Alcator C-Mod Run 940428 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Steve Horne (shots 1-9)

Operators
Session leader(s):Steve Horne
Physics operator(s):Joseph Snipes
Engineering operator(s): Unknown

Engineering Operator Run Comment
Plasma developement

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:09:710PM
Author: To Be Determined
Session Leader Summary -- 940428 Horne

First plasma attempt, 1994 -- Horne, Snipes. MP 41
Wolfe has slightly tweaked 931020003, primarily in response
to the failure of F17. Control algorithms by Wolfe and Hutch have been modified to
work around the bad loop.

Fizzle detector is not yet operational.
Initial settings -- gas 1.4e-5, pull the drawn pulse_gas3 (used to be "14")
to zero at .25 sec.

Inversion at .25 sec (crossover, roughly)
EF3 is questionable. The TF crowbar problem has been worked on.

Bus voltages are still not working properly. A test signal is in ef3
bus voltage. The EF1U PFN Rogowski integrator is not resetting. Finally,
the EF1L commuation resistance as measured by the PLC is a factor of two
high.

We started late (about 11:00) due to alternator problems,
and quit a few minutes early to fix power supplies.
Many systems worked well -- TF crowbar problem has apparently been fixed --
and there were flashes on shots 6 and 8.
The breakdowns were very late; no sign of current rise.
We took only 9 shots. We spent a lot of time chasing power supply
problems and searching for an apparent hybrid fault which was in
fact due to a power supply imbalance.

When we continue tomorrow, we'll begin by running just the OH supplies
to verify that they have been fixed. Since we can't make a plasma till
they are behaving properly, we'll have to spend whatever time is required
to make them work.

Shot list --

shot 1 problems:
1) OH2 current limits were too conservative.
2) ef2 U didn't turn on.
3) ef3 didn't turn on.

The EF2 u problem MAY be due to a bad chip in the PID!!!
It worked fine yesterday. Try once more.

shots 2-5 -- ef2u still not working.
check out PID, hybrid cables, digitizers. Hybrid checks out fine.

6 -- To diagnose the problem,
removed EF2 pair from b_cur controller. Flash!
Suspect the BR predictor, as recalculated, may be broken.

7 -- turned off the BR controller. No flash.

By comparing shot 6 to 931020003, it's clear that the OH2 supplies
are (a) unbalanced, and (b) have lower gain than they had last october.
This caused large radial field before t=-.4 sec. The BR control
in the hybrid tried to compensate by backing off the demand on
ef2_u. But this caused the demand to ef2_u, before it's switch closed,
to be insufficient to hold the SCR in conduction. So it never turned on.

The OH2 imbalance is due in part to differences in power supply gain.
Various knobs on the supplies have been twisted since last October.
Joe D tried to adjust them for the next shot.

8 -- flash. There is still a strange OH2 problem.

9 -- OH2 U failure first, OH1 and OH2L also failed. Quit to allow
engineers to fix the supplies. Try again tomorrow.




Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:50:787PM
Author: To Be Determined
------------
USERNAME: SNIPES ENTERED: 28-APR-1994 17:00:17.36
VOIDED: NULL RUN: 940428 SHOT: 940428009
TOPIC: PHYSICS_OPERATOR
TEXT: On the bright side of things, the run was successful in that we succeeded
getting two plasmas, however brief. Shots 6 and 8 had 10 - 15 ms breakdown
plasmas visible on the H port H alpha.

On the other hand, the power supplies did not perform very well. There was a
20 V imbalance in OH2U and L. Fairfax thinks this may be induced by a problem
in OH1. In any case, in practice, it resulted in a a 20 mT radial error field
that made it very difficult to get breakdown. Nonetheless, it did happen
twice, but the plasma did not last long and the breakdown was around 18 ms,
which is rather late.

So, once again, I was running the machine when we successfully obtained
first plasma for the year.

Session Leader Comments
Apr 28 1994 11:56:53:710AMSteve HorneFirst plasma attempt, 1994 -- Horne, Snipes. MP 41
Wolfe has slightly tweaked 931020003, primarily in response
to the failure of F17. Control algorithms by Wolfe and Hutch have been modified to
work around the bad loop.

Fizzle detector is not yet operational.
Initial settings -- gas 1.4e-5, pull the drawn pulse_gas3 (used to be "14")
to zero at .25 sec.

Inversion at .25 sec (crossover, roughly)

Commutation resistors, PLC settings for 931020003 were

COIL Resistor (Milliohms) PLC current limit
oh1 44.7 -16/+20
oh2u 8.3 -15/+25
oh2l 8.5 -15/+25
ef1u 102.4 +/- 8
ef1l 100. +/- 8
ef2u 45.2 4
ef2l 47.7 4

We don't need the high + limits if we invert at t=.25

EF3 is questionable. The TF crowbar problem has been worked on.

Bus voltages are still not working properly. A test signal is in ef3
bus voltage. The EF1U PFN Rogowski integrator is not resetting. Finally,
the EF1L commuation resistance as measured by the PLC is a factor of two
high.



Apr 28 1994 12:33:24:950PMSteve HorneFirst plasma attempt, 1994 -- Horne, Snipes. MP 41
Wolfe has slightly tweaked 931020003, primarily in response
to the failure of F17. Control algorithms by Wolfe and Hutch have been modified to
work around the bad loop.

Fizzle detector is not yet operational.
Initial settings -- gas 1.4e-5, pull the drawn pulse_gas3 (used to be "14")
to zero at .25 sec.

