Engineering topics

Maslov, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Maslov, M..

25 records · Page 2

DOE OSTI2020

Analysis of the inter-species power balance in JET plasmas

Most auxiliary heating methods provide heating to more than one particle species (electrons, ions, impurities) in a fusion plasma. This can lead to substantial temperature differences between species, depending on conditions such as heating power to the different species and collisionality, with temperature differences between species limited by inter-species thermal equipartition and transport. The analysis of the steady-state electron-ion and impurity-ion power balances presented in this paper are used for consistency-checking experimental ion and electron temperature measurements and for inferring the main ion temperature from measured impurity temperatures. As ion temperature measurements by charge exchange spectroscopy (CXS) based on impurity ions have become more difficult and time-consuming since the installation of the ITER-like wall (ILW) with Be and W PFC's, knowing the maximum sustainable temperature difference between ions and electrons, |T i -T e | allows rejecting erroneous measurements. It also obviates the need for an ion temperature measurement, if an electron temperature measurement is available and |T i - T e | cannot be larger than the combined errors of the underlying measurements. A power balance analysis is also required for estimating the errors of the ion and electron heat fluxes prior to any species-resolved transport analysis. The ion-impurity temperature differences are usually found to be small due to strong thermal equipartition between ion species. However, they can approach 10% in JET-ILW low density, high power discharges, such the ones under development for a future JET deuterium–tritium campaign (Joffrin et al 2019 Nucl. Fusion). This has a generally small, but not always negligible effect on the calculation of fusion reaction rates, which depend on main ion temperatures. An important outcome of this analysis is that temperature differences between impurity species are always much smaller than between the impurities and hydrogenic species and can usually be neglected. The article presents two methods for calculating the impurity-to-main ion temperature ratio. Finally, this analysis leads to a method for the reconstruction ion temperature profiles from ion temperature data available at only one or a small number of spatial locations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

Control of the hydrogen:deuterium isotope mixture using pellets in JET

Deuterium pellets are injected into initially pure hydrogen H-mode plasma in order to control H:D isotope mixture. The pellets are deposited in outer 20% of minor radius, similar to that expected in ITER creating transiently hollow electron density profiles. The isotope mixture of H:D ~ 45:55% is obtained in the core with pellet fuelling throughput of Φ pel = 0.045 P aux /T e,ped similar to previous pellet fuelling experiments in pure deuterium. Evolution of H:D mix in the core is reproduced using simple model although deuterium transport could be higher at the beginning of the pellet train compared to the flat top phase.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Gyrokinetic simulations of toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes excited by energetic ions and external antennas on the Joint European Torus

The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) has been used to study toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) in high-performance plasmas. Experiments performed at the Joint European Torus (JET), where TAEs were driven by energetic particles arising from neutral beams, ion cyclotron resonant heating, and resonantly excited by dedicated external antennas, have been simulated. Modes driven by populations of energetic particles are observed, matching the TAE frequency seen with magnetic probes in JET experiments. A synthetic antenna, composed of one toroidal and two neighboring poloidal harmonics has been used to probe the modes' damping rates and quantify mechanisms for this damping in GTC simulations. This method was also applied to frequency and damping rate measurements of stable TAEs made by the Alfvén eigenmode active diagnostic in these discharges.

Physics↗

DOE OSTI2017

Isotope effects on L-H threshold and confinement in tokamak plasmas

The dependence of plasma transport and confinement on the main hydrogenic ion isotope mass is of fundamental importance for understanding turbulent transport and, therefore, for accurate extrapolations of confinement from present tokamak experiments, which typically use a single hydrogen isotope, to burning plasmas such as ITER, which will operate in deuterium–tritium mixtures. Knowledge of the dependence of plasma properties and edge transport barrier formation on main ion species is critical in view of the initial, low-activation phase of ITER operations in hydrogen or helium and of its implications on the subsequent operation in deuterium–tritium. The favourable scaling of global energy confinement time with isotope mass, which has been observed in many tokamak experiments, remains largely unexplained theoretically. Moreover, the mass scaling observed in experiments varies depending on the plasma edge conditions. In preparation for upcoming deuterium–tritium experiments in the JET tokamak with the ITER-like Be/W Wall (JET-ILW), a thorough experimental investigation of isotope effects in hydrogen, deuterium and tritium plasmas is being carried out, in order to provide stringent tests of plasma energy, particle and momentum transport models. Recent hydrogen and deuterium isotope experiments in JET-ILW on L-H power threshold, L-mode and H-mode confinement are reviewed and discussed in the context of past and more recent isotope experiments in tokamak plasmas, highlighting common elements as well as contrasting observations that have been reported. The experimental findings are discussed in the context of fundamental aspects of plasma transport models.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2013

Correction of the spectral calibration of the Joint European Torus core light detecting and ranging Thomson scattering diagnostic using ray tracing

This work isolated the cause of the observed discrepancy between the electron temperature (T{sub e}) measurements before and after the JET Core LIDAR Thomson Scattering (TS) diagnostic was upgraded. In the upgrade process, stray light filters positioned just before the detectors were removed from the system. Modelling showed that the shift imposed on the stray light filters transmission functions due to the variations in the incidence angles of the collected photons impacted plasma measurements. To correct for this identified source of error, correction factors were developed using ray tracing models for the calibration and operational states of the diagnostic. The application of these correction factors resulted in an increase in the observed T{sub e}, resulting in the partial if not complete removal of the observed discrepancy in the measured T{sub e} between the JET core LIDAR TS diagnostic, High Resolution Thomson Scattering, and the Electron Cyclotron Emission diagnostics.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2013

ICRF Specific Plasma Wall Interactions in JET with the ITER-Like Wall

A variety of plasma wall interactions (PWIs) during operation of the so-called A2 ICRF antennas is observed in JET with the ITER-like wall. Amongst effects of the PWIs, the W content increase is the most significant, especially at low plasma densities. No increase of W source from the main divertor and entrance of the outer divertor during ICRF compared to NBI phases was found by means of spectroscopic and WI (400.9 nm) imaging diagnostics. In contrary, the W flux there is higher during NBI. Charge exchange neutrals of hydrogen isotopes could be excluded as considerable contributors to the W source. The high W content in ICRF heated limiter discharges suggests the possibility of other W sources than the divertor alone. Dependencies of PWIs to individual ICRF antennas during q95-scans, and intensification of those for the 90 phasing, indicate a link between the PWIs and the antenna near-fields. The PWIs include heat loads and Be sputtