Alcator C-Mod Run 931006 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Yuichi Takase (shots 1-26)

Operators
Session leader(s):Yuichi Takase
Physics operator(s):Steve Golovato
Engineering operator(s):Joe Daigle

Engineering Operator Run Comment
Plasma run

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:09:053PM
Author: To Be Determined
931006
RF Coupling/Heating

SL: Takase
PO: Golovato
EO: Daigle

Objective:
1. Raise injected rf power
2. Explore heating once appropriate power level (comparable to OH) is reached

Loaded 931005028 with TF flattop extended to 1sec.
R_lim=93, R_ant=95

Shot Comments

001 Good shot, but plasma dies outward (nice position scan on loading)
002 Disrupted @ 0.45sec
003 Fizzle
004 Fizzle
005 Early disruption
006 Dud
007 Dud
008 Early disruption
009 Fizzle
010 Fizzle
011 Dud
012 Dud
013 Dud (no rf)
014 Early disruption (no rf)
015 Good shot (no rf)
016 Early disruption (rf on)
017 Fizzle
018 Early disruption
019 Disrupt @ 0.23sec
020 Good shot! Peak rf power = 150kW
021 Good shot again. Peak rf power = 180kW
022 Fizzle
023 Good shot, peak rf power = 300kW
024 Good shot, peak rf power = 360kW
025 Disrupted @ 0.86sec, peak rf power = 440kW
026 Fizzle

The first shot of the day was OK, but we lost most of today trying to
figure out the changes that appeared in the controllers. (see the
physics operator's summary for details.) We got the plasma back on
shot 020, and had a total of 6 good shots (001, 020, 021, 023, 024, 025).
We made good progress on objective #1, but none on objective #2.
Without any attempt for optimization, we were able to exceed the
previous power record (250kW) set in August by a substantial amount.
Disruptive behavior that was observed at a 100kW power level during the
last couple of weeks (with the limiter and antenna farther in) was not
observed today. At higher power levels there were definite signs of
increased impurity (C, Mo) and deuterium influx, but the radiated power
increase was of the order of 1/4 of the injected rf power increase,
even at the highest power level (over 400kW on shot 025). This is
a very encouraging result, and we plan to optimize limiter/antenna
positions and start looking for heating effects.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:50:427PM
Author: To Be Determined

Physics Operator Run Log - 931006 - Golovato
--------------------------------------------

Pre-run Comments
----------------
Starting with shot 931005028 from yesterday, an elongated, diverted shot
which had good inner and outer gaps. Want to maintain outer gap to
try to recover good icrf power and impurity results from 930819 run.
Limiter at 93cm, antenna at 95cm, these are 1cm further out than in
august. Starting in pure D, will add H minority later.

Keeping TF flat top to 1 sec rather than ramping down as yesterday.

Have D in a-side on v14 (PG3), H in b-side-upper on v16 (PG2), and Ar in
b-side-lower on v15 (PG1).

Plasmas in august were limited, may want to try this if we still have
problems gettign power up. Also may want somewhat less elongated if
icrf triggers disruptions.

2 hours of ECDC in D from 6-8am preceeded run.

B and I still reversed as yesterday.

Vessel at 35C.

Shot Log
--------
ECE valve enabled.

1. Fill at 1.2e-5 of D. Loaded shot 931005028, last good plasma shot from
yesterday. Good plasma but ef3s cut out early, at 730ms. ohs
response to maintain r_cur also brings down ip, leading to a
smooth though early conclusion of the shot. Edge tree not included
in this abd next shot. TV now views moly light, showed limiter
light up as plasma moved out at end of shot.

McPherson, moly monitor, cx valves enabled.

2. Not clear why ef3s worked wrongly, but it didn't appear to be the hybrid.
Ran same shot again. Disrupted at 500ms when chopper tripped out.
Get growing oscillation in z starting at 300ms leading to disruption.

3. Raised proportional gain in slow (non-chopper) z control. Chopper
was at rail in last shot trying to maintain z position. Fizzled
as usual after a disruption.

4. Changed offset on Br_0 from -3e-3 to -2.5e-3, Br a little too negative
at breakdown. Shot 3 had late breakdown. Try again. Fizzled again.

5. Lowered fill to 1.1e-5, risking a dud. Br is about -2e-3 today, was
around 0. yesterday for same settings. Not clear why it is
different nor if it is cause of fizzles. The fizzles have had
very late breakdowns (at 15ms). Shot 931005028 broke down at 6-7ms.
Got good breakdown and current ramp to 200ka, when it went into the
inner wall at 65ms. Had runaways.

