Alcator C-Mod Run 1000518 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:232
Date Filed:12/31/1998
Title:Mapping EDA/ELMfree Boundary
First Author:Martin Greenwald
Session Leader:Martin Greenwald (shots 1-25)

Operators
Session leader(s):Martin Greenwald
Physics operator(s):Dmitri Mossessian
Engineering operator(s):Gary Dekow

Engineering Operator Run Comment
temporary comment (jas)

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:23:350PM
Author: To Be Determined
Run Plan for 1000518
mp 232 EDA/ELMfree

Session Leader - Greenwald
Phys Op - Mossessian

============================

Plan:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518xxx G SESSION_LEADER May 18 2000 9:16:44:000AM
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
MP 253 Very Low Power EDA

Session Leader - M. Greenwald
Phys Op - D. Mossessian


With its good energy confinement, moderate particle confinement and
lack of large ELMs, the EDA H-mode could be a highly favorable
regime for a tokamak reactor - if we can understand the underlying
physics sufficiently to extrapolate into new regimes. The key to
understanding EDA seems to be in the quasi-coherent fluctuations
which have been observered by the reflectometer, PCI, and probes.
These fluctuations seem always to accompany EDA and have been shown
to drive significant particle flux. We want to understand the
relationship between the mode and the local pedestal profiles
allowing us to evaluate the micro and macro-stability. The first
step will be to localize the mode relative to the density and
temperature pedestals. We will try to correlate both mode amplitude
and convected flux with the local gradients.

Because the range of the scanning probe is limited by incident heat
flux, we will attempt to run EDA H-modes at the lowest possible
powers. Following the recipe that was successful on 990831, we will
begin with discharges at relatively low q and then scan Bt and Ip to
raise q allowing access to the EDA regime. Since q(t) must be
similar from shot to shot, lowering the power will necessarily mean
running at both lower field and current. Possible scenarios are
shown in the attached figure, where shot 1 corresponds roughly to
990831015.


There are 3 probe configurations that we would like to try.
The A-side scanning probe will be used for all experiments.

{1}N-S floating, E-W sweeping ion saturation curves: This
configuration can give $\tilde \phi$, $\tilde n_e$, and
$\tilde T_e$ as well as the convected particle and energy flux.

{2}N-E floating: This gives the best k resolution.

{3}Same as 1 but with very small sweeps about the floating
potential on E-W. This maximizes the amount of T_e data and gives
the best chance to measure E_r.

-
Special attention should be paid to pedestal and fluctuation
diagnostics.

==============================

Results:

A good day. After the first shot, we had 24 plasmas in a row.
It took longer than expected to get the right conditions for the
probe measurements. Ohmic H-modes are, as always, marginal beasts.
It looks like we were near the low density limit, even at 3T, which
suggests that limit is not a function of Bt. Ip however was in our
normal range (as was Ip/a^2). We had EDA's at very low power, down
to maybe 0.6 MW. The run was made more difficult by the steady rain
of particles from the top of the vessel.

By fine tuning the Bt and Ip ramps, we were able to get shots with
an L/H transition followed by ELMfree/EDA transition. On several
shots, we had probe plunges into the EDA phase - at least 2 were
quite deep.

With PCI and the reflectometer, the fluctuations were similar to
those seen before. PCI saw k_R ~ 5-6 cm^-1. The scanning probe saw
considerably lower k_theta ~ 2-3 cm^-1. The previous data from
990831 was from the f-bottom probe and saw k_theta ~ 5 cm^-1. We
may have A-side data from that day and could determine if this
difference was due to the measurement locations.

The quasi-coherent fluctuations were seen over a distance of ~7.5
but we never saw the inner edge of the mode.

================================

Shots suitable for further analysis include:

All shots if you're interested in low field, low current ohmic
discharges - most with h-mode.

for the probe analysis

1000518009
1000518022
1000518023
1000518024
1000518025



Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:37:10:800PM
Author: To Be Determined
Physop summary for 1000518:
_________________________
Run plan:

SL M.Greenwald
PO D.Mossessian
EO G.Dekow

Engineering setup:

Overnight ECDC in D2, stopping 1-2 hours prior to the run.

