NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK.

NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK. PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
OAK A271 NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK. The advanced tokamak (AT) operating mode which is the principal focus of the DIII-D tokamak requires highly integrated and complex plasma control. Simultaneous high performance regulation of the plasma boundary and internal profiles requires multivariable control techniques to account for the highly coupled influences of equilibrium shape, profile, and stability control. This paper describes progress towards the DIII-D At mission goal through both significantly improved real-time computational hardware and control algorithm capability.

NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK.

NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK. PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
OAK A271 NEXT-GENERATION PLASMA CONTROL IN THE DIII-D TOKAMAK. The advanced tokamak (AT) operating mode which is the principal focus of the DIII-D tokamak requires highly integrated and complex plasma control. Simultaneous high performance regulation of the plasma boundary and internal profiles requires multivariable control techniques to account for the highly coupled influences of equilibrium shape, profile, and stability control. This paper describes progress towards the DIII-D At mission goal through both significantly improved real-time computational hardware and control algorithm capability.

Control of Plasma Poloidal Shape and Position in the DIII-D Tokamak

Control of Plasma Poloidal Shape and Position in the DIII-D Tokamak PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 7

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Book Description
Historically, tokamak control design has been a combination of theory driving an initial control design and empirical tuning of controllers to achieve satisfactory performance. This approach was in line with the focus of past experiments on simply obtaining sufficient control to study many of the basic physics issues of plasma behavior. However, in recent years existing experimental devices have required increasingly accurate control. New tokamaks such as ITER or the eventual fusion power plant must achieve and confine burning fusion plasmas, placing unprecedented demands on regulation of plasma shape and position, heat flux, and burn characteristics. Control designs for such tokamaks must also function well during initial device operation with minimal empirical optimization required. All of these design requirements imply a heavy reliance on plasma modeling and simulation. Thus, plasma control design has begun to use increasingly modern and sophisticated control design methods. This paper describes some of the history of plasma control for the DIII-D tokamak as well as the recent effort to implement modern controllers. This effort improves the control so that one may obtain better physics experiments and simultaneously develop the technology for designing controllers for next-generation tokamaks.

New DIII-D Tokamak Plasma Control System

New DIII-D Tokamak Plasma Control System PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 5

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Book Description
A state-of-the-art plasma control system has been constructed for use on the DIII-D tokamak to provide high speed real time data acquisition and feedback control of DIII-D plasma parameters. This new system has increased the precision to which discharge shape and position parameters can be maintained and has provided the means to rapidly change from one plasma configuration to another. The capability to control the plasma total energy and the ICRF antenna loading resistance has been demonstrated. The speed and accuracy of this digital system will allow control of the current drive and heating systems in order to regulate the current and pressure profiles and diverter power deposition in the DIII-D machine. Use of this system will allow the machine and power supplies to be better protected from undesirable operating regimes. The advanced control system is also suitable for control algorithm development for future machines in these areas and others such as disruption avoidance. The DIII-D tokamak facility is operated for the US Department of Energy by General Atomics Company (GA) in San Diego, California. The DIII-D experimental program will increase emphasis on rf heating and current drive in the near future and is installing a cryopumped divertor ring during the fall of 1992. To improve the flexibility of this machine for these experiments, the new shape control system was implemented. The new advanced plasma control system has enhanced the capabilities of the DIII-D machine and provides a data acquisition and control platform that promises to be useful far beyond its original charter.

Recent Results from the DIII-D Tokamak and Implications for Future Devices

Recent Results from the DIII-D Tokamak and Implications for Future Devices PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 31

