Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations

Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations PDF Author:
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Languages : en
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Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.

Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations

Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.

Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations

Turbulence and Transport Studies with Phase Contrast Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations PDF Author: Liang Lin (Ph. D.)
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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(cont.) Our study shows that although the short wavelength turbulence in the ETG range is unstable in the linear ohmic regime, the nonlinear simulation with k[theta][rho]s up to 4 does not raise the electron thermal diffusivity to the experimental level, where k[theta] is the poloidal wavenumber and [rho]s is the ion-sound Larmor radius. The H-Mode studies focus on plasmas before and during internal transport barrier formation in an enhanced D[alpha], H-Mode plasma. The simulated fluctuations from GYRO agree with experimental measurements in the ITG regime. GYRO also shows good agreement in transport predictions with experimental measurements after reducing the ion temperature gradient (~15%) and adding ExB shear suppression, all within the experimental uncertainty.

Turbulence and Transport Measurements in Alcator C-Mod and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations

Turbulence and Transport Measurements in Alcator C-Mod and Comparisons with Gyrokinetic Simulations PDF Author: Paul Chappell Ennever
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Turbulence in tokamak plasmas is the primary means by which energy is transported from the core of the plasma to the edge, where it is lost, and is therefore the main limitation of tokamak plasma performance. Dilution of the main-ion species was found to have a stabilizing effect on ion gyroradius scale turbulence in tokamak plasmas. Dilution of deuterium tokamak plasmas is the reduction of the ratio of the deuterium ion density to the electron density, nD=ne, to less than 1.0 through the introduction of low-Z impurity species into the plasma. Controlled dilution experiments were performed on Alcator C-Mod wherein plasmas at a range of electron density and plasma current were seeded with nitrogen while a cryopump held the electron density fixed. The electron density fluctuations due to turbulence were monitored using a phase contrast imaging (PCI) diagnostic, an absolutely calibrated diagnostic that measures the line-integral of the electron density fluctuations along 32 vertical chords. In these experiments the seeding reduced the PCI density fluctuations, and had a stabilizing effect on the ion energy transport. The seeding also reversed the direction of intrinsic rotation in certain cases. Nonlinear simulations using the gyrokinetic turbulence code GYRO were performed using measured kinetic profiles from the dilution experiments both before and after the nitrogen seeding. The GYRO simulations reproduced the observed reduction in the turbulent ion energy transport with the nitrogen seeding. The GYRO simulated turbulent density fluctuations were compared to the PCI measurements using a synthetic diagnostic, and they were found to be consistent. GYRO simulations were also performed varying only the main ion dilution to explore the theoretical effects of the dilution on energy transport. Through this it was found that the dilution reduced the turbulent ion energy transport in a wide variety of cases, but primarily increased the critical gradient at low densities, and primarily reduced the stiffness of the transport at high densities. This dilution effect is related to observations of reductions in energy transport from seeding on other tokamaks, and will likely have an impact on ITER and future fusion reactors.

Phase Contrast Imaging on the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

Phase Contrast Imaging on the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak PDF Author: Alexander Mazurenko
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Phase Contrast Imaging (PCI) is a new diagnostic that was built for the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. It measures line-integrated (along 12 vertical chords) plasma density perturbations with good temporal (2-500 kHz) and wavenumber (0.5-12 /cm) resolution. The Quasi-Coherent (QC) fluctuation mode was studied using the PCI and other diagnostics. The mode was found to cause fluctuation of density, electric and magnetic field in the plasma edge with typical frequency of 100 kHz and typical poloidal wavenumber of about 5/cm. The mode was found to be responsible for confinement properties of the "Enhanced D-alpha H-mode" (a particularly favorable regime of tokamak operation). Through numerical modeling, the physical origin of the fluctuations was tentatively identified as "resistive X-point" mode (a kind of resistive ballooning mode strongly affected by the X-point configuration of magnetic field lines). The PCI system has been upgraded to detect waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF, 40-80 MHz) by means of optical heterodyning - a technique based on modulation of the diagnostic laser beam near the wave frequency. The upgraded system was then used to study propagation of the Fast Magnetosonic Waves. These waves, which have never been measured in detail in past experiments, are being used to heat the tokamak plasma at the megawatt power level. The measured results were compared to the simple cold-plasma dispersion relation and to predictions of the full-wave 3D numerical modeling.

