiles in MHD-quiescent plasmas using fast-ion distribution functions provided by TRANSP. In addition, a large fast-ion redistribution with a drop of about 50% in the central fast-ion population has been observed in the presence of a q = 2 sawtooth-like crash, demonstrating the capabilities of the diagnostic.

Gyrokinetic modelling of electron and boron density profiles of H-mode plasmas in ASDEX Upgrade

Local gyrokinetic calculations of the logarithmic gradients at mid-radius of both electron and boron densities in ASDEX Upgrade H-mode plasmas are presented and compared with the experimental observations. The experimental results show that both the electron and the boron density profiles increase their peaking in response to the addition of central electron cyclotron heating over a background of neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. The boron density profiles are always less peaked than the electron density profiles in the confinement region, and are flat or even slightly hollow in the presence of NBI heating only. The experimental behaviours are well reproduced by the theoretical predictions. The agreement allows the identification, through theoretical modelling, of the transport mechanisms responsible for the observed dependences. In particular, the observed increase in the logarithmic electron density gradient with increasing central electron heating is explained by a concurrent reduction of the outward pure convection and an increase in the inward thermodiffusion. In addition, it is found that the plasma toroidal rotation velocity and its radial gradient play a non-negligible role in the turbulent boron transport, and allow the prediction of a decrease in boron peaking with increasing rotation velocity, which is consistent with the experimental observations.

Identification of geodesic chirping Alfvén modes and q-factor estimation in hot core tokamak plasmas in ASDEX Upgrade

Alfvén eigenmodes (AE) driven by ion cyclotron resonance heating are usually registered by different diagnostic channels in the hot core plasmas of large tokamaks like JET and ASDEX Upgrade. These AE appear very near to the extremum points of Alfvén wave continuum, which is modified by the geodesic effect due to poloidal mode coupling. It is shown that the AE spectrum may be explored as the magnetic spectroscopy (like Alfvén cascades by Sharapov et al 2001 Phys. Lett. A 289 127) to determine the q-factor minimum and geodesic frequency at the magnetic axis in standard sawtoothed discharges without reversed shear.

Influence of cross-field drifts and chemical sputtering on simulations of divertor particle and heat loads in ohmic and L-mode plasmas in DIII-D, AUG, and JET using UEDGE

Measurements and simulations with the UEDGE code of radiated power, and ion saturation currents and power loads to the target plates have been compared for density scans in ohmic and low confinement mode plasmas in DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade, and JET. Simulations including cross-field drifts and assuming elevated chemical sputtering yields of 3%–4% move the numerical solutions closer to many of the measurements compared to omitting the drifts and using the published Davis–Haasz yields. Adopting these assumptions the simulations reproduce the measured currents and powers, and their functional dependence on upstream density to within a factor of 2, with the exception of the ion currents to the low field side target in ASDEX Upgrade and the high field side target in JET. The applicability of using enhanced sputtering yields is discussed by comparing measured and simulated emission from low charge state carbon in the divertor regions.

Two-point analysis of the numerical modelling of detached divertor plasmas

A two-point model connecting plasma parameters at the divertor target and upstream is considered which is exact in the framework of the equations solved by the 2D multi-species plasma fluid code B2. The two-point formulae allow verification and quantitative analysis of the results of numerical modelling. The definition of the loss factors proposed here allows one to relate directly the free parameters of conventional two-point models with the simulation results. An example for the B2-EIRENE modelling of an ASDEX-Upgrade plasma with detached divertor is discussed. The new code analysis tool is applied to analyse the phenomenon of roll-over of the target incident particle flux as it appears in the simulations.

Investigation of the Scattering Efficiency in Doppler Reflectometry by Two-Dimensional Full-Wave Simulations

Two-dimensional full-wave simulations of Doppler reflectometry in slab and curved geometries have been carried out with the finite-difference time-domain code IPF-FD3D. The goal is to find the instrument response function of the reflectometer that allows the recovery of the poloidal plasma-density-fluctuation-wavenumber spectrum by Doppler reflectometry at different angles of incidence. Apart from nonlinearities caused by high fluctuation levels, the scattering process is found to be strongly dependent on the angle of incidence on the cutoff layer, the beam parameters, and the plasma-density gradient length. In addition, the code was applied to the actual geometry of an ASDEX-Upgrade plasma.

Fluid code simulations of radial electric field in the scrape-off layer of JET

Recent simulations of JET and ASDEX Upgrade plasmas with EDGE2D and SOLPS, respectively, showed that upstream radial electric field in the scrape-off layer (SOL) is substantially below values expected from simple estimates, based on the effects of the potential Debye sheath drop at the target and thermoelectric force (Chankin et al 2007 Nucl. Fusion 47 479). In this paper, dedicated EDGE2D-Nimbus modelling of JET plasmas aimed at identification of key mechanisms responsible for the formation of the radial electric field (Er) in the main SOL of high recycling divertor plasmas is described. Code runs with different upstream density and input power levels were carried out. The results of the modelling identify the main reason why the predicted Er values in the SOL are always too low compared with the simple estimates, which is the contribution from the −∇‖pe/nee term in the equation for parallel electric field (pe and ne—electron pressure and density). At the same time, it still remains unclear why experimental measurements in tokamak SOLs reveal fairly large Er values that are in reasonable agreement with the simple estimates. This discrepancy might be attributed to missing elements in the present 2D edge fluid codes, such as the role of plasma fluctuations or non-local kinetic effects of parallel plasma transport from the SOL to the divertor.

Sawtooth control and the interaction of energetic particles

Long-period sawteeth have been observed to result in the low-β triggering of neo-classical tearing modes (NTMs), which can significantly degrade plasma confinement. In ITER, the stabilizing effects of the fusion-born α particles are likely to exacerbate this. Consequently, in order to avoid triggering NTMs, many techniques have been proposed to control, and in particular, to destabilize the sawtooth oscillations. Here, sawtooth behaviour in off-axis NBI-heated plasmas in JET and ASDEX Upgrade is presented. It is found that the energetic particles born outside the q = 1 surface due to off-axis NBI can destabilize the sawteeth, even in the presence of stabilizing on-axis fast particles. In order to model the stability of the n = 1 internal kink mode, which is associated with the sawtooth oscillations, both a magnetohydrodynamic code including toroidal rotation and a drift kinetic code have been employed. The modelling highlights the significant role played by both the passing energetic particles and the toroidal flow shear in determining the kink mode stability in the presence of an energetic particle population.