Alcator C-Mod Run 950511 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:090
Date Filed: 2/22/1995
Title:ICRF Power Modulation
First Author:Peter Oshea
Session Leader:Peter Oshea (shots 1-30)

Operators
Session leader(s):Peter Oshea
Physics operator(s):Earl Marmar,Steve Horne
Engineering operator(s):Vinny Bertolino,Joe Daigle

Engineering Operator Run Comment
marmer/6.4Tesla

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:13:710PM
Author: To Be Determined
SESSION LEADER RUN SUMMARY:
RUN 950511, MP 090A, RF Modulation (Mode Conversion Heating)
===============================================================
Session leader: O'Shea
Physop: Marmar
===============================================================

The goal for today's run was to use modulated direct electron heating of mode
converted waves in H(He3) plasmas to allow measurements of electron transport
coefficients to be made, using GPC as the main diagnostic tool. Mode coversion
heating studies were begun yesterday (MP 110A), and as modulation was used
then to help diagnose heating profiles, some useful data had
already been collected.

The first part of the day was to be used to make scans of the He3
fraction and the magnetic field, to study and optimize the mode
conversion heating. Then parameter scans relevant to transport studies would
be made while maintaining good modulated RF heating. The run was quite
successful, but probably more so in the first objective than the second.
During the first few shots, we obtained evidence of Shear Alfven wave
electron heating. On many shots, very strong direct electron heating
was observed.
On shot #16, central electron heating density reached a record value
of approximately 25 MW/m^3

A combination of difficulties with first the plasmas and then the RF coupling,
which began in the middle of the day, limited the number and variety of shots
obtained where we had good centralized, modulated RF heating. However, when
combined with some results from the day before, give a lot of valuable
data to analyse for transport results.

=================================================================
Notes on the day's run follow:

**For first few shots, before beginning He3 puffs, will scan density
in H plasmas at 6T. This is to investigate Shear Alfven wave heating.


Shot 001: Going for nel_04 ~ 0.5 [10^20 assumed throughout]
Fizzle

Shot 002: Retry. Plasma. nel_04 ~0.6., 800kW RF. Injections?
Some off axis heating.

Shot 003: Trying for more RF and slighty lower density
Plasma nel_04 ~0.65 1.4 MW RF
More heating. Sawteeth become very small at end of pulse.
Zeff rises mightily, so ST effect may be due to impurity heating.

Shot 004: Going up in density, still no He3
Plasma nel_04 ~1.0 PRF~1.1MW. VERY little heating

Shot 005: Moving to high field 6.5T , nel_04~1.5 (Baseline for scans)
Plasma. Disrupts at 1.05 sec
PRF ~ 1.1 MW VERY little heating

Shot 006: Want low density, 6.5T (Shear Alfven res. near center)
Plasma. nel_04 ~ 0.6. PRF ~ 1.1 MW
Heating comes back, still off axis, broad.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
****** Going to start He3 puffing.
Will implement density feedback on both valves.
Will establish a density of nel_04~1.5 and
scan the mixture of He3:H by adjusting
relative gains in the feedback.

Shot 007: Still 6.5T. nel_04 ~ 1.5
PRF ~ 1.3MW. Heats. Affects sawteeth. Zeff and Spectroscopic
measurements indicate 'lots' of He3,
perhaps 50-50 He3-H electron contributions.

Shot 008: Reducing He3 conc...shooting for 33-66 (He3:H), same overall density.
PRF ~ 1.4 MW. Good density control. Word is that we got maybe 20%
less He3 this time.
Heating definately seems to have moved outward.

Shot 009: No He3 puff (use residual to give a very low fraction).
Best guess is that we are "down by a factor 2" in He3. (5-10%?)
PRF ~ 1.1 MW . Some heating, off axis.

Shot 010: Going for "Big" He3 puff.( might be hard to maintain density )
nl_04~1.4.
PRF ~ 1.2 MW...heating only in the edge...too much He3!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
** Going back to puffing as in 007, scanning down in field

Shot 011: nel_04 ~ 1.4, B=6.25T
PRF ~ 1.1 MW , Heating, but not as central as 007.

Shot 012: Go to 6.0T to make contact with earlier in the day, stiil nl_04~1.5
Get decent heating, but no break in slope and no evidence
of faster reheats.

- Generally not getting the heating that were getting yesterday. Going back
to nl_04~1.0 and 6.5T.

Shot 013: Got the shot, RF not retuned, transmitter trips out after 60 ms.
Very good indications of heating though! Very peaked (from reheat)

Shot 014: Try again with slightly lower density, nl_04 ~0.75
RF a little "ratty", PRF ~ 1MW Has huge effect on ST, peaked heating
Evidence of strong direct electron channel.
Again, no RF modulation.

