Alcator C-Mod Run 1000818 Information

Back to runs

Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader: Unknown (shots 1-25)

Operators
Session leader(s): Unknown
Physics operator(s):Joseph Snipes
Engineering operator(s): Unknown

Engineering Operator Run Comment
Plasma conditioning to clean up walls in preparation for physics runs. S

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:37:11:740PM
Author: To Be Determined
Engineering setup for Friday, 18 August 2000

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 1000816029.

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

The following gate valves should be enabled, assuming no vacuum problems:

ECE, VUV

Run Plan: More plasma conditioning to clean up the walls and prepare for
physics runs with standard 0.8 MA, 5.2 T plasmas (and standard fizzles).


Shot 1: Copied shot 1000817017. Dud!
Shot 2: Increased pre-puff from 15 ms to 19 ms. Decreased EF4 current from
-1300 A to -1277 A. Increased Br0 offset from 0.5 mT to 2 mT. Another
Dud! OH2 oscillating at breakdown. EFC chopped wildly after 0.05 sec.
Flux loop F25 failed.
Shot 3: OH2 test to check out F25 flux loop. Still have a problem with 8212
digitizer for one of the OH1 signals. Will stop and replace it after
the test shot(s). Test shot O.K. F25 looks fine for now.
Shot 4: Replaced 8212 for OH1 voltage signal. Copied shot 1000817017 and
increased pre-puff to 19 ms again. Good shot!
Shot 5: Raised nl04 to 9 x 10^19 m^-3 after 0.5 sec and decreased pre-puff
to 15 ms duration. Good shot. Got a bit more density than I wanted
and it disrupted in the rampdown as a result.
Shot 6: Repeat. Good shot. Still disrupted in the rampdown.
Shot 7: Tweaked RCUR, CLEARIN, RXL, and ZXL after 1.5 s in the rampdown to
see if we can avoid the disruption in the rampdown. Good shot. Still
disrupted in the rampdown.
Shot 8: Add a TF ramp for Zweben from 0.6 s to 1.0 s at 110 kA then ramp back
up to 150 kA starting at 1.1 sec until 1.5 sec. Then, continue the TF
rampdown. Tweaked the rampdown again making more gradual changes in
RXL, ZXL, RXU, and ZXU. Good shot. Still disrupted in rampdown.
Shot 9: Moved ZXU lower after 1.5 s to pull less on EF1, which hits its current
limit in the rampdown. Reduced nl04 to 8 x 10^19 m^-2 and pulled it
down at 1.4 sec to try to pump out faster in the rampdown. Disrupted
earlier apparently due to a large MARFE.
Shot 10: Reduced nl04 to 7 x 10^19 m^-2 and held it at 5 x 10^19 m^-2 until
after 0.5 sec. Good shot. No longer have the MARFE. Density is
lower and the plasma lasts longer. Still disrupts after 1.8 s.
Shot 11: Made Bz more positive after a suggestion by Ian by decreasing EF4
current from -1300 A to -1285 A. Tweaked ZXU again in the rampdown
to pull the upper X point out of the vessel. Disrupted early at
cross-over at 0.3 s where there was a large injection on the previous
shot.
Shot 12: Tweaked RCUR and CLEARIN during cross-over to make more gradual changes
at that sensitive time. Good shot.
Shot 13: Tweaked rampdown again to try to keep the plasma diverted late into the
rampdown. Moved TF ramp back to begin at 0.5 s to give a longer
flattop at 4 T. Changed second TF flattop value to 100 kA. Good shot.
Some signs of dithering at the low field, but still not quite H-mode.
Shot 14: Removed Bt ramp. Put in an RCUR ramp instead from 0.6 s - 1.45 s
ramping out to 0.672 m and back in to 0.663 m. Good shot.
Shot 15: Ramped RCUR out to 0.676 m to attempt to touch the outboard limiter
to check the EFIT calculations corrected with the outboard limiter
coils. Good shot. Nominally touched the limiter according to the
standard EFIT calculation. The calculation with the new limiter coils
indicates that the outer gap is still about 6 mm.
Shot 16: Ramped RCUR out by another 3 mm to 0.679 m and stay there from 0.8 to
0.9 s, which should just touch the limiter according to the new EFIT
calculation with the limiter coils. Good shot. Zweben sees the He
puff fluctuations move further out on this shot and there are some
indications from the density and CII emission that we may now be just
touching the limiter as expected from the new EFIT calculation with
the limiter coils.
Shot 17: Ramp RCUR out by another 2 mm to push hard against the outboard limiter
to a radius of 0.681 m from 0.8 to 0.9 s. Good shot. It is difficult
to tell whether the fluctuations keep moving out.
Shot 18: Try a slow ramp in RCUR from 0.6 s to 0.975 s ramping out to 0.677 m
then ramp back to 1.45 s and ramp further to 0.66 m. Dud!
Shot 19: Try again with 19 ms of pre-puff and 0 Br0 offset. It may be that
the sparker current was too low. Good shot. RCUR ramp is good, but
still the results are unclear about whether or not we are touching the
limiter. EF1 breaker pulled after the shot and was reset again.
Shot 20: Copied shot 1000608006 in segment 2 to attempt Ohmic H-mode. Disrupted
at 0.27 s. Probably some difference in RCUR offset from the old shot.
Shot 21: Copied shot 1000818019 and then copied the TF waveform only from shot
1000608006 to attempt Ohmic H-mode. Fizzle!
Shot 22: Decreased EF4 current from -1285 to -1270 A. Increased Br0 offset from
0 to 0.5 mT. PF breaker opened just before the shot. So, the shot
was taken without power to the coils.
Shot 23: Repeat with power. Fizzle!
Shot 24: Try again with EF4 current set at -1290 A. Fizzle!
Shot 25: Last try with EF4 current at -1295 A and 17 ms of pre-puff. Good shot.
Perhaps some dithering but no H-mode. Accidentally left the gap scan
in from shot 19 together with the TF ramp from 1000608006.

Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax(MA) Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax
1 0.000 0.015 2 0.000 0.016
3 0.000 0.016 4 1.948 0.805
5 1.693 0.802 6 1.691 0.805
7 1.687 0.799 8 1.653 0.802
9 1.407 0.787 10 1.832 0.807
11 0.313 0.748 12 1.854 0.805
13 1.880 0.805 14 1.874 0.802
15 1.812 0.805 16 1.875 0.805
17 1.883 0.802 18 0.000 0.019
19 1.857 0.802 20 0.288 0.780
21 0.000 0.026 22 0.000 0.003
23 0.000 0.032 24 0.000 0.032
25 1.798 0.798
Finished summary for 1000818 Total of 25 shots.
25 shots. 17 plasmas. 3 fizzles. 3 duds. 2 test shots

Summary: Overall it was a very good run considering that it was only the second
day of operation. While the machine was not quite clean enough to get Ohmic
H-mode, we did get a fair number of full length shots (14 good shots) without
the fizzles in between, though we did suffer several fizzles at the end of the
run. At the beginning of the run, there was a problem with flux loop F25 that
perhaps cost us two shots. Granetz fiddled with the connectors and the
integrator board and it seems to be working now. The PF breakers opened twice
as well, which is an intermittent fault condition. Some useful high spatial
resolution edge fluctuation measurements were made with Stewart Zweben's fast
camera and some interesting comparisons of the new and old EFIT calculations
with and without the limiter coils during outer gap scans also may shed some
light on the whereabouts of the last closed flux surface to within a couple of
mm. We are ready to boronize and get H-mode operation back.


Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments
Aug 18 2000 08:32:01:590AM1000818001Joseph SnipesEngineering setup for Friday, 18 August 2000

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 1000816029.

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

The following gate valves should be enabled, assuming no vacuum problems:

ECE, VUV

Run Plan: More plasma conditioning to clean up the walls and prepare for
physics runs with standard 0.8 MA, 5.2 T plasmas (and standard fizzles).
Aug 18 2000 09:16:20:060AM1000818001Joseph SnipesShot 1: Copied shot 1000817017. Dud!
Aug 18 2000 11:09:44:123AM1000818002Joseph SnipesShot 2: Increased pre-puff from 15 ms to 19 ms. Decreased EF4 current from
-1300 A to -1277 A. Increased Br0 offset from 0.5 mT to 2 mT. Another
Dud! OH2 oscillating at breakdown. EFC chopped wildly after 0.05 sec.
Flux loop F25 failed.
Aug 18 2000 11:09:58:293AM1000818003Joseph SnipesShot 3: OH2 test to check out F25 flux loop. Still have a problem with 8212
digitizer for one of the OH1 signals. Will stop and replace it after
the test shot(s). Test shot O.K. F25 looks fine for now.
Aug 18 2000 11:10:07:373AM1000818004Joseph SnipesShot 4: Replaced 8212 for OH1 voltage signal. Copied shot 1000817017 and
increased pre-puff to 19 ms again. Good shot!
Aug 18 2000 11:10:20:717AM1000818005Joseph SnipesShot 5: Raised nl04 to 9 x 10^19 m^-3 after 0.5 sec and decreased pre-puff
to 15 ms duration. Good shot. Got a bit more density than I wanted
and it disrupted in the rampdown as a result.
Aug 18 2000 11:21:59:500AM1000818006Joseph SnipesShot 6: Repeat. Good shot. Still disrupted in the rampdown.
Aug 18 2000 11:43:03:670AM1000818007Joseph SnipesShot 7: Tweaked RCUR, CLEARIN, RXL, and ZXL after 1.5 s in the rampdown to
see if we can avoid the disruption in the rampdown. Good shot. Still
disrupted in the rampdown.
Aug 18 2000 12:05:34:873PM1000818008Joseph SnipesShot 8: Add a TF ramp for Zweben from 0.6 s to 1.0 s at 110 kA then ramp back
up to 150 kA starting at 1.1 sec until 1.5 sec. Then, continue the TF
rampdown. Tweaked the rampdown again making more gradual changes in
RXL, ZXL, RXU, and ZXU. Good shot. Still disrupted in rampdown.
Aug 18 2000 12:25:37:670PM1000818009Joseph SnipesShot 9: Moved ZXU lower after 1.5 s to pull less on EF1, which hits its current
limit in the rampdown. Reduced nl04 to 8 x 10^19 m^-2 and pulled it
down at 1.4 sec to try to pump out faster in the rampdown. Disrupted
earlier apparently due to a large MARFE.
Aug 18 2000 12:34:02:123PM1000818010Joseph SnipesShot 10: Reduced nl04 to 7 x 10^19 m^-2 and held it at 5 x 10^19 m^-2 until
after 0.5 sec. Good shot. No longer have the MARFE. Density is
lower and the plasma lasts longer. Still disrupts after 1.8 s.
Aug 18 2000 12:53:38:560PM1000818011Joseph SnipesShot 11: Made Bz more positive after a suggestion by Ian by decreasing EF4
current from -1300 A to -1285 A. Tweaked ZXU again in the rampdown
to pull the upper X point out of the vessel. Disrupted early at
cross-over at 0.3 s where there was a large injection on the previous
shot.
Aug 18 2000 01:19:26:983PM1000818012Joseph SnipesShot 12: Tweaked RCUR and CLEARIN during cross-over to make more gradual changes
at that sensitive time. Good shot.
Aug 18 2000 01:43:53:903PM1000818013Joseph SnipesShot 13: Tweaked rampdown again to try to keep the plasma diverted late into the
rampdown. Moved TF ramp back to begin at 0.5 s to give a longer
flattop at 4 T. Changed second TF flattop value to 100 kA. Good shot.
Some signs of dithering at the low field, but still not quite H-mode.
Aug 18 2000 01:54:20:733PM1000818014Joseph SnipesShot 14: Removed Bt ramp. Put in an RCUR ramp instead from 0.6 s - 1.45 s
ramping out to 0.672 m and back in to 0.663 m. Good shot.
Aug 18 2000 02:19:03:107PM1000818015Joseph SnipesShot 15: Ramped RCUR out to 0.676 m to attempt to touch the outboard limiter
to check the EFIT calculations corrected with the outboard limiter
coils. Good shot. Nominally touched the limiter according to the
standard EFIT calculation. The calculation with the new limiter coils
indicates that the outer gap is still about 6 mm.
Aug 18 2000 02:39:37:607PM1000818016Joseph SnipesShot 16: Ramped RCUR out by another 3 mm to 0.679 m and stay there from 0.8 to
0.9 s, which should just touch the limiter according to the new EFIT
calculation with the limiter coils. Good shot. Zweben sees the He
puff fluctuations move further out on this shot and there are some
indications from the density and CII emission that we may now be just
