Alcator C-Mod Run 960215 Information

Back to runs

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
Engineering operator(s): Unknown

Engineering Operator Run Comment
marmer

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:15:197PM
Author: To Be Determined
*****************************
* Run 960215 Modulated RF heating ( Mode Conversion at 6.4 T , H[He3] plasmas )
* Session Leader : O'Shea
* Physics Operator : Marmar
*****************************
Objective of run is to close out MP 090A by completing a current scan of
modulated central mode conversion heating appropriate for transport studies.
*************************************
The goal of the run was accomplished (!), with best results indicated below:

Central heating:
=================
600 kA : (#15) #16! [fmod = 50Hz], #29 [fmod=70Hz]
1.2 MA : #27 [fmod = 70Hz]

Interesting Off axis heating:
==============================

600 kA : #02 Sawtooth supression at ~0.9MW with D-port.
#04 Good RF mod with BOTH TRANSMITTERS!!!! (a real coup)
Prf ~ 2.4MW, sawteeth are greatly reduced.
1.2 MA #26 Very good RF but off axis heating.
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some general comments:

1) The Deuterium concentration was again found to have important effects
on the location of the mode conversion layer. Today there was a wide variation
in the D/H ratio, generally increasing throughout the day, but jumping just
often enough to make it difficult to predict and deal with. ECDC in H dropped
levels to as low as 8% early in the day, but it was as high as 33% on shot 21.


2) The University of Maryland spectrograph was successfully used to view
Helium levels in the edge. A cross calibration with the McPherson allowed the
latter to look elsewhere. Z_67_yag was also useful in determining n_He/ne.


3) At both currents, some very interesting interaction of the RF and sawtooth
behaviors were seen. During off axis heating, sawteeth were at times greatly
diminished or possibly reduced.

4) More detailed analysis will follow, but some very promising data was
obtained for transport studies. Good modulation trains at reasonably high
frequencies were obtained. Reduced sawtooth behavior may even make some off
axis heating analysis possible.

;---------------------------------------------------------------
A very sketchy outline of the shot sequence is given below:
starting at 600 kA:
001 dud

002 good pl pretty good rf. Heating isn't very central,
increasing He puff for next shot.

003 Heating is more central, Rf modulation is short.

004 down to 580 off axis...both tx's run together and s.t. almost go away!!

going to smaller outer gap and higher He (640)

005 heating is more central but the Rf isn't modulating (only one tx)
Earl says "we have 11% nhe/ne +/- 4 % ..."
stf is about 240Hz...
going to higher He still, out to 680...

006 No rf to speak of, Helium frac looks good, 20-25% but the density is a
little high...

scaling both H and He down.target on H and pulse width on Helium....

----waiting for the ln2 to get filled-----
i was just noting that i was surprised by the amount of helium i need to get
central heating (not there yet)....it seems like it's near the values i was
trying for last run when i was assuming very little Deuterium...
....sure enough, Rost puts the upper bound on D fraction to be about 8%, though
stats are bad.

007 20% He, spekey RF.

008 25% too high helium (D/H coming up?) no RF mod, trouble running
both antennas

have gone to only one transmitter
have gone to lower He3

011 Rf all trippy, better central heating, though not great....

going to find out for sure where the resonance is by ramping the field.
Suspecting that the He is too high, so we're heating on the lowfield
side so we should heat during lower field part of the ramp...
changed grating to 8.2 for the ramp....

Change theta back!!!
done...

012 ramp was over too small a range


013 bigger Tf range (low)
014 bigger Tf range (high)
15 good heating!
16 great heating/mod!!

going to 1.1 MA
17 disrupts after RF. Heating was central but no modulation

18 fizzle
19 disrupts early
20
bringing down the He to 60 ms
21 33% D at 0.5 sec...density is a little high...poor rf but heating is at
least close to the center
bringing it down to 50ms
22 heating was bizarre, though a huge injectin my have been the cause. Somewhat
central

little confused as to where the heating is....assuming it's at the low field
side and so doing a bt ramp up from low fields...(maybe a bad guess b/c
...we'll see either way but the higher fields might be safer with this high
current..)