Run begins at 9:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power system setup as on 1000517001

Gas setup - fill B-top 6 psi of D2 Hybrid enabled
fill B-side lower 1 psi of Ar Hybrid enabled
leave B-side upper as is Hybrid DISABLED
fill C-side 30 psi of D2 Hybrid enabled
leave J-bottom as is Hybrid DISABLED


The following gate valves should be enabled, assuming there are no vacuum
problems:
VUV
ECE
DNB

We want to run ohmic EDA H-modes at the lowest possible power.
Load segment 4 from 1000419021 - line integral density .6e20, ip=.8MA, Bt starts from 5.4 and ramps down to 3 T
to get H-mode, then ramps back up to obtain EDA.
Use segment 1 from last good shot on 1000517.
_____________________________________________

Summary:

Nice day from physop point of view. 1 fizzle out of 25 plasmas. I used segment 1 of shot 1000517022, which I had to
modify only once, after the first fizle (shot 1). Bz was a bit low, and gas pressure looked low too. These two things
were fixed and I haven't touched segment 1 since.
Segment 4 was imported from 1000419021 into segment 2 for low power ohmic EDA shots. Multiple tweeks of nl, ip and Bt were
performed at the SL request (see details). Starting from shot 10, current was programed to ramp down around .8 sec. During
the rampdown, left and right gaps were increasing to up to 3 cm, causing vertical instability disruptions. We tryed to control
the gaps by ramping CLEARIN down (decreasing gaps) first by 5 mm, and then by 10 mm and increasing integral gain on CLEARIN.
That helped somewhat, but some of the shots still disrupted.

Note that integral gain on CLEARIN is set to 8 on the last shot, as opposed to "standard" 4.

Scorecard:
25 shots
24 plasmas
1 fizzle

Details:

1000518001 Fizzle. Bz seems to be too low (-0.0045 as opposed to -0.001 on good shot)
Low G-side pressure

For next shot: IC_EF4 -1280 A -> -1265 A (Bz up 1 mT), pulse_gas4 20 msec -> 22 msec.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518002 Plazma. Nice startup. 2 ohmic H-modes, 1 EDA. Strong peaking of density
profile after EDA, as on 990831.

For next shot: lower target nl to 5.5e19
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518003 Plazma, same as previous shot

For next shot: program target density to decrease linearly from 5.5e19 @.45 sec
to 4.e19 @ 1.18 sec
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518004 Plasma, H-modes.

For next shot: change TF waveform somewhat.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518005 Plasma, no H-modes.

For next shot: increases nl target 5.5e20->6.2e20
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518006 Plasma, H-modes.

For next shot: no changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518007 Plasma, H-mode.

For next shot: no changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518008 Plasma, H-mode. Very large injection around .14 sec that reduces Ip to .4 from .6.

For next shot: no changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518009 Plasma, H-mode.

For next shot: decrease min Bt to 2.4 T, keeping const ramping rate.
Add current rampdown at .75 sec to .55MA at 1.5MA/sec. Copyed TF trace
from segment2 into segment 1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518010 Plasma, H-mode. Disrupted at .98 sec (end of current rampdown).
Left and right gaps increase during current ramp.

For next shot: Drop CLEARIN at current ramp by 5 mm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518011 Plasma, H-mode.Stabilized gaps somewhat. Left gap is still increasing
considerably at current rampdown, but then comes back to normal. Right gap
has a lot of jitter.

For next shot: Move current rampdown 50 msec forward and extended it by 50 msec.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518012 Plasma, H-mode.Disrupted @ 1sec. Hard to say whether it's vertical instability
or an injection.

For next shot: Try to stabilize gaps more by doubling integral gain
in CLEARIN from .70 secm.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518013 Plasma , H-mode, disrupted at 1.15 sec. Vertical instability.
Integral gain on CLEARIN didn't do much.

