Alcator C-Mod Run 1031017 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader: Unknown (shots 1-32)

Operators
Session leader(s): Unknown
Physics operator(s):Robert Granetz,Jim Irby
Engineering operator(s):Gary Dekow,Bill Parkin,Ed Fitzgerald

Engineering Operator Run Comment
Plasma startup and conditioning PO: Granetz EO: Dekow/Fitz/Parkin

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:37:19:363PM
Author: Jim Irby
Physics operator summary for run 1031017 (Friday):

Purpose: Plasma startup and conditioning

Session leader: --
Physics operator: R. Granetz (J. Irby for last hour)
Engineers in charge: G. Dekow, E. Fitzgerald, W. Parkin

Summary: The run started off really well, with 100% startup reliability for
the first 11 shots, including 3 upper x-pt plasmas. But then the
startup reliability nose-dived. We eventually changed back to lower
x-pt, but things still didn't improve until late in the day, when
we eventually settled into alternating fizzles and plasmas. The RF
was able to get 2+ MW out of D+E on a number of shots, and good
electron heating was seen, particularly on the last shot (032).
However, there were no H-modes. The H/D varied between 0.08 (before
RF) to 0.12 (during RF). It didn't seem to degrade much during the
day. The RGA, however, was showing lots of medium-high q/m lines
(boron compounds?).

Shots 04 and 05 had problems with the magnetics CPCI DAQ, which were
finally eliminated by rebooting the PC.

Scorecard: 17 plasmas
8 fizzles
7 duds
0 tests or no-power shot cycles
0 aborted and/or screwed up by computer problems
----------
32 total

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Engineering setup for Friday, 17 Oct 2003

Purpose: Plasma startup and conditioning

Session leader: --
Physics operator: R. Granetz (J. Irby will take over for the last hour)
Engineering operator:

ECDC overnight in D2 at 2e-4 Torr, stopping by 07:00.
Bake at 60 C overnight as well.

Run begins at 09:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power systems the same as on 1031016029 (0.8 MA, 5.4 T, lower single null)

Gas setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar Hybrid enabled (PG1)
leave B-side upper as is Hybrid DISABLED (PG2)
fill C-side with 30 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)

Enable the following gate valves, assuming no vacuum problems:
ECE, VUV, DNB

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RF Setup: Transmitters 1 and 2 in RUN ON by 08:00 am

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run Plan: We'll continue running boring cleanup plasmas while monitoring H/D,
etc. RF Group will continue conditioning D & E.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ECDC was done overnight, as well as a 60 C bake.

Hybrid coldstart done by the engineering group; no errors found

Loaded PCS from shot 1031016033 (0.8 MA, 5.4 T, nl_04=1.0e20 m-2,
single null lower), EXCEPT increase IC_EF4 to -1300 amps (from -1340)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shot 01 -- Plasma. Good shot. Ip=0.8 MA. Btor=5.4 T. nl_04=0.9e20 m-2.
No RF. H/D=0.06.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill by 2 ms. Reduce pre-programmed gas
after t=1.0 s.

Shot 02 -- Plasma. Good shot. Still only making it halfway down the rampdown
because the density won't fall. Prf=1.4 MW (D+E). H/D=0.08.

Next shot: no changes.

Shot 03 -- Plasma. Good shot. The weird early marfe thing appeared on this
shot at 0.5 s and disappeared around 0.9 s. Prf=1.0 MW.
H/D=0.10-0.12. This equilibrium happens to have a small inner
gap and a large outer gap.

Next shot: increase CLEARIN by 5 mm and RCUR by 5 mm.

Shot 04 -- Plasma. Good shot, I think. Most (if not all) of the magnetics
CPCI data did not get stored. Josh is seeing if it can be
recovered. Prf=1.4 MW. H/D=0.09-0.12.
Josh was able to recover the magnetics data. Steve is redoing
EFIT. Both inner and outer gaps are now 1.5 cm. No early
marfe. The elongation is still a little on the low side.

Next shot: reduce ZXU by 1 cm (should be upper x-pt closer in to
plasma, which should increase the upper elongation)

Shot 05 -- Plasma. Good shot. Magnetics CPCI_05 failed. I tried to
recover the data, but it failed. EFIT therefore got garbage.
Prf=1.5 MW.

Josh rebooted the magnetics CPCI system.

Next shot: no changes

Shot 06 -- Plasma. Good shot. All the magnetics DAQ worked. We're still
only getting halfway down the ramp. Prf=1.5 MW (D+E). No H-modes.
Note: RF data was bad for this shot. (It's actually the data from
shot 5.) H/D=0.1

Next shot: reduce ZXU by another 1 cm.

Shot 07 -- Plasma. Good shot. Prf=1.5 MW. H/D=0.1 Still no H-modes.

