Alcator C-Mod Run 1060524 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:452a
Date Filed: 4/14/2006
Title:Reversed field pedestal studies
First Author:Jerry Hughes
Session Leader:Jerry Hughes (shots 4-19)

Operators
Session leader(s):Jerry Hughes
Physics operator(s):Joseph Snipes
Engineering operator(s):Andy Pfeiffer,Bill Parkin

Engineering Operator Run Comment
MP452: Reversed field pedestal studies SL: Hughes PO: Snipes

Session Leader Plans
Entered: May 23 2006 05:27:15:610PM
Author: Jerry Hughes
Session leader run plan for 1060524
MP452: Reversed field pedestal studies
SL: Hughes
PO: Snipes

The goal for this experiment is to acquire and characterize H-modes
and pedestals with the direction of field and current reversed, in
order to make a comparison with similar discharges in the normal
configuration. We will attempt to run a range of currents and
densities in this configuration, tracking pedestal parameters (both
dimensional and dimensionless), confinement and edge fluctuations. How
these quantities differ between forward and reversed field will be
studied and analyzed.

SETUP:

*Required diagnostics: Edge and core Thomson, ECE diagnostics, CXRS,
visible continuum, bolometer arrays, PCI, fast D-alpha diodes, Hirex,
NeSoX.

*Overnight boronization required, same prescription as before 1060509.

*RF will require power room access by 06:00 in order to begin a
boronization recovery recipe consisting of: 1.) vacuum tune, 2.)
multipactor conditioning of J antenna, 3.) re-tune to vacuum and 4.)
vacuum conditioning with RF pulses. A ~1-hour run delay is possible.

*Gas:
--NINJA plenum loaded with 10psi D2
--Argon/Neon puff: 50ms at 0.3s (Neon at 2psi, Argon at 1psi)


Tentative shot sequence (subject to change, depending on how the run
is going):

1. Begin by loading 1060519008 (5.4T, 0.8MA rev.; nl04~1e20). Start
bringing up RF power, while increasing elongation of plasma from
1.55 to 1.65. (~3 shots)

2. When RF is working, and shape is matched, begin power end density
scans:
A. Apply RF power ramp from 2.5MW up to maximum available to find
approximate power threshold. (1 shot with an H-mode)
B. Use a staircase waveform for RF, stepping power up from just
above the threshold power to the maximum available. This should
give some collisionality variation at the given target. (~2
shots with good H-modes)

2. Repeat step 2 with a target nl04 of 1.3e20m^-2, then with
nl04~0.7e20m^-2. (~6 shots)

3. Make Ip=1.2MA. Repeat step 2 with target nl04 of 1.7, 1.3 and
0.9e20m^-2. (~9 shots)

4. Make Ip=0.5MA. Repeat step 2 with target nl04 of 0.8, 0.6 and
0.4e10m^-2. (~9 shots)


Physics Operators Plans
Entered: May 23 2006 12:26:13:720PM
Author: Joseph Snipes
Physop plan and engineering setup for Wednesday, May 24

MP452: Reversed field pedestal studies
SL: Hughes
PO: Snipes

Overnight boronization.
*********************************************************
* NOTE: PEI Sweep limited to <80cm *
*********************************************************
20% B2D6 / 80% He 6L bottle.
vessel temperature at 60/60/60.
60 psi to be deposited.
PEI setting to 44/70/80 (Rmin/Rres/Rmax) with no pulser.
Gas Pressures: TC3/TC6/TC9/TC6Request = [4 to 7]/150/95/150
Follow boronization with 4 hours ECDC in helium.

RF will require power room access by 06:00 in order to begin a
boronization recovery recipe consisting of: 1.) vacuum tune, 2.)
multipactor conditioning of J antenna, 3.) re-tune to vacuum and 4.)
vacuum conditioning with RF pulses. A ~1-hour run delay is possible.

Engineering setup:
-------------------
Power system setup as on 1060519008

Gas Setup:
fill B-Top with 6 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG4)
fill B-side lower with 1 psi Ar + 2 psi Ne Hybrid enabled (PG1)
leave B-side upper with 15psi He3. Hybrid enabled (PG2)
fill B-main with 40 psi D2 Hybrid enabled (PG3)
fill NINJA with 10psi D2 (Disable)

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

FMIT#1,2,3,4 in Run-on by 8:30AM; turn on earlier if requested by RF

Run Plan:
---------------------
Start from 1060519008, LSN with NL04=1.0 x 10^20 m^-2.
The starting shot may change if a better shot is found on 1060523.
Attempt to run a range of currents and densities at 5.4 T monitoring edge pedestals
and looking for H-mode thresholds with the ion grad B drift direction away from
the X point. See the Session Leader Run Plan for details.