Shot 015: Lower density again,shoot for ne_04 ~ 0.5, B=6.5
Big density rise during RF (up to ~0.8). Good modulation, PRF~1.5 MW
Heating is good, but not as good. Going back up in density and
try to get the RF modulation to work.

Shot 016: Similar to 014. nel_04 programmed at 0.8, goes up to 1.0 during RF.
Transmitter trips out early. Heating is very effective, centralized.

Physop:Horne

Shot 017: No changes....fizzle. (somewhat mysterious)

Shot 018: No changes....fizzle

Shot 019: Lower fill pressure....Plasma !
PRF~1.3MW. Sucessive heating power peaks have successively
less central heating. Perhaps due to He3 depletion throughout
discharge.

Shot 020: Increase the ratio of He3/H later in the shot to try to keep the
power from degrading.
RF stays around, loading effects make modulation shape rounded.
nel_04 programmed at 0.8 and rises to ~1.0 during RF

Shot 021: Tried to both increase ratio of He3/H and compensate for the
density rise. Seems to be effective in controlling nel, however
the quick puffing changes is making it hard for the RF to match.
Transmitter trips early.

Shot 022: Only 2 RF pulses...loading is a problem.


Shot 023: Got only the late RF pulse to go. Loading seems to be all over.

Shot 024: Still having trouble getting sustained,modulated, heating at the
lower density. Going back to 013.
target nel_04 is 1.0.

Shot 025: Got nel_04 ~1.0 (bit of overshoot)
Heating is great.

Shot 026 Going up in current. 0.9MA nel_04~1 ...Disrupts at 0.65 sec.


Shot 027 Go for one more try at heating at nel_04~0.8
Disrupts at 0.71 sec (again mysteriously). Lost it vertically .
Looks like something fell in.

Shot 028 Retry of 027. RF power waveform is ragged but see good heating.

Shot 029 Go for a Bt rampdown shot for the X-calibration of ECE system.
Target Ip=600kA, nel_04 ~ 0.8, ramping down starting at 0.8 sec.
Would like rampdown to make it to 5.3 Tesla at least.
Disrupts at 4.4 Tesla. ok.

Shot 030 Lower torroidal field to 6.25T. nel_04~1.0. Trying to use
both transmitters. Density and field look good.
Heating is weak and off axis, though some central sawtooth
modulation is seen.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:54:190PM
Author: To Be Determined

From: PHYSOP::MARMAR
Date: 11-MAY-1995 18:45:50
Description: Physop run summary, 950511

950511 MP 090A, Modulated transport

SL OShea
PO Marmar/Horne
EO Bertolino/Daigle

This was the second run at 6.5 Tesla. The machine ran well. Density and H/3He
scans were accomplished, as well as small scans of the TF, from 6.0 to 6.5
Tesla. On the last 2 shots, the TF inversion was moved to occur during the
shots, at 0.8 seconds on shot 29 and 1.0 seconds on shot 30. There were no
apparent power supply problems as a result, at least not at the inversion
times, and the plasmas both ran through nicely to .2 MA. The was a PF breaker
problem at the end of each of these shots; Joe Daigle did not think it was
related to the earlier TF ramp. The shot cycle was again often dominated by
the wait for the TF scanner. Assuming that gets fixed, and the breaker problem
is unrelated to the TF invert, I recommend that TF invert be routinely put
back to end of flat-top.

In an attempt to control H/3He ratios while scanning the density, I put both
valves into the feedback loop, with different weights at different times. This
seemed to work reasonably well, although atttention has to be paid to the
preprogrammed voltage waveforms as well as to the relative weights in the
controllers.

We had some "fizzles" today (40 to 80 kA plasma current); they appeared to
crash to the inner wall. They may have been due to drifting B_R at breakdown.
The superstitious among us might conclude that changing physops in mid-run
causes fizzles.

The one attempt (shot 26) at .9 MA failed due to EF2 curent rails followed by
disruption. Shot 27, a .8 MA shot, also disrupted; it looked like something
fell in. The halo currents were below 150 kA in each case (more evidence for
I/q scaling?).

