| 1. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of hybrid and baseline ELMy H-mode confinement in JET with the carbon wall
- 2013
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 53:1, s. 013001-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The confinement in JET baseline type I ELMy H-mode plasmas is compared to that in so-called hybrid H-modes in a database study of 112 plasmas in JET with the carbon fibre composite (CFC) wall. The baseline plasmas typically have βN ∼ 1.5-2, H98 ∼ 1, whereas the hybrid plasmas have βN ∼ 2.5-3, H98 < 1.5. The database study contains both low- (δ ∼ 0.2-0.25) and high-triangularity (δ ∼ 0.4) hybrid and baseline H-mode plasmas from the last JET operational campaigns in the CFC wall from the period 2008-2009. Based on a detailed confinement study of the global as well as the pedestal and core confinement, there is no evidence that the hybrid and baseline plasmas form separate confinement groups; it emerges that the transition between the two scenarios is of a gradual kind rather than demonstrating a bifurcation in the confinement. The elevated confinement enhancement factor H98 in the hybrid plasmas may possibly be explained by the density dependence in the τ98 scaling as n0.41 and the fact that the hybrid plasmas operate at low plasma density compared to the baseline ELMy H-mode plasmas. A separate regression on the confinement data in this study shows a reduction in the density dependence as n0.09±0.08. Furthermore, inclusion of the plasma toroidal rotation in the confinement regression provides a scaling with the toroidal Alfvén Mach number as and again a reduced density dependence as n0.15±0.08. The differences in pedestal confinement can be explained on the basis of linear MHD stability through a coupling of the total and pedestal poloidal pressure and the pedestal performance can be improved through plasma shaping as well as high β operation. This has been confirmed in a comparison with the EPED1 predictive pedestal code which shows a good agreement between the predicted and measured pedestal pressure within 20-30% for a wide range of βN ∼ 1.5-3.5. The core profiles show a strong degree of pressure profile consistency. No beneficial effect of core density peaking on confinement could be identified for the majority of the plasmas presented here as the density peaking is compensated by a temperature de-peaking resulting in no or only a weak variation in the pressure peaking. The core confinement could only be optimized in case the ions and electrons are decoupled, in which case the ion temperature profile peaking can be enhanced, which benefits confinement. In this study, the latter has only been achieved in the low-triangularity hybrid plasmas, and can be attributed to low-density operation. Plasma rotation has been found to reduce core profile stiffness, and can explain an increase in profile peaking at small radius ρtor = 0.3.
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| 2. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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Global and pedestal confinement in JET with a Be/W metallic wall
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 54:4, s. 043001-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Type I ELMy H-mode operation in JET with the ITER-like Be/W wall (JET-ILW) generally occurs at lower pedestal pressures compared to those with the full carbon wall (JET-C). The pedestal density is similar but the pedestal temperature where type I ELMs occur is reduced and below to the so-called critical type I-type III transition temperature reported in JET-C experiments. Furthermore, the confinement factor H-98(y,H- 2) in type I ELMy H-mode baseline plasmas is generally lower in JET-ILWcompared to JET-C at low power fractions Ploss/P-thr,(08)< 2 (where P-loss is (P-in-dW/dt), and P-thr,(08) the L-H power threshold from Martin et al 2008 (J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 123 012033)). Higher power fractions have thus far not been achieved in the baseline plasmas. At Ploss/P-thr,P- 08 > 2, the confinement in JET-ILW hybrid plasmas is similar to that in JET-C. A reduction in pedestal pressure is the main reason for the reduced confinement in JET-ILW baseline ELMy H-mode plasmas where typically H-98((y, 2)) = 0.8 is obtained, compared to H-98((y, 2)) = 1.0 in JET-C. In JET-ILW hybrid plasmas a similarly reduced pedestal pressure is compensated by an increased peaking of the core pressure profile resulting in H-98((y, 2)) <= 1.25. The pedestal stability has significantly changed in high triangularity baseline plasmas where the confinement loss is also most apparent. Applying the same stability analysis for JET-C and JET-ILW, the measured pedestal in JET-ILW is stable with respect to the calculated peeling-ballooning stability limit and the ELM collapse time has increased to 2ms from typically 200 mu s in JET-C. This indicates that changes in the pedestal stability may have contributed to the reduced pedestal confinement in JET-ILW plasmas. A comparison of EPED1 pedestal pressure prediction with JET-ILW experimental data in over 500 JET-C and JET-ILW baseline and hybrid plasmas shows a good agreement with 0.8 < (measured p(ped))/(predicted p(ped), EPED) < 1.2, but that the role of triangularity is generally weaker in the JET-ILW experimental data than in the model predictions.
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| 3. |
- Beurskens, M N A, et al.
