Alcator C-Mod Run 940609 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Bruce Lipschultz (shots 1-25)

Operators
Session leader(s):Bruce Lipschultz
Physics operator(s):Steve Horne
Engineering operator(s):Vinny Bertolino

Engineering Operator Run Comment
RF Heating

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:11:007PM
Author: To Be Determined
Run of 940607
Physics Operator - Steve Horne
Session Leader - B. Lipschultz
Engineering - V. Bartolino

This run is based on Mini Proposal 37: Effect of Divertor Geometry on
Divertor Detachment

Goals:
(1) Repeat 10/93 cases of detachment to determine if anything has
(changed (baseline measurement).
(2) Obtain a much better 'shapshot' of detachment with new
diagnostics.
(3) Try to obtain 'steady-state' local detachment over the
outer divertor face.
(4) Start process of moving the strike point and detailing effect
on detachment threshold, extent and characteristics.


This run ended up being a discharge development run for the most part. We
spent most of the day chasing after problems: The upper x-point
continues to be a problem. The inner and outer gaps can be kept to of
order 1.5 to 2cm however, the gap to the lower part of the antenna limiter
is not calculated and so is a concern. Yuichi reports that when the plasma
diverts, the signals on the antenna probes at the top and midplane drop.
However, the antenna probe near the bttom of the antenna does not drop
very much.

Another concern is the position of the lower x-point. Last fall
the x-point (lower) z was ~ -41 cm. Now we get positions that vary from
-40 to -38 and moving during the shot.

There is also a problem with the length in time that we are able to achieve
diversion. During this run we did not try to start pulling the lower x-point
earlier than 600 ms. Given all the other concerns this was not attempted.

At the time of diversion, there has been a consistent problem with the vertical
position - an oscillation of the vertical position that can be as large as 6 cm.
We tried briefly to fix this by slowly upping the gain on the feedback for
the x-point position and the inner wall gap. This did not seem to help but
there were alot of other things going on. It may be that moving the
diversion time earlier will get rid of this problem.

In summary, we made some progress in getting better divertor plasmas but there
is a lot of work to do. We observed some of the symptoms of detachment but
are concerned that the quality of the diverted plasma was keeping us from
achieving proper detachment. The divertor diagnostics seem to be coming
together: the scanning probe is consistently working, the divertor gas system
is dependable...

The best shots were 11,17,19,21,22,23,24.

The shot by shot summary follows:

Shot 1: Set up repeat of shot 940607023. This shot was the best diverted shot
so far in the new run period. This was successful. The plasma appears to
be somewhat diverted with strike points on the nose of the divertor. Disrupts
at .8 seconds.

Shot 2 disrupted arlier. no real improvement in elongation

shot 3: Disrupted before 600 ms. Will return to shot 1 setup with less gas.

shot 4: better, shot does not disrupt. This shot had the outer strike point
down near probe 5 on the outer divertor but there is little current because
the plasma is being scraped off on the antenna limiter.
Will try to make some more improvements -
turn on the z control of the x-point and reduce the gap to the inner wall.

shot 5: this one also made it all the way to inversion. The strike point
location was again pretty good but the position was still aginst the
antenna limiter. The z-control worked
slightly, will increase the gain for the next shot. Will also
try to keep the density more constant.

shot 6: very similar, changes made had very little effect. Will try
additional gain for the x-point z position and the inner gap.

shot 7: Not much improvement. Even though the outer gap is increasing, there
is no improvement in the divertor plasma. Steve will try to pull the upper x-point
out of the vessel

Shot 8: double null or at times single-null at top. Will change to pull
single null at bottom

shot 9: some initial gas into private flux region with little effect. Did a
little better on getting rid of the upper x-point but still nees a lot of
work. Scanning probe will be fired on next shot.

shot 10: x-point back at the bottom. Probe movement successful.

shot 11: Position pretty good. On this shot we get some sort of divertor
rearrangement at ~ 720 ms. This appeas on the probes and the UV bolos.

shot 12: Disruption @ .6 seconds, density too low

shot 13: Disruption @ .56 sec, reload shot 11.

shot 14: Disruption @ .56 sec. Try to bring in feedback a little slower

shot 15: power supply dud

shot 16: disruption

shot 17: good plasma, (reload of shot 10)

shot 18: disruption at .55 sec, divertor gas puff quite high with
resultant quick density rise.

shot 19: good shot, divertor gas puffing brings the density 1.3e20 nebar.
The strike points continues to move the entire time.

shot 20: density disruption at .73 sec. nebar=1.6e20.

shot 21: longer pulse, possible localized detachment at outer divertor.
Delay the divertor gas pulse next shot to allow equilibrium in divertor
before density rise.

shot 22: gas pulse delayed until well into diverted (mixture of double-null
and single null). Again there seems to be a localized detachment.

shot 23: shortened the divertor
gas pulse from 200 to 100 ms to reduce the density rise
and possibly get rid of disruption. Steve will try to increase the inner and
outer wall gaps as well as move the upper x-point out of the machine. We do
appear to get detachment on this shot (760 ms). However, the signature is weak on the
divertor probes, the extent of detachment is up to probe 4, not probe 7, the
density in the main plasma does not take off afterwards. The divertor bolos
all drop in signal intensity.

shot 24: divertor gas pulse did not go so low density. Shot went to the
end without disruption. Scanning probe got a nice scan of the SOL and
the MACH probe shows some flow. The next shot we will try to tweak the position and
get the divertor gas puff going.

shot 25: Disruption at .58 seconds due to the vertical oscillation.




Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:51:710PM
Author: To Be Determined

run 940609

Blip (sl) Horne (po)

MP 39

We began with shot 940607023 and got plasma the first shot.
This shot has an incipient upper xpoint which we need to remove.
The strategy was to run EFIU more positive, compensate the br due to
that with ef2u. The net result should be to flatten out the flux contours
above the plasma and to reduce the triangularity and elongation.

As a result of these changes a vertical bounce developed between
.5 and .6 seconds which was only 2 cm on shot 10, but increased
dramatically on later shots. Shot 14 was a reload of shot 11, which died at the
bounce. Shot 17 was a reload of shot 10, which also died.
Unknown to the P.O., the ninja system
was puffing more or less gas, at various times including before this vertical
bounce. From shot 19 on the puff was delayed, and the plasma
flattop extended to 1.2 sec to allow more time for the effects of the puff
to be observed.

Probably shots 10, 11, or 23 (if you want a 1.2 sec flattop)
are good shots to load from this run. Shot 25 had an asymmmetric plasma current
controller (shot died becfore the assymetry came into play, though)
which might be a way to make that upper xpoint less sensitive to the flux
evolution changes due to gas puffing.

The only shot today which failed to run was due to a problem with OH2 U
during precharge. No duds, No fizzles.



shot
1 load 940607023, gas at 1.1e-5
Plasma.
2 Remove Lukes gas glitch.
-1000 A on ef2u, extended P gain
+1000 A on ef1U. Objective is to reduce elongation and triangularity.
Plasma

3 Small change to gas programming -- reduce late.
died early

4 Reloaded shot 1, reduced gas.
Full shot.

5 zxl p on at .6
clearin programming reduced from .01 to .005 from .6 0n
Full shot. The inner gap obediently changed .5 cm.
ZXL drifts, but not as much as shot 4.

6 Reduce gas a bit
Raise zxl p from 1 to 3
clearin programming reduced from .005 to zero from .6 sec
Reduce rcur by .5 cm to try to get better outer gap.

7 rcur in .5 cm
clearin in .5 cm
zxl p gain from 3 to 5
Long shot, xrays at end.

8 Add some gas in middle,
+400 A in ef1u
- about 500 programmed in ef2u -- P gain change to 1. from 0.
250 A in ef2u would cancel br due to ef1 change.
zxl gain from 5 to 9.9.
Long shot; zxl on a_out looks better -- error reduced;
Efit shows shot was a nice double null.

9 drop gas a bit; r_xl to -.005 from -.01
Drop exl ef2u controller from 4.e-3 to 1.e-3.
Reduce ef1u current slightly. It seems to be dominating
the other controllers.

10 tweak ef1u late (tiny change)
ef2 L drawn to -3000 A (based on shot 5.)
Very nice shot. Upper xpoint not as incipient.

11 ef4 U current programming flat-top extended -- help to buck ef2 change.
ef1U frrom +400 to + 450 -- move that xpoint further.
rxl gain dropped from 5 to 4
plasma

12 ef4 extendef further
gas drop after 500 msec
clearin from -.005 to 0
rxl gain from 4 to 3
Plasma, died early --
killed by the vertical glitch that's been accompanying
the ef1u programming changes.

13 gas back approx as shot 11
ef1u early (500 msec) made a bit more + -- now ramos
350 to 450 A.
Died at same time. Time for EFIT to come up approx = cooling time.
Allows negligible free thinking time. Need to speed up efit
somehow.

14 Reload shot 11, refigure tweaks from there.
Just like 13 -- checked, did do the load.

15 step rxl and zxl to bring them in more gently.
"Bad Shot" -- power supplies failed before t=0.

16 short, presumably same problem.
Looks very different from shot 16, even earlier than any change we made.

17 reload shot 10.
Plasma, but coil currents are significantly different.
even before n
The vertical wiggle at .5 or so is 6 cm, compared to 2 cm on shot 10.
ef2u currents more like drawn than were on shot 10.

18 z_xl to -1.5; change drawn ef2u to be more like shot 10
Short -- probably lost at same place.

19 try stepping gain on ef2u more gently.
Have just been informed that gas puffing in divertor changed
significantly between shots 10 and 17,
Put DGP back to as it was on shot 10.
(Actually not completely -- was at 550 on 10, moved to 450 for shot 19.)
(Discovered this after shot 20.)
Complete shot. That was it.

20 change ef1's in ip controller from -1.6e-4 to -2.e-4, to
try to keep them more +.
Disruption, but after the bounce. Probably density limit.

21 plasma flat top increase 200 msec .
Very sim to 20.

22 no magnetics change; reduce DGP.
Disrupts at 1.18 or so.

23 more + on ef1u, reduce DGP pulse length.
Change IP controller to reflect 1.2 sec flat top.
complete shot.

24 clearin to +.5 cm,
ef1u 50 A more +
gas puff reduced to affect density at .5 sec.
Nice long shot.

25 ADJUST IP CONTROLLER ASYMMETRICALLY!! ef1 u more negative from
-2.e-4 to -3.e-4 at .6 sec, to try to keep that upper xpoint
farther away.
Lost it on the vertical bounce.


Session Leader Comments
Jun 9 1994 09:20:26:760AMBruce LipschultzSession leader: B. Lipschultz
Physics operator: Steve Horne
Engineering op: V. Bartolino

Mini-proposal # 39: Effect of Divertor Geometry on Divertor Detachment

Goals:
(1) Repeat 10/93 cases of detachment to determine if anything has
(changed (baseline measurement).
(2) Obtain a much better 'shapshot' of detachment with new
diagnostics.
(3) Try to obtain 'steady-state' local detachment over the
outer divertor face.
(4) Start process of moving the strike point and detailing effect
on detachment threshold, extent and characteristics.

Shot 1: Repeat of shot 940607023. This shot was the best diverted shot
so far in the new run period. This was successful. The plasma appears to
be somewhat diverted with strike points on the nose of the divertor. Disrupts
at .8 seconds. Horne will try to reduce elongation and upper triangularity
(push x-point out of chamber).

Jun 9 1994 09:42:50:500AMBruce LipschultzShot 2: shot still has problems. Alot of shaking up and down and 'stuff'
going in the plasma. Will try to lower the gas and steady the position.

Jun 9 1994 09:56:54:000AMBruce LipschultzShot 3: shot still has problems. Disrupted even earlier. Reload shot 1 with
lower gas.

Jun 9 1994 10:17:43:090AM940609004Bruce LipschultzShot 4: shot much better, makes it through inversion. The inner and outer gaps
are fine after 600 ms. The strike point location is fairly far down the
divertor plate bu the outer gap is not large enough. For the next shot
turn on the controller for the x-point z position.

Jun 9 1994 10:31:58:370AM940609004Bruce LipschultzShot 5: again ok, makes it through inversion. The inner gap was reduced
by the change in clearin to 2 cm. The outer gap is similar. Steve will
reduce the plasma radius on the next shot in order to pull it off the
antenna limiter properly. The z feedback on the x-point worked a little
bit, Steve will turn up the gain on that.

Jun 9 1994 10:58:43:890AM940609006Bruce LipschultzShot 6: again ok, changes made had little effect. Will turn up the gains
on the x-point z-position and the inner wall gap for the next shot.

Jun 9 1994 11:17:52:090AM940609007Bruce LipschultzShot 7: still slight improvements on plasma position. Even though the
outer gap is getting better, the divertor plasma is not getting denser.
Perhaps the upper x-point is pulling to much plasma north. Steve will
work on that.

Jun 9 1994 11:54:58:920AM940609008Bruce LipschultzShot 8: double null or at times single-null at top. Will change to pull
single null at bottom
.

Jun 9 1994 12:10:01:240PM940609009Bruce Lipschultzshot 9: some initial gas into private flux region with little effect. Did a
little better on getting rid of the upper x-point but still nees a lot of
work. Scanning probe will be fired on next shot.

Jun 9 1994 12:35:55:350PM940609010Bruce Lipschultzshot 10: x-point back at the bottom. Probe movement successful.

Jun 9 1994 12:58:09:160PM940609011Bruce Lipschultzshot 11: Position pretty good. On this shot we get some sort of divertor
rearrangement at ~ 720 ms. This appeas on the probes and the UV bolos.

Jun 9 1994 01:06:14:030PM940609012Bruce Lipschultzshot 12: Disruption @ .6 seconds, density too low.

Jun 9 1994 01:20:32:520PM940609013Bruce Lipschultzshot 13: Disruption @ .56 sec, reload shot 11.

Jun 9 1994 01:38:41:430PM940609014Bruce Lipschultzshot 14: Disruption @ .56 sec. Try to bring in feedback a little slower

Jun 9 1994 01:55:34:240PM940609015Bruce Lipschultzshot 15: power supply dud

Jun 9 1994 02:15:05:250PM940609015Bruce Lipschultzshot 15: power supply dud

Jun 9 1994 02:17:04:500PM940609016Bruce Lipschultzshot 16: disruption.

Jun 9 1994 02:33:25:140PM940609017Bruce Lipschultzshot 17: good plasma, (reload of shot 10)

Jun 9 1994 02:53:54:340PM940609018Bruce Lipschultzshot 18: disruption at .55 sec, divertor gas puff quite high with
resultant quick density rise.

Jun 9 1994 03:21:15:370PM940609019Bruce Lipschultzshot 19: good shot, divertor gas puffing brings the density 1.3e20 nebar.
The strike points continues to move the entire time.

Jun 9 1994 04:12:20:310PM940609021Bruce Lipschultzshot 21: longer pulse, possible localized detachment at outer divertor.
Delay the divertor gas pulse next shot to allow equilibrium in divertor
before density rise.

Jun 9 1994 04:27:33:660PM940609022Bruce Lipschultzshot 22: gas pulse delayed until well into diverted (mixture of double-null
and single null). Again there seems to be a localized detachment.

Jun 9 1994 04:41:22:430PM940609023Bruce Lipschultzshot 23: shortened the divertor
gas pulse from 200 to 100 ms to reduce the density rise
and possibly get rid of disruption. Steve will try to increase the inner and
outer wall gaps as well as move the upper x-point out of the machine. We do
appear to get detachment on this shot (760 ms). However, the signature is weak
divertor probes, the extent of detachment is up to probe 4, not probe 7, the
density in the main plasma does not take off afterwards. The divertor bolos
all drop in signal intensity.

Jun 9 1994 05:04:25:650PM940609024Bruce Lipschultzshot 24: divertor gas pulse did not go so low density. Shot went to the
end without disruption. Scanning probe got a nice scan of the SOL and
the MACH probe shows some flow. The next shot we will try to tweak the position and
get the divertor gas puff going.

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:58:08:750AMPlasmaOkno faults
209:21:09:270AMPlasmaOkno faults
309:40:26:740AMPlasmaOkno faults
409:58:36:130AMPlasmaOkoh1 comm fault in inversion
510:17:49:290AMPlasmaOkno faults
610:36:00:710AMPlasmaOkno faults
711:00:01:480AMPlasmaOkno faults
811:27:06:070AMPlasmaOkno faults
911:53:54:190AMPlasmaOkno faults
1012:14:21:780PMPlasmaOkno faults
1112:36:44:290PMPlasmaOkno faults
1212:54:42:080PMPlasmaOkno faults
1301:14:38:800PMPlasmaOkno faults
1401:27:06:230PMPlasmaOkanother 600 kA disruption at 0.6 sec
1501:41:16:510PMPlasmaBadOH2U failed during charge; strange failure
1601:54:42:240PMPlasmaOkanother 600 kA disruption
1702:13:07:130PMPlasmaOknice shot with 0.5 sec at 600 kA; terminates at 85 kA
1802:35:01:250PMPlasmaOka 600 kA disruption
1902:55:07:860PMPlasmaOkNo faults.
2003:21:08:280PMPlasmaOkanother 550 kA disruption
2103:48:37:780PMPlasmaOk600 kA disruption at 1.1 seconds
2204:12:20:290PMPlasmaOk600 kA disruption at 1.15 seconds
2304:28:25:550PMPlasmaOkgood shot, no faults
2404:48:55:210PMPlasmaOknice shot; over 1.4 seconds; terminated at less than 50 kA
2505:03:31:310PMPlasmaOk600 kA disruption at 0.6 seconds