Alcator C-Mod Run 960131 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:117
Date Filed: 4/18/1995
Title:3He Minority Heating at 7.9T
First Author:Yuichi Takase
Session Leader:Steve Golovato (shots 1-15)

Operators
Session leader(s):Steve Golovato
Physics operator(s):Steve Wolfe
Engineering operator(s):Frank Silva,Vinny Bertolino

Engineering Operator Run Comment
7.9t wolfe

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:15:040PM
Author: To Be Determined

Run summary - 960131

SL: Golovato
PO: Wolfe
EO: Silva/Bertolino

Run 960131 - He3 minority heating at 8 T with bori=onized walls.

Run Plans:

Start with 1MA shot similar to 960117003 (but with better RF tuning)

Density scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower).

Concentration scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower)

Choose best condition, repeat shots for profile.

Raise current to 1.2MA at best condition, repeat shots for profiles.

Go back to 1MA and try PEP modes (Li pellets)

This was a successsful run although we only got 15 shots because of slow
cooling at 8T and didn't get to the PEP mode shots. We re-established the
conditons of the last boronized 8T run (960117) on shot 3 and added position
feedback on shot 4. Shots 5 ands 6 were at lower and higher density and
both dithered. The higher density shot on 960117 went into H-mode at
2.5MW while we had only 2MW today. The lower density may be near the low
density limit and requires more power to transition into H-mode. We settled
on the intermediate density of nl04(programmed)=1.e20 and did a concentration
scan. We did a higher concentration for shots 7 and 8, getting dithering
and off-axis electron heating on shot 8. This is predicted by theory from
direct electron absorption from the mode converted Bernstein wave at high
He3 fraction. It was also seen on shot 960117012. We then went down in
concentration for shots 9 and 10. Shot 11 had strike point sweeping in the
divertor to avoid a hot spot on the outer diveror which is visible in the
TV view. It didn't help noticably. This seemed to be the best condition so
shots 12-14 were repeats to get a hirex Ti profile. Shot 15 was a 1.2MA shot
at the same conditions. The H-modes were shorter with less density rise but
the higher current led to higher stored energy, 136 kj compared to 125 on shot 11.
Under the best conditions, the H-modes last less than 200ms and tend to be ended
by some kind of mini-injection which is visible on the 2pi bolometer and rf
loading, but not the moly monitor. The H-factors are about 1.2 assuming 100%
absorption of the rf power. If the heating efficiency is less for He3 minority
heating because of low single-pass absorption, the H-factor would be higher.
For these shots, an efficiency of 60% would raise the H-factor to a more
respectable 1.8. It would be good to use change in slope of the diamagnetic
stored energy signal to get a handle on the power absorbed. This should be
done during the next 8T run and requires a no-plasma baseline shot. The next
8T run should also investigate PEP-mode (finally!) and attempt higher rf power
since so many shots today were dithering.

For information on engineering problems and shot statistics, see the physics
operator summary. For shot-to-shot comments, see the logbook under the
session_leader topic.


Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:55:957PM
Author: To Be Determined
Physics Operator Summary for 960131

MP# 117 D(He3) Heating at 7.9T
SL: Glovato
PO: wolfe
EO: Silva/Bertolino

Run plan:
----------
This run is a continuation of 960117 and used the same equlibrium programming.

1.Run 1MA shots similar to 960117003 (but with better RF tuning)
2.Concentration scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower)
3.Density scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower).
4.Choose best condition, repeat shots for profile.
5.Raise current to 1.2MA at best condition, repeat shots for profiles.
6.Go back to 1MA and try PEP modes (Li pellets)

Engineering setup:
------------------
No Discharge Cleaning at all (no overnight, no pre-run)

Fill A-side (really K-side) to 20psi D2
Fill B-top with 5psi D2
Fill B-side lower with 4psi Argon
B-side upper filled with He3 (as at present)

Fiducial setup as on 960130002:
A-side and B-top enabled. Do not enable B-side lower (Ar)

Begin experimental program with setup from 960117003 EXCEPT TF current
set to 224KA

TF on PLC control
Enable A-side,B-top,B-side upper (He3), B-side lower (Ar)

Results:
-------
This was a pretty good run, except that the number of shots was low because of
long cooling times. We completed the first four items on the list and got one
good discharge at 1.2 MA. No pellet shots were attempted today. We ended up
with 15 shots, including the fiducial on shot 1.

Operationally, the machine performed well, except for the long cooling times,
over 30minutes on average. The RF performed well all day at 2.0 MW, and on the
last shot D-port got up to 900kW, which may indicate its arcing problem isn't
as bad as previously thought.

One problem with 8Tesla runs is that one tends to be very conservative about
making changes once things are working, because the consequences of losing a
shot are such a high fraction of the run. Following a successful fiducial, we
loaded a revised 960117003, with changes to the RCUR offset and programming
along the lines recommended by Ian yesterday. It disrupted at .5 sec and I
wimped out and went back to the 960117 programming for shot 3, which went
fine. The rest of the day used this programming with only minor changes.

We then tried a density "scan" on shots 4,5,6 (NL_04 1.0,0.8,1.3e20),
attempting to keep the He3 concentration constant by adjusting the He3 pulse
width roughly in proportion. Actually the concentration varied during these,
and the density we got didn't quite match what we asked for, but we declared
1.0 to be the target point anyway. It is worth noting that the low density
point had an injection early in the RF pulse, which may have prevented it from
going into a good H-mode. This point would be worth revisiting in a later run.

We then did a concentration scan on #8,9,10, with the lowest concentration
being selected. This had a long ELM-free period terminated (possibly) by an
injection.

Shot 11 was like shot 10 except that a zigzag sweep was programmed in ZXL to
try to reduce a hot spot, which has been apparent on the video, identified as
being at J-port outer divertor. This may have helped a little. This shot was
selected for repeating for profiles.

There was a very long delay (over 1:20) between 11 and 12 as the cooling had to
be suspended while the LN2 tank was filled. Shot 12, nominally a repeat, was
an ELMy H-mode after the E-port transmitter came on late. Shot 13 was closer,
but dropped out of H-mode sooner. Shot 14 was similar.

Shot 15 was at 1.2MA and ran successfully and got somewhat higher stored
energy (136kJ). The EF3 supply apparently encountered a current limit at
10.8kA, although it was supposed to be set for 15kA. This resulted in a 7mm
RCUR excursion and probably contributed to the slow current rise to 1.2MA.
Vinnie will check into this, and hopefully fix it, tomorrow.

See the Logbook under PHYSICS_OPERATOR for shot by shot records.

Other problems, lessons learned:
--------------------------------
Apparently some shots, including 960130040, have a segment 2 named "Fiducial
Plasma, Lower X-pt" even though they aren't fiducials; this one is a 1.1MA
case. Having noted this, I also got JAS to fix the bug that caused PCS to
display titlebars with incorrect segment names on the ALL_P and ALL_V screens.

There was no ECE on the fiducial shot 1 because a valve was closed on the ECE
beamline. This was opened on shot 2. Should be checked before first shot on
the ECE PLC screen.

A number of spectroscopy batch jobs for the first 3 shots on the ZENITH queue
were held up because of a number cruncher left running at interactive
priority.

PHYSOP can quite easily handle all the scopes normally used by the Physics
Operator. I ran with CMODX9 logged in to PHYSOP and had good response with a
total of six scopes, a traverser, PCS, an IDL session, LOGBOOK, and a few
other processes. The only thing I ran on an AXP (Barolo) was the EFIT movie.
It seems that logging into an already-burdened AXP from the xterm CMODX9 is
not a good use of resources.

Scorecard:
----------
Shots 15
Plasmas 15
Duds 0
Fizzles 0
Tests 0

We are now up to 54 straight plasmas (not counting intentional tests) this
week.

There were two disruptions: Shots 2 and 7; neither produced a warning,
although 7 was close. Shot 7 had a brick (large impurity injection), while 2
had bad position and eventually went vertical.

Session Leader Comments
Jan 31 1996 02:09:10:740PMSteve Golovatorun plans - 960131

Start with 1MA shot similar to 960117003 (but with better RF tuning)

Density scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower).