(författare)
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H-mode pedestal scaling in DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade, and JET
- 2011
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Ingår i: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1070-664X .- 1089-7674. ; 18:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multidevice pedestal scaling experiments in the DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), and JET tokamaks are presented in order to test two plasma physics pedestal width models. The first model proposes a scaling of the pedestal width Delta/a proportional to rho*(1/2) to rho* based on the radial extent of the pedestal being set by the point where the linear turbulence growth rate exceeds the E x B velocity. In the multidevice experiment where rho* at the pedestal top was varied by a factor of four while other dimensionless parameters where kept fixed, it has been observed that the temperature pedestal width in real space coordinates scales with machine size, and that therefore the gyroradius scaling suggested by the model is not supported by the experiments. The density pedestal width is not invariant with rho* which after comparison with a simple neutral fuelling model may be attributed to variations in the neutral fuelling patterns. The second model, EPED1, is based on kinetic ballooning modes setting the limit of the radial extent of the pedestal region and leads to Delta(psi) proportional to beta p(1/2). All three devices show a scaling of the pedestal width in normalised poloidal flux as Delta(psi) proportional to beta p(1/2), as described by the kinetic ballooning model; however, on JET and AUG, this could not be distinguished from an interpretation where the pedestal is fixed in real space. Pedestal data from all three devices have been compared with the predictive pedestal model EPED1 and the model produces pedestal height values that match the experimental data well.
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| 4. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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Pedestal and ELM response to impurity seeding in JET advanced scenario plasmas
- 2008
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 48:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Advanced scenario plasmas must often be run at low densities and high power, leading to hot edge temperatures and consequent power handling issues at plasma - surface interaction zones. Experiments at JET are addressing this issue by exploring the use of extrinsic impurity seeding and D-2 puffing to reduce heat fluxes. The experiments presented in this paper continue the line of advanced tokamak ( AT) scenario studies at high triangularity in JET by concentrating on the characterization of the edge pedestal and the ELM behaviour with deuterium and/or light impurity fuelling (neon, nitrogen). Both injection of extrinsic impurities and D2 puffing are shown to have a significant impact on the edge pedestal in typical JET AT conditions. The ELM energy loss, Delta W-ELM/W-dia, can be reduced to below 3% and the maximum ELM penetration depth can be limited to r/a > 0.7, thus enhancing the possibility for sustainable internal transport barriers at large plasma radius. These conditions can be achieved in two separate domains, either at a radiated power fraction (F-rad) of 30% or at a fraction of > 50%. At the lower Frad the ELMs are type I and a high pedestal pressure is maintained, but the occasional large ELM may still occur. At F-rad > 50% the pedestal pressure is degraded by 30-50%, but the ELMs are degraded to type III. The intermediate regime at F-rad similar to 40% is unattractive for ITB scenarios because large type I ELMs occur intermittently during the predominantly type III ELM phases (compound type I/III). F-rad = 30% can be obtained with D-2 fuelling alone, whereas neon or nitrogen seeding is needed to achieve F-rad > 50%. Only a limited number of tests have been carried out with nitrogen seeding, with the preliminary conclusion that the plasma edge behaviour is similar to that with neon seeding once the radiated fraction is matched.
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| 5. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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Pedestal width and ELM size identity studies in JET and DIII-D; implications for ITER
- 2009
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 51:12, s. 124051-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dependence of the H-mode edge transport barrier width on normalized ion gyroradius (rho* = rho/a) in discharges with type I ELMs was examined in experiments combining data for the JET and DIII-D tokamaks. The plasma configuration as well as the local normalized pressure (beta), collisionality (nu*), Mach number and the ratio of ion and electron temperature at the pedestal top were kept constant, while rho* was varied by a factor of four. The width of the steep gradient region of the electron temperature (T-e) and density (n(e)) pedestals normalized to machine size showed no or only a weak trend with rho*. A rho(1/2) or rho(1) dependence of the pedestal width, given by some theoretical predictions, is not supported by the current experiments. This is encouraging for the pedestal scaling towards ITER as it operates at lower rho* than existing devices. Some differences in pedestal structure and ELM behaviour were, however, found between the devices; in the DIII-D discharges, the n(e) and T-e pedestal were aligned at high rho* but the ne pedestal shifted outwards in radius relative to T-e as rho* decreases, while on JET the profiles remained aligned while rho* was scanned by a factor of two. The energy loss at an ELM normalized to the pedestal energy increased from 10% to 40% as rho* increased by a factor of two in the DIII-D discharges but no such variation was observed in the case of JET. The measured pedestal pressures and widths were found to be consistent with the predictions from modelling based on peeling-ballooning stability theory, and are used to make projections towards ITER
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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The effect of a metal wall on confinement in JET and ASDEX Upgrade
- 2013