Edge Turbulence Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

Edge Turbulence Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak PDF Author: S. J. Zweben
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Category : Tokamaks
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports PDF Author:
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Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Experimental Application and Numerical Study of Reflectometry in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

Experimental Application and Numerical Study of Reflectometry in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak PDF Author: Yijun Lin
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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The amplitude modulated ordinary-mode reflectometer in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak is used to study the quasi-coherent (QC) continuous edge fluctuations in enhanced Da (EDA) H-modes. Reflectometer data show that the QC fluctuations are localized near the center of the density pedestal. The radial width (FWHM) is usually in the range of 0.1 - 0.3 cm. The width increases with the increase of resistivity rl. The line-integrated fluctuation level approximately scales with (v*q95).56. This result indicates that higher q95, higher density, and lower temperature are favored for the QC fluctuations. Neither the location nor the width changes significantly in an EDA H-mode period, while the frequency and level vary. A 2-D full-wave code has been developed to simulate and quantitatively interpret reflectometry signals. The code uses the finite-difference time-domain method to solve Maxwell's equations in two dimensions. Perfectly-matched layers are used as the boundary. The Huygens source technique is used to generate Gaussian beams and separate the reflected waves from the total field. Simulations based on realistic 2-D geometry of the Alcator C-Mod reflectometer provide a calibration curve by which we can relate the QC fluctuations in reflectometry signals to plasma density fluctuations. Results indicate that the line-integrated fluctuation level derived from reflectometry is similar to that measured by the phase contrast imaging system. Simulations also indicate that plasma curvature extends the reflectometry response to fluctuations of high poloidal wavenumber. A preliminary study indicates that reflectometry can be used to estimate the correlation length of the turbulence in Alcator C-Mod provided that the fluctuation level is small.

An Experimental Study of Turbulence by Phase-contrast Imaging in the DIII-D Tokamak

An Experimental Study of Turbulence by Phase-contrast Imaging in the DIII-D Tokamak PDF Author: Stefano Coda
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Category : Plasma turbulence
Languages : en
Pages : 924

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Edge Turbulence Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

Edge Turbulence Imaging in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak PDF Author: S. J. Zweben
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Category : Tokamaks
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Validation of Turbulent Transport Models on Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade

Validation of Turbulent Transport Models on Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade PDF Author: Alexander James Creely
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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This thesis developed hardware and analysis techniques to measure two validation constraints experimentally, and then applied these constraints in the validation of plasma turbulent transport models on two tokamaks, Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade, resulting in both greater physics understanding of multi-scale turbulent interactions and greater confidence in predictions for future fusion devices. On the path toward the clean, sustainable, and safe energy of a fusion power plant, experiment and modeling each contribute something unique. Before one can in good faith use plasma turbulent transport models to explain turbulent dynamics or predict machine performance, however, one must ensure that these models can correctly reproduce experimentally measured conditions on existing devices. Validation, the process of determining how accurately a model represents reality, has thus become a key endeavor in fusion energy research. First, this thesis developed an analysis technique to measure the electron perturbative thermal diffusivity based on tracking the propagation of heat pulses generated by partial sawtooth crashes. In addition, correlation electron cyclotron emission (CECE) hardware was constructed on both Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade, and analysis techniques were derived, in order to measure turbulent electron temperature fluctuations. These validation constraints were applied to two turbulent transport models, the nonlinear gyrokinetic model and the quasi-linear gyrofluid model. In particular, these constraints were used to study the importance of multi-scale turbulent effects (due to coupling between ion- and electron-scales) in correctly modeling plasma behavior. The gyrokinetic codes GYRO and GENE were validated on Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade respectively, using both constraints developed in this thesis as well as ion and electron heat fluxes from power balance, revealing that in some cases ionscale simulations are sufficient to match experimental constraints, while in other cases multi-scale effects are important. To investigate this discrepancy, a novel type of validation study was performed with the gyrofluid code TGLF, including many discharges from both machines. This study resulted in two physical criteria that determine when multi-scale effects are important, and when ion-scale simulations are sufficient to model the plasma behavior, shedding light on the physical phenomena that govern the importance of multi-scale turbulent effects.