Alcator C-Mod Run 1060512 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:448
Date Filed: 4/5/2006
Title:Comparison of Small ELM regimes on C-Mod, MAST and NSTX
First Author:Rajesh Maingi
Session Leader:Amanda Hubbard (shots 1-28)

Operators
Session leader(s):Amanda Hubbard
Physics operator(s):Robert Granetz
Engineering operator(s):Andy Pfeiffer,Ed Fitzgerald

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP#448 Small ELM regime and possibly MP#404a Alfven damping Session lea

Session Leader Plans
Entered: May 11 2006 04:04:37:197PM
Author: Amanda Hubbard
Run Plan for of 1060512, MP 448, Comparison of Small ELM regimes on C-Mod, MAST and NSTX

Session Leaders: Rajesh Maingi (PPPL) , Amanda Hubbard
RF operator (and co-leader): Yijun Lin
Physics Operator: Bob Granetz

Goals:
A. Optimize techniques for obtaining high power (3.5-4 MW) ICRF in combination with good machine conditions.
B . Complete C-Mod part of Small ELM pedestal comparisons by going to high power, nu* scan

This run follows previous runs on 1060407 and 1060504, in which suitable target plasmas were demontrated but it was found (particularly on 1060504) that conditioning J-port following overnight boronization was a challenge. This run will therefore explore an alternate procedure; we will NOT boronize before the run, but use between-shot boronization following RF conditioning. Before the run, the RF group will use multipactor conditioning of J-port - Steve and Yijun to prescribe time and voltage etc; see RF entry

1) Load and repeat shot 1060407033 ; 5.45 T, 708 kA. (same shape etc as successful RF conditioning pulses eg 1060505013).

2) Take several shots to condition RF antennas, bring up power. Minimum needed is 3 MW; target is 4 MW. Plasma target may be modified to aid conditioning (eg, raising target density to 9e19 m-2).

3) Assuming that H-mode conditions indicate the need for it (which is very likely after 3 run days, 2 at low ne), use between-shot boronization - see procedure used 1060510 by Jim Terry.

4) Repeat H-mode discharges. Assess coupled power and H-mode quality. If all looks OK, do

5) Density scan:
Keeping power, and hopefully beta, in its upper range, scan target density shot to shot to vary nped, Tped and thus n*. Use two power levels per shot, selected based on results of step two. Start by raising target nel (9x 1019 m-2, 1.1x 1020 m-2, 1.3x1020 m-2, 1.5x1020 m-2. Upper limit will probably be set by neutral pressure limit of J-port, or if we are lucky, a transition to Type III ELMs. Then scan downwards, 7x 1019 m-2 ,6x 1019 m-2. The limit in this case will be losing EDA and getting either transient ELM-free H-modes or, more interestingly, discrete Type I ELMs. Stop for between-shot boronization as needed.

6) Current scan: If pedestal beta is too low, try raising Ip to increase odds of getting into small ELM regime. May slightly increase Bt at this point; there will be a tradeoff in terms of moving RF off-axis.
We will assess progress around 1pm in terms of RF and machine performance.

Standby MP in case we decide we aren't likely to meet goal A is Joe Snipes Active MHD expt.

Physics Operators Plans
Entered: May 11 2006 04:17:42:990PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Engineering setup for Friday 12 May 2006

MP#448  Small ELM regime (50-100% of the run day)
  and possibly
MP#404a Alfven damping (0-50% of the run day)

Session leaders: A. Hubbard (MP#448), and possibly J. Snipes (MP#404a)
Physics operator: R. Granetz

Overnight ECDC in deuterium; bake at 60 C.

BE PREPARED TO DO BETWEEN-SHOT BORONIZATION.
 
The run will start at 09:00 and end at 17:00.

Power systems as on 1060407033 (5.45 T, 0.71 MA)

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)
  leave NINJA as is                      DISABLED

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

Key diagnostics: PCI, edge Thomson, ECE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICRF Setup: All transmitters in run-on by 08:00, after doing the
            multipactor thing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run plan: Don't do overnight boronization, in the hopes that J-port will
          run better than it has after the previous overnight
          boronizations.  Instead, we will be doing between-shot
          boronizations and RF vacuum conditioning.  If we get good
          H-modes, then we will do a density scan, and possibly a current
          scan.  If we don't get good H-modes or the RF is not performing
          well, then we'll switch to the alternate miniproposal, MP#404a
          Alfven damping, and load 1060309020 to begin with.

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: May 12 2006 05:09:15:637PM
Author: Amanda Hubbard

Mixed day. Started off much better than I expected RF -wise. J-port ran clean from shot 1 and Ptot was over 4 MW on several shots. Best shot of the day was shot 5, with clean RF up to 4.7 MW and H-mode performance that actually increased over the discharge (H ~ 1.6, despite no boronization since Monday night).
High pedestal parameters though, somewhat surprisingly, no small ELMs.

The run took a turn for the worse after shot 6, which had PS problems and a crowbar. (perhaps coincidence). Had many early disruptionss and fizzles. On the full plasmas , 13 and 19, it was clear that H-mode performance was degrading though RF power was still high.

We followed shot 19 with 10 minutes between shot boronization. This was, unfortunately, followed by 6 fizzles. On the only remaining shot of the day, 26, we got a nice long H-mode, at slightly higher ne.
D and E ran clean, J tripped early.

Bottom line:
- We have demonstrated that J-port, and other RF, can run at very high power following RF conditioning and some time after boronization.
- At least on the first shot after boron, J still has trouble; we didn't get to test how many shots it would take to come back up. No 'magic bullet', but not yet cause to give up on this approach.
- Got a few nice, fairly high pressure points for NSTX/MAST pedestal comparison. But not, alas, with small ELMs though we were likely close.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: May 12 2006 04:56:19:327PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Run summary for Friday 12 May 2006:

MP#448  Small ELM regime

Session leader: A. Hubbard/R. Maingi
Physics operator: R. Granetz

Bad day, although the first few shots were very encouraging.  Shot 5 is the
trophy shot, with nearly 4-5 MW of ICRF on steadily for 0.75 s, long EDA
H-mode, and good confinement.  But then things went downhill.  Many
fizzles and several very short discharges, with a between-shot boronization
thrown in.  I have no idea why I was unable to recover plasma operation.

Scorecard: 12 plasmas
            1 dud (EF4 didn't fire)
           15 fizzles
            0 gas system tests
            0 TF scanner tests
            0 power supply test (TF-only)
            0 no power shot cycle
            0 MDSplus cycle tests
           --------------
    Total: 28 shot cycles

Session Leader Comments
May 12 2006 09:13:52:700AM1060512001Amanda Hubbard

Good first shot. Got ramp up to 3.3 MW with just D+J.
Target nel was lower than I expected, 5.5e19 m-2; will raise next shot.
2 H-modes. Te8 up to 600 eV.



May 12 2006 09:30:57:310AM1060512002Amanda Hubbardne tweak led to larger change than intended, perhaps causing J-port trips.
bel 0.8 to 1.3e20 m-2. Te8 530 eV, steady until injection.




May 12 2006 09:41:21:577AM1060512003Amanda HubbardGood full length shot. Full length, with long EDA, steady ne. target 7e19 m-2, H-mode 1.e20 m-2. First phase had Ptot 3.8 MW. Later, after some trips, got 4.2 MW. Radiation not as bad as I expected. Te8 700 eV, ETS 600 eV, ne95 1.6e20 m-2, pe95 9e22. Beta_N~ 1.1.

Keep this target, retry RF.


May 12 2006 10:39:23:607AM1060512004Amanda HubbardVery good shot. RF up to 4.4 MW. H ~ 1.6, beta_N1.2 steady EDA
Pe95 9e22.

May 12 2006 10:36:17:263AM1060512005Amanda Hubbard
"Trophy/viewgraph shot". Got clean RF, slow ramp up to 4.7 MW.
129 kJ, Pe95~ 1.2e23 m-3. Looks like steady EDA, no evident ELMs but a nice pedestal comparison point. beta_N ~ 1.3, H ~1.6,

John says record Moly, but Prad is at least steady at ~2.5 MW. We will square up RF pulse and try some density scanning on subsequent shots (assuming power supplies OK after shot 6).


May 12 2006 10:40:04:077AM1060512006Amanda HubbardDUD - power supply problems
May 12 2006 11:16:21:437AM1060512007Amanda HubbardEarly (0.2 s) disruption
May 12 2006 11:16:34:873AM1060512008Amanda HubbardAnother early (0.2 s) disruption
May 12 2006 11:54:46:187AM1060512010Amanda Hubbarddisrupts before RF
May 12 2006 11:54:27:873AM1060512011Amanda HubbardFizzle
May 12 2006 12:03:40:077PM1060512012Amanda Hubbardfizzle
May 12 2006 01:01:58:343PM1060512013Amanda Hubbard
Plasma, disrupts 0.95 secs. Nominally repeat of shot 5, with RF 'squared up' - 4.1 MW early. But, Prad starts rising and edge cooling ~ 0.75 secs. (this is well before the first RF trip). Prad gets to 3.7 MW.

