Alcator C-Mod Run 1050622 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:417
Date Filed: 2/24/2005
Title:Plasma performance, boronization and ICRF heating effectiveness with high-Z antenna guards and all-m
First Author:Yijun Lin
Session Leader:Bruce Lipschultz (shots 1-16)

Operators
Session leader(s):Bruce Lipschultz
Physics operator(s):Earl Marmar
Engineering operator(s):Andy Pfeiffer,Gary Dekow,Bill Parkin

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP417: Post-boronization evaluation (first half) MP397: Comparison of C-

Session Leader Plans
Entered: Jun 21 2005 05:03:30:997PM
Author: Bruce Lipschultz
MP417- 'Plasma performance, boronization and ICRF heating effectiveness with high-Z antenna guards and all-metal walls'
1050622

The purpose of this part of today's run is to evaluate the change in boronization. There should have been a shorter period boronization (60PSI DiBorane) last night, with reduced sweep - 78-103 cm, dwell at 78.5 cm. The intent is to only boronize the antennas and outer limiters and see if that is effective in reducing Mo sources for the usual amount of time.

To evaluate the boronization we will bring up the rf power to ~ 3 MW and see how fast the confinement comes up, if at all. Past experience means this is about 10 shots - perhaps to half-day. Then, the run would be passed over to the JFT-2M comparison.

Physics Operators Plans
Entered: Jun 21 2005 04:59:59:043PM
Author: Earl Marmar
MP417: Post-boronization evaluation (first half)
MP397: Comparison of C-Mod EDA with JFT2M HRS (second half)

Session leaders: B. Lipschultz/Y. Lin (first half)
A. Hubbard (second half)
Physics operator: E. Marmar

Prior to the run, plan overnight boronization with the following parameters:
. dP of 60 psi
. scan ECDC resonance from 78 cm to 103 cm with dwell at 78.5 cm
follow with normal post-boronization ECDC regimen



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

Power systems as on 1050610001 (1.0 MA, 5.4 T, SNL fiducial)

A-coil configuration: normal [+Dtop -Dbot -Jtop +Jbot] and enabled.

Gas Setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar Hybrid DISABLED (PG1)
leave B-side upper with whatever Hybrid disabled
fill B-main (C-side) with 30 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)
NINJA not used today

Enable the following gate valves and shutters, assuming no vacuum problems:
ECE, VUV, Z-bolo shutters

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICRF Setup: All transmitters in run on at 08:30.

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jun 22 2005 05:51:40:667PM
Author: Bruce Lipschultz
MP417- 'Plasma performance, boronization and ICRF heating effectiveness with high-Z antenna guards and all-metal walls'
1050622

Mixed results from today's run.

The RF did condition up pretty quickly, although steady RF pulses were not achieved too often till later in the run (shots 14-15 for example).

The stored energy did achieve reasonable values, similar to 1050610020: 160-170 kJ for 3 MW RF power. However, the radiation was more likely to increases quickly while in H-mode leading to a back L-H transition. So, either the new boronization did not do the job of covering the Mo properly in the right places or, we are running into problems with Mo sources (melting?) in areas different than from 1050610.

As an aside - the gate valves were closed from shot 1 onward. In most shots before shot 9 the walls were fueling (14.3 Torr-l on shot 2, 2 on shot 5,6). A series disruptions (up through shot 8). Finally in shot 9 the wall pumping normally seen at these densities (12-14 Torr-l) was observed. Wall pumping as high aaas 19 Torr-l was observed on shot 11. Details are given under the RGA topic.


Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jun 23 2005 11:21:23:410AM
Author: Earl Marmar
Physop Summary
1050622

MP417 - Boronization evaluation

SL - Lipschultz

This was a half run, to evaluate the boronization from the previous evening. Because of a problem with ECDC, the run start was delayed until 1:00 pm, in order to have 4 hours of ECDC in He and 1 hour in D2 after boronization and before the run.

The machine ran well, with very reliable startup. The only segment 1 changes were to reduce the fill pressure after the first shot, and after a couple of disruptions.
On many shots, there appeared to be something heating near the lower divertor, visible on both wide 1 and wide 2. Matt Reinke reported significant Mo levels throughout the day, although a number of shots had decent H-modes (H_89>1,5) at ~3 MW of RF power.

On shot 16, we moved the x-point in about 1 cm, to see if this would help with the hot spot; the shot disrupted at .84 s.

There was one delay during the run, due to a full computer disk, which also caused a loss of some data from shot 7.

Scorecard:
Plasmas 16
Fizzles 0
Duds 0

Total cycles 16

Session Leader Comments
Jun 22 2005 01:07:14:230PM1050622001Bruce LipschultzShot went fine.
Pre-H-mode density needs to be lowered to 0.8. J port did nto make it.
Will also try and fix the ssep dropping to close to DN.
Jun 22 2005 01:28:32:077PM1050622002Bruce LipschultzMore RF power. L-H transition driven by radiation and then plasma goes back into H-mode (1.04 s) with less radiation and H=1.7.
Pre-H-mode density of 0.8 as requested.
SSEP variation fixed.
Jun 22 2005 01:40:01:450PM1050622003Bruce LipschultzDisruption shortly after RF comes on - rather large amount of Mo - kills plasma
Jun 22 2005 01:52:16:373PM1050622004Bruce LipschultzRF trips on E seemed to knock the plasma out of H-mode. Confinement poor.
Jun 22 2005 02:07:21:950PM1050622005Bruce LipschultzStill problems with E tripping. Confinement starts out good but then degrades. Reinke says that Mo appears to be the radiator.
Jun 22 2005 02:22:17:717PM1050622006Bruce LipschultzLowered E power a bit. Stayed on a bit longer. H factors ~ 1.6-1.7 but the radiation keeps rising and tripping the plasma back out of H-mode.
Jun 22 2005 02:45:44:887PM1050622007Bruce LipschultzE doing better. But data system problem - disks full. Waiting for that to clear before going on.

