Alcator C-Mod Run 1060518 Information

Back to runs

Miniproposals
Miniproposal:409
Date Filed: 1/19/2005
Title:Phase Space of the Scrape-off-Layer Plasma
First Author:Brian Labombard
Session Leader:Brian Labombard (shots 1-19)

Operators
Session leader(s):Brian Labombard
Physics operator(s):Robert Granetz
Engineering operator(s):Bill Cochran,Sam Pierson,Bill Byford

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP#409 SOL Phase Space - reversed field

Session Leader Plans
Entered: May 17 2006 09:00:27:620PM
Author: Brian Labombard
Run Plan for 1060518

MP#409 "SOL Phase space studies" - Reversed Field

Goal
Continue the SOL 'phase space' mapping studies at 0.8MA and 5.4Tesla, but with
reversed plasma current and field direction.

Run Preparation Tasks
- since we managed to get a start on this MP yesterday, the probes and
optical diagnostics are already ready to go (see plan for 1060517)
- Set timing on fastdiode digitizers to 0.1 s after the A-B limiter NINJA puff timing

Plan
Begin with shot#1060517033, but running in LSN (segment#2 on) and with
inner gap set 1mm smaller (for ISP target improvement)
Also, set NL04=0.6. This is a 0.8MA, 5.4T REVERSED field LSN discharge.

ASP, ISP programmed to scan at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05 seconds
NINJA gas puff for GPI and boron V spectroscopy entering plasma at 1.1s
Set NINJA for D2 puff at A-B limiter and B016-001. Plenum pressure of 10 PSI.

Shots
1,2,3 LSN, NL04 = 0.6, optimize probe targeting
4,5,6 USN, NL04 = 0.6, optimize probe targeting

7,8 USN, NL04 = 0.4
9,10 LSN, NL04 = 0.4

11,12 LSN, NL04 = 0.8
13,14 USN, NL04 = 0.8

15,16 USN, NL04 = 1.0
17,18 LSN, NL04 = 1.0

19,20 LSN, NL04 = 1.2
21,22 USN, NL04 = 1.2

23,24 USN, NL04 = 1.4
25,26 LSN, NL04 = 1.4

Allow for repeated attempts of these shots.

Shot total is ~30

Physics Operators Plans
Entered: May 17 2006 05:01:49:680PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Engineering setup for Thursday 18 May 2006

MP#409 SOL Phase Space - reversed field

Session leaders: B. Labombard
Physics operator: R. Granetz

Overnight ECDC in deuterium; bake at 60 C.

The run will start at 09:00 and end at 17:00.

Power systems as on 1060517033.

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 10 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: Gas puff imaging, scanning probes, HIREX rotation, edge
                 Thomson, and...that's good enough.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICRF Setup: no RF at any time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Run plan: Load shot 1060517033, but turn on segment 2 (LSN) instead of
          segment 3 (USN).  Also reduce inner wall gap by 1 mm, keeping the
          outer gap unchanged.  Toggle lower null and upper null
          discharges, raising nl_04 after each pair of discharges (with
          some repetition, of course).  See Brian's session plan for more
          info.

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: May 18 2006 10:05:45:190PM
Author: Brian Labombard
Run Summary for 1060518

MP#409 "SOL Phase space studies" - Reversed field

This was a rough day. We started off ok, with shot#1 being a re-run of a LSN discharge
developed during the 1060517 setup run. But, immediately on shot#2, we managed to overheat the
A-port probe, resulting in a short to the EAST electrode. For some reason,
the outer gap seemed to change relative to shot#1 (more on this later). After trying
to unshort the probe by applying high-current bias, we pushed on with obtaining
a matched USN discharge. The density proved to be difficult to control with the
plasma running much lower (about 0.2 in NL04 lower than programmed). By shot#14, things
were looking better. The EAST probe unshorted and we got some control on the
density (yet a bit high). But immediately after that on shot#15 the left gap jumped by 2mm,
hitting the inner wall probe hard. It became apparent (after fizzles plus F11 flux loop warnings)
that the F11 flux loop was not reliable. Bob found that the loop is shorted to the machine,
which could be a problem if there are muliple shorts. Shot#19 went, but it became
very clear that F11 was not reliable, as a 'jog' in the EFIT derived shape quantities
was seen around 0.95s with EFIT reporting bad fits at and beyond this time.
The run was ended for Steve and Bob to come up with a work-around.

We did manage to collect a few data points. Plasma flows on the high-field side were
found to persistently flow towards the inner divertor strike point location, as
they do in forward field. I think we might have a couple of shots with info on flows on
the low-field side for LSN versus USN.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Quick shot log


ISP pulse duration set to 22 ms.