Start from 950510016, but TF 6T, nl_04=.5e20, H2 only; go to 3He later
1 fill 2.3e-5, H2 fill and puff only; argon enabled; fizzle (40 kA)
2 fill 2.5e-5, reduce B_R offset by .5 mT, plasma; .8 MW RF
3 lower nl_04 program to .43e20; plasma; 1.4 MW RF
4 nl_04 1.e20; plasma; 1.2MW RF; no heating
5 6.5 Tesla TF; nl_04 1.5e20; disrupt on R.D. at .69MA
6 nl_04 .5e20; plasma; 1.2 MW RF
7 nl_04 1.5e20; add 3He with both valves on feedback, equal weights 2.5e-19 on
the controller, starting at .3 s; plasma; disrupt at .48MA on R.D.,
1.3 MW RF
8 decrease 3He , now 1.67e-19, 3.33e-19 on H2; plasma
9 no 3He (hybrid disable); plasma
10 reduce preprogrammed voltages on valves, 4.9e-19 3He, 5e-20 H2; increase Ip
rampdown rate; increase gain on ZXL at .5 s; plasma
11 back to shot 7 for the feddback settings, but V's from 10, increase Ip ramp
even more, disrupted a little earlier; 6.25 Tesla
12 6 Tesla; slow Ip ramp; disrupt later (.44 MA)
13 extend RXL gain beyond 1.2 s, turn off argon; 6.5 Tesla, nl_04 1.0e20, keep
gas going at end of shot, 1.5 MW, good heating
14 nl_04 7.5e19; speed Ip ramp a little, late; plasma; disrupt at .4MA
15 nl_04 5e19; slow late Ip ramp; disrupt at .33MA
16 nl_04 8e19; tweak RXL and ZXL during rampdown (go up and in); much better
rampdown

Horne takes over as physop
17 No changes. 60 KA Fizzle!. Bounce scope says plasma hits on inside.
While bringing up flux plot, do repeat.
18 40 KA fizzle. Fields, flux, etc look same as 16. Drop fill to 2.2e-5.
19 Plasma again. Adjust pre-programmed voltages on H and He3 --
a notch in H, a bump in He3. Objective is to raise He3 concentration
around .7 sec.

20 Plasma. The notches had the expected effect; tweak them for next to reduce
density perturbation.

21 Plasma. RF complains that the notches cause edge variations that mess
up loading -- even though NL is held more constant. Take the notches
out. Change the weights on the valves in the density controller to
h=2, he=3 (*e-19)
22 Plasma, RF tripping
23 Plasma

Marmar takes over as physop
24 reload shot 13, tweak the rampdown to match 23; 80 kA, crashed to the
inside; noticed that ion gauge read 2.0e-5 at "Entering Pulse"
25 fill 2.4e-5, B_r offset down by .5 mT, retry; plasma, good RF; ion gauge
2.4e-5 at "Entering Pulse"
26 .9 MA, clearin ramp tweak to keep EF2's off rail on the way to .9MA;
disrupt at .63s, .8 MA, both EF2's hit current limit
27 nl_04 .8e20, .8MA, undo clearin tweak, disrupt during RF, something fell
in?
28 repeat, good shot
29 TF invert to 0.8 seconds, .6MA, good, no apparent EF3 problem at TF invert
30 TF invert to 1.0, 6.25 Tesla, .8 MA, nl_04=1.0e20; good; still no evidence
of a problem at the TF invert time.


26 plasmas, 4 fizzles

Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:29:09:070AMPlasmaOk
208:45:50:740AMPlasmaOk
309:03:54:270AMPlasmaOk
409:22:26:500AMPlasmaOk
509:41:10:110AMPlasmaOk
609:59:02:670AMPlasmaOk
710:15:41:260AMPlasmaOkNo Faults
810:37:01:200AMPlasmaOk
910:56:50:040AMPlasmaOk
1011:14:25:540AMPlasmaOk
1111:31:50:650AMPlasmaOk
1211:49:31:060AMPlasmaOk
1312:07:47:420PMPlasmaOk
1412:25:03:390PMPlasmaOk
1512:41:31:560PMPlasmaOk
1612:58:30:330PMPlasmaOkNo Faults,
1701:15:58:820PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
1801:32:29:340PMPlasmaOkNo Faults
1901:49:30:920PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2002:12:22:600PMPlasmaOkNO Faults.
2102:29:59:510PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2202:47:41:860PMPlasmaOkNO Faults.
2303:04:24:060PMPlasmaOkNO Faults.
2403:22:52:120PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2503:38:49:030PMPlasmaOkno faults
2603:55:53:090PMPlasmaOkNO Faults.
2704:14:48:540PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2804:30:44:780PMPlasmaOkNo Faults.
2904:47:30:850PMPlasmaOkComm Fault OH1 OH2l,ef1u
3005:04:34:130PMPlasmaOkcomm fail oh2l, ef1u, oh1