May be soon time to boronize...
May 12 2006 01:35:33:970PM1060512014Amanda Hubbard
Fizzle
May 12 2006 01:35:49:640PM1060512015Amanda HubbardFizzle
May 12 2006 01:36:23:810PM1060512016Amanda HubbardPS Dud
May 12 2006 01:25:51:110PM1060512017Amanda HubbardYet another fizzle. Try between-shot ECDC to clean things up.

For next plasma attempt, raise Ip to 800 kA and nel target to 7e19 m-3.

May 12 2006 01:52:16:700PM1060512018Amanda HubbardAnother fizzle.... can't win.
May 12 2006 02:32:12:513PM1060512019Amanda HubbardFull length. 800 kA, 0.7-1.6E19 M-2. Long H-mode, 3-4 MW RF (J works well, E is unhappy). But, Prad is rising - to 3.8 MW) and Tedge eroding from ~ 0.75 secs. H decreases to ~ 1.1 late in H-mode (vs 1.6 on shot 5). Plasma is telling us it is time to boronize. Start with 10 minutes before shot 20.

pped 8 to 6e22 m-3 eV, lower than shot 5 despite higher Ip.
May 12 2006 03:24:47:277PM1060512020Amanda Hubbard post-boronization fizzle
May 12 2006 03:24:34:870PM1060512021Amanda Hubbardsecond post-boronization fizzle
May 12 2006 04:44:10:870PM1060512026Amanda HubbardFinally, a plasma. Pretty good in fact, long EDA H-mode. Higher ne - target was 8.5 e29 m-2, H-mode got to 1.7e20 m-3.

Mixed news on RF front. D and E ran clean (2 MW total, slight programmed ramp). But, J-port tripped from the beginning. We'll see how it cleans up next shot.

Pedestal starts off fairly hot, Te96 530 eV, when W=116 kJ, H ~ 1.8, ne_95~ 2e20m-3.
But, all erode from ~0.9 secs, seems that Prad and ne rise from 0.98 secs, H drops to ~1.2

Physics Operator Comments
May 12 2006 08:46:53:187AMRobert GranetzLoaded shot 1060407033, except loaded segment 1 from shot 20 of yesterday (1060511020).
May 12 2006 09:16:28:093AM1060512001Robert GranetzShot 01 -- Plasma. Good shot. 0.71 MA, 5.47 T, target nl_04=0.5e20 m-2. Several longish
H-modes. Prf = 2 -> 3 MW (ramped). No power from E-port.

Next shot: raise target nl_04 to 0.7e20 m-2
May 12 2006 09:24:44:467AM1060512002Robert GranetzShot 02 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=0.88 s due to large injection. J-port
did not do well, but E-port was on.

Next shot: tweak nl_04 to 0.65e20 m-2.
May 12 2006 09:35:07:233AM1060512003Robert GranetzShot 03 -- Plasma. Goood shot. Very long, steady EDA H-mode. Prf=4 MW, then 2 MW.
D and E look very good. J-port is struggling.

Next shot: no PCS changes.
May 12 2006 09:50:20:763AM1060512004Robert GranetzShot 04 -- Plasma. Good shot. Very long, steady EDA H-mode. Prf=3.7 -> 4.5 MW (ramped),
with 2+ MW coming from J-port. Some faulting, but much improved.

Next shot: no DPCS changes.
May 12 2006 10:04:00:467AM1060512005Robert GranetzShot 05 -- Plasma. Good shot. Long, steady EDA H-mode. Great RF performance.
Prf=3.7 -> 4.7 MW. Faultless RF for 0.75 s.

Next shot: no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 10:44:01:047AM1060512006Robert GranetzShot 06 -- Fizzle, but it was due to a problem with the TF and the PFs. All coil currents
were lagging in their rampup. It's as if the alternator was not supplying the
power it should have. All TF and PF breakers tripped. TF crowbarred.

Power room access to check fuses. All OK.

Next shot: go for plasma, no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 10:54:05:327AM1060512007Robert GranetzShot 07 -- Plasma, but disrupted at t=0.2 s. Probably an injection, but I can't see
it on the WIDE2 view.

Next shot: try again, no changes.
May 12 2006 11:12:27:280AM1060512008Robert GranetzShot 08 -- Plasma, but again it disrupted at t=0.2 s.

Next shot: try again.
May 12 2006 11:28:58:717AM1060512009Robert GranetzShot 09 -- Plasma, but disrupted at t=0.3 s. Is it an injection, or something under my
control.

Next shot: I blew away DPCS, restarted it, and reloaded shot 5. In principle, this
should not have done anything.
May 12 2006 11:43:41:657AM1060512010Robert GranetzShot 10 -- Plasma. Went a little longer before disrupting at t=0.58 s.