MP#409 - reversed field
01- LSN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.78, ASP(+8) Vf mode, ISP-good Vf mode
02- LSN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.6, ASP(+10)- too deep!, ISP-good
03-04 no power cycle tests
05- LSN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.58, ASP(+8) good EAST shorted, ISP-good 60eV
disrupted at 0.6s
06 - fizzle
07- LSN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.55-0.46, ASP(+8) good EAST shorted, ISP
08- LSN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.5, ASP(+8) good EAST floating, ISP-good
09- USN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.3, ASP(+9) EAST floating, ISP
10- USN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.3, ASP(+10) good EAST floating, ISP
11 - fizzle
12- USN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.5-0.3, ASP(+10) EAST floating, ISP
13 - fizzle
14- USN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.6-0.5, ASP(+10) EAST sweep-> OK on third scan!, ISP
15- USN, Ip=0.8MA, NL04=0.85-0.75, ASP(+10) could be deeper, ISP 2mm too far!
16- fizzle
17- fizzle
18- fizzle
19- USN - no probes scanning
end of run

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: May 18 2006 04:03:02:593PM
Author: Robert Granetz
Run summary for Thursday 18 May 2006:

MP#409  SOL Phase Space - reversed field

Session leader: B. Labombard
Physics operator: R. Granetz

This reversed-field run started out okay, but we eventually figured out
that sometime after shot 7, flux loop F11 was failing in a subtle,
intermittent, and unpredictable fashion.  This resulted in a number of
fizzles when F11 failed before t=0, and incorrect boundary position (1-2
mm) when it failed during the plasma discharge.  So we had to stop the run
after shot 19 and begin working on a software fix to substitute a linear
combination of nearby flux measurements.  Not sure about the status of
tomorrow's run.

Scorecard: 11 plasmas
            0 duds
            6 fizzles
            0 gas system tests
            0 TF scanner tests
            0 power supply test (TF-only)
            2 no power MDS shot cycles
           --------------
    Total: 19 shot cycles

Session Leader Comments
May 18 2006 09:11:15:080AM1060518001Brian LabombardShot 01 LSN, NL04=0.78 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
Plasma doesn't swallow the gas puff until 0.6 s
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - could be deeper - floating mode
ISP - good - floating mode

Next: Repeat with NL04 =0.6

May 18 2006 09:27:41:343AM1060518002Brian LabombardShot 02 LSN, NL04=0.6 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - too deep!
ISP - good

Next: Repeat with ASP pulled back.

May 18 2006 11:06:32:953AM1060518007Brian LabombardShot 07 LSN, NL04=0.5 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - good, EAST still shorted
ISP - could be deeper

Next: Repeat with EAST floating

May 18 2006 11:07:03:627AM1060518008Brian LabombardShot 08 LSN, NL04=0.5 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - good, EAST floating
ISP - good

Next: go to USN, same density

May 18 2006 11:40:07:673AM1060518009Brian LabombardShot 09 USN, NL04=0.3 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - could be deeper, EAST floating
ISP - good

Next: try for NL04=0.5

May 18 2006 11:40:44:627AM1060518010Brian LabombardShot 10 USN, NL04=0.3 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - ok, EAST floating
ISP - good

Next: try again for NL04=0.5

May 18 2006 12:11:15:063PM1060518012Brian LabombardShot 12 USN, NL04=0.5-0.3 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - ok, EAST floating
ISP - good

Next: go to NL04=0.7

May 18 2006 12:39:27:047PM1060518014Brian LabombardShot 14 USN, NL04=0.6-0.5 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - ok, EAST sweep => Unshorts on third scan!
ISP - good

Next: try again for NL04=0.7
May 18 2006 12:58:00:907PM1060518015Brian LabombardShot 15 USN, NL04=0.85-0.75 Ip=0.8, Bt=5.4 REVERSED
ASP, ISP scanning at 0.65, 0.85, 1.05s
ASP - could be deeper. EAST is ok.
ISP - 2mm over-inserted

Next: Adjust inner gap, lower NL04 slightly, run again.

Physics Operator Comments
May 18 2006 05:18:58:653AMRobert GranetzLoaded shot 1060517033 (all segments). Switched on segment 2 (LSN) instead of
segment 3 (USN). Reduced CLEARIN by 1 mm and RCUR by 0.5 mm.
May 18 2006 09:10:34:593AM1060518001Robert GranetzShot 01 -- Plasma. Good shot. Density took a while to get to its programmed
value. Not sure why.

Next shot: Reduce nl_04 to 0.8e20 m-2. Tweak scanning probe settings.
May 18 2006 09:33:20:127AM1060518002Robert GranetzShot 02 -- Plasma. Good shot. 0.8 MA, 5.45 T, nl_04=0.6e20 m-2.

Next shot: repeat, no DPCS changes.
May 18 2006 09:41:39:643AM1060518003Robert GranetzShot 03 -- No-power shot, due to an MDS problem with the shot cycle. Josh will work on
fixing it after this shot.


May 18 2006 10:17:54:500AM1060518004Robert GranetzShot 04 -- No-power test shot. Still having MDS cycle problems. Josh is working on it.
May 18 2006 10:33:24:017AM1060518005Robert GranetzShot 05 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=0.70 s. Big increase in radiated power starting
at t=0.68, shortly after the first A-probe insertion. Are they related?

