Alcator C-Mod Run 1060315 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:348a
Date Filed: 6/27/2003
Title:Initial Tests of the Boron Injector
First Author:Jim Irby
Session Leader:Bruce Lipschultz (shots 16-34)

Operators
Session leader(s):Bruce Lipschultz
Physics operator(s):Robert Granetz
Engineering operator(s):Andy Pfeiffer,Ed Fitzgerald,Gary Dekow

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP#348a Boron injector experiments MP#355 ICRF Conditioning Session lea

Session Leader Plans
Entered: Mar 15 2006 05:28:03:477PM
Author: Bruce Lipschultz
MP#348a Boron injector experiments

Continuation of yesterday's run

12 PSI D2 in the NINJA.

1. Start with USN and obtain full length shots with RF (could take a while). GPI gas puff can be added anytime after first plasma. nl04 =0.8
2. Add the B injector for B to arrive at 0.5s once step 1 accomplished. (2-4 shots)
3. vary the density from 0.8 to 1.0 to 1.2, 2 shots each.
4. Vary SSEP from -.5 to 0.5 cm over shot (1050408026 with larger gaps and nl04~1.0. (2-4 shots)
5. Check out the diborane pufff suring a shot by puffing He. This should be started at the latest by 4PM. NINJA should be off and the Chromex spectrometer set for HeII. Probably no RF for the 1st shot or 2. Start in USN if that is convenient.


Physics Operators Plans
Entered: Mar 14 2006 05:42:51:630PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Engineering setup for Wednesday 15 Mar 2006

MP#348a Boron injector experiments
MP#355  ICRF Conditioning

Session leaders: J. Irby & B. Lipschultz (MP 348a)
                 S. Wukitch (MP 355)
Physics operator: R. Granetz

Overnight ECDC in deuterium, and bake at 60 C.
 
Run begins at 09:00 and ends at 17:00.

Power systems as on 1060314014

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 + 2 psi Ne  Hybrid DISABLED (PG1)
  leave B-side upper     as is           Hybrid DISABLED (PG2)
   fill B-main (C-side)  with 40 psi D2  Hybrid enabled  (PG3)
   fill NINJA            with 12 psi D2  Enabled

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

Key diagnostics: Chromex, Kaiser spectrometers

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICRF Setup: D and E in run-on by 08:30. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run plan: Continuation of yesterday's run (1060314).

   1) Start with USN (use 1060314014, segment 3), with GPI D2 puff
      after the first plasma is obtained.  Continue until full-length
      discharges are reliably obtained.

   2) Add boron injector for B to arrive at 0.5 s (after step 1 is
      accomplished)

   3) Vary nl_04 from 0.8 to 1.0 to 1.2e20 m-2 (2 shots each)

   4) Vary SSEP from -0.5 to +0.5 cm during shot (use 1060314014, segment 4)

   5) Check out the diborane puff hardware during a shot by puffing
      helium.  This should be started by 16:00 at the latest.  NINJA should
      be off, and the Chromex spectrometer set for HeII.  Probably no RF
      for the first shot or two.  Start in USN if convenient.
      Note that it will be necessary to use the beta version of PCS to test
      the diborane (helium) puff (in /usr/local/cmod/codes/pcs3-Beta/pcs)


Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Mar 15 2006 05:54:49:990PM
Author: Bruce Lipschultz
MP#348a Boron injector experiments

Continuation of yesterday's run

Fairly successful through about midday. We were able to get USN plasmas at a range in densities and RF powers. At the higher densities D port had problems (high pressure).

The densities covered were nl04 = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1 e20
The RF powers were 1.0, 2.0, 2.6, 3.0 MW

The B salt shaker was used most of the day until we started having startup problems.

Good data for analysis and comparison to the few LSN shots from yesterday.

Afternoon - Beware the ides of March

We tried to get an USN closer to SSEP ~ 0.5 and repeatedly had multiple fizzles/duds and an occasional shot. When the SSEP got close to where we wanted we got disruptions as well. We did not achieve the SSEP sweep.

2 shots were devoted to checking out the diborane puff circuit. The first shot (33) went fine but no puff. The second shot went fine till the He puff went in - the puff was too large and the plasma disrupted.


Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Mar 15 2006 05:26:49:320PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Physics operator summary for Wednesday 15 Mar 2006:

MP#348a Boron injector experiments
MP#355  ICRF Conditioning

Session leaders: J. Irby & B. Lipschultz (MP 348a)
                 S. Wukitch (MP 355)
Physics operator: R. Granetz

The first half of the day went pretty well.  We ran 1 MA, upper single null
equilibria at nl_04=0.8e20 m-2.  The NINJA GPI puffs started on shot 3, and
boron powder injection started on shot 4.  We then ran nl_04=1.0e20 m-2,
and finally 1.2e20 m-2 (actually got 1.1e20), essentially accomplishing the
first 3 items on the run task list.  Then we ran into a series of very
short discharges (barely more than fizzles) on shots 14-16.  These looked
like they may have been killed by ambient boron powder, so we turned off
the injector.  But I couldn't get reliable plasma operation back again for
the remainder of the day, with numerous fizzles and duds.  Shot 22 was our
first attempt at SSEP control, but we were not able to make much progress
on this part of the experiment.  I eventually did 20 minutes of ECDC
between shots 26 and 27, but that didn't help either.  Even a reload of the
startup from the first shot of the day didn't work.  Shots 24 and 31 did
go, but they both disrupted in the current rampup.  Steve Wolfe figured out
that this was because the present SSEP control was not compatible with
running upper null plasmas, so I abandoned that part of the run after shot
31.

Ian then convinced me (with a $5 bet) to reduce the pre-fill puff all the
way down to 20 ms, and that gave us successful plasmas on the last two
shots.  Thank you, Ian.

Shot 33 was our first attempt to use the diborane valve (but using
helium).  I programmed in a 100 ms pulse at t=1.0 s, but the valve didn't
open.  This prompted Steve Wolfe to remember that there is a bug in DPCS
which requires finite programming to be in segment 1 as well as the later
segment(s).  So I did this for shot 34, and also increased the pulse
duration to 200 ms.  This worked, and puffed in enough gas to quickly
double the density and disrupt the plasma.  Clearly we'll have to use much
shorter pulses with the diborane.

One last note: in order to program the diborane valve, I had to use the
new beta version of the DPCS program.  This worked fine all day, with no
problems other than the bug that we tripped over on shot 33.

Scorecard: 18 plasmas (several were very short)
            6 duds
            9 fizzles
            0 gas system tests
            1 TF scanner tests
            0 power supply tests
            0 MDSplus cycle tests
           --------------
    Total: 34 shot cycles

Session Leader Comments
Mar 15 2006 09:47:38:887AM1060315002Bruce Lipschultzshot 2: Basically what we need - 1MA, nl04 ~0.7. RF is fine. Inner gap is a little too large. That wwill be reduced.

Next shot reduce gap and turn on NINJA.
Mar 15 2006 10:18:08:167AM1060315003Bruce Lipschultzshot 3: Still good - 1MA, nl04 ~0.8. RF is fine. Inner gap reduced to 1.3 mm.


NINJA on, good data.
Mar 15 2006 10:18:24:540AM1060315004Bruce Lipschultzshot 3: Dud.

Move the RF and NINJA (2nd pulse) earlier by 50 ms

Boron shaker on
Mar 15 2006 10:21:36:213AM1060315005Bruce Lipschultzshot 5: Good shot. Shaker on. CXRS signal saturated on Inner wall views 5 & 6. So, it appears that USN leads to more B in the plasma since yesterday, with LSN, we did not sarturate the BV CXRS line.

Lower the gain on the CCD detector.


Mar 15 2006 10:42:22:463AM1060315006Bruce Lipschultzshot 6: fizzle
Mar 15 2006 10:41:52:230AM1060315007Bruce Lipschultzshot 7: Good shot. Shaker on. CXRS signal unsaturated by lowering the gain.

Got a very short H-mode.


Mar 15 2006 10:53:48:527AM1060315008Bruce Lipschultzshot 8: Full shot with L-mode and good CXRS signal.

Next shot start density scan
Mar 15 2006 11:13:52:747AM1060315009Bruce Lipschultzshot 9: Full shot with L-mode and good CXRS signal.

nl04 raised to 1.0e20

ICRF had a bit of an iussue at 2.8 MW. Lower it and repeat.

Mar 15 2006 11:12:58:667AM1060315010Bruce Lipschultzshot 10: Full shot with L-mode and good CXRS signal. RF was steadier but had to lower the power from 2.8 to 2.5 MW.

Denisty nl04~1.0 e20
Mar 15 2006 11:45:01:053AM1060315011Bruce Lipschultzshot 11: First try at higher density but the interferometer had a problem and gave us low density leading to a disruption.

Repeat at the higher density.