Concentration scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower)

Choose best condition, repeat shots for profile.

Raise current to 1.2MA at best condition, repeat shots for profiles.

Go back to 1MA and try PEP modes (Li pellets)

Jan 31 1996 08:52:29:400AM960131001Steve Golovatoshot 960131001 - fiducial.

e-port only, 1.1 MW. good h-mode.

Jan 31 1996 09:05:49:160AM960131002Steve Golovatoshot 960131002 - reload 960117003, 8T, 50ms He3 puff, nl04=1.e20.

disrupted at 460 ms.

Jan 31 1996 09:31:09:400AM960131003Steve Golovatoshot 960131003 - move He3 puff earlier, now .6-.65s at 90v, .65-1.1s
at 30v. load rf pulses form shot 960130040, rf starts at about .68s.

plasma, h-mode. d-port ran, e-port had some trips. 129kj, hfac=1.2

Jan 31 1996 10:04:34:100AM960131004Steve Golovatoshot 960131004 - repeat, feedback on, e-port tuned a little.

plasma. h-mode started later. 125kj.

Jan 31 1996 10:26:51:870AM960131005Steve Golovatoshot 960131005 - nl04=.8, He3 puff 40ms (same ratio, lower density)

plasma, rf ran, no h-mode. dithering. brick at 790ms.

Jan 31 1996 11:17:13:990AM960131006Steve Golovatoshot 960131006 - nl04=1.3, He3 puff 65ms (same ratio, lower density)

plasma, dithering, may need more power to get h-mode at this density.

Jan 31 1996 11:40:01:510AM960131007Steve Golovatoshot 960131007 - nl04=1., He3 puff 70ms, concentration scan.

last three shots had Prad~20% in lmode.

plasma, disruption at 800ms, brick hit plasma.

Jan 31 1996 12:14:53:310PM960131008Steve Golovatoshot 960131008 - repeat.

plasma. no h-mode. dithering. off-axis electron heating seen on ece.

Jan 31 1996 01:06:39:740PM960131009Steve Golovatoshot 960131009 - He3 puff to 30ms.

plasma, h-mode ends at some kind of injection, like shot 4.

Jan 31 1996 01:21:04:330PM960131010Steve Golovatoshot 960131010 - He3 puff to 20ms.

plasma, h-mode again, again lost at emmision from somewhere.

Jan 31 1996 01:52:58:050PM960131011Steve Golovatoshot 960131011 - repeat with strike point sweeping to avoid emmision.

plasma, similar to last shot. went into h-mode sooner,
stayed in a little longer, 180ms, before blip (no pun intended)
on 2pi which leads to end of h-mode as in previous shots. there is a
clear hot spot on the outer divertor which may lead to our injection
problems.

this appears to be best condition, we will do 2 more shots here to
get Ti profile.

Jan 31 1996 03:26:45:740PM960131012Steve Golovatoshot 960131012 - repeat for Ti profile.

plasma, h-mode when e-port came on late. brick at .67sec.

Jan 31 1996 03:56:24:640PM960131013Steve Golovatoshot 960131013 - repeat for Ti profile.

plasma. h-mode lost after mini-injection seen on 2pi,
not on moly monitor.

Jan 31 1996 04:09:51:820PM960131014Steve Golovatoshot 960131014 - last shot for Ti profile.

plasma. much like last shot.

Jan 31 1996 04:48:16:360PM960131015Steve Golovatoshot 960131015 - go to 1.2 MA, all other conditions the same.

plasma. 1.2 MA at 850ms. elmy h-modes.

Physics Operator Comments
Jan 31 1996 06:24:01:590AMSteve WolfeRun plan for Wed. 960131
MP 117 D(He3) heating at 7.9T
SL: Golovato
PO: wolfe

Engineering setup:
------------------
No Discharge Cleaning at all (no overnight, no pre-run)

Fill A-side (really K-side) to 20psi D2
Fill B-top with 5psi D2
Fill B-side lower with 4psi Argon
B-side upper filled with He3 (as at present)

Fiducial setup as on 960130002:
A-side and B-top enabled. Do not enable B-side lower (Ar)

Begin experimental program with setup from 960117003 EXCEPT TF current
set to 224KA

TF on PLC control
Enable A-side,B-top,B-side upper (He3), B-side lower (Ar)

Note: This run will be at high field (7.9Tesla). The TF scanner must be
operational on all shots, and cooling should be such as to keep the TF
core temperature from ratcheting up.