For next shot: Drop CLEARIN by 5 mm, Extend curent rampdown by 100 msec
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518014 Plasma to 1.83 sec, no H-mode

For next shot: Extend curent rampdown by 50 msec
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518015 Plasma , very similar to shot 14. No H-mode

For next shot: delay Ip rampdown by 100 msec, delay CLEARIN drop
by the same amount.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518016 Plasma , very similar to shot 15. No H-mode

For next shot: INcrease density 15% to 7e19
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518017 Plasma , H-mode, disrupted at 1.27 sec

For next shot: Shift the ip rampdown back 50 msec, increase its rate by 50 msec.
Shift CLEARIN trace accordingly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518018 Plasma , no H-mode

For next shot: Delay the ip and CLEARIN rampdown by 50 msec.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518019 Plasma , H-mode

For next shot: no changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518020 Plasma , ELM-free H-mode

For next shot: no changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518021 Plasma , H-modes

For next shot: speed up current ramp after .95 sec.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518022 Plasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518023 Plasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518024 Plasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1000518025 Plasma , H-modes


Session Leader Comments
May 18 2000 09:16:44:000AMMartin GreenwaldMP 253 Very Low Power EDA

Session Leader - M. Greenwald
Phys Op - D. Mossessian


With its good energy confinement, moderate particle confinement and
lack of large ELMs, the EDA H-mode could be a highly favorable
regime for a tokamak reactor - if we can understand the underlying
physics sufficiently to extrapolate into new regimes. The key to
understanding EDA seems to be in the quasi-coherent fluctuations which
have been observered by the reflectometer, PCI, and probes. These
fluctuations seem always to accompany EDA and have been shown to
drive significant particle flux. We want to understand the
relationship between the mode and the local pedestal profiles
allowing us to evaluate the micro and macro-stability. The first
step will be to localize the mode relative to the density and
temperature pedestals. We will try to correlate both mode amplitude
and convected flux with the local gradients.


Because the range of the scanning probe is limited by incident heat
flux, we will attempt to run EDA H-modes at the lowest possible
powers. Following the recipe that was successful on 990831, we
will begin with discharges at relatively low q and then scan Bt and
Ip to raise q allowing access to the EDA regime. Since q(t) must be
similar from shot to shot, lowering the power will necessarily mean
running at both lower field and current. Possible scenarios are shown
in the attached figure, where shot 1 corresponds roughly to
990831015.


There are 3 probe configurations that we would like to try.

{1}N-S floating, E-W sweeping ion saturation curves: This
configuration can give $\tilde \phi$, $\tilde n_e$, and
$\tilde T_e$ as well as the convected particle and energy flux.

{2}N-E floating: This gives the best k resolution.

{3}Same as 1 but with very small sweeps about the floating
potential on E-W. This maximizes the amount of T_e data and gives
the best chance to measure E_r.


May 18 2000 09:44:37:060AM1000518002Martin GreenwaldGood shot
Ohmic H-modes, EDA

Density peaking toward end of shot - like 990831
May 18 2000 10:02:31:763AM1000518003Martin GreenwaldGood Shot
Ohmic H-mode - mostly ELMfree
might be EDA period later - no diagnostics to tell
May 18 2000 10:27:47:373AM1000518004Martin GreenwaldGood shot
ohmic H-modes - mostly ELMfree
2 probe plunges
May 18 2000 10:51:38:577AM1000518005Martin GreenwaldDidn't scan the field down as far - no h-mode
May 18 2000 10:56:56:343AM1000518006Martin GreenwaldRaised density -
Good shot - ohmic h-modes
Looks like some eda periods -
multiple small injections -

traq_2 failure so no efit
May 18 2000 11:34:09:857AM1000518007Martin GreenwaldGood shot
Ohmic H-mode, brief eda period
first probe plunge may see a bit

H-modes are interupted by injections (Moly?)
May 18 2000 11:51:01:687AM1000518008Martin GreenwaldSimilar to shot 007
again, the injections interupt the h-mode
May 18 2000 12:12:51:450PM1000518009Martin GreenwaldGood shot
ohmic h-modes - longer eda period
probe sees a bit of this

next shot lowering field and current farther
May 18 2000 12:35:01:217PM1000518010Martin GreenwaldGot an H-mode at 2.9T, 0.6 MA
disrupts shortly after
May 18 2000 01:19:12:140PM1000518012Martin GreenwaldWe tweaked the current
got an earlier H-mode
but disrupted after 100 msec into the H-mode

