Alcator C-Mod Run 941130 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Ian Hutchinson (shots 1-33)

Operators
Session leader(s):Ian Hutchinson
Physics operator(s):Steve Wolfe
Engineering operator(s):Joe Daigle,Vinny Bertolino

Engineering Operator Run Comment
orthog controllers

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:11:350PM
Author: To Be Determined
Session Leader Summary 941130

SL Hutchinson, PO Wolfe, EO Daigle

Finish of Installation of Orthogonal Controllers.

Gradually making the transition to all shape controllers. The following were
done:

Exercise the orthogonal EF4 controller but took it back out because EF4 is mostly
at full voltage demand all the time and so the orthogonal controller is not
orthogonal but actully messes everything else up.

Programmed some steps on RXL and ZXL (Shots 9 and 10) to demonstrate that they
do the right thing.

Tweaked the Ip controller during the ramp down to help CLEARIN to circularize
the plasma after 1.0s. This worked only to a certain extent. Again we have
problems with supply currents reaching limits (i.e. zero).

Switched off all the coil current control in segment 2. (.1s on) by shot 28.

Brought the full shape control on at the start of segment 2 (shot 32 on).

Therefore, shots 32 and 33 were under full shape control. They seemed to work
well. Most of the difficulties were associated with EF2 supplies railing
during the first 0.5s or turning off on ramp down (which loses CLEARIN control).

For settings see the PO log.

Scorecard:
Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax(MA) Shot,Duration(s),Ipmax
1 0.000 0.010 2 0.000 0.044
3 1.110 0.843 4 0.538 0.771
5 1.321 0.838 6 1.102 0.843
7 1.072 0.843 8 1.328 0.827
9 1.075 0.840 10 1.152 0.838
11 0.000 0.016 12 1.096 0.835
13 1.295 0.838 14 0.873 0.890
15 0.000 0.026 16 1.071 0.835
17 0.000 0.026 18 0.679 0.892
19 0.000 0.024 20 0.386 0.595
21 0.462 0.869 22 1.293 0.830
23 1.278 0.840 24 1.277 0.838
25 0.427 0.786 26 0.000 0.021
27 1.141 0.843 28 1.280 0.838
29 1.107 0.833 30 1.295 0.835
31 1.299 0.838 32 1.305 0.843
33 1.295 0.838
Finished summary for 941130 Total of 33 shots.
33 shots. 26 plasmas. 5 fizzles. 2 duds.
Fizzle = gt 17 lt 50kA.


Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:52:067PM
Author: To Be Determined
Physics Operator summary for 941130

Mini-proposal 065: Orthogonal controllers
SL: Hutchinson
PO: wolfe
EO: Bertolino/Daigle

The goal of today's run was to complete the installation and verification of
the orthogonal controller set, and to explore their use to improve the SN
discharge scenario. This was largely accomplished, although some additional
tuning remains to be done to the discharge.

All shots after #28 had the current control (IC_* wires) completely off except
for IC_EF4 in segment 2, which begins at 0.1 sec. Only orthogonal shape
controllers are used in those shots 28-33 (except EF4).

The transition to a diverted discharge was moved earlier, to 0.34 sec on all
shots after 28.

Orthogonality of the RXL and ZXL controllers was tested by inserting 100 msec
steps on each on shots 9 and 10. These looked quite good; the step amplitude
was observed and the response time was consistent with the advertised rate on
the Physics PID display. There was some crosstalk between the two at the mm
level. There was also an interaction of ZXL with Ip, but this was small.

Getting RXU and ZXU to work correctly without railing the EF2 supplies was a
struggle. This was sort of accomplished by the end of the day. The present
programming of RXU=-.04 and ZXU=+0.02 seems to give a reasonably good single
null; A slightly more positive ZXU might be better, but may require too much
negative current in EF2U with these controllers. There also seems to be some
interaction between ZXU and CLEARIN. On shot 31 the gain was doubled on ZXU,
which resulted in about a 1cm change in the value of ZXU, and a few mm
increase in SSEP, the proximity of the secondary separatrix; however, the
inner gap, which had been nicely controlled at about 1.5cm on shot 30 began to
sag during the shot to about 1.2cm.

The present setting of CLEARIN=-0.005 seems to correspond to about a 1.2 to
1.5cm inner gap, with some interaction with ZXU as noted above. An attempt to
increase the gap by setting CLEARIN=0. was made on shots 12-14. Shot 14 had a
serious vertical instability problem, so I set the CLEARIN back down to -.005.
This seemed to be another case of an interaction with ZXU, which was being
varied on those shots.