Run plan:
----------
Run 1MA shots similar to 960117003 (but with better RF tuning)

Concentration scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower)

Density scan at 1MA (one higher, one lower).

Choose best condition, repeat shots for profile.

Raise current to 1.2MA at best condition, repeat shots for profiles.

Go back to 1MA and try PEP modes (Li pellets)

Jan 31 1996 06:51:32:290AMSteve WolfeLoad 960130002 for fiducial. Load at 31-Jan-1996 06:07:15.00
Coldstart done 31-JAN-1996 06:09:18.66

LOAD from 960117003 into PCS. DO NOT LOAD_INTO_MODEL until after
fiducial.

Jan 31 1996 07:49:17:350AMSteve WolfeIan's recommendation from yesterday is to use RCUR offset=3000
for segment 2. IMPORT_SEG from 960130040 into seg 3 and stare at it.

For some reason this segment has title "Fiducial Plasma, Lower X-pt"
although in fact it is a 1.1MA shot! There is probably a bug in PCS
about when the title gets stored? Change it now, since I don't want to
be confused. Note that the title bars on the All_p's screen seem to
reflect the original titles when PCS got brought up: Seg 2 says "Fiducial
Plasma, Lower X-pt" and segment 3 says "Diverted Plasma, Upper X-pt".
Send Mail to JAS.

The original trace from Granetz run has an initial RCUR of .655 and moves
out to 0.666133 with some funny jogs. Ian's trace from #40 (a 1.1MA
shot) is also at .655 before segment switch, jumps to 0.644880 at .1sec,
then moves out to 0.660000. As advertised, he turns on a third line with
offset=3000 at 0.1 sec (at segment switch). He obviously evolved this
from his end-of-shot sequence, because he still has the offset=8000
row there, turning on at -2.5 sec and off at 0.1sec. Note that the
Granetz seg 1 has RCUR at 0.1sec of 0.653180 with an offset of 10000.
TO make the change, I need to make a 5mm inward shift at .1sec, then increase
that to 1cm at .5sec, when we get to 1MA. I think I'll see how the
Granetz prescription goes first.

Jan 31 1996 08:05:54:540AMSteve WolfeChanged my mind - go ahead and make the change: cut in the RCUR trace
from shot 960130040 and change the offset from 8000 to 3000. None of this
will get loaded until after a successful fiducial.

Jan 31 1996 08:30:59:860AM960131001Steve WolfeShot 960131001 Fiducial setup (from 960130002) - Successful

Jan 31 1996 09:03:08:860AM960131002Steve WolfeShot 960131002
Load from 960117003, with changes to RCUR as noted. (offset to 3000)
Note that Molymonitor analysis did not run on #1,but data is there.

Disrupted early at 0.5sec

Jan 31 1996 09:19:07:290AM960131003Steve WolfeShot 960131003

MOve He3 puff to 0.6 extend thru 1.1sec.
Reload RCUR wire from 960117003. Maybe that little jog
was a good thing?
Note- all the spectroscopy batch jobs seem to be hung up on Zenith.
Killed YWANG's IDL job.

Shot ran ok. Disrupts at 1.47. RF gets 2MW. H-mode at .78. 127kJ.

Jan 31 1996 09:56:41:430AM960131004Steve WolfeShot 960131004

Decrease RFload feedback weight to -1500. Feedback will be on this shot.

Ran to 1.45sec. H-mode at .9, dithering earlier. RF 2MW from .72, 125kJ.

Jan 31 1996 10:30:49:820AM960131005Steve WolfeShot 960131005

NL04 to 0.8e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 40msec (from 50)
Steve decided to do the density "scan" first

Plasma - Dithering, no real H-mode, NL04 goes to 1.2. RF stays on. 85kJ.
INjection at 780ms.