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: May 24 2006 05:32:23:197PM
Author: Jerry Hughes
MP452: Reversed field pedestal studies
SL: Hughes
PO: Snipes

The goal for this experiment was to acquire and characterize H-modes
and pedestals with the direction of field and current reversed, in
order to make a comparison with similar discharges in the normal
configuration. A range of currents and densities was proposed, in
which we would track pedestal parameters (both dimensional and
dimensionless), confinement and edge fluctuations.

This was only a half-day run, due to an alternator system repair,
along with ECDC following a leak, as well as RF vacuum conditioning
for boronization recovery. Oh, and there was a stuck gas valve. First
plasma attempt was at 13:00. Time remaining allowed us to get through
only steps 1 and 2 of the run plan.

There were initially several fizzles, with a plasma mixed in,
presumably as part of boronization recovery. Also, there were subtle
difficulties with startup, and pesky MARFEs in the early phase of some
discharges, of the type seen in reversed field configuration lately
(in particular on 1060519). With some tweaks, the PO got a number of
shots without MARFEs and matched the elongation of 1060523013 (a USN
shot) and RF was brought up to full power. Later in the day,
injections disrupted several plasmas. These occurred both with and
without RF.

H-mode access required >3MW of ICRF, which was hard to come
by. Outgassing from the antennas was observed to fuel the plasma,
further hindering L-H transitions via density rise. This effect was
observed all day. H-modes were obtained on shots 14, 18, and 19. Most
were not sustained, since the L-H transition tended to drop the RF
out. The longest was on shot 19, and showed a hint of a fluctuation in
the right frequency range to be the QCM. Radiated power, though rising
in the H-mode, stayed relatively low. If we are able to keep RF on at
the 2--3MW level during H-mode, we could likely produce useful results
in this configuration.



Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: May 24 2006 05:08:11:337PM
Author: Joseph Snipes
The run started just after noon due to repairs on the alternator. Then, there were problems with the main gas
valve that cost us another hour or so. Finally, when we did get running, there were a number of fizzles
probably due mostly to too little gas, but some tweaks in Bz and Br also seemed to help. Once the startup was
tuned up, we had reasonably good plasmas as the RF tuned its way up to 3.5 MW. There were a few brief H-modes
so that some data toward the expected physics results of the MP were obtained, but longer duration H-modes
are required to get good Thomson pedestal data. The last shot was perhaps the best with the longest H-mode,
but there were runaways from the very beginning for some reason. The last five shots all disrupted in the
flattop apparently due to moly injections. Attempts to raise the density slightly and increase the outer gap
slightly did not seem to help much, though the disruptions were later in the last two shots near the end of
the flattop.

Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax(MA),Result Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax,Result
| 01 0.000 0.002 Test | 02 0.000 0.002 Test |
| 03 0.000 0.002 Test | 04 0.000 0.023 Fizzle |
| 05 1.681 0.793 Plasma | 06 0.000 0.039 Fizzle |
| 07 0.000 0.029 Fizzle | 08 0.000 0.023 Fizzle |
| 09 1.853 0.809 Plasma | 10 1.872 0.819 Plasma |
| 11 1.809 0.814 Plasma | 12 1.674 0.817 Plasma |
| 13 1.735 0.821 Plasma | 14 1.788 0.832 Plasma |
| 15 0.774 0.845 Plasma | 16 0.587 0.827 Plasma |
| 17 0.788 0.887 Plasma | 18 1.451 0.835 Plasma |
| 19 1.486 0.829 Plasma
Date 1060524: 19 shots. 12 plasmas. 4 fizzles. 3 tests. 0 System Error.
(Plasma = Ip gt 50.0 kA Dud = H_alpha lt 0.40 V)
Total plasma duration: 17.50 s (exceeding 100 kA)