Next shot: add 10 ms to argon puff at John's request.

Shot 08 -- Plasma. Good shot. Still only gets halfway down the ramp.
Prf=1.7 MW. H/D=0.08-0.11. No H-modes.

Next shot: switch to upper null plasmas. Load segment 2 from
segment 2 of shot 1031010023, except reload nl_04 from the
preceding shot of today.

Shot 09 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Ramped all the way down.
Prf=1.8 MW. H/D=0.08-0.1+

Next shot: no changes

Shot 10 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Prf=1-2 MW. H/D=0.09-0.11

Next shot: no changes

Shot 11 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Prf=1-2 MW (D+E) H/D=0.10-0.12

Next shot: increase argon puff to 40 ms (It was reset to 25 ms when
I loaded the upper null programming.)

Shot 12 -- Fizzle. Fields and pressure look fine.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill by 2 ms

Shot 13 -- Dud.

Next shot: increase pre-fill by 3 ms

Shot 14 -- Plasma. Hard disruption at t=1.115 s. EFC has some oscillations
on it and then rails. Definitely not caused by an injection.

Next shot: move ZXU down by 1 cm to decrease elongation.

Shot 15 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no PCS changes. DNB will begin firing into plasma.
RF start time moved to t=0.6 s on previous shot.

Shot 16 -- Dud.

Next shot: add 2 ms to pre-fill.

Shot 17 -- Dud.

Next shot: reload segment 1 from shot 11 earlier today.

Shot 18 -- Plasma. Good upper X-pt shot. Full rampdown. Strong marfe is
back during the first half of the discharge. Prf=2.0 MW.
H/D goes up to 0.2 Both gaps are 17 mm.

The DNB is firing at t=0.9 s (gate valve opens before t=0).

Next shot: no changes

Shot 19 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no changes

Shot 20 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: add +10 amps to IC_EF4 (change -1300 to -1290 A)

Shot 21 -- Dud.

ECDC for 10 minutes between shots.

Shot 22 -- Dud. Looks like the ECDC didn't help.

Next shot: add -20 A to IC_EF4 (change -1290 to -1310 A), AND
switch back to normal lower null equilibrium by reloading segment
2 from shot 8 earlier today.

Shot 23 -- Plasma. Good shot...just like the earlier lower x-pt shots of
this morning. H/D=0.08-0.11. Prf=1-2 MW.

Next shot: no changes. Let's see if the lower null does better
than the upper null.

Shot 24 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: reload all segments of shot 8 from earlier today.

Shot 25 -- Dud.

ECDC for 5 minutes between shots.

Shot 26 -- Dud.

Next shot: no more useful ideas left. Fields are identical to
those from the first part of today's operation. So is the pre-fill.
Okay, so let's do something. Increase pre-fill by 6 ms.

Shot 27 -- Fizzle. I guess that's progress.

Next shot: another pre-fill gas tweak.

Shot 28 -- Plasma! Plasma Plasma Plasma Plasma. Good shot. Prf=2.3 MW.

Next shot: no changes.

It's 16:00. I'm leaving to go to the seminar. Jim Irby will look after
things for the last hour in my absence.

Shot 29 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no changes

Shot 30 -- Plasma. Good shot. Prf=1.0-2.3 MW. H/D=0.08-0.11. No H-modes.

Next shot: no changes

Shot 31 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no changes

Shot 32 -- Plasma. Prf=2.3 MW. Good heating is seen on the ECE.
H/D=0.08-0.12. No H-modes.

End of run.

Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments
Oct 16 2003 05:07:56:457PMRobert GranetzEngineering setup for Friday, 17 Oct 2003

Purpose: Plasma startup and conditioning

Session leader: --
Physics operator: R. Granetz (J. Irby will take over for the last hour)
Engineering operator:

ECDC overnight in D2 at 2e-4 Torr, stopping by 07:00.
Bake at 60 C overnight as well.

Run begins at 09:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power systems the same as on 1031016029 (0.8 MA, 5.4 T, lower single null)

Gas setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar Hybrid enabled (PG1)
leave B-side upper as is Hybrid DISABLED (PG2)
fill C-side with 30 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)

Enable the following gate valves, assuming no vacuum problems:
ECE, VUV, DNB

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RF Setup: Transmitters 1 and 2 in RUN ON by 08:00 am

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run Plan: We'll continue running boring cleanup plasmas while monitoring H/D,
etc. RF Group will continue conditioning D & E.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 17 2003 08:17:34:870AMRobert Granetz ECDC was done overnight, as well as a 60 C bake.