What little we can see of the shot indicates that it is pretty similar to shot 6 - radiation increasing killing the H-mode.


Jun 22 2005 03:45:40:087PM1050622008Bruce LipschultzE power lowered further. H-modes being killed by radiation.

Shot disrupted at rampdown - maybe due to pellet.

Jun 22 2005 03:47:43:790PM1050622009Bruce LipschultzNo difference - still getting killed by radiation.
Jun 22 2005 03:49:27:573PM1050622010Bruce LipschultzAr gas turned on - 40 ms pulse.

Steadier RF - still problems with radiation leading to L-H transition.
Jun 22 2005 03:50:38:213PM1050622010Bruce LipschultzAr gas turned on - 40 ms pulse.

Steadier RF - still problems with radiation leading to L-H transition.
Jun 22 2005 04:00:06:027PM1050622011Bruce LipschultzJ tripped - L-mode.

MHD antenna being used.
Jun 22 2005 04:25:30:823PM1050622012Bruce LipschultzSteadier H-mode. H-factor for 1st H-mode high but radiation rising and L-H transition follows. The second H-mode has low radiation but poorer confinement (dropping from 1.7ish to 1.4).
Jun 22 2005 04:33:19:883PM1050622013Bruce LipschultzJ tripped again - short H-mode at end (essentially Ohmic).
Jun 22 2005 04:45:15:713PM1050622014Bruce LipschultzFairly steady confinement - H=1.4-1.5 with one drop out of H-mode after the radiation rises at 1 second.
Jun 22 2005 05:17:59:073PM1050622014Bruce LipschultzWtot ~ 160 kJ with the nominal 3 MW.
H-factors ~ 1.5 before radiation creeps up.
Jun 22 2005 05:20:17:353PM1050622015Bruce Lipschultznl04 ~ 0.85e20.
Wtot ~ 150 - 160 kJ with the nominal 3 MW.
H-factors ~ 1.45-1.55 before radiation creeps up.
Jun 22 2005 05:24:50:430PM1050622016Bruce Lipschultznl04 ~ 0.85e20.
disruption at 1 second.
Had moved the x-point in to get the strike point off of the divertor plate. This was based on the concern that there may be a melted spot on the divertor that was spewing Mo. Unfortunately, this move may have caused more problems (althrough we did this with no problem on Monday).

Physics Operator Comments
Jun 22 2005 01:13:16:200PM1050622001Earl Marmarload shot 1050610024
load segment 1 from 1050621003
reduce prepuff to 20 msec

plasma
Jun 22 2005 01:27:21:747PM1050622002Earl Marmargate valves closed for this shot

reduce prepuff by 2 msec (to 18 msec)
tweak zxu and zcur to try to keep ssep from drifting toward DN after 1.2 seconds
nl_04 target to 0.8e20

plasma
174 kJ at 3 MW
SSEP much steadier


Jun 22 2005 01:32:22:653PM1050622003Earl Marmarno pcs changes

gate valves closed for this shot
plasma

big increase in radiated power at .84 s, disrupt at .88
Jun 22 2005 01:57:30:030PM1050622004Earl Marmarlower the prepuff by 1 msec

plasma
multiple H-modes, some RF trips
Jun 22 2005 02:01:21:077PM1050622005Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma
150 kJ with RF bouncing between 2 and 3 MW
Jun 22 2005 02:17:51:260PM1050622006Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma
Jun 22 2005 02:32:38:060PM1050622007Earl Marmarincrease nl_04 target to .9e20

plasma
many DAC problems after the shot
Jun 22 2005 03:25:14:123PM1050622008Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma

Interferometer jumped a fringe early, gas turned off
Density was lower than we wanted

Li pellet at 1.5 s, then disrupted
Jun 22 2005 03:39:04:590PM1050622009Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma
Jun 22 2005 03:38:53:307PM1050622010Earl Marmarargon on for 40 msec pulse, 1 psi

nl_04 target to 1.05e20
Jun 22 2005 04:02:04:150PM1050622010Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma
L-mode; Prf ~ 0.6 MW
Jun 22 2005 04:21:26:463PM1050622012Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma

much steadier RF
Decent H-mode
Jun 22 2005 04:25:51:650PM1050622013Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma

little RF power
H-mode late
Jun 22 2005 04:41:19:573PM1050622014Earl Marmarnl_04 target to 9.3e19

plasma
Much better RF; decent H-mode
Jun 22 2005 05:01:14:650PM1050622015Earl Marmarno pcs changes

plasma
Jun 22 2005 05:03:55:760PM1050622016Earl MarmarRXL moved in ~1 cm (intention is to move the strike onto the floor)

plasma

early disruption (.83 seconds)

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
112:57:51:763PMPlasmaOk
201:14:07:933PMPlasmaOk
301:27:39:967PMPlasmaOk
401:40:07:717PMPlasmaOk
501:52:47:420PMPlasmaOk
602:11:36:137PMPlasmaOk
702:24:32:340PMPlasmaOk
803:16:18:273PMPlasmaOk
903:29:34:057PMPlasmaOk
1003:42:18:947PMPlasmaOk
1103:55:25:837PMPlasmaOk
1204:08:39:260PMPlasmaOk
1304:21:19:180PMPlasmaOk
1404:34:04:840PMPlasmaOk
1504:47:09:713PMPlasmaOk
1605:02:02:323PMPlasmaOk