Alcator C-Mod Run 930915 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:019
Date Filed: 7/22/1993
Title:Plasma current feedback control
First Author:John Goetz
Session Leader:Robert Granetz (shots 1-30)

Operators
Session leader(s):Robert Granetz
Physics operator(s):John Goetz
Engineering operator(s):Joe Daigle

Engineering Operator Run Comment
plasma run

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:08:587PM
Author: To Be Determined
Physics operator and Session leader summary for 930915

EO: Daigle
PO: Goetz
SL: Granetz

This run was based on MP019 - Plasma Current Feedback Control. The plan for
the day was to explore controller space to determine if a controller for
plasma current could be constructed. The controllers tried were: OH1 only
(shots 1-6); OH1 and the OH2's (shots 7-19); and OH1, OH2's, and EF3's (shots
20-30). The double swing capability of the supplies allowed this run to be
more successful than the previous attempts at current control. All three
controllers used showed signs of being successful.

Due to Lenz's law, the current in the coil(s) must decrease in order to raise
Ip to the programmed value and keep it there. Thus, when only OH1 was being
used to control Ip, it's current would drop substantially with respect to
the OH2's and EF1's. This resulted in the plasma elongation increasing
throughout the discharge, eventually reaching kappa=1.6 and disrupting
vertically. These disruptions are typically very fast, with many shots
having 0.8 < dIp/dt < 1.0 MA/msec today. These fast disruptions at high
currents (0.5 - 0.6 MA) caused breakdown problems on subsequent shots.
The OH2's and EF1's were added in to the Ip controller in an attempt to
reduce the growth of kappa by keeping the OH1/OH2/EF1 ratios more stable.
Due to power supply voltage limitations in EF1 (-200 volt max inversion),
the currents in that coil pair could not decrease as fast as we needed,
so we never quite got a stable kappa for an entire shot.

The plasma current was flat-topped on shots 4, 6, 7, 17, 19, 20, and 29.
A number of these discharges lasted longer than 0.75 s. The new record for
pulse length is 0.91 s, set on shot 29. The current on that one flattopped
at 0.603 MA. Shot 29 was actually long enough that the programmed
current rampdown was observed, although it terminated in a disruption halfway
down the ramp (the beginning of the rampdown was aprrox. 50
msec after the programmed time). The gain in the feedback was increased
only slightly during the day and the final value was never tested (on
shot 30) because of the radiation induced disruption that ended the
discharge early. This gain along with the ratio of OH1, OH2, and EF1
M-gains need to be explored further. Today was a very poor day for
startup, partly due to the hard disruptions and/or the vacuum cleanliness/
wall conditioning. The current rises (when they occured) were ratty and
the start times were not very reproducible. Much tweaking of the EF4 and Br_0
controllers was done. All filling and fueling was done with the A_SIDE
piezo valve.

Engineering troubles today: The STATE machine may have come out of PULSE
on shot 14 and disabled the gates to the power supplies causing single phasing
of all supplies. A tweak of the EF1 supply late in the day allowed more
voltage output and thus allowed the EF1 currents to more closely follow the
requested waveforms (although this tweak ocurred too late in the day to be
fully exploited). No vacuum troubles today, although the cleanliness was
very poor as indicated by radiated power and Zeff.

Scorecard: 30 shots = 12 plasmas + 15 fizzles + 1 system test + 2 duds

Records: Longest pulse length to date, 0.91 s on shot 29.
Most coulombs, on shot 29 (flattop Ip=0.603 MA)

Shot summary for 930915
Reload of 930914019

Changes:
RCUR from 0.69 to 0.68
IC_EF1's from 2700 to 2300 from 0.15 to 0.35
IP = 500000 from .26 to .75
IP controller consists of OH1 with a gain of -2.6e-4; P gain = 2 @ 0.15
PULSE_GAS_3 waveform doing all the fueling