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 55:12, s. 124043-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In both JET and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) the plasma energy confinement has been affected by the presence of a metal wall by the requirement of increased gas fuelling to avoid tungsten pollution of the plasma. In JET with a beryllium/tungsten wall the high triangularity baseline H-mode scenario (i.e. similar to the ITER reference scenario) has been the strongest affected and the benefit of high shaping to give good normalized confinement of H-98 similar to 1 at high Greenwald density fraction of f(GW) similar to 0.8 has not been recovered to date. In AUG with a full tungsten wall, a good normalized confinement H-98 similar to 1 could be achieved in the high triangularity baseline plasmas, albeit at elevated normalized pressure beta(N) > 2. The confinement lost with respect to the carbon devices can be largely recovered by the seeding of nitrogen in both JET and AUG. This suggests that the absence of carbon in JET and AUG with a metal wall may have affected the achievable confinement. Three mechanisms have been tested that could explain the effect of carbon or nitrogen (and the absence thereof) on the plasma confinement. First it has been seen in experiments and by means of nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations (with the GENE code), that nitrogen seeding does not significantly change the core temperature profile peaking and does not affect the critical ion temperature gradient. Secondly, the dilution of the edge ion density by the injection of nitrogen is not sufficient to explain the plasma temperature and pressure rise. For this latter mechanism to explain the confinement improvement with nitrogen seeding, strongly hollow Z(eff) profiles would be required which is not supported by experimental observations. The confinement improvement with nitrogen seeding cannot be explained with these two mechanisms. Thirdly, detailed pedestal structure analysis in JET high triangularity baseline plasmas have shown that the fuelling of either deuterium or nitrogen widens the pressure pedestal. However, in JET-ILW this only leads to a confinement benefit in the case of nitrogen seeding where, as the pedestal widens, the obtained pedestal pressure gradient is conserved. In the case of deuterium fuelling in JET-ILW the pressure gradient is strongly degraded in the fuelling scan leading to no net confinement gain due to the pedestal widening. The pedestal code EPED correctly predicts the pedestal pressure of the unseeded plasmas in JET-ILW within +/- 5%, however it does not capture the complex variation of pedestal width and gradient with fuelling and impurity seeding. Also it does not predict the observed increase of pedestal pressure by nitrogen seeding in JET-ILW. Ideal peeling ballooning MHD stability analysis shows that the widening of the pedestal leads to a down shift of the marginal stability boundary by only 10-20%. However, the variations in the pressure gradient observed in the JET-ILW fuelling experiment is much larger and spans a factor of more than two. As a result the experimental points move from deeply unstable to deeply stable on the stability diagram in a deuterium fuelling scan. In AUG-W nitrogen seeded plasmas, a widening of the pedestal has also been observed, consistent with the JET observations. The absence of carbon can thus affect the pedestal structure, and mainly the achieved pedestal gradient, which can be recovered by seeding nitrogen. The underlying physics mechanism is still under investigation and requires further understanding of the role of impurities on the pedestal stability and pedestal structure formation.
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| 8. |
- Beurskens, M. N. A., et al.
(författare)
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The role of carbon and nitrogen on the H-mode confinement in ASDEX Upgrade with a metal wall
- 2016
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 56:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbon (CD4) and nitrogen (N2) have been seeded in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) with a tungsten wall and have both led to a 20-30% confinement improvement. The reference plasma is a standard target plasma with I p /B T = 1 MA/2.5 T, total input power P tot ∼ 12 MW and normalized pressure of β N ∼ 1.8. Carbon and nitrogen are almost perfectly exchangeable for the core, pedestal and divertor plasma in this experiment where impurity concentrations of C and N of 2% are achieved and Z eff only mildly increases from ∼1.3 to ∼1.7. As the radiation potentials of C and N are similar and peak well below 100 eV, both impurities act as divertor radiators and radiate well outside the pedestal region. The outer divertor is purposely kept in an attached state when C and N are seeded to avoid confinement degradation by detachment. As reported in earlier publications for nitrogen, carbon is also seen to reduce the high field side high density (the so-called HFSHD) in the scrape off layer above the inner divertor strike point by about 50%. This is accompanied by a confinement improvement for both low (δ ∼ 0.25) and high (δ ∼ 0.4) triangularity configurations for both seeding gases, due to an increase of pedestal temperature and stiff core temperature profiles. The electron density profiles show no apparent change due to the seeding. As an orthogonal effect, increasing the triangularity leads to an additionally increased pedestal density, independent of the impurity seeding. This experiment further closes the gap in understanding the confinement differences observed in carbon and metal wall devices; the absence of carbon can be substituted by nitrogen which leads to a similar confinement benefit. So far, no definite physics explanation for the confinement enhancement has been obtained, but the experimental observations in this paper provide input for further model development.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Dunne, M. G., et al.
(författare)
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Global performance enhancements via pedestal optimisation on ASDEX Upgrade
- 2017
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 59:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Results of experimental scans of heating power, plasma shape, and nitrogen content are presented, with a focus on global performance and pedestal alteration. In detailed scans at low triangularity, it is shown that the increase in stored energy due to nitrogen seeding stems from the pedestal. It is also shown that the confinement increase is driven through the temperature pedestal at the three heating power levels studied. In a triangularity scan, an orthogonal effect of shaping and seeding is observed, where increased plasma triangularity increases the pedestal density, while impurity seeding (carbon and nitrogen) increases the pedestal temperature in addition to this effect. Modelling of these effects was also undertaken, with interpretive and predictive models being employed. The interpretive analysis shows a general agreement of the experimental pedestals in separate power, shaping, and seeding scans with peeling-ballooning theory. Predictive analysis was used to isolate the individual effects, showing that the trends of additional heating power and increased triangularity can be recoverd. However, a simple change of the effective charge in the plasma cannot explain the observed levels of confinement improvement in the present models.
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