Hybrid coldstart done by the engineering group; no errors found

Loaded PCS from shot 1031016033 (0.8 MA, 5.4 T, nl_04=1.0e20 m-2,
single null lower), EXCEPT increase IC_EF4 to -1300 amps (from -1340)
Oct 17 2003 09:07:45:877AM1031017001Robert GranetzShot 01 -- Plasma. Good shot. Ip=0.8 MA. Btor=5.4 T. nl_04=0.9e20 m-2.
No RF. H/D=0.06.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill by 2 ms. Reduce pre-programmed gas
after t=1.0 s.
Oct 17 2003 09:17:54:523AM1031017002Robert GranetzShot 02 -- Plasma. Good shot. Still only making it halfway down the rampdown
because the density won't fall. Prf=1.4 MW (D+E). H/D=0.08.

Next shot: no changes.
Oct 17 2003 09:38:45:227AM1031017003Robert GranetzShot 03 -- Plasma. Good shot. The weird early marfe thing appeared on this
shot at 0.5 s and disappeared around 0.9 s. Prf=1.0 MW.
H/D=0.10-0.12. This equilibrium happens to have a small inner
gap and a large outer gap.

Next shot: increase CLEARIN by 5 mm and RCUR by 5 mm.
Oct 17 2003 09:55:54:350AM1031017004Robert GranetzShot 04 -- Plasma. Good shot, I think. Most (if not all) of the magnetics
CPCI data did not get stored. Josh is seeing if it can be
recovered. Prf=1.4 MW. H/D=0.09-0.12.
Josh was able to recover the magnetics data. Steve is redoing
EFIT. Both inner and outer gaps are now 1.5 cm. No early
marfe. The elongation is still a little on the low side.

Next shot: reduce ZXU by 1 cm (should be upper x-pt closer in to
plasma, which should increase the upper elongation)
Oct 17 2003 10:28:27:577AM1031017005Robert GranetzShot 05 -- Plasma. Good shot. Magnetics CPCI_05 failed. I tried to
recover the data, but it failed. EFIT therefore got garbage.
Prf=1.5 MW.

Josh rebooted the magnetics CPCI system.

Next shot: no changes
Oct 17 2003 10:44:20:247AM1031017006Robert GranetzShot 06 -- Plasma. Good shot. All the magnetics DAQ worked. We're still
only getting halfway down the ramp. Prf=1.5 MW (D+E). No H-modes.
Note: RF data was bad for this shot. (It's actually the data from
shot 5.) H/D=0.1

Next shot: reduce ZXU by another 1 cm.

Oct 17 2003 11:14:13:800AM1031017007Robert GranetzShot 07 -- Plasma. Good shot. Prf=1.5 MW. H/D=0.1 Still no H-modes.

Next shot: add 10 ms to argon puff at John's request.
Oct 17 2003 11:13:53:580AM1031017008Robert GranetzShot 08 -- Plasma. Good shot. Still only gets halfway down the ramp.
Prf=1.7 MW. H/D=0.08-0.11. No H-modes.

Next shot: switch to upper null plasmas. Load segment 2 from
segment 2 of shot 1031010023, except reload nl_04 from the
preceding shot of today.
Oct 17 2003 11:34:36:080AM1031017009Robert GranetzShot 09 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Ramped all the way down.
Prf=1.8 MW. H/D=0.08-0.1+

Next shot: no changes
Oct 17 2003 11:43:08:027AM1031017010Robert GranetzShot 10 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Prf=1-2 MW. H/D=0.09-0.11

Next shot: no changes
Oct 17 2003 11:58:55:943AM1031017011Robert GranetzShot 11 -- Plasma. Good upper null shot. Prf=1-2 MW (D+E) H/D=0.10-0.12

Next shot: increase argon puff to 40 ms (It was reset to 25 ms when
I loaded the upper null programming.)
Oct 17 2003 12:08:25:827PM1031017012Robert GranetzShot 12 -- Fizzle. Fields and pressure look fine.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill by 2 ms
Oct 17 2003 12:25:50:527PM1031017013Robert GranetzShot 13 -- Dud.

Next shot: increase pre-fill by 3 ms
Oct 17 2003 12:37:34:490PM1031017014Robert GranetzShot 14 -- Plasma. Hard disruption at t=1.115 s. EFC has some oscillations
on it and then rails. Definitely not caused by an injection.

Next shot: move ZXU down by 1 cm to decrease elongation.
Oct 17 2003 12:46:58:217PM1031017015Robert GranetzShot 15 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no PCS changes. DNB will begin firing into plasma.
RF start time moved to t=0.6 s on previous shot.
Oct 17 2003 12:58:24:740PM1031017016Robert GranetzShot 16 -- Dud.

Next shot: add 2 ms to pre-fill.
Oct 17 2003 01:23:15:667PM1031017017Robert GranetzShot 17 -- Dud.