OH power gets as low as 0.83 MW
May 18 2000 01:31:44:437PM1000518013Martin GreenwaldLasts a little longer - disrupts vertically - maybe triggered by injection
Ohmic EDA obtained with only 0.6 MW
May 18 2000 01:57:20:793PM1000518014Martin GreenwaldNo H-mode
there were two big injections at the time of minimum q (max power)

May 18 2000 02:20:40:937PM1000518015Martin GreenwaldNo H-mode
May 18 2000 02:29:48:983PM1000518016Martin GreenwaldDelayed the current down ramp

No H-Mode again
despite plenty of power

Next shot we'll raise the density
in case we're below the low density limit
May 18 2000 02:50:45:153PM1000518017Martin GreenwaldRaising the density recovered the H-mode

Two h-mode periods, the second was EDA
with clear fluctuations on the PCI and Reflectometer
May 18 2000 03:03:15:030PM1000518018Martin GreenwaldMoved the current ramp earlier and lost the H-mode
May 18 2000 03:21:28:343PM1000518019Martin GreenwaldGot the H-mode again with clear EDA
May 18 2000 03:40:21:920PM1000518020Martin GreenwaldELMfree H-mode
probe when in after H/L transition
May 18 2000 03:58:51:297PM1000518021Martin GreenwaldTwo h-mode phases, second one eda
probe fired during L-mode in between
May 18 2000 04:17:42:640PM1000518022Martin GreenwaldSuccess
EDA h-mode and probe at same time
fluctuations are clear and last for about 1.5 mm of travel
May 18 2000 04:28:16:530PM1000518023Martin GreenwaldEven better
clear EF/EDA transition
probes hits EDA phase
May 18 2000 05:04:32:187PM1000518024Martin GreenwaldPretty good shot
We only get half of the probe scan
we lose the h-mode at the time of maximum insertion
May 18 2000 06:07:29:687PM1000518025Martin Greenwald
Also a good shot
probe catches EF/EDA transition

Physics Operator Comments
May 18 2000 09:10:51:747AMDmitri MossessianSL M.Greenwald
PO D.Mossessian

MP253 Very low power EDA H-modes

Engineering setup:

Overnight ECDC in D2, stopping 1-2 hours prior to the run.

Run begins at 9:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power system setup as on 1000517001

Gas setup - fill B-top 6 psi of D2 Hybrid enabled
fill B-side lower 1 psi of Ar Hybrid enabled
leave B-side upper as is Hybrid DISABLED
fill C-side 30 psi of D2 Hybrid enabled
leave J-bottom as is Hybrid DISABLED

Run plan:

We want to run ohmic EDA H-modes at the lowest possible power.
Load segment 4 from 1000419021 - line integral density .6e20, ip=.8MA, Bt starts from 5.4 and ramps down to 3 T
to get H-mode, then ramps back up to obtain EDA.
Use segment 1 from last good shot on 1000517.

_________________________________________

Loaded shot 1000517022. Imported segment 4 from 1000419021 into segment 2.
Load/clean.
9:05 Coldstart OK.

May 18 2000 09:29:50:560AM1000518001Dmitri MossessianFizzle. Bz seems to be too low (-0.0045 as opposed to -0.001 on good shot)
Low G-side pressure

For next shot: IC_EF4 -1280 A -> -1265 A (Bz up 1 mT), pulse_gas4 20 msec -> 22 msec.
May 18 2000 09:45:40:483AM1000518002Dmitri MossessianPlazma. Nice startup. 2 ohmic H-modes, 1 EDA. Strong peaking of density

profile after EDA, as on 990831.

For next shot: lower target nl to 5.5e19
May 18 2000 10:03:08:340AM1000518003Dmitri MossessianPlazma, same as previous shot

For next shot: program target density to decrease linearly from 5.5e19 @.45 sec
to 4.e19 @ 1.18 sec
May 18 2000 10:19:59:030AM1000518004Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-modes.

For next shot: change TF waveform somewhat.
May 18 2000 10:46:21:357AM1000518005Dmitri MossessianPlasma, no H-modes.

For next shot: increases nl target 5.5e20->6.2e20
May 18 2000 11:08:31:360AM1000518006Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-modes.

For next shot: no changes
May 18 2000 11:34:06:873AM1000518007Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode.