Session Leader Comments
May 24 2006 12:56:22:480PMJerry HughesLong delay today due to alternator repair. Then gas valve problmes, again.
Then RF conditioning.
May 24 2006 01:18:24:883PM1060524004Jerry HughesFizzle.
May 24 2006 01:29:05:370PM1060524005Jerry HughesNot a fizzle. The MARFE that has been starting around 400ms in these reversed
field shots (last week and this week) is sutained throughout most of the
discharge. RF is not able to come up and blow it away as it did, for example, on
1060523014 or 1060519008. Joe will lower the gas on the next shot.
May 24 2006 01:40:40:197PM1060524006Jerry HughesFizzle
May 24 2006 01:52:39:713PM1060524007Jerry HughesFizzle
May 24 2006 02:07:59:557PM1060524008Jerry HughesFizzle
May 24 2006 02:25:28:947PM1060524009Jerry HughesWe got plasma. The MARFE rears its head, then dies after <100ms.
Shape match to the (reflected) USN shot 1060523013 is now quite good.
Keep this target and try to bring RF up.
May 24 2006 02:50:00:603PM1060524011Jerry HughesPlasma. MARFE from 480--720ms, going away when RF comes on.
Getting RF power up, but still numerous faults in RF.
Next shot: Repeat, try to get better RF. Joe is relaxing the programmed
rate-of-rise on the density further.
May 24 2006 03:01:43:493PM1060524012Jerry HughesPlasma. A good non-MARFEing shot, with a cleaner RF trace.
RF ramps from 2--3MW, with some faults. No H-mode yet, though.
Edge Te rises very little during RF, probably because there is a
lot of fueling from the antennas.
Next shot: RF will try for more power.
May 24 2006 03:45:07:620PM1060524013Jerry HughesPlasma. Higher RF power, with faults.
Cell access to pull back the LH grill, which is lighting up rather brightly
at the probe tips. The glowing probes seem to have got brighter as we increased
power into the plasma. The spectroscopists in the back report levels of Mn on
the increase. Mn?
Next shot: RF will try for more power.
May 24 2006 03:56:01:633PM1060524014Jerry HughesPlasma. Short H-modes. nl04 at the transition is about 1.3e20, sue to RF
outgassing. Having Joe lower the traget density for next shot to try to get this
down.
Next shot: Lower nl04. RF will try to get smoother power trace.
May 24 2006 04:12:26:307PM1060524015Jerry HughesPlasma, disrupting at 0.76s. Injection seems to have killed this one.
The nl04 trace looks pretty reasonable.
Next shot: Repeat.
May 24 2006 04:25:01:620PM1060524016Jerry HughesBig disruption and spark shower, before RF fires. Not something you like to see.
Next shot: Retry, except Joe has tweaked nl04 program from 8 to 9e19.
May 24 2006 04:41:16:870PM1060524017Jerry HughesAnother disruption, during RF.
Next shot: Have RF ramp up a little more gently. No idea whether this will help.
May 24 2006 04:49:34:213PM1060524018Jerry HughesDoesn't disrupt so early. H-mode from 0.81--0.90s. Unfortunately, the
RF is unhappy with the H-mode, and so we can't sustain it.
Next shot: RF will improve their tune into H-mode on D+E.
May 24 2006 05:07:32:400PM1060524019Jerry HughesRF delivered what they promised: relatively clean D+E and loss of J during the
H-mode. But, the H-mode was sustained much longer. There is a hint of
something QCM-like in freq. on the PCI from 0.92--0.96s.
Last shot.