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Book Description
Improvements to the DIII-D tokamak have led to significant new research results and enhanced performance. These results provide important inputs to the design of next generation divertor systems including the upgrade of the DIII-D divertor. The use of graphite for the plasma facing components and careful wall preparation has enabled the routine achievement of regimes of enhanced energy confinement. In elongated discharges, triangularity has been found to be important in attaining good discharge performance as measured by the product of the normalized plasma pressure and the energy confinement time, [beta][tau]{sub E} This constrains the design of the divertor configuration (X-point location). Active pumping of the divertor region using an in-situ toroidal cryogenic pump has demonstrated control of the plasma density in H-mode discharges and allowed the dependence of confinement on plasma density and current to be separately determined. Helium removal from the plasma edge sufficient to achieve effective ash removal in reactor discharges has also been demonstrated using this pumping configuration. The reduction of the heat flux to the divertor plates has been demonstrated using two different techniques to increase the radiation in the boundary regions of the plasma and thus reduce the heat flux to the divertor plates; deuterium gas injection has been used to create a strongly radiating localized zone near the X-point, and impurity (neon) injection to enhance the radiation from the plasma mantle. Precise shaping of the plasma current profile has been found to be important in achieving enhanced tokamak performance. Transiently shaped current profiles have been used to demonstrate regimes of plasmas with high beta and good confinement. Control of the current profile also is important to sustaining the plasma in the Very High (VH)-mode of energy confinement.

Recent Results from DIII-D and Their Implications for Next Generation Tokamaks

Recent Results from DIII-D and Their Implications for Next Generation Tokamaks PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Recent results from the DIII-D tokamak have provided significant contributions to the understanding of many of the elements of tokamak physics and the application of this understanding to the design of next generation devices including ITER and CIT. The limitations of magnetohydrodynamics stability on the values of plasma beta (the ratio of kinetic pressure to the containing pressure of the magnetic field) that can be attained has been experimentally demonstrated and found to be described by existing theory. Values of beta (10.7%) well in excess of those required for proposed devices (ITER and CIT) have been demonstrated. Regimes of confinement (H-mode) have been established that scale favorably to proposed next generation devices, and experiments demonstrating the dependence of the energy confinement on plasma size have been completed. Understanding of confinement is rapidly developing especially in the areas of bulk transport and the role of turbulence in the plasma edge. Key experimental results in areas of plasma transport and edge plasma phenomena are found to be in agreement with theories based on short wavelength turbulence. Control of the divertor heat loads and impurity influx has been demonstrated, and new progress has been made in the understanding of plasma edge phenomena. Experiments with ion Bernstein wave heating have not found regimes in which these waves can produce effective central ion heating. Electron cyclotron current drive experiments have demonstrated 70 kA of driven current in 400 kA discharges.

Current Status of DIII-D Real-time Digital Plasma Control

Current Status of DIII-D Real-time Digital Plasma Control PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 5

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Book Description
This paper describes the current status of real-time digital plasma control for the DIII-D tokamak. The digital plasma control system (PCS) has been in place at DIII-D since the early 1990s and continues to expand and improve in its capabilities to monitor and control plasma parameters for DIII-D fusion science experiments. The PCs monitors over 200 tokamak parameters from the DIII-D experiment using a real-time data acquisition system that acquires a new set of samples once every 60 [mu]s. This information is then used in a number of feedback control algorithms to compute and control a variety of parameters including those affecting plasma shape and position. A number of system related improvements has improved the usability and flexibility of the DIII-D PCS. These include more graphical user interfaces to assist in entering and viewing the large and ever growing number of parameters controlled by the PCS, increased interaction and accessibility from other DIII-D applications, and upgrades to the computer hardware and vended software. Future plans for the system include possible upgrades of the real-time computers, further links to other DIII-D diagnostic measurements such as real-time Thomson scattering analysis, and joint collaborations with other tokamak experiments including the NSTX at Princeton.

