QUIESCENT H-MODE, AN ELM-FREE HIGH-CONFINEMENT MODE ON DIII-D WITH POTENTIAL FOR STATIONARY STATE OPERATION.

QUIESCENT H-MODE, AN ELM-FREE HIGH-CONFINEMENT MODE ON DIII-D WITH POTENTIAL FOR STATIONARY STATE OPERATION. PDF Author: L. ZENG
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Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
OAK-B135 The quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) is an ELM-free and stationary state mode of operation discovered on DIII-D. This mode achieves H-mode levels of confinement and pedestal pressure while maintaining constant density and radiated power. The elimination of edge localized modes (ELMs) and their large divertor loads while maintaining good confinement and good density control is of interest to next generation tokamaks. This paper reports on the correlations found between selected parameters in a QH-mode database developed from several hundred DIII-D counter injected discharges. Time traces of key plasma parameters from a QH-mode discharge are shown. On DIII-D the negative going plasma current (a) indicates that the beam injection direction is counter to the plasma current direction, a common feature of all QH-modes. The D{sub {alpha}} time behavior (c) shows that soon after high powered beam heating (b) is applied, the discharge makes a transition to ELMing H-mode, then the ELMs disappear, indicating the start of the QH period that lasts for the remainder of the high power beam heating (3.5 s). Previously published work showing density and temperature profiles indicates that long-pulse, high-triangularity QH discharges develop an internal transport barrier in combination with the QH edge barrier. These discharges are known as quiescent, double-barrier discharges (QDB). The H-factor (d) and stored energy (c) rise then saturate at a constant level and the measured axial and minimum safety factors remain above 1.0 for the entire QH duration. During QDB operation the performance of the plasma can be very good, with {beta}{sub N}*H{sub 89L} product reaching 7 for> 10 energy confinement times. These discharges show promise that a stationary state can be achieved.