23 Tf ramp to find central heating

24 fizzle

25 plasma, disrupts late 900kA. very nice RF.....heating is pretty central
but not amazing...channel positions???
going down in He puff to 30ms
26 nice RF heating is off axis

upping freq and He (70 ms)

27 plasma...pretty good heating, if i don't mind saying so myself

going back to 16 for a different frequency of mod....
28 big injection and lousy rf coupling.....
retrying....

29 good 600 kA shot

30 trying an 800 kA shot for contact with history.....no rf

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:56:147PM
Author: To Be Determined
960215 MP 90A modulated ICRF

Attempt to get good modulated H(3He) central electron heating at 0.6 and 1.2 MA

Overnight ECDC in H2.

Fill A-side (really K-side) to 20psi H2
Fill B-top with 5psi H2
B-side upper He-3 20 PSI

The run goals were largely accomplished. The machine ran well, and good RF
modulation and heating was achieved at the 2 current levels.

1. start from 960119026; fizzle; looks like B_R offset not positive enough
2. B_R offset to 7.2 mT; plasma
3. extend 1st 3He puff by 20 msec; plasma
4. decrease 3He puff by 40 msec; plasma
5. increase RCUR by 2 mm (to decrease outer gap by 4 mm); add 60 ms to 3He
pulse; plasma; see the He now on Z_eff (delta Z ~ .22)
6. increase 3He to .68; lower nl_04 prog before He puff to 7.5e19 from 8.5e19;
plasma; delta Z ~ .45
7. decrease 3He to .67; lower nl_04 prog before He puff to 5.5e19; decrease
clearin by 4 mm; plasma; delta Z ~ .4
8. move 3He puff 20 msec earlier, decrease width by 10 msec; lower nl_04 prog
before He puff to 5.e19; plasma; delta Z ~ .5; a few hards early
9. add post breakdown puff on P_G_4; reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
10. reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
11. reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
12. hybrid control of TF, ramp during RF; plasma
13. change TF ramp; plasma
14. change TF ramp again; plasma
15. TF back on PLC control; 6.4 Tesla; plasma
16. repeat; plasma; nice RF modulation
17. attempt 1.2 MA; import segment 2 from 960119025 into segment 3; tweak RCUR,
clearin, nl_04 to match previous shots; increase Ip request to 1.2 MA;
plasma; disrupt on rampdown (.8MA); riding the outboard limiter
18. decrease RCUR 5 mm; tweak nl_04 programming; slow RCUR rampdown; strong
fizzle (60 kA)
19. add 1 msec to pre-puff; B_R offset to 6.8 mT; plasma; early disrupt; OH2L crowbar
at ~0.2 seconds;
20. retry; plasma;
21. lengthen Ip flattop to 1.1 s; reduce 3He puff by 10 msec; plasma
22. reduce 3He puff by 10 msec; plasma
23. TF on hybrid, ramping from 6.0 T at .7 to 6.5 T at 1.1 s; plasma
24. strong fizzle (80 kA)
25. TF on PLC; add 1 msec to prepuff; plasma; plasma; disrupt on ramp-down (.9 MA)
26. reduce 3He by 30 ms; plasma
27. 3He 70 ms puff; plasma
28. back to 600 kA; reload 960215016, using segments 1 and 2; plasma;
29. repeat; plasma
30. 800 kA; load segment 2 from 960119022; match 3He puff and nl_04 program to
shot 29;

30 attempts, 27 plasmas, 3 fizzles.

From: PHYSOP::MARMAR
Date: 15-FEB-1996 17:35:13
Subj: physop run summary 960215

960215 MP 90A modulated ICRF

Attempt to get good modulated H(3He) central electron heating at 0.6 and 1.2 MA

Overnight ECDC in H2.

Fill A-side (really K-side) to 20psi H2
Fill B-top with 5psi H2
B-side upper He-3 20 PSI

The run goals were largely accomplished. The machine ran well, and good RF
modulation and heating was achieved at the 2 current levels.