Mar 15 2006 12:23:11:710PM1060315012Bruce Lipschultzshot 12: Got the higher density (nl04 ~ 1.1) but the RF (D-port) could not take the high pressures.

Repeat at nl04 ~ 1.2


Mar 15 2006 11:56:39:193AM1060315013Bruce Lipschultzshot 13: fizzle.

Got to lower density to start the power scan.


Mar 15 2006 12:22:39:960PM1060315014Bruce Lipschultzshot 14: fizzle again after long cell opening to tune the interferometer.
Mar 15 2006 01:23:12:710PM1060315015Bruce Lipschultzshot 15: fizzle again
Mar 15 2006 01:23:21:163PM1060315016Bruce Lipschultzshot 16: fizzle again
Mar 15 2006 01:24:35:163PM1060315017Bruce Lipschultzshot 17: Shot back.

nl04 ~ 0.9, B injector off. 2 MW
Mar 15 2006 01:24:55:553PM1060315018Bruce Lipschultzshot 18: nl04 ~ 0.9, B injector off. 1 MW
Mar 15 2006 01:25:06:617PM1060315019Bruce Lipschultzshot 19: fizzle
Mar 15 2006 01:32:40:507PM1060315020Bruce Lipschultzshot 20: fizzle
Mar 15 2006 01:46:02:693PM1060315021Bruce Lipschultzshot 21: dud
Mar 15 2006 02:05:04:600PM1060315022Bruce Lipschultzshot 22: SHot fine, FR power 2.6 MW, nl04 ~ 0.9.

SSEP ~ 1.1 cm so a little too high. Next shot shoot for 5 mm.
Mar 15 2006 02:13:28:943PM1060315023Bruce Lipschultzshot 23: fizzle
Mar 15 2006 02:27:26:630PM1060315024Bruce Lipschultzshot 24: disrupted early
Mar 15 2006 03:25:59:710PM1060315025Bruce Lipschultzdud
Mar 15 2006 03:26:09:037PM1060315026Bruce Lipschultzfizzle
Mar 15 2006 03:26:17:460PM1060315027Bruce Lipschultzfizzle
Mar 15 2006 05:24:19:867PM1060315028Bruce Lipschultzfizzle
Mar 15 2006 05:24:30:803PM1060315029Bruce Lipschultzdud
Mar 15 2006 05:24:41:977PM1060315030Bruce Lipschultzdud
Mar 15 2006 05:25:16:930PM1060315031Bruce Lipschultzdisrupted early on. SSEP control not ready for prime time.
Mar 15 2006 05:25:26:193PM1060315032Bruce Lipschultzfizzle
Mar 15 2006 05:26:22:180PM1060315033Bruce LipschultzGood shot without SSEP control. Trying the He puff. Did not go in.
Mar 15 2006 05:26:56:413PM1060315034Bruce Lipschultzdisrupted due to He puff.

Physics Operator Comments
Mar 14 2006 11:24:20:317PMRobert GranetzDPCS loaded from shot 1060314014 (all segments). Segment 3 is active (USN,
1.0 MA, 0.8e20 m-2. B21_PROJ is on wire 09, and turned on.

Note that I am using the beta version of DPCS.
Mar 15 2006 08:53:36:870AM1060315001Robert GranetzShot 01 -- Test. Check TF scanner. Turn 49 is now reading okay.
Mar 15 2006 09:25:04:260AM1060315002Robert GranetzShot 02 -- Plasma. Good shot. Upper single null, 1.0 MA, 5.46 T, nl_04=0.7-0.8e20 m-2.
Inner gap = 1.5 cm, outer gap = 1.7 cm. Prf=1.5 MW from D and E.

Next shot: reduce inner gap to 1.3 cm, keeping outer gap the same (move CLEARIN -2 mm and
RCUR -1 mm)
Mar 15 2006 09:41:37:963AM1060315003Robert GranetzShot 03 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=0.8e20 m-2. Prf=2 MW. Inner gap = 1.3 cm,
but outer gap is now 1.8 cm.

Next shot: decrease RCUR another 1 mm. Add 0.1 mT to Br0. Sprinkle boron.
Open Z-bolo (should have been open at start of run)
Mar 15 2006 09:50:28:290AM1060315004Robert GranetzShot 04 -- Dud.

Next shot: Tweaks...add 10 amps to IC_EF4, reduce pre-fill puff by 1 ms.
Mar 15 2006 10:09:33:260AM1060315005Robert GranetzShot 05 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. Lots of boron powder. GPI is puffing D2.
F-probe is scanning.