The final set of shots had some significant moly injections. After the fact,
it was noted that the earlier diversion was causing the x-point to transit the
nose on the way to its final location, and one significant moly burst
coincided with the time the x-point was on the nose. Also some later bursts
may have been due to the strike point going to the V at the bottom of the
inner divertor. It seems likely that the early evolution of RXL should be
modified to move the x-point further out between 0.2 and 0.5 sec; at present
it is actually set up to be slightly inboard of its final location during that
interval. It might also be useful to raise the ZXL by 5 mm to get the strike
off the bottom of the inner divertor.

Some progress was made in understanding the problems with rampdown
disruptions. Reducing the OH2 component of the Ip controller in the ramp-down
phase, as had been done last June, seemed to help some. The reductions were
done in several steps from shot 30 to 33, finally reducing the OH2 gains by
about a factor of 2. It was noted that the EF2 supplies go to zero current at
about 1.15 sec, which explains why CLEARIN is ineffective in the later
rampdown. Also, it looks like EF3 is going to zero before the plasma current
gets all the way down, which will screw up the RCUR control some.

A vertical instability was observed during the ZCUR drop on shot 28; this was
"cured" on shot 29 by slowing down the ZCUR drop to 200msec, but earlier shots
had had no problem with a 100msec ramp. The problem seemed to be that the
plasma was going diverted (nearly DN) almost immediately after the start of
the ramp, and the elongation got to nearly 1.8.

Problems:
---------
Shot 4 was killed by overgassing when NL_04 dropped out during the pulse.
There were also power supply problems on this shot (post-disruption) and when
the engineers went out to investigate they smelled smoke from the cell. On
further investigation, it was discovered that the smoke was coming from the
motor of an exhaust blower in the cell. The smoke was also thick inside the
TCI enclosure, which had led to the interferometer drop-out.

We had more problems than yesterday with fizzles and dirty plasma following
disruptions.

The disruption on shot 14 put the RGA off the air. After the run it was
discovered that the connector had been knocked off. This was replaced by Bob
Childs and the RGA now seems ok.

Recommendations:
----------------
Now that all current controllers in SEGMENT 2 are off (except for EF4) there
are a bunch of newly freed wires. If density control were moved from wire 9 to
wire 14, we could set the block of 9-12 to IP reference, allowing installation
of additional shape controllers. This would be very convenient for future
development, since we could switch in control on things like STRIKE, KAPPA,
CLEAROUT, etc., as needed during the segment. We are not presently using the
integral control on the NL_07 control on wire 9, but it has been used in the
past (?); therefore it would be advisable to have Horne hook up an integrator
to wire 14 if we make this switch.

As Ian has been pointing out, the problem of asking for too much current from
the EF2 supplies would be ameliorated if we could get more positive current
from EF4 faster. This would require getting more voltage, perhaps by adding
one or more additional TMX supplies in series with the present reverse
polarity set.

Scorecard: (see the logbook for blow-by-blow descriptions)
----------
Tests 1 (OH instrumentation test on shot 1)
Plasmas 26
Fizzles 5
Duds 1
------------------
Total 33

Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments
Nov 30 1994 08:21:06:870AMSteve WolfeMP #065 - Otho. Controllers
SL-Hutch
PO-Wolfe
EO-Bertolino/Daigle

Start from 941129025
PLan is to adjust the ZXU programming to try for nominal shape.
Note: EF2U was railed on 941129025 yesterday, not on 24; hopefully
nominal will be in between.
Once RXU and ZXU are satisfactory, play with shape parameters to test
orthogonality.

ECDC on at 5AM, off at 7:30

Nov 30 1994 08:29:44:640AM941130001Steve WolfeShot #941130001

OH only test (will be routine for first run of the week)
Test ran ok (10kA Oh1 and Oh2's)

Nov 30 1994 08:41:51:170AM941130002Steve WolfeShot #941130002

Set up from shot 941129025.
Fill = 1.3e-5 Torr

Fizzle.

Nov 30 1994 08:50:10:050AM941130002Steve WolfeShot #941130002

Set up from shot 941129025.
Fill = 1.3e-5 Torr

Fizzle.

Nov 30 1994 08:57:35:950AM941130003Steve WolfeShot #941130003

Raise fill to 1.4e-5 and try again
Plasma - disrupts on rampdown at 600kA

Nov 30 1994 09:39:50:470AM941130004Steve WolfeShot #941130004

Lower ZXU program from 0.1 to 0.06
Disrupts early. PF fault at 0.53 sec
NL_04 dropped out and the density feedback overgassed the plasma.

Smoke in the cell was found to be due to a motor in an exhaust fan.
The TCI laser enclosure was filled with smoke.