1 P_0=1.2e-5 (from A_SIDE) fizzle
2 P_IP=1 fizzle
3 S_BR_0=9e-3 (from 7.5) plasma
4 PULSE_GAS_3 lowered early in time plasma
5 IC_EF1's to 2100 @ .15 and 1800 @ .35; increase PULSE_GAS_3 fizzle
6 P_0=1.3e-5 plasma
7 P_0=1.4e-5 add OH2's to IP controller; M=-5.2e-5 plasma
8 P_0=1.5e-5 IC_EF1's = 1500 @ .35 and 0 @ .8 fizzle
9 P_0=1.3e-5 fizzle
10 P_0=1.2e-5 move PULSE_GAS_3 waveform to +2msec fizzle
11 IC_EF4 to 1000 from 1050 @0. move PULSE_GAS_3 waveform to 0. fizzle
12 IC_EF4 to 1090 from 1000 @ 0. plasma
13 IC_EF4 to 1075 move PULSE_GAS_3 to +5msec and lower to 45V fizzle
14 IC_EF4 to 1090 dud
15 test of STATE info test
16 try again fizzle
17 P_0=1.1e-5 load PULSE_GAS_3 from 007 plasma
18 P_0=1.2e-5 IC_EF1's 1400@.4 & -1000@.8 S_IP=650000 fizzle
19 P_0=1.1e-5 plasma
20 P_0=1.3e-5 add EF1's to IP controller M=-1.7e-4; P_IP=2@.5 plasma
21 V_EF1's to -100 from .35 to .8 P_IP=2 @.15 more early fuel fizzle
22 IC_EF1 to 500A @ .4 increase EF1's in M_IP to -3.4e-4 fizzle
23 P_0=1.1e-5 plasma
24 IC_EF4 to 1060A reload PULSE_GAS_3 from 020 dud
25 IC_EF4 to 1040A P_0=1.3e-5 fizzle
26 S_BR_0 = 7.5e-3 P_BR_0=1 P_0=1.2e-5 fizzle
27 S_BR_0=8.0e-3 IC_EF4=1020 plasma
28 lower fueling (60 to 40) fizzle
29 raise fueling (to 50) start at .02 plasma
30 V_EF1 @-100 to 1. sec IC_EF1 to -2000A IP=750000 P_IP to 3 plasma

Physics Operator Summaries

Session Leader Comments
Sep 15 1993 09:25:00:120AM930915001Robert GranetzStart with the last shot of yesterday, except enable Ip feedback using OH1
only in the controller, and reduce EF1's so that plasma is not extremely
elongated. Gas programming is done using the A-side fast valve only.

Sep 15 1993 09:27:26:520AM930915001Robert GranetzFizzle. Vacuum fields were fair. OH1 tried to get 0.5 MA of plasma current
by dropping its current to -20 kA. This caused the OH2's to increase to about
+25 kA. For the next shot, reduce gain on Ip feedback to 1 (it was 2 for this
shot). No other changes. I assume that the fizzle was due to wall conditions.

Sep 15 1993 09:48:55:770AM930915002Robert GranetzAnother fizzle. There is a radial field of -1.5 mT, which will be corrected
for the next shot. There is also some discrepancy in the reconstructed
vacuum flux between Ian's and Steve Wolfe's analyses.

Sep 15 1993 10:02:09:950AM930915003Robert GranetzPlasma, but pretty ugly. Ip=0.2 MA, duration=0.24 s, ending with a disruption.
Presumably the gas puffing is too high, since the density reached nl=5e19 by
t=0.1 s. For the next shot, the early gas puff will be reduced from 60 to
40 volts.

Sep 15 1993 10:19:25:200AM930915004Robert GranetzGood shot. Ip=0.5 MA (actually 0.484 MA, flattopped), duration=0.63 s.
The plasma becomes very elongated (kappa=1.6) and disrupts vertically upward
at 0.635 s. There were a lot of hard x-rays starting at 0.1 s. For the
next shot, reduce EF1 currents by about 3 kA from 0.25 s onward. Also
increase gas puff.

Sep 15 1993 10:32:17:880AM930915004Robert GranetzThe vertical disruption was quite fast...dI/dt=-0.78 MA/ms.

Sep 15 1993 10:34:45:080AM930915005Robert GranetzFizzle (post-disruption fizzle). We should have remembered to increase the
pre-fill slightly. For the next shot, increase it from 1.2 to 1.3e-5 torr.
There seems to be a problem with the interferometer data acquisition.

Sep 15 1993 11:00:04:490AM930915006Robert GranetzIp=0.45 MA, disrupted vertically at 0.54 s. Hard x-rays were nearly gone.
Elongation still reached 1.6. This might be due to having only OH1 in the
Ip controller, which causes the ratio of OH2/OH1 to climb. For the next
shot, include the OH2's in the Ip controller at a value equal to the turns
ratio for M. Also increase the pre-fill from 1.3 to 1.4e-5 because of the
disruption on this shot.

Sep 15 1993 11:15:12:440AM930915007Robert GranetzGood shot. Ip=0.50 MA with good flattop. Ended in a disruption at 0.58 s,
again due to kappa getting up to 1.6. This time, however, it took much
longer for kappa to get to that value, so including the OH2's in the Ip
controller worked. Now the problem seems to be due to the EF1's. For the
next shot, instead of including the EF1's in the Ip controller, let's just
program their demand currents down by about 1 kA later in the shot. Also
increase the pre-fill again from 1.4 to 1.5e-5 (because of the disruption
on this shot), and increase the early gas puffing as well (there were lots
of hard x-rays on this shot).

Sep 15 1993 11:17:20:090AM930915007Robert GranetzThere was no EFC on this shot. Vertical position seemed to be okay until
kappa got close to 1.6.

Sep 15 1993 11:18:04:650AM930915008Robert GranetzFizzle. For the next shot, reduce the pre-fill from 1.5 to 1.3e-5.

Sep 15 1993 11:37:23:890AM930915009Robert GranetzFizzle again. Null seems to be acceptable. For the next shot, reduce
pre-fill again from 1.3 to 1.2e-5, and also undo some of the recent pulse
gas programming changes.

Sep 15 1993 11:47:14:820AM930915010Robert GranetzFizzle. Vertical field at breakdown was +2 mT, so for the next shot, reduce
EF4 current by 50 amps (from 1050 to 1000 A).

Sep 15 1993 11:48:30:370AM930915010Robert GranetzAlso for the next shot, re-install the small gas puff changes, on the
assumption that the previous fizzles were not due to gas, but rather to
the Bz error.

Sep 15 1993 12:06:06:770PM930915011Robert GranetzFizzle again. Not a good looking null, although Bz did drop by 2 mT. Well,
since we don't know what we're doing, let's try increasing Bz by 2 mT instead
(i.e. add about 4 mT from where we are now). For the next shot, EF4 will
be increased from 1000 to 1090 A.

Sep 15 1993 12:17:10:330PM930915012Robert GranetzPlasma, but pretty ugly...very disruptive and short. Ip=0.24 MA,
duration=0.3 s. Density was quite high early on. For the next shot, reduce
the gas puffing. Also reduce EF4 from 1090 to 1075. Leave the pre-fill
at 1.2e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 12:32:33:900PM930915013Robert GranetzFizzle. Must have been the 15 amp change in EF4? For the next shot, add the
15 amps back to EF4 (from 1075 to 1090 A). Leave gas programming the same.

Sep 15 1993 01:00:00:420PM930915014Robert GranetzTF started single phasing before t=0, and then crowbarred at t=0. There was
a weird sound in the power room, apparently due to the TF single phasing.
All other supplies shutdown at the TF crowbar, but no breakers came out.
Many diagnostics had camac which didn't trigger, including the engineering
stuff, the hybrid, and many DAQ1 things. The hybrid output voltages may
have also been screwed up.

Sep 15 1993 01:24:32:380PM930915014Robert GranetzApparently the state PLC changed to RECOOL in the middle of PULSE, causing a
loss of the enable bit to all the supplies.

Sep 15 1993 01:27:23:410PM930915015Robert GranetzTest shot without alternator power. Everything seems to be okay.

Sep 15 1993 01:49:41:240PM930915016Robert GranetzFizzle. Null is acceptable. For the next shot tweak the pre-fill down from
1.2 to 1.1e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 01:52:50:160PM930915016Robert GranetzThe pulse gas programming for shot 007 will be copied and used for the
next shot.

Sep 15 1993 02:09:57:800PM930915017Robert GranetzFinally, a plasma. And a good one too! Ip=0.50 MA, duration=0.81 s, a
new pulse length record! The plasma still disrupts vertically due to
the gradually increasing kappa. No density on this shot.

For the next shot:
a) Decrease EF1 currents by 1000 A (at 0.8 s, programming will be changed
from 0 to -1000 A, at 0.4 s no change).
b) Increase Ip demand from 0.50 to 0.65 MA
c) Increase pre-fill from 1.1 to 1.2e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 02:20:49:620PM930915018Robert GranetzFizzle. Usual after a big disruption. For the next shot, just reduce the
pre-fill from 1.2 to 1.1e-5 (it's like popping bubble sheet...it just makes
us feel better).

Sep 15 1993 02:38:51:000PM930915019Robert GranetzGood shot, Ip=0.53 MA, duration=0.795 s. Ended with a vertical disruption.
EF1 doesn't seem to follow its current programming very well. Hard x-rays
were not too bad on that shot. For the next shot: put EF1 into the Ip
controller, at its turns ratio. Increase pre-fill to 1.3e-5. Increase
the PID gain on Ip from 1 to 2 at t=0.5 s.