Next shot: Repeat. Move Ar/Ne puff to t=0.3 s (was at t=1.3 s for some reason).
Mar 15 2006 10:15:54:980AM1060315006Robert GranetzShot 06 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: add 0.1 mT to Br0. Increase RCUR by 1 mm.
Mar 15 2006 10:40:29:823AM1060315007Robert GranetzShot 07 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. A brick fell in around t=1.1 s.

Next shot: no changes.
Mar 15 2006 10:51:59:557AM1060315008Robert GranetzShot 08 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. Lots of sprinkled boron. Prf=3 MW. Long

L-mode. nl_04=0.8e20 m-2.

Next shot: increase nl_04 to 1.0e20 m-2.
Mar 15 2006 10:59:50:917AM1060315009Robert GranetzShot 09 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=1.0e20 m-2. Pretty good L-mode
performance (Wth=100+ kJ, RDD=1.5e13 s-1, Temax=4.0 keV)

Next shot: repeat, no changes
Mar 15 2006 11:14:47:323AM1060315010Robert GranetzShot 10 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=1.0e20 m-2. Prf=2.7 MW.

Next shot: raise nl_04 to 1.2e20 m-2.
Mar 15 2006 11:34:12:127AM1060315011Robert GranetzShot 11 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.32 s. Looks like a brick fell in, maybe several
injections. TCI went haywire, including the feedback signal. Gas was off
for most of the shot. Need to repeat this one.

Next shot: repeat with TCI working. Also reduce Ar/Ne pulse to 30 ms (from 40 ms).
Mar 15 2006 11:37:47:943AM1060315012Robert GranetzShot 12 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=1.1e20 m-2. D-antenna didn't go.

Next shot: repeat with D and E antennas both working. Increase requested nl_04 to 1.3e20 m-2.
Mar 15 2006 11:46:42:680AM1060315013Robert GranetzShot 13 -- Fizzle. Since the RF isn't coupling well due to the high neutral pressure, we
won't bother trying for this shot again.

Next shot: reduce nl_04 to 1.0e20 m-2.
Mar 15 2006 12:21:18:147PM1060315014Robert GranetzShot 14 -- Fizzle. Looks like it was killed by a very early injection. Bz is a little
high as well.

Next shot: add -10 amps to IC_EF4
Mar 15 2006 12:32:18:273PM1060315015Robert GranetzShot 15 -- Plasma/fizzle. Got to 75 kA and then it died again. Bz is still high, even higher
than on the previous shot, even though I made IC_EF4 more negative.

Next shot: add another -10 amps to IC_EF4 (to -1345 A)
Mar 15 2006 12:44:57:443PM1060315016Robert GranetzShot 16 -- Plasma/fizzle again. Fields and gas look very good. LH camera shows lots of stuff
falling down...could the leftover boron powder be doing us in.

Next shot: disable boron injector and see if we can clean up the powder. No PCS changes.
Mar 15 2006 12:56:15:193PM1060315017Robert GranetzShot 17 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=0.9e20 m-2. Startup had lots of carbon? light and
a long hesitation at 90 kA.

Next shot: no PCS changes. Boron injector will still be off.
Mar 15 2006 01:15:15:023PM1060315018Robert GranetzShot 18 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. nl_04=1.0e20 m-2. Really good startup.

Next shot: import the SSEP wire into segment 3 and program it at +2.5 mm, hoping to
get around +5 mm (USN).
Mar 15 2006 01:20:24:630PM1060315019Robert GranetzShot 19 -- Fizzle. Fields and gas look good.

Next shot: tweak Br0 down by 0.1 mT.
Mar 15 2006 01:34:37:413PM1060315020Robert GranetzShot 20 -- Dud. Fields look fine.

Next shot: add 2 ms to pre-fill. Also, Steve W reminded me to change the reference for
the SSEP wire to Ip instead of 10 volts (actually wires 09-12 will now reference Ip).
Mar 15 2006 01:44:59:147PM1060315021Robert GranetzShot 21 -- Dud.

Next shot: add another 3 ms to pre-fill (will now be at 30 ms)
Mar 15 2006 02:02:05:583PM1060315022Robert GranetzShot 22 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. SSEP= +10-11 mm. The SSEP and the ZXU are
fighting each other, as expected.

Next shot: decrease the gain on ZXU from 8 to 1 in order to help the SSEP control.
Mar 15 2006 02:12:06:130PM1060315023Robert GranetzShot 23 -- Fizzle. Fields look fine. Pre-fill pressure went up a little.