Nov 30 1994 09:59:04:830AM941130005Steve WolfeShot #941130005

Repeat of shot 4, hopefully without the smoke.
Good plasma
EF2s did not rail (max around 3500 amps each)
ZXU error is now -30000 for most of shot

Nov 30 1994 10:12:42:030AM941130006Steve WolfeShot #941130006

Raise P gain on ZXU to 2 at .35, 8 at 0.5sec (hybrid units)
Disrupted during rampdown (1.1 sec, 640 kA)

ZXU error down to -20000.

Nov 30 1994 10:22:33:920AM941130007Steve WolfeShot #941130007

Increase gain for ZXU to 9.5, 0.0 during rampdown
Program ZXU to stay at 0.06 until 1 sec.

Similar. disrupts on ramp-down.

ZXU now at -15000.

Nov 30 1994 10:51:57:150AM941130008Steve WolfeShot #941130008

Argon this shot.
Put in IC_EF4 contihh controller
Had to fix a bug in XCONTIHH.PRO (variable NIP not defined)

Ramped down ok.
Less EF2U current and more EF4 current - maybe it did what it should
RXU seems less well controlled early.

EF4 was maxed out before 0.7 seconds.

Full blown vertical instability at the very end, several cycles.

Nov 30 1994 11:11:47:670AM941130009Steve WolfeShot #941130009
Trying to put back the old controller in EF4.
READ_FROM is broken; USed load_wire
Put a 1.5cm step in RXL from 0.7 to 0.8sec

Back to the disruption on ramp-down.
It seemed to get the step, gets to zero error in about 60msec, Physics
P gain is 36.  Got a 1.5cmm excursion, as advertised.

Nov 30 1994 11:32:24:920AM941130010Steve WolfeShot #941130010

Raise gain on NL from 5 to 8.
Take out RXL step , put in ZXL step up by 1cm from .75 to .85

Still disrupting on ramp-down. I need to try to deal with that.
Got the ZXL step, along with a small perturbation on RXL
The ZXL crosstalk from the RXL step was a few mm (EFIT)
The RXL crosstalk from the ZXL step is about 2mm (EFIT)
H-mode started earlier

Nov 30 1994 11:48:39:240AM941130011Steve WolfeShot #941130011

Take out ZXL step.
Change clearin to stay at 0 (instead of -.005). Extend till 0.9sec

Dud.? Br looks a little positive, but it did earlier.

Nov 30 1994 12:00:50:070PM941130012Steve WolfeShot #941130012

Try again, I can't see anything wrong.
Take out ZXL step.
Change clearin to stay at 0 (instead of -.005). Extend till 0.9sec

Shot ran and disrupted on rampdown.
Seemed to get a little more clearin?

Nov 30 1994 12:17:01:840PM941130013Steve WolfeShot #941130013

Move step in ZCUR and ZXL to 0.5 sec.

Shot ran. EF2U maxed out for the whole flattop.

Nov 30 1994 12:37:41:350PM941130014Steve WolfeShot #941130014

Change programming on ZXU to +0.04 (from 0.06)

Disruption near end of flattop (full current)
Vertical instability - it went up.
ZXU error still around -15000 to -20000
EF2U still maxed out. I don't understand this.

Nov 30 1994 12:48:15:200PM941130015Steve WolfeShot #941130015

Change CLEARIN back to -.005
fizzle - probably just dirt from the disruption

Nov 30 1994 01:01:09:290PM941130016Steve WolfeShot #941130016

Try again with CLEARIN at -.005
Ran but shaky. Disrupted at start of ramp-down.
This time the EF2s did not rail?
Multiple injections

Nov 30 1994 01:13:16:410PM941130017Steve WolfeShot #941130017

Increase RXU gain from .64 to 1.0
Fizzle - probably dirt.

Nov 30 1994 01:28:49:240PM941130018Steve WolfeShot #941130018

Try again with Increase RXU gain from .64 to 1.0
Disruption in flattop. EF2U railed again.

Nov 30 1994 01:36:24:570PM941130019Steve WolfeShot #941130019

Drop ZXU program to 0.02 (from 0.04)

Fizzle

Nov 30 1994 01:46:24:930PM941130020Steve WolfeShot #941130020

try again with ZXU at +0.02
Short and ugly.

Nov 30 1994 02:09:38:430PM941130021Steve WolfeShot #941130021

try again with ZXU at +0.02
Lasted longer still disrupted.

Nov 30 1994 02:21:37:380PM941130022Steve WolfeShot #941130022

try again with ZXU at +0.02
This one ran.