For next shot: no changes
May 18 2000 12:14:51:293PM1000518008Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode. Very large injection around .14 sec that reduces Ip to .4 from .6.

For next shot: no changes
May 18 2000 12:18:23:280PM1000518009Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode.

For next shot: decrease min Bt to 2.4 T, keeping const ramping rate.
Add current rampdown at .75 sec to .55Ma at 1.5MA/sec. Copyed TF trace
from segment2 into segment 1.
May 18 2000 12:38:40:280PM1000518010Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode. Disrupted at .98 sec (end of current rampdown).
Left and right gaps increase during current ramp.

For next shot: Drop CLEARIN at current ramp by 5 mm
May 18 2000 12:51:10:700PM1000518011Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode.Stabilized gaps somewhat. Left gap is still increasing
considerably at current rampdown, but then comes back to normal. Right gap
has a lot of jitter.

For next shot: Move current rampdown 50 msec forward and extended it by 50 msec.
May 18 2000 01:19:13:343PM1000518012Dmitri MossessianPlasma, H-mode.Disrupted @ 1sec. Hard to say whether it's vertical instability
or an injection.
For next shot: Try to stabilize gaps more by doubling integral gain
in CLEARIN from .70 secm.
May 18 2000 01:59:13:357PM1000518013Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-mode, disrupted at 1.15 sec. Vertical instability.
Integral gain on CLEARIN didn't do much.

For next shot: Drop CLEARIN by 5 mm, Extend curent rampdown by 100 msec
May 18 2000 01:55:34:483PM1000518014Dmitri MossessianPlasma to 1.83 sec, no H-mode

For next shot: Extend curent rampdown by 50 msec
May 18 2000 02:15:35:310PM1000518015Dmitri MossessianPlasma , very similar to shot 14. No H-mode

For next shot: delay Ip rampdown by 100 msec, delay CLEARIN drop
by the same amount.
May 18 2000 02:29:26:343PM1000518016Dmitri MossessianPlasma , very similar to shot 15. No H-mode

For next shot: INcrease density 15% to 7e19
May 18 2000 02:52:32:123PM1000518017Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-mode, disrupted at 1.27 sec

For next shot: Shift the ip rampdown back 50 msec, increase its rate by 50 msec.
Shift CLEARIN trace accordingly.
May 18 2000 03:03:01:577PM1000518018Dmitri MossessianPlasma , no H-mode

For next shot: Delay the ip and CLEARIN rampdown by 50 msec.
May 18 2000 03:20:58:153PM1000518019Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-mode

For next shot: no changes
May 18 2000 03:38:50:467PM1000518020Dmitri MossessianPlasma , ELM-free H-mode

For next shot: no changes
May 18 2000 03:57:37:030PM1000518021Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-modes

For next shot: speed up current ramp after .95 sec.
May 18 2000 04:41:17:983PM1000518022Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes
May 18 2000 04:41:51:233PM1000518023Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes
May 18 2000 04:41:56:700PM1000518024Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-modes

For next shot: no PCS changes

May 18 2000 05:02:18:547PM1000518025Dmitri MossessianPlasma , H-modes


Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
109:13:03:890AMPlasmaOk
209:29:35:280AMPlasmaOk
309:47:33:153AMPlasmaOk
410:05:59:920AMPlasmaOk
510:29:37:873AMPlasmaOk
610:48:56:670AMPlasmaOk
711:09:30:717AMPlasmaOk
811:34:36:780AMPlasmaOk
911:53:11:747AMPlasmaOk
1012:15:43:263PMPlasmaOk
1112:38:56:200PMPlasmaOk
1212:55:56:513PMPlasmaOk
1301:21:24:700PMPlasmaOk
1401:42:12:123PMPlasmaOk
1502:02:11:403PMPlasmaOk
1602:19:59:687PMPlasmaOk
1702:37:11:123PMPlasmaOk
1802:53:12:700PMPlasmaOk
1903:10:07:153PMPlasmaOk
2003:26:20:390PMPlasmaOk
2103:45:34:623PMPlasmaOk
2204:01:16:890PMPlasmaOk
2304:18:39:873PMPlasmaOk
2404:39:35:420PMPlasmaOk
2504:56:55:763PMPlasmaOk