1. start from 960119026; fizzle; looks like B_R offset not positive enough
2. B_R offset to 7.2 mT; plasma
3. extend 1st 3He puff by 20 msec; plasma
4. decrease 3He puff by 40 msec; plasma
5. increase RCUR by 2 mm (to decrease outer gap by 4 mm); add 60 ms to 3He
pulse; plasma; see the He now on Z_eff (delta Z ~ .22)
6. increase 3He to .68; lower nl_04 prog before He puff to 7.5e19 from 8.5e19;
plasma; delta Z ~ .45
7. decrease 3He to .67; lower nl_04 prog before He puff to 5.5e19; decrease
clearin by 4 mm; plasma; delta Z ~ .4
8. move 3He puff 20 msec earlier, decrease width by 10 msec; lower nl_04 prog
before He puff to 5.e19; plasma; delta Z ~ .5; a few hards early
9. add post breakdown puff on P_G_4; reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
10. reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
11. reduce 3He puff by 15 msec; plasma
12. hybrid control of TF, ramp during RF; plasma
13. change TF ramp; plasma
14. change TF ramp again; plasma
15. TF back on PLC control; 6.4 Tesla; plasma
16. repeat; plasma; nice RF modulation
17. attempt 1.2 MA; import segment 2 from 960119025 into segment 3; tweak RCUR,
clearin, nl_04 to match previous shots; increase Ip request to 1.2 MA;
plasma; disrupt on rampdown (.8MA); riding the outboard limiter
18. decrease RCUR 5 mm; tweak nl_04 programming; slow RCUR rampdown; strong
fizzle (60 kA)
19. add 1 msec to pre-puff; B_R offset to 6.8 mT; plasma; early disrupt; OH2L crowbar
at ~0.2 seconds;
20. retry; plasma;
21. lengthen Ip flattop to 1.1 s; reduce 3He puff by 10 msec; plasma
22. reduce 3He puff by 10 msec; plasma
23. TF on hybrid, ramping from 6.0 T at .7 to 6.5 T at 1.1 s; plasma
24. strong fizzle (80 kA)
25. TF on PLC; add 1 msec to prepuff; plasma; plasma; disrupt on ramp-down (.9 MA)
26. reduce 3He by 30 ms; plasma
27. 3He 70 ms puff; plasma
28. back to 600 kA; reload 960215016, using segments 1 and 2; plasma;
29. repeat; plasma
30. 800 kA; load segment 2 from 960119022; match 3He puff and nl_04 program to
shot 29; plasma

30 attempts, 27 plasmas, 3 fizzles.

Session Leader Comments

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:33:33:570AMPlasmaOk
208:44:42:190AMPlasmaOk
308:57:13:200AMPlasmaOk
409:17:49:410AMPlasmaOk
509:33:36:350AMPlasmaOk
609:50:21:010AMPlasmaOk
710:28:41:920AMPlasmaOk
810:59:54:480AMPlasmaOk
911:18:16:550AMPlasmaOk
1011:33:41:600AMPlasmaOk
1111:47:35:840AMPlasmaOk
1212:12:19:200PMPlasmaOk
1312:32:00:790PMPlasmaOk
1412:50:54:090PMPlasmaOk
1501:04:37:230PMPlasmaOk
1601:18:59:400PMPlasmaOk
1701:38:06:000PMPlasmaOkComm Fault OH2l & OH1
1801:58:03:710PMPlasmaOk
1902:08:43:230PMPlasmaBadComm fault OH2 U&L EF1 U&L
2002:26:28:470PMPlasmaOk
2102:48:23:450PMPlasmaOk
2203:01:16:020PMPlasmaOkComm fault Oh2L EF1U & OH1
2303:24:44:050PMPlasmaOk
2403:40:04:410PMPlasmaOk
2503:50:53:770PMPlasmaOk
2604:05:33:210PMPlasmaOk
2704:18:54:580PMPlasmaOk
2804:28:26:920PMPlasmaOk
2904:44:01:160PMPlasmaOk
3004:58:08:670PMPlasmaOk