Nov 30 1994 02:37:27:740PM941130023Steve WolfeShot #941130023

Moved RCUR in between 200 and 300msec
Changed clearin to turn on at 100msec

Went all the way through
Seemed to work about as expected, except the EF2U almost rails

Nov 30 1994 02:49:41:220PM941130024Steve WolfeShot #941130024

Moved control on ZXL to 0.1 sec

That worked almost all the way through

Nov 30 1994 03:15:37:590PM941130025Steve WolfeShot #941130025

Turn control on IC_EF1L and IC_EF2L off (moved back to < 100msec)
Renamed wire 10 to IC_OH2_off
Change ZXL program to start at +0.03, ramp down to -0.01 at 0.4 sec

Disrupted at 400msec.

Nov 30 1994 03:26:07:630PM941130026Steve WolfeShot #941130026

Turn control down by a factor of 4 on IC_EF1U and IC_EF2U off
Fizzle

Nov 30 1994 03:40:08:040PM941130027Steve WolfeShot #941130027

Try again with
control down by a factor of 4 on IC_EF1U and IC_EF2U relative to 25.

Disrupted on rampdown.
Big thrash in vertical position at .38 to .5
EF2L rails from .33 to .48
Multiple injections

Nov 30 1994 03:53:39:430PM941130028Steve WolfeShot #941130028

Turn the EF2U amd EF1U control off completely

Made it through all the way.
EF2s did not rail.
Still have a vertical thrash.

Nov 30 1994 04:08:58:960PM941130029Steve WolfeShot #941130029

Program IC_EF4 to 2000A earlier
Move start of ZCUR ramp from 0.4 to 0.3

Disrupted on rampdown

Nov 30 1994 04:17:23:910PM941130030Steve WolfeShot #941130030

Put in a controller for Ip with 10% less on OH2s during rampdown.

Made it all the way through.

Nov 30 1994 04:38:00:190PM941130031Steve WolfeShot #941130031

Extend integrator on slow ZCUR from 1.0 sec to 1.8sec
Drop the OH2s in the IP rampdown controller by another 10%
Increase factor on ZXU and change controller time constant to get a
factor of 2 in gain.

Ran ok - thrash at .52 sec
ZXU error down by factor of 2
Brief Hmode

Nov 30 1994 04:49:54:510PM941130032Steve WolfeShot #941130032

Moved the ZXU and RXU control to turn on at .1 sec

Went through, H-mode is better.
Note - EF2s go to zero at 1.15 sec, which kills clearin control on
rampdown

Nov 30 1994 05:24:35:280PM941130033Steve WolfeShot #941130033

Drop the OH2 on the IP rampdown controller another 20%.
Raise density from .6 to .8e19.

Runs ok, no better on rampdown but no worse.
Starts dithering around .6sec and drops into H-mode at .85.
Note moly burst early coincides with x-point passing the nose.
Later bursts may be striking near the crotch of the inner divertor.
Inner gap starts at 1.5cm, but sags to 1.2 by 1 second.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:26:26:500AMTestOkoh coax test
208:39:35:280AMPlasmaOkno faults
308:51:12:690AMPlasmaOkno faults
409:07:48:480AMPlasmaOkdisruption induced comm faults, blower motor in cell smoking- removed fr
509:40:57:990AMPlasmaOkno faults
610:03:05:240AMPlasmaOkno faults
710:17:28:740AMPlasmaOkno faults
810:39:18:250AMPlasmaOkno faults
911:03:19:990AMPlasmaOkno faults
1011:22:03:450AMPlasmaOkno faults
1111:37:45:050AMPlasmaOkno faults
1211:51:12:930AMPlasmaOkno faults
1312:06:49:820PMPlasmaOkno faults
1412:19:50:410PMPlasmaOkno faults
1512:40:08:830PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
1612:54:16:880PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
1701:06:31:490PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
1801:16:46:110PMPlasmaOkNo faults
1901:31:51:160PMPlasmaOkNo faults
2001:41:07:350PMPlasmaOkNo faults
2101:53:16:840PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2202:11:26:810PMPlasmaOkNo faults
2302:27:27:100PMPlasmaOkNo faults.
2402:42:00:600PMPlasmaOkOH2 L comm fault
2503:02:58:200PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2603:19:14:500PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2703:32:46:500PMPlasmaOkComm fault OH1 EF1U
2803:44:32:030PMPlasmaOkNo faults
2903:58:50:100PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
3004:12:39:770PMPlasmaOkNo Faults
3104:28:47:170PMPlasmaOk
3204:42:23:250PMPlasmaOkNo faults.
3304:57:27:480PMPlasmaOkNo faults