6. Raised fill back to 1.2e-5. Dud. The hybrid needs fixing. Steves
Horne and Wolfe will do it. Something which is left over from
monday disk crash. We can't tweak correctly to get things like
breakdwon right until this is done.

7. Changed Br_0 offset from -2.5e-2 to -2e-3. Changed r_cur offset from
10000 to 12850, which caused factor to be applied consistently.
Dud.

8. Raised fill to 1.3e-5, raised Br_0 offset to -1e-3. Looks like shot
5, disrupted at 200ka, 75ms. Looks like it moves up first then in.

9. Moved pulsed gas earlier by 3ms. Fizzled. Try tweaking null.

10. Raised ef4 30a (2mT) to raise Bz by 2mT, raised Br_0 offset to 0.
Fizzled. Bz, Br_0 overdone, move back halfway.

11. Lower fill to 1.2e-5, move pulsed gas later by 3ms. Lowered Bz 15a (1mT),
lowered Br_0 to -5.e-4. Dud, probably overdid lowering the gas.

12. Reloaded shot 1, which is the only configuration that ran so far,
shot 2 was a repeat of shot 1. Dud.

13. Raised the fill to 1.3e-5, turned off rf. rf discharges on duds and
fizzles may have an effect (i.e., gettering). Dud.

14. Changed offset on Br_0 from -3e-3 to -2e-3, raised fill to 1.4e-5.
Tuning fields to improve null, raising gas to get at least a fizzle.
Got a short 200ka shot, like 5 and 8. Plasma moves up then in.

15. Reapplied factor for r_cur so it is consistent (quoth Wolfe).
Good shot, finally. But why???? Ran out to 1.2s.

PHA argon puff enabled.

16. Another 200ka early disruption. Lost up before chopper even comes on.

17. Increase oh2u voltage, more positive current, which pushes plasma
down (plasma current negative). Moved point at 50ms to 0 from -10.
A real fizzle. Perhaps too much fill.

18. Lower fill to 1.3e-5. Another 200ka early loss up. This problem is
still not fixed. z_cur feedback is railed, therefore have
no vertical control.

19. Problem is offset in z_cur of order 5000. Not sure what sign correction
should be, trying +5000 first in slow z_cur. Better, runs to 500ka,
230ms.

20. Correcting both z_cur's by +7000. Also removing change in oh2u, going
from 0 to -10 at 50ms. Good plasma again.

21. No changes except more rf power. Good again.

22. Adding H puff, 100v from 422-452ms. Fizzle.

23. Lower fill to 1.2e-5. Good shot.

24. Yes. Another good shot.

25. Three in a row. One more shot to go. Disrupted at 850ms.

26. Ramping the current slightly through shot to fight slight droop.
Fizzled, should have lowered fill.


Shot Scorecard
--------------
Duds 5
Fizzles 7
Plasmas 14
(7 good plasmas, 5 lack of z_cur control, 2 in-between)

Post-run Comments
-----------------
The lack of consistent operation turned out to be an offset in the z_cur
and r_cur feedback which was not noticed until shot 19. This may have always
been there, but with the fields reversed the effect was reversed. That is,
the offset now tells the controller to move the plasma up even when it is
already high (positive feedback). The plasma had to get pretty high and/or
the cuurent had to rise sufficiently fast for the error to overcome this
offset and pull the plasma back down. This led to 5 shots
that died at 200ka, at around 70ms. Sometimes it managed to hold the plasma,
as in shots 1, and 15 (shot 15 did have a slightly faster current rise).
Shots 2 and 19 may have been in-between cases, being lost about 500ms.
Once we corrected this, much more consistent operation resulted.
The problems with fizzles and duds early on were from
wild goose chases trying to fix things. When things aren't going well,
there's no shortage of ideas (usually conflicting) of what to do.
The gas fill is running higher than last week, 1.2-1.4e-5 worked this run,
although 1.4e-5 was eventually too high and perhaps 1.1e-5 on the last shot
might have recovered us from the preceeding disruption. We need to share
information and arrive at a strategy to recover from disruptions.


Session Leader Comments
Oct 6 1993 09:53:01:110AMYuichi TakaseToday's run is RF conditioning/heating.
The first objective is to raise injected rf power.
Once the power is up (appropriate power level to be determined later)
we will transition into exploration of heating.