Next shot: reload segment 1 from shot 11 earlier today.
Oct 17 2003 01:33:12:000PM1031017018Robert GranetzShot 18 -- Plasma. Good upper X-pt shot. Full rampdown. Strong marfe is
back during the first half of the discharge. Prf=2.0 MW.
H/D goes up to 0.2 Both gaps are 17 mm.

The DNB is firing at t=0.9 s (gate valve opens before t=0).

Next shot: no changes
Oct 17 2003 01:40:39:617PM1031017019Robert GranetzShot 19 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: no changes
Oct 17 2003 01:56:47:847PM1031017020Robert GranetzShot 20 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: add +10 amps to IC_EF4 (change -1300 to -1290 A)
Oct 17 2003 02:13:04:187PM1031017021Robert GranetzShot 21 -- Dud.

ECDC for 10 minutes between shots.
Oct 17 2003 02:32:18:157PM1031017022Robert GranetzShot 22 -- Dud. Looks like the ECDC didn't help.

Next shot: add -20 A to IC_EF4 (change -1290 to -1310 A), AND
switch back to normal lower null equilibrium by reloading segment
2 from shot 8 earlier today.
Oct 17 2003 02:50:42:420PM1031017023Robert GranetzShot 23 -- Plasma. Good shot...just like the earlier lower x-pt shots of
this morning. H/D=0.08-0.11. Prf=1-2 MW.

Next shot: no changes. Let's see if the lower null does better
than the upper null.
Oct 17 2003 03:05:13:150PM1031017024Robert GranetzShot 24 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: reload all segments of shot 8 from earlier today.
Oct 17 2003 03:17:25:783PM1031017025Robert GranetzShot 25 -- Dud.

ECDC for 5 minutes between shots.
Oct 17 2003 03:35:52:203PM1031017026Robert GranetzShot 26 -- Dud.

Next shot: no more useful ideas left. Fields are identical to
those from the first part of today's operation. So is the pre-fill.
Okay, so let's do something. Increase pre-fill by 6 ms.
Oct 17 2003 03:41:49:367PM1031017027Robert GranetzShot 27 -- Fizzle. I guess that's progress.

Next shot: another pre-fill gas tweak.
Oct 17 2003 03:57:49:050PM1031017028Robert GranetzShot 28 -- Plasma! Plasma Plasma Plasma Plasma. Good shot. Prf=2.3 MW.

Next shot: no changes.

It's 16:00. I'm leaving to go to the seminar. Jim Irby will look after
things for the last hour in my absence.
Oct 17 2003 04:17:39:450PM1031017029Jim IrbyNo PCS changes


fizzle --- I'm off to a good start

fields look good as does gas

Oct 17 2003 04:38:26:690PM1031017030Jim IrbyNo PCS changes again

Pressure will be about 1e-6 vs 2e-6, but doubt it matters

Plasma for 1.65 s --- doing nothing worked

About 2.3 MW from D&E

H/(H+D) at 0.8 s is 7.5% --- better than the last couple of days


Oct 17 2003 04:56:28:497PM1031017031Jim IrbyNo PCS changes

fizzle --- no good reason except the last shot produced a plasma


Oct 17 2003 05:04:34:447PM1031017032Jim IrbyNo PCS changes

plasma

2.3 MW rf, 63 kJ

H/(H+D) at 0.8 s 8.5%

all done

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:55:07:787AMPlasmaOk
209:08:22:690AMPlasmaOk
309:21:34:340AMPlasmaOk
409:38:54:633AMPlasmaOk
509:56:44:147AMPlasmaOk
610:28:04:810AMPlasmaOk
710:45:31:153AMPlasmaOk
810:59:47:337AMPlasmaOk
911:15:45:457AMPlasmaOk
1011:33:36:957AMPlasmaOk
1111:48:06:437AMPlasmaOk
1212:01:19:210PMPlasmaOk
1312:14:43:330PMPlasmaOk
1412:27:54:827PMPlasmaOk
1512:41:23:680PMPlasmaOk
1612:54:28:957PMPlasmaOk
1701:08:15:670PMPlasmaOk
1801:21:32:320PMPlasmaOk
1901:35:33:173PMPlasmaOk
2001:49:09:933PMPlasmaOk
2102:02:22:820PMPlasmaOk
2202:25:38:870PMPlasmaOk
2302:39:06:567PMPlasmaOk
2402:54:50:830PMPlasmaOk
2503:09:01:010PMPlasmaOk
2603:24:30:337PMPlasmaOk
2703:37:53:127PMPlasmaOk
2803:51:15:513PMPlasmaOk
2904:04:47:680PMPlasmaOk
3004:18:16:603PMPlasmaOk
3104:40:26:033PMPlasmaOk
3204:53:46:513PMPlasmaOk