Next shot: increase CLEARIN by 1 mm and RCUR by 0.5 mm (to keep outboard gap the
same). Hopefully no disruption
May 18 2006 10:43:35:487AM1060518006Robert GranetzShot 06 -- Fizzle. No doubt due to the disruption.

Next shot: reduce pre-fill puff by 2 ms.
May 18 2006 10:59:15:830AM1060518007Robert GranetzShot 07 -- Plasma. Good shot.

Next shot: decrease CLEARIN by 1 mm and RCUR by 0.5 mm (reload these wires from shot 05)
May 18 2006 11:07:07:297AM1060518008Robert GranetzShot 08 -- Plasma. Good shot. Lower null (same as all previous shots today).

Next shot: switch to upper null by turning on segment 3 and turning off segment 2.
May 18 2006 11:29:38:080AM1060518009Robert GranetzShot 09 -- Plasma. Just made it into rampdown before disrupting. Density was a lot lower
than we requested. Might have been a locked mode for much of the discharge.

Next shot: add a little more pre-programmed gas in segment 3.
May 18 2006 11:41:11:297AM1060518010Robert GranetzShot 10 -- Plasma. Disrupted at t=1.04 s. Another very low density shot with a locked
mode during most of the discharge. These USN shots should have been repeats of
the shots from late in yesterday's run, but clearly the density is not
reproducible.

Next shot: increase preprogrammed gas puff substantially in segment 3.
May 18 2006 11:52:10:017AM1060518011Robert GranetzShot 11 -- Fizzle. Fields and pressure look fine.

Next shot: take another 1 ms off of PG4 in seg 1.
May 18 2006 12:06:54:297PM1060518012Robert GranetzShot 12 -- Plasma. Good shot. Full length. Upper null.

Next shot: raise nl_04 to 0.75e20 m-2.
May 18 2006 12:22:28:203PM1060518013Robert GranetzShot 13 -- Fizzle.

Next shot: subtract another 1 ms from pre-fill, just to say I did something.
May 18 2006 12:38:41:907PM1060518014Robert GranetzShot 14 -- Plasma. Good shot, but the density is still less than we want.

Next shot: set nl_04 to 1.0e20 m-2 (in seg 3).
May 18 2006 12:59:05:593PM1060518015Robert GranetzShot 15 -- Plasma. Good shot. nl_04 is about 0.8e20 m-2.

Next shot: tweak nl_04 down to 0.95e20 m-2. Increase CLEARIN by 2 mm and RCUR by 1 mm.
May 18 2006 01:16:30:703PM1060518016Robert GranetzShot 16 -- Fizzle. Bz0 dropped by several mT.

Next shot: Raise IC_EF4 by 15 amps.
May 18 2006 01:23:58:890PM1060518017Robert GranetzShot 17 -- Fizzle. Bz0 is still very low.

Next shot: add 30 amps to IC_EF4.
May 18 2006 02:00:17:563PM1060518018Robert GranetzShot 18 -- Fizzle. F11 has a large error. It had errors reported on several
previous shots today as well.

I went into the cell after the shot and found that F11 is shorted to the vessel, which
isn't necessarily a show stopper unless there's a 2nd intermittent short, which there
may be.

Next shot: undo the 30 amp changes to IC_EF4 and see if the flux has fixed itself.
May 18 2006 02:10:38:610PM1060518019Robert GranetzShot 19 -- Plasma, but F11 goes bad around t=1 s, as seen from the EFIT errors. At the
time of the error there isn't anything obvious on the F11 signal. F11 is not
an easy measurement to mock up from its neighbors, but we're going to have to
get around this somehow.
May 18 2006 03:27:56:017PM1060518019Robert GranetzWe have confirmed that flux loop F11 is failing in an intermittent and
unpredictable fashion. We therefore have to zero it out in all the
relevant software and substitute a suitable linear combination of other
flux loops. [F12 - (F16 - F17) gives a very good approximation throughout
an entire pulse.] However, it will take several hours to install these
patches...maybe more since the last time we had to do this was six years
ago and we're rusty. So the rest of today's run is in jeopardy, and we
might need a late start tomorrow.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:57:53:063AMPlasmaOk
209:13:11:297AMPlasmaOk
309:34:40:767AMPlasmaBadShot Cycle Problem
409:54:40:690AMPlasmaBadShot cycle trouble
510:17:54:923AMPlasmaOk
610:34:44:720AMPlasmaOk
710:47:24:737AMPlasmaOk
811:00:32:737AMPlasmaOk
911:17:28:940AMPlasmaOk
1011:33:35:987AMPlasmaOk
1111:45:59:533AMPlasmaOk
1211:58:24:970AMPlasmaOk
1312:14:39:860PMPlasmaOk
1412:27:21:487PMPlasmaOk
1512:46:43:890PMPlasmaOk
1601:03:34:860PMPlasmaOk
1701:17:30:737PMPlasmaOk
1801:30:18:390PMPlasmaOk
1902:01:05:593PMPlasmaOk