Next shot: no changes.
May 12 2006 11:58:38:310AM1060512011Robert GranetzShot 11 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: drop Br0 offset by 0.3 mT
May 12 2006 12:03:26:593PM1060512012Robert GranetzShot 12 -- Fizzle again.

Next shot: subtract 15 amps from IC_EF4
May 12 2006 12:34:58:420PM1060512013Robert GranetzShot 13 -- Plasma. Halfway decent shot until a swarm of UFOs come in at
t=0.91 and kill the plasma. Good view of them on the WIDE2 video
camera view. Good startup, at least for now.

Next shot: no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 12:40:13:640PM1060512014Robert GranetzShot 14 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: tweak IC_EF4 and pre-fill puff.
May 12 2006 12:55:57:687PM1060512015Robert GranetzShot 15 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: decrease IC_EF4 some more.
May 12 2006 01:11:48:157PM1060512016Robert GranetzShot 16 -- Dud. No EF4

Next shot: try again.
May 12 2006 01:25:35:610PM1060512017Robert GranetzShot 17 -- Fizzle.

Do 15 minutes of ECDC before the next shot.

Next shot: raise Ip to 0.8 MA, raise nl_04 to 0.7e20 m-2.
May 12 2006 01:52:36:513PM1060512018Robert GranetzShot 18 -- Fizzle. Pressure is much higher on this shot. Might be because of
the between-shot ECDC.

Next shot: reduce prefill pulse by 4 ms.
May 12 2006 02:27:53:623PM1060512019Robert GranetzShot 19 -- Plasma, finally. Good shot. 0.80 MA. Target nl_04=0.7e20 m-2. Long EDA H-mode.
Prf=3.2-4 MW. Prad is up to 3 MW.

We will now do 10 minutes of between-shot boronization.

Next shot: no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 03:14:03:580PM1060512020Robert GranetzShot 20 -- Fizzle. Don't know what the pressure was because the ratiomatic was
not turned back on.

Next shot: tweak pre-fill down another 1 ms.
May 12 2006 03:24:35:573PM1060512021Robert GranetzShot 21 -- Fizzle again.

Next shot: shorten pre-fill another 2 ms.
May 12 2006 03:43:55:730PM1060512022Robert GranetzShot 22 -- Fizzle. Fields and pressure look fine.

Next shot: reload segment 1 from shot 03 today, except that I will take 5 ms
off the pre-fill pulse.
May 12 2006 04:01:00:717PM1060512023Robert GranetzShot 23 -- Fizzle. This sucks.

Next shot: on advice from Jim Irby, I will add more gas to the pre-fill.
May 12 2006 04:05:14:200PM1060512024Robert GranetzShot 24 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: now try dropping pre-fill a lot. Also tweak Br0.
May 12 2006 04:20:14:327PM1060512025Robert GranetzShot 25 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: shorten the pre-fill another 4 ms.
May 12 2006 04:34:09:120PM1060512026Robert GranetzShot 26 -- Plasma, finally. Good shot. J-port apparently doesn't like the 10 minute
boronization. The steady 2 MW from D+E gave a long EDA H-mode.

Next shot: no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 04:43:00:327PM1060512027Robert GranetzShot 27 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: last shot coming up...no DPCS changes
May 12 2006 04:54:30:077PM1060512028Robert GranetzShot 28 -- Fizzle. Incredible.

End of run.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
109:04:22:200AMPlasmaOk
209:17:06:530AMPlasmaOk
309:29:31:577AMPlasmaOk
409:42:04:153AMPlasmaOk
509:54:51:030AMPlasmaOk
610:07:22:920AMPlasmaBadExcitation Fault
710:47:18:670AMPlasmaOk
811:00:48:890AMPlasmaOk
911:19:04:797AMPlasmaOk
1011:31:45:920AMPlasmaOk
1111:44:32:280AMPlasmaOk
1211:59:43:390AMPlasmaOk
1312:19:37:467PMPlasmaOk
1412:35:32:530PMPlasmaOk
1512:48:52:780PMPlasmaOk
1601:08:13:343PMPlasmaBadEF4
1701:21:36:623PMPlasmaOk
1801:48:27:107PMPlasmaOk
1902:02:12:030PMPlasmaOk
2003:09:19:747PMPlasmaOk
2103:22:05:963PMPlasmaOk
2203:34:43:683PMPlasmaOk
2303:47:22:607PMPlasmaOk
2404:01:52:370PMPlasmaOk
2504:14:27:980PMPlasmaOk
2604:27:08:107PMPlasmaOk
2704:39:46:700PMPlasmaOk
2804:52:31:997PMPlasmaOk