P.S. The EFC faulted out at 0.78 s, which is then quickly followed by the
vertical disruption (kappa=1.6+ during that time).

Sep 15 1993 02:55:28:730PM930915020Robert GranetzGood shot. Ip=0.56 MA, duration=0.78 s. Still ends with a vertical disruption
due to kappa=1.6. Hard x-rays are not too bad after 0.2 s. Plasma was
disruptive before 0.2 s. For the next shot, decrease the EF1 voltage
pre-programming by 100 volts from t=0.35 to 0.80 s. Change the PID gain
on Ip from 1 to 2 for the entire shot (not just after 0.5 s). Increase gas
puffing a little during the first 0.25 s.

Sep 15 1993 03:13:24:770PM930915020Robert GranetzVery fast disruption...dI/dt=-0.97 MA/ms !

Sep 15 1993 03:08:09:340PM930915021Robert GranetzFizzle. Post-disruption fizzle? Leave the gas and pre-fill the same for
the next shot. Also for the next shot: decrease EF1 current demand from
1400 to 500 amps at 0.4 s, and double the EF1 controller M value.

Sep 15 1993 03:15:22:030PM930915022Robert GranetzAnother fizzle. EF1 is still not behaving properly. For the next shot,
just decrease the pre-fill from 1.3 to 1.1e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 03:30:55:370PM930915023Robert GranetzUgly and short. For the next shot, re-load gas programming from shot 20,
and decrease EF4 current from 1090 to 1060 amps (to satisfy Ian's complaints
about the breakdown occurring 4 msec too late.

Sep 15 1993 03:41:41:520PM930915024Robert GranetzNo breakdown at all. For the next shot, increase the pre-fill to 1.3e-5 from
1.1e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 03:57:33:510PM930915025Robert GranetzFizzle. For next shot, change Br gain from 3 to 1 in order to modify a
1 mT field during breakdown. Also reduce pre-fill from 1.3 to 1.2e-5 torr.

Sep 15 1993 04:13:17:760PM930915026Robert GranetzFizzle. On the next shot, bring Bz down by another 1 mT, using EF4.

Sep 15 1993 04:27:27:200PM930915027Robert GranetzUgly and short. For the next shot, reduce the gas puff a little.

Sep 15 1993 04:35:43:670PM930915028Robert GranetzFizzle. No changes for the next shot.

Sep 15 1993 04:55:06:160PM930915029Robert GranetzGreat shot. Ipmax=0.60 MA, duration=0.91 s, a new pulse length record!
Current started ramping down at 0.8 s and got about halfway down before
a vertical disruption. Kappa is still going to 1.6 late in the shot.
For the next shot, extend voltage programming and current programming on
EF1 to 1.1 s, and decrease EF1 current from -1 kA to -2 kA. Also increase
Ip demand from 0.65 to 0.75 MA, add 100 ms to the rampup time for Ip, and
increase the Ip PID gain from 2 to 3.

Sep 15 1993 05:00:22:630PM930915030Robert GranetzPlasma, but not very long. Ip=0.48 MA, duration=0.28 s. Not a fast
disruption. There might have been a radiated power problem. Last shot
of the day.

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
109:15:10:400AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
209:28:18:180AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
309:48:43:520AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot O.K. OH1 More than one not conducting Fault.
410:04:02:630AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
510:23:33:670AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
610:36:50:700AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot good TF c-bar fault at end of flattop.
710:57:22:530AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults
811:13:29:070AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot good.
911:26:34:440AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot good
1011:40:59:830AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot Fizzle
1111:55:10:270AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
1212:08:42:630PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot Good TF c-bar fault at end of flattop.
1312:27:18:930PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot good
1412:41:25:900PMPlasmaBadall supplies single phased.
1501:22:03:800PMTestOkdata system test may have changed state atwrong time.
1601:41:02:000PMPlasmaOkno faults
1701:54:24:440PMPlasmaOkno faults 800msec plasma
1802:11:34:920PMPlasmaOkplasma -- oh1 >1scr not conducting late in the shot
1902:21:58:040PMPlasmaOkGood Shot
2002:40:34:680PMPlasmaOkNo Faults
2102:57:14:390PMPlasmaOkplasma shot good
2203:10:36:630PMPlasmaOkplasma shot good
2303:21:40:590PMPlasmaOkplasma shot good
2403:34:45:140PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot fizzle
2503:47:17:340PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot O.K.
2604:01:32:060PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
2704:15:42:570PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot No faults.
2804:28:56:200PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
2904:41:27:650PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot O.K.
3004:56:02:990PMPlasmaOkgood