Oct 6 1993 09:54:30:790AM931006001Yuichi TakaseShot 001
Good shot, but plasma dies outward starting around 0.73sec.
Nice position scan on antenna loading.
RF firing from 0.2 to 1.0sec.

Oct 6 1993 09:55:00:950AM931006002Yuichi TakaseShot 002
Disrupted around 0.45sec.

Oct 6 1993 10:12:18:680AM931006003Yuichi TakaseShot 003
Fizzle.

Oct 6 1993 10:24:28:220AM931006004Yuichi TakaseShot 004
Fizzle.

Oct 6 1993 10:49:32:840AM931006005Yuichi TakaseShot 005
Early disruption.

Oct 6 1993 11:18:08:000AM931006006Yuichi TakaseShot 006
Dud.
(Trying to figure out yesterday's software change.)

Oct 6 1993 11:44:00:190AM931006007Yuichi TakaseShot 007
Dud.

Oct 6 1993 12:07:15:300PM931006008Yuichi TakaseShot 008
early disruption

Oct 6 1993 12:07:33:800PM931006009Yuichi TakaseShot 009
fizzle

Oct 6 1993 12:27:27:900PM931006010Yuichi TakaseShot 010
fizzle

Oct 6 1993 01:18:53:050PM931006011Yuichi TakaseShot 011
dud

Oct 6 1993 01:19:05:370PM931006012Yuichi TakaseShot 012
dud

Oct 6 1993 01:19:30:880PM931006013Yuichi TakaseShot 013
dud, no rf on this shot

Oct 6 1993 01:32:30:620PM931006014Yuichi TakaseShot 014
early disruption, no rf on this shot

Oct 6 1993 02:03:15:540PM931006015Yuichi TakaseShot 015
good shot, no rf on this shot

Oct 6 1993 02:15:27:360PM931006016Yuichi TakaseShot 016
early disruption

Oct 6 1993 02:26:55:730PM931006017Yuichi TakaseShot 017
fizzle

Oct 6 1993 03:08:21:700PM931006018Yuichi TakaseShot 018
early disruption

Oct 6 1993 03:41:55:480PM931006019Yuichi TakaseShot 019
disrupted @ 0.23sec

Oct 6 1993 03:42:47:780PM931006020Yuichi TakaseShot 020
Good shot!
Peak rf power = 150kW, no impurities.

Oct 6 1993 04:10:02:290PM931006021Yuichi TakaseShot 021
Good shot again.
Peak rf power = 180kW.

Oct 6 1993 04:10:24:850PM931006022Yuichi TakaseShot 022
Fizzle.

Oct 6 1993 05:08:39:290PM931006023Yuichi TakaseShot 023
Good shot, peak rf power = 300kW.

Oct 6 1993 05:08:58:270PM931006024Yuichi TakaseShot 024
Good shot, peak rf power = 360kW.

Oct 6 1993 05:09:15:920PM931006025Yuichi TakaseShot 025
Good shot, peak rf power = 440kW.

Oct 6 1993 05:10:33:970PM931006025Yuichi TakaseShot 025
Disrupted @ 0.86sec.

Oct 6 1993 05:10:05:290PM931006026Yuichi TakaseShot 026
Fizzle

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
109:15:11:050AMPlasmaBadEf# inverted early.
209:43:24:800AMPlasmaOkEF3 inverted early.
310:02:48:000AMPlasmaOkEf3 inverted early.
410:20:16:410AMPlasmaOkNo faults.
510:41:16:610AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot O.K.
611:00:09:380AMPlasmaOkGood shot
711:15:36:260AMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
811:34:56:570AMPlasmaOkPlasma sshot OK
912:00:41:720PMPlasmaOk no faults
1012:24:02:060PMPlasmaOkno faults
1112:42:26:180PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot OK.
1212:56:43:170PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot
1301:12:09:880PMPlasmaOkComplele dud No faults.
1401:28:15:340PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot Fizzle No faults.
1501:48:23:480PMPlasmaOkPLasma shot No faults ok.
1602:04:57:790PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
1702:20:50:230PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
1802:38:10:290PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults
1903:09:31:000PMPlasmaOkno faults
2003:23:22:890PMPlasmaBadOH1 &EF1U & L faulted at disruption
2103:38:44:020PMPlasmaOkGood shot
2203:54:44:510PMPlasmaOkplasma fizzle no faults.
2304:11:16:150PMPlasmaOkno faults
2404:28:39:670PMPlasmaOkPlasma shot no faults.
2504:45:08:250PMPlasmaOkGood shot no faults.
2605:00:23:780PMTestBad