Alcator C-Mod Run 951102 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Joe Daigle (shots 1-15)

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

Engineering Operator Run Comment
Rice/Wolfe

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:55:160PM
Author: To Be Determined
Phys op summary for 951102
SL: Daigle
PO: Wolfe
EO: Daigle/Bertolino

This "run" was in support of power supply debugging for the EF4 single-phasing
problem. Some progress was made, despite the fact that we managed to scare
ourselves (again) over some high readings on the OH coax instrumentation. The
interesting thing about this run, from the operator stanpoint, is that we
developed a power supply testing segment in which the currents are set up to
match the evolution on a plasma shot with the feedback on the coil currents
rather than plasma parameters. This can be used to investigate power system
effects that depend on having the coils act as they do with plasma, without
needing to actually make plasmas. Shot 951102015 is a good starting place for
using this.

Segment 1 was set up to feedback on coil currents. The other segments are
turned off. P waveforms were cut in from the traces for shot 951031020. In the
course of the original setup of this segment, I tickled at least two PCS bugs,
described below. I also made several operator errors which had to be found and
identified over the first four shots. Details are in the logbook, under the
PHYSICS_OPERATOR topic.

Once the programming was set up as desired, shot 5 exhibited the problematic
EF4 behavior. The cause is apparently related to the fact that during the early
part of the flux swing (0-300msec) there is a pause in the drop of the EF4
current because of induced voltage from the other coils. This pause is
uncomfortably close to the 750A level at which the EF4 circuit begins
integrating the voltage to determine when to block gates. The effect shows up
less robustly when tests are run without the other coils.

Starting on shot 5, we went through a mild panic, with a bit of deja vu, when
we started getting alarm messages from the OH coax resistance monitor. We ran
a series of tests, at 10kA and 5kA and back to 10kA, interspersed with DC
measurements, over the course of which the OH2U readings went up to around 2uohm
and then seemed to stabilize at that level. The OH2L readings also rose up to
0.98uohm with the same trend characteristics. We believe that this effect,
which is similar to what was observed last campaign on the OH2L reading, is
either due to faulty instrumentation or a strange cooling system effect. It
was noted that the TC readings associated with the coax resistance
measurements actually go down from the start of the shot to the end. More
reasonable behavior (rising temperature) was observed on the OH1 coax, and had
been the case on the OH2U last June.

In any case, since the situation did not seem to be deteriorating any further,
we resumed testing at full currents on shot 13. The readings then came down to
1.57uohm by shot 15. The run was stopped after #15 to allow the engineers to
work on a fix to the EF4 supply, based on the information obtained so far.

The plan for fixing the EF4 problem is to modify the circuitry to filter the
shunt signal better and try to take action starting at a lower current level.
The new circuitry will be ready for tomorrow, when we will try again.

As mentioned, two PCS bugs were uncovered in the course of setting up the new
segment programming. Both may or may not be related to the fact that I started
by zero'ing the entire segment.

1. On wires that started out fresh from having been zero'ed, I had difficulty
getting the main display to show the name in upper case, indicating an active
channel, even after putting in finite P gain and setting a non-zero
controller. I finally succeeded in getting it to show up correctly by (?)
repeatedly bringing up the edit_wire screen and the controller screen and
making minor tweaks to try to force an action, intermingled with some build
segments. I don't know what finally made it work, but I eventually managed to
get them all UPCASED. I also don't know if this would have mattered to
anything but the screen display.

2. Trying to bring up the controller screen for wires with initially null
controllers caused PCS to bomb back to the IDL prompt. I somehow got around
this on wires 8 and 10 (IC_OH2L and IC_OH2U), possibly by using copy wire to
get something into the controllers and then editing that. I couldn't manage to
get it to work at all on wire 16 (which I was trying to use for IC_EF3) but I
did manage to put this on wire 7 successfully; I'm still not sure how. The
sequence that finds the bug was:
a) Start with a zeroed wire and bring up the edit_wire screen
b) Put in a valid name and supply predictor values and APPLY, setting
the FACTOR when the window appears.
c) Push the CONTROLLER button
d) Acknowledge the message that it will start with a default
controller
e) Watch it blow up. The first error is in TREE_M at line 462,
called by EDIT_CONTROLLER at line 693.



Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments
Nov 2 1995 09:06:59:900AM951102001Steve WolfeShot 951102002
In aid of poweer supply tests, set up a segment 1 with current
waveforms from 951031020. Had considerable trouble setting this
up in PCS. Aside from mechanics, the following bugs were noted:
It took several iterations of calling up edit_wire and the
controller screen to get a newly named wire to turn
upper case on the display.
On several wires with no initial controller, PCS bombed out
after trying to go to the controller screen (push
controller, acknowledge widget about none present, bomb)
I never got wire 16 to work.
No supplies : Hybrid was turned off! Also electrons, and some others.