An Advanced Plasma Control System for the DIII-D Tokamak

An Advanced Plasma Control System for the DIII-D Tokamak PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
An advanced plasma control system is being implemented for the DIII-D tokamak utilizing digital technology. This system will regulate the position and shape of tokamak discharges that range from elongated limiter to single-null divertor and double-null divertor with elongation as high as 2.6. Development of this system is expected to lead to control system technology appropriate for use on future tokamaks such as ITER and BPX. The digital system will allow for increased precision in shape control through real time adjustment of the control algorithm to changes in the shape and discharge parameters such as [beta]{sub p}, l{sub i} and scrape-off layer current. The system will be used for research on real time optimization of discharge performance for disruption avoidance, current and pressure profile control, optimization of rf antenna loading, or feedback on heat deposition patterns through divertor strike point position control, for example. Shape control with this system is based on linearization near a target shape of the controlled parameters as a function of the magnetic diagnostic signals. This digital system is unique in that it is designed to have the speed necessary to control the unstable vertical motion of highly elongated tokamak discharges such as those produced in DIII-D and planned for BPX and ITER. a 40 MHz Intel i860 processor is interfaced to up to 112 channels of analog input signals. The commands to the poloidal field coils can be updated at 80 [mu]s intervals for the control of vertical position with a delay between sampling of the analog signal and update of the command of less than 80 [mu]s.

ADVANCED TOKAMAK OPERATION USING THE DIII-D PLASMA CONTROL SYSTEM.

ADVANCED TOKAMAK OPERATION USING THE DIII-D PLASMA CONTROL SYSTEM. PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
A271 ADVANCED TOKAMAK OPERATION USING THE DIII-D PLASMA CONTROL SYSTEM. The principal focus of experimental operations in the DIII-D tokamak is the advanced tokamak (AT) regime to achieve, which requires highly integrated and flexible plasma control. In a high performance advanced tokamak, accurate regulation of the plasma boundary, internal profiles, pumping, fueling, and heating must be well coordinated with MHD control action to stabilize such instabilities as tearing modes and resistive wall modes. Sophisticated monitors of the operational regime must provide detection of off-normal conditions and trigger appropriate safety responses with acceptable levels of reliability. Many of these capabilities are presently implemented in the DIII-D plasma control system (PCS), and are now in frequent or routine operational use. The present work describes recent development, implementation, and operational experience with AT regime control elements for equilibrium control, MHD suppression, and off-normal event detection and response.

Tokamak Plasma

Tokamak Plasma PDF Author: B. B. Kadomtsev
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The importance of tokamaks and their role in fusion reactors has been known for some time, but it is only now that plasma physicists have reached a clear understanding of the major principles governing the behaviour of confined high-temperature plasma. This book gives a timely and comprehensive survey of these concepts as well as a simple presentation of the basic physics involved. The topics discussed include: the theory of plasma equilibrium and its main instabilities, semi-empirical approaches for investigating heat transport, major plasma instabilities restricting the region of a tokamak's operating modes, a variety of plasma confinement regimes and other phenomena such as MARFE, magnetic bubbles and fishbones. The author proposes a new mechanism for anomalous heat transport connected with the idea of microscale 'island' structure. The information is presented in a clear and systematic way which will make this book interesting and useful to a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers involved in fusion reactor research. '...an excellent book - authoritative, broad and bristling with insight' Professor R D Hazeltine, The University of Texas at Austin.

Magnetic Control of Tokamak Plasmas

Magnetic Control of Tokamak Plasmas PDF Author: Marco Ariola
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9781848820081
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
this part is supported by two useful appendices on some of the mathematical tools used and the physical units of plasma physics. State-space models, state observers, H control, and process simulations are some of the familiar techniques used by ? the authors to meet the demanding spatial control specifications for these processes; however, the research reported in the monograph is more that just simulation studies and proposals for possible future hypothetical controllers, for the authors have worked with some of the world’s leading existing tokamak facilities. Chapter 5, 8, and 9 respectively, give practical results of implementations of their control schemes on the FTU Tokamak (Italy), the TCV Tokamak (Switzerland), and the JET Tokamak (United Kingdom). Additionally, the authors present simulation results of their ideas for the control of the new tokamak proposed for the ITER project. In conclusion, being very aware that most control engineers will not be conversant with the complexities of tokamak nuclear fusion reactor control, the authors have taken special care to give a useful introduction to the background of nuclear fusion, the science of plasma physics and appropriate models in the first part of the monograph (Chapters 1 to 3). This introduction is followed by six chapters (4 to 9) of control studies. In Chapter 4, the generic control problem is established and then five case study chapters follow.