touching the limiter as expected from the new EFIT calculation with
the limiter coils.
Aug 18 2000 03:04:19:420PM1000818017Joseph SnipesShot 17: Ramp RCUR out by another 2 mm to push hard against the outboard limiter
to a radius of 0.681 m from 0.8 to 0.9 s. Good shot. It is difficult
to tell whether the fluctuations keep moving out.
Aug 18 2000 03:17:52:840PM1000818018Joseph SnipesShot 18: Try a slow ramp in RCUR from 0.6 s to 0.975 s ramping out to 0.677 m
then ramp back to 1.45 s and ramp further to 0.66 m. Dud!
Aug 18 2000 03:46:39:170PM1000818019Joseph SnipesShot 19: Try again with 19 ms of pre-puff and 0 Br0 offset. It may be that
the sparker current was too low. Good shot. RCUR ramp is good, but
still the results are unclear about whether or not we are touching the
limiter.EF1 breaker pulled after the shot and was reset again.
Aug 18 2000 03:56:58:280PM1000818020Joseph SnipesShot 20: Copied shot 1000608006 in segment 2 to attempt Ohmic H-mode. Disrupted
at 0.27 s. Probably some difference in RCUR offset from the old shot.
Aug 18 2000 04:08:19:467PM1000818021Joseph SnipesShot 21: Copied shot 1000818019 and then copied the TF waveform only from shot
1000608006 to attempt Ohmic H-mode. Fizzle!
Aug 18 2000 04:26:53:890PM1000818022Joseph SnipesShot 22: Decreased EF4 current from -1285 to -1270 A. Increased Br0 offset from
0 to 0.5 mT. PF breaker opened just before the shot. So, the shot
was taken without power to the coils.
Aug 18 2000 04:38:35:560PM1000818023Joseph SnipesShot 23: Repeat with power. Fizzle!
Aug 18 2000 04:59:36:873PM1000818024Joseph SnipesShot 24: Try again with EF4 current set at -1290 A. Fizzle!
Aug 18 2000 05:35:53:513PM1000818025Joseph SnipesShot 25: Last try with EF4 current at -1295 A and 17 ms of pre-puff. Good shot.
Perhaps some dithering but no H-mode. Accidentally left the gap scan
in from shot 19 together with the TF ramp from 1000608006.
Aug 18 2000 05:51:09:857PM1000818025Joseph Snipes 1 0.000 0.015 2 0.000 0.016
3 0.000 0.016 4 1.948 0.805
5 1.693 0.802 6 1.691 0.805
7 1.687 0.799 8 1.653 0.802
9 1.407 0.787 10 1.832 0.807
11 0.313 0.748 12 1.854 0.805
13 1.880 0.805 14 1.874 0.802
15 1.812 0.805 16 1.875 0.805
17 1.883 0.802 18 0.000 0.019
19 1.857 0.802 20 0.288 0.780
21 0.000 0.026 22 0.000 0.003
23 0.000 0.032 24 0.000 0.032
25 1.798 0.798
Finished summary for 1000818 Total of 25 shots.
25 shots. 17 plasmas. 3 fizzles. 3 duds. 2 test shots
Aug 18 2000 05:51:28:890PM1000818025Joseph SnipesSummary: Overall it was a very good run considering that it was only the second
day of operation. While the machine was not quite clean enough to get Ohmic
H-mode, we did get a fair number of full length shots (14 good shots) without
the fizzles in between, though we did suffer several fizzles at the end of the
run. At the beginning of the run, there was a problem with flux loop F25 that
perhaps cost us two shots. Granetz fiddled with the connectors and the
integrator board and it seems to be working now. The PF breakers opened twice
as well, which is an intermittent fault condition. Some useful high spatial
resolution edge fluctuation measurements were made with Stewart Zweben's fast
camera and some interesting comparisons of the new and old EFIT calculations
with and without the limiter coils during outer gap scans also may shed some
light on the whereabouts of the last closed flux surface to within a couple of
mm. We are ready to boronize and get H-mode operation back.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:56:16:623AMPlasmaOk
209:20:07:060AMPlasmaOk
310:03:35:733AMTestOkOH tuesday test for flux loop check
410:33:40:153AMPlasmaOk
510:57:07:250AMPlasmaOk
611:19:34:030AMPlasmaOk
711:34:24:793AMPlasmaOk
811:54:23:233AMPlasmaOk
912:09:27:263PMPlasmaOk
1012:26:27:733PMPlasmaOk
1112:43:48:170PMPlasmaOk
1201:08:46:717PMPlasmaOk
1301:31:51:733PMPlasmaOk
1401:52:23:717PMPlasmaOk
1502:09:42:340PMPlasmaOk
1602:30:52:873PMPlasmaOk
1702:51:01:327PMPlasmaOk
1803:12:28:250PMPlasmaOk
1903:26:38:653PMPlasmaOk
2003:49:04:607PMPlasmaOk
2104:06:45:623PMPlasmaOk
2204:20:24:327PMPlasmaBadEF1L Type one Flt, PF Breaker opened during Init
2304:36:30:327PMPlasmaOk
2404:51:44:733PMPlasmaOk
2505:01:47:890PMPlasmaOk