Nov 2 1995 09:13:38:920AM951102002Steve WolfeShot 951102002
In aid of poweer supply tests, set up a segment 1 with current
waveforms from 951031020. Had considerable trouble setting this
up in PCS. Aside from mechanics, the following bugs were noted:
It took several iterations of calling up edit_wire and the
controller screen to get a newly named wire to turn
upper case on the display.
On several wires with no initial controller, PCS bombed out
after trying to go to the controller screen (push
controller, acknowledge widget about none present, bomb)
I never got wire 16 to work.
Trees: HYbrid,MHD, Electrons and MHD on, Spectroscopy left off
ONly get hybrid command after 0.1 sec.
Operator error - had the on time from segment 2 (0.1 sec)

Nov 2 1995 09:45:25:820AM951102003Steve WolfeShot 951102003

And try again:
In aid of poweer supply tests, set up a segment 1 with current
waveforms from 951031020. Had considerable trouble setting this
up in PCS. Aside from mechanics, the following bugs were noted:
It took several iterations of calling up edit_wire and the
controller screen to get a newly named wire to turn
upper case on the display.
On several wires with no initial controller, PCS bombed out
after trying to go to the controller screen (push
controller, acknowledge widget about none present, bomb)
I never got wire 16 to work.
Trees: HYbrid,MHD, Electrons and MHD on, Spectroscopy left off

OH's went to their rails.
More operator error: I had the predictors turning on at 0 instead of -2.

Nov 2 1995 09:53:55:040AM951102004Steve WolfeShot 951102004

And again:
In aid of power supply tests, set up a segment 1 with current
waveforms from 951031020.

That looked ok, except that EF4 is overcharging because I've got a big
voltage waveform in.

Nov 2 1995 10:44:30:580AM951102005Steve WolfeShot 951102005

Back initial voltage to -500V on EF4. Extend FD to .5 sec

Some double swing on OH's. EF4 single phased,still not down to nominal

OH2U coax resistance is up to 1.3uohm. We may be in trouble.

Nov 2 1995 11:38:24:620AM951102006Steve WolfeShot 951102006

Same programming, they extend integration time on blocking
circuit. Still single phased.

Coax is up to 1.6uohm.
Measured coax directly (through 100* amplifier at 100A current) and get
2uohm.

Nov 2 1995 12:07:56:230PM951102007Steve WolfeShot 951102007

Set up for "Tuesday test" 10kA OH PLC test.

Got 2.2uohm. Whatever it is, its getting worse. The TC temperature
appears to drop from the beginning of the oulse to the end. This would
be consistent with the TC being loose in the coax (wishful thinking?).

We will consult with Ian before proceeding.

Nov 2 1995 01:27:07:350PM951102008Steve WolfeShot 951102008

Set up for "Tuesday test" but at 5kA OH PLC test.
Resistance measurements on the TC to TC show about 250 ohms for all
coaxes. It isn't open.

1.9uohm on OH2U,
0.98 on OH2l
They seem to be trending up together.

Nov 2 1995 01:34:12:280PM951102009Steve WolfeShot 951102009

Repeat at 5kA OH PLC test. Will keep doing these to see if there is any
trend for a few shots.

2.1 on upper. 0.96 on lower.

Nov 2 1995 01:38:30:280PM951102010Steve WolfeShot 951102010

Repeat at 5kA OH PLC test. Will keep doing these to see if there is any
trend for a few shots.

upper 2.0
lower .95

Nov 2 1995 01:43:40:680PM951102011Steve WolfeShot 951102011

Back to 10kA OH PLC test.

upper 2.0
lower .95

2.1 and .92

Nov 2 1995 01:44:26:810PM951102011Steve WolfeShot 951102011

Back to 10kA OH PLC test.

upper 2.1
lower .92

Nov 2 1995 01:49:49:710PM951102012Steve WolfeShot 951102012

Repeat 10kA OH PLC test.

upper 2.08
lower .92

Nov 2 1995 02:14:46:830PM951102013Steve WolfeShot 951102013

Whatever is going on with the coaxes seems to be stabilized.
We will go back to full power tests, monitoring the value every shot.

No EF4? CAMAC pulse missing?

OH2U 1.7

Nov 2 1995 02:17:43:400PM951102014Steve WolfeShot 951102014

Repeat
EF4 went ok that time.

oh1: 0.1783 uohm
oh2u: 1.6166 uohm
oh2l: 0.7622 uohm

Nov 2 1995 02:26:37:890PM951102015Steve WolfeShot 951102015

Set FD back to 0.5sec
Looks like EF4 S-p'ed again.

oh1: 0.1868 uohm
oh2u: 1.5689 uohm
oh2l: 0.7640 uohm
It may be coming back down???

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:58:32:980AMTestOk
209:07:46:420AMTestOk
309:16:22:160AMTestOk
409:48:07:550AMTestOk
510:02:37:890AMTestOk
610:42:38:990AMTestOk
711:44:25:110AMTestOk
801:20:58:940PMTestOk
901:30:07:410PMTestOk
1001:35:07:770PMTestOk
1101:40:47:000PMTestOk
1201:46:48:330PMTestOk
1302:03:04:390PMTestOk
1402:13:33:570PMTestOk
1502:22:51:100PMTestOk