Physics Operator Comments
May 24 2006 09:13:03:500AMJoseph SnipesAlternator repair still underway. We expect to begin running around 12:30 pm.
May 24 2006 12:03:10:540PM1060524001Joseph SnipesShot 1: Gas test shot.
May 24 2006 12:18:02:790PM1060524002Joseph SnipesShot 2: Gas test shot now with a proper test puff on PG3 B-side main at 100 V between -1 and -0.9 s with all
other gas valves disabled and the DNB gate valve off. No gas. Need to get the valve to open. Cell access.
May 24 2006 12:34:20:120PM1060524003Joseph SnipesShot 3: Another gas test shot with PG3 only and 100 ms 100 V puff at -1 s. Got gas. The valve now works after
Tommy Toland went in and zapped it with his power supply.
May 24 2006 01:05:43:820PM1060524004Joseph SnipesShot 4: Loaded shot 1060519008 and modified ZCUR to shift it up 2 mm at 0.5 s, the same at 0.9 s and down
2 mm at 1.5 s ramping from -0.007 to -0.013 cm between 0.5 and 1.5 s. Ramped ZXL down between 0.5 and 1.5 s
from -.001 to -0.009 m to shift ZXL down 5 mm at 0.9 s. Changed nl04 to 1 x 10^20 m^-2. Fizzle.
May 24 2006 01:30:43:213PM1060524005Joseph SnipesShot 5: Increased prepuff by 5 ms to 22 ms duration. Good shot. MARFEing throughout. Too much gas.
May 24 2006 01:46:38:383PM1060524006Joseph SnipesShot 6: Fizzle.
May 24 2006 01:51:24:400PM1060524007Joseph SnipesShot 7: Reduced rate of rise of the density to attempt to eliminate the MARFE. Increased ramp rate of ZXL
to decrease the bottom gap to compensate for the ramp in bottom gap. I also increased the ramp on ZCUR. Added
2 ms to the prepuff to make it 24 ms duration. Decreased EF4 current by 10 A to 1320 A. Fizzle.
May 24 2006 02:04:37:963PM1060524008Joseph SnipesShot 8: Reduced Br0 by 0.5 mT to -0.5 mT. Increased EF4 current by 20 A to 1340 A. Fizzle!
May 24 2006 02:18:39:667PM1060524009Joseph SnipesShot 9: Removed Br0 offset back to 0. Increased prepuff by 3 ms to 27 ms duration. Good shot.
May 24 2006 02:30:06:353PM1060524010Joseph SnipesShot 10: Repeat. Good shot.
May 24 2006 02:44:19:603PM1060524011Joseph SnipesShot 11: Reduced prepuff by 2 ms to 25 ms duration. Good shot.
May 24 2006 02:55:18:993PM1060524012Joseph SnipesShot 12: Reduced prepuff by 2 ms to 23 ms duration. Reduced rate of rise of the density to try to eliminate
the MARFE. Good shot.
May 24 2006 03:33:16:197PM1060524013Joseph SnipesShot 13: Repeat. Good shot. LH grill is glowing after the shot and the glow duration increases with ICRF
power. Brief cell access to pull the LH grill back to 1605 from 1585.
May 24 2006 03:46:41:260PM1060524014Joseph SnipesShot 14: Repeat. Good shot.
May 24 2006 04:13:51:090PM1060524015Joseph SnipesShot 15: Reduced nl04 to 8 x 10^19 m^-2. Disrupted at 0.74 s. Big Moly injection.
May 24 2006 04:18:15:197PM1060524016Joseph SnipesShot 16: Increased prepuff by 2 ms to 25 ms duration. Increased Br0 by 0.2 mT to 0.2 mT. Disrupted
at 0.58 s.
May 24 2006 04:31:19:840PM1060524017Joseph SnipesShot 17: Raised nl04 to 9 x 10^19 m^-2. Disrupted at 0.78 s. This does not look good.
May 24 2006 04:48:52:103PM1060524018Joseph SnipesShot 18: Reduced RCUR by 1.5 mm to increase the outer gap. Disrupted at 1.44 s.
May 24 2006 04:59:34:180PM1060524019Joseph SnipesShot 19: Repeat. Lots of runaways from the getgo. Still, it was otherwise a decent shot with 2.5 MW of RF
briefly then a long period of 2 MW. H-mode from 0.85 to 1.02 s. Disrupted at 1.48 s.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
112:03:31:447PMTestBadgas test
212:15:07:697PMTestBadB Main gas
312:29:41:993PMTestOkGas B Main
401:04:08:417PMTestOk
501:17:20:353PMPlasmaOk
601:37:00:947PMPlasmaOk
701:49:52:930PMPlasmaOk
802:03:01:010PMPlasmaOk
902:15:43:760PMPlasmaOk
1002:28:28:713PMPlasmaOk
1102:40:55:680PMPlasmaOk
1202:53:37:213PMPlasmaOk
1303:13:18:993PMPlasmaOk
1403:40:33:527PMPlasmaOk
1504:00:25:087PMPlasmaOk
1604:14:45:197PMPlasmaOk
1704:28:33:697PMPlasmaOk
1804:41:56:087PMPlasmaOk
1904:54:51:307PMPlasmaOk