Inversion at .25 sec (crossover, roughly)

Commutation resistors, PLC settings for 931020003 were

COIL Resistor (Milliohms) PLC current limit
oh1 44.7 -16/+20
oh2u 8.3 -15/+25
oh2l 8.5 -15/+25
ef1u 102.4 +/- 8
ef1l 100. +/- 8
ef2u 45.2 4
ef2l 47.7 4

We don't need the high + limits if we invert at t=.25

EF3 is questionable. The TF crowbar problem has been worked on.

Bus voltages are still not working properly. A test signal is in ef3
bus voltage. The EF1U PFN Rogowski integrator is not resetting. Finally,
the EF1L commuation resistance as measured by the PLC is a factor of two
high.



Apr 28 1994 12:33:34:410PMSteve HorneFirst plasma attempt, 1994 -- Horne, Snipes. MP 41
Wolfe has slightly tweaked 931020003, primarily in response
to the failure of F17. Control algorithms by Wolfe and Hutch have been modified to
work around the bad loop.

Fizzle detector is not yet operational.
Initial settings -- gas 1.4e-5, pull the drawn pulse_gas3 (used to be "14")
to zero at .25 sec.

Inversion at .25 sec (crossover, roughly)

Commutation resistors, PLC settings for 931020003 were

COIL Resistor (Milliohms) PLC current limit
oh1 44.7 -16/+20
oh2u 8.3 -15/+25
oh2l 8.5 -15/+25
ef1u 102.4 +/- 8
ef1l 100. +/- 8
ef2u 45.2 4
ef2l 47.7 4

We don't need the high + limits if we invert at t=.25

EF3 is questionable. The TF crowbar problem has been worked on.

Bus voltages are still not working properly. A test signal is in ef3
bus voltage. The EF1U PFN Rogowski integrator is not resetting. Finally,
the EF1L commuation resistance as measured by the PLC is a factor of two
high.



Apr 28 1994 04:46:44:820PMSteve HorneFirst plasma attempt, 1994 -- Horne, Snipes. MP 41
Wolfe has slightly tweaked 931020003, primarily in response
to the failure of F17. Control algorithms by Wolfe and Hutch have been modified to
work around the bad loop.

Fizzle detector is not yet operational.
Initial settings -- gas 1.4e-5, pull the drawn pulse_gas3 (used to be "14")
to zero at .25 sec.

Inversion at .25 sec (crossover, roughly)

Commutation resistors, PLC settings for 931020003 were

COIL Resistor (Milliohms) PLC current limit
oh1 44.7 -16/+20
oh2u 8.3 -15/+25
oh2l 8.5 -15/+25
ef1u 102.4 +/- 8
ef1l 100. +/- 8
ef2u 45.2 4
ef2l 47.7 4

We don't need the high + limits if we invert at t=.25

EF3 is questionable. The TF crowbar problem has been worked on.

Bus voltages are still not working properly. A test signal is in ef3
bus voltage. The EF1U PFN Rogowski integrator is not resetting. Finally,
the EF1L commuation resistance as measured by the PLC is a factor of two
high.



Physics Operator Comments
Apr 28 1994 12:34:59:390PM940428001Joseph SnipesSlow start due to alternator problems. Started with shot 931020003.
First shot failed due to OH2 current limits set wrong. Will be changed to
25 kA for shot 2. Also noticed that PID output for EF2L was not coming out.

Apr 28 1994 12:51:54:330PM940428002Joseph SnipesDAQ1 camac failed for shot 2.

Apr 28 1994 02:21:38:580PM940428004Joseph SnipesContinued EF3 problems. In addition, the hybrid computer does not
put out a PID output for EF2U.

Apr 28 1994 02:53:03:880PM940428006Joseph SnipesShot 6
EF2 control of Br removed from Br controller.

Apr 28 1994 03:02:04:050PM940428006Joseph SnipesShot 6
First plasma! Flash observed on H port H alpha. Started at 18 ms until 30 ms.
Still have problems with radial field. Still have EF3 problems

Apr 28 1994 03:23:24:720PM940428007Joseph SnipesShot 7
Removed Br feedback control by setting the proportional gain to 0.

Apr 28 1994 03:50:31:660PM940428008Joseph SnipesShot 8
Returned proportional gain to Br controller to 5 as before shot 7. There is
an imbalance problem between the OH2U and L power supplies that requires
adjusting in the power supplies.

Apr 28 1994 03:51:26:940PM940428008Joseph SnipesShot 8
Imbalance problem between the OH2U and L power supplies still exists after
switch closure at -0.65 s.

Apr 28 1994 04:22:22:710PM940428009Joseph SnipesShot 9
Moved gas puff on A side 20 msec earlier.
OH2U died at -0.85 s.

Apr 28 1994 05:00:17:360PM940428009Joseph SnipesOn the bright side of things, the run was successful in that we succeeded in
getting two plasmas, however brief. Shots 6 and 8 had 10 - 15 ms breakdown
plasmas visible on the H port H alpha.

On the other hand, the power supplies did not perform very well. There was a
20 V imbalance in OH2U and L. Fairfax thinks this may be induced by a problem
in OH1. In any case, in practice, it resulted in a a 20 mT radial error field
that made it very difficult to get breakdown. Nonetheless, it did happen
twice, but the plasma did not last long and the breakdown was around 18 ms,
which is rather late.

So, once again I was running the machine when we successfully obtained
first plasma for the year.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
111:50:26:910AMPlasmaBadno ef3
212:38:01:640PMPlasmaBadoh1 ioc and comm - ef3 forced invert
312:49:43:850PMPlasmaBadoh1 comm fault
402:04:50:360PMPlasmaBadPower supply problems.
502:30:46:190PMTestOkdata system only
602:44:36:440PMPlasmaOkno faults
703:03:25:400PMPlasmaOkno faults
803:27:32:970PMPlasmaBadOh2 l dosen't follow prog. voltage
904:16:19:280PMPlasmaBadcomm faults