Jan 31 1996 11:07:49:630AM960131006Steve WolfeShot 960131006

NL04 to 1.3e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 65msec
Put in a rampdown jog on RCUR at 1.3sec, change offset(1.3) to 3000.

Plasma - dithering, no H-mode. RF stays on. No obvious improvement in
rampdown.

Jan 31 1996 11:38:20:870AM960131007Steve WolfeShot 960131007

NL04 back to 1.0e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 70 msec; start conc. scan

Disruption at .77sec -- Brick!
It came from the outer divertor; the video caught it in the act.

Jan 31 1996 12:06:15:450PM960131008Steve WolfeShot 960131008

Repeat:
NL04 back to 1.0e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 70 msec; start conc. scan

Plasma ramps all the way down. RF stays on. Dithering the whole RF pulse.
80kJ.

Jan 31 1996 01:02:52:560PM960131009Steve WolfeShot 960131009

Repeat:
NL04 back to 1.0e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 30 msec (low conc. point)

Plasma - ELM-free H-mode .74 to .90, then drops out. RF stays on. 120kJ
Maybe a little injection drops it out of H-mode?
What I've been calling dithers appear to be a sinusoidal oscillation on
H-alpha, around 250Hz.

Jan 31 1996 01:13:43:500PM960131010Steve WolfeShot 960131010

Repeat:
NL04 back to 1.0e20
He3 (PG2) initial puff to 20 msec (lower conc. point)

Plasma - Multiple ELM-free H-modes. Also some injections? RF stays on
125kJ.

Jan 31 1996 01:50:45:030PM960131011Steve WolfeShot 960131011

Put in a +/- .005 zigzag on RXL to try to reduce hotspot on outer
divertor

Plasma - Similar to previous case. Still se hot spot on video, I'm not
sure if its moving. Steve thinks this best case. Do profile here (2
repeats).

Jan 31 1996 03:13:16:810PM960131012Steve WolfeShot 960131012

Repeat. Long delay (1:2) for LN2 tank refilling before shot 12.

Plasma - Multiple injections, good ELMy H-mode after .9 when RF goes to
full power. 120kJ

Jan 31 1996 03:50:43:370PM960131013Steve WolfeShot 960131013

Repeat.
Plasma - More like #11 but injection(?) terminates H-mode earlier

Jan 31 1996 04:09:22:590PM960131014Steve WolfeShot 960131014

Another repeat.
Plasma - Multiple H-modes, pretty similar to 11 and 13. 116kJ

Jan 31 1996 04:49:18:110PM960131015Steve WolfeShot 960131015

Go to 1.2MA at .65sec.

Plasma runs all the way through. Didn't get to 1.2 until around .8sec.
Similar H-modes to the lower currents. 136kJ.

Jan 31 1996 05:16:00:000PM960131015Steve WolfeShot 960131015

Go to 1.2MA at .65sec.

Plasma runs all the way through. Didn't get to 1.2 until around .8sec.
Similar H-modes to the lower currents. 136kJ.

The RCUR error has a large excursion (around 7mm) from .6 to .85,
during the ramp up to 1.2MA. It looks to me as if EF3 is on a current
rail at that time, as the voltage does not follow its demand; this
is peculiar as the current is at 10.8kA and the limit was supposed to be
at 15kA. Vinnie agrees that it looks like a current rail at 10.8, and
suggests that the PLC may not have been changed from shot 1, which had
a 12kA limit; this would imply "only" a 10-15% calibration error instead
of 40-50%.

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:29:03:610AMPlasmaOkfiducial
208:48:16:220AMPlasmaOk
309:10:42:720AMPlasmaOk
409:44:02:850AMPlasmaOk
510:16:40:190AMPlasmaOk
611:01:21:690AMPlasmaOk
711:25:00:370AMPlasmaOkoh2u bypass comm fault
811:57:36:300AMPlasmaOk
912:44:05:600PMPlasmaOk
1001:05:19:260PMPlasmaOk
1101:35:38:600PMPlasmaOk
1203:04:51:590PMPlasmaOk
1303:40:43:110PMPlasmaOk
1403:59:42:550PMPlasmaOk
1504:40:31:470PMPlasmaOk