Next shot: decrease pre-fill by 2 ms.
Mar 15 2006 02:23:19:443PM1060315024Robert GranetzShot 24 -- Plasma, but disrupted around 0.2 s, probably due to an impurity injection
around 0.16 s.

Next shot: repeat, no changes.
Mar 15 2006 02:34:08:380PM1060315025Robert GranetzShot 25 -- Dud! The preceding shot had a beautiful startup, and this one was a dud.
Unbelievable.

Next shot: add 2 ms back to pre-fill.
Mar 15 2006 03:16:42:820PM1060315026Robert GranetzShot 26 -- Fizzle. I give up...we'll do 20 minutes of between-shot ECDC.

Next shot: no changes (following approximately 23 minutes of ECDC)
Mar 15 2006 03:22:48:537PM1060315027Robert GranetzShot 27 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill 1 ms; add -5 amps to IC_EF4.
Mar 15 2006 03:38:58:787PM1060315028Robert GranetzShot 28 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: reload segment 1 from the first plasma today (shot 2)
Mar 15 2006 03:50:55:820PM1060315029Robert GranetzShot 29 -- Dud. That didn't work.

Next shot: reload segment 1 from shot 28, decrease IC_EF4 by 15 amps (i.e. add -15 amps)
Mar 15 2006 04:00:14:600PM1060315030Robert GranetzShot 30 -- Dud.

Next shot: add 3 ms to pre-fill.
Mar 15 2006 04:35:17:430PM1060315031Robert GranetzShot 31 -- Plasma, but disrupted at t=0.33 s. Might be something to do with trying
to use the SSEP control with USN plasmas. I'm abandoning this part of the
run. Instead, I'll jump to the last objective, which is testing the diborane
valve.

Next shot: reload segment 3 from shot 5 (a good USN with nl_04=0.8e20 m-2), and program
the diborane piezo valve for a 100 ms pulse starting at t=1.0 s. Note that
we are actually using helium, not diborane, for these tests.
Mar 15 2006 04:47:00:227PM1060315032Robert GranetzShot 32 -- Fizzle. Very late fizzle at that.

Next shot: based on a bet with Ian, I will lower the pre-fill puff to 20 ms.
Mar 15 2006 05:02:31:553PM1060315033Robert GranetzShot 33 -- Plasma. Good shot. Ian won the bet, and also helped us to recover
operation. Pretty good startup. But the diborane valve didn't open. Steve W
thinks its because of a bug in DPCS which requires non-zero programming to also
be in segment 1.

Next shot: increase diborane piezo pulse to 200 ms, starting at t=1.0 s. Also put some
dummy programming for the valve into segment 1 (after t=0.1 s, so that it
doesn't do anything to the valve).
Mar 15 2006 05:11:43:117PM1060315034Robert GranetzShot 34 -- Plasma. Good shot. USN. The diborane valve successfully opened and puffed
in enough helium to disrupt the plasma. Clearly we will have to have pulses much
shorter than 200 ms when we switch to diborane.

End of run.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:47:22:103AMTestOk
209:12:55:137AMPlasmaOk
309:29:57:590AMPlasmaOk
409:43:22:887AMPlasmaOk
509:55:44:900AMPlasmaOk
610:10:51:697AMPlasmaOk
710:23:29:277AMPlasmaOk
810:38:34:183AMPlasmaOk
910:51:02:510AMPlasmaOk
1011:05:25:963AMPlasmaOk
1111:18:04:993AMPlasmaOk
1211:30:43:810AMPlasmaOk
1311:43:15:490AMPlasmaOk
1412:11:54:913PMPlasmaOk
1512:24:13:413PMPlasmaOk
1612:36:49:727PMPlasmaOk
1712:49:10:147PMPlasmaOk
1801:01:42:490PMPlasmaOk
1901:14:52:727PMPlasmaOk
2001:27:16:537PMPlasmaOk
2101:39:41:303PMPlasmaOk
2201:52:12:380PMPlasmaOk
2302:04:43:053PMPlasmaOk
2402:17:11:303PMPlasmaOk
2502:29:49:600PMPlasmaOk
2602:42:26:647PMPlasmaOk
2703:19:22:850PMPlasmaOk
2803:32:04:787PMPlasmaOk
2903:44:52:867PMPlasmaOk
3003:57:29:773PMPlasmaOk
3104:10:01:477PMPlasmaOk
3204:39:30:977PMPlasmaOk
3304:52:49:023PMPlasmaOk
3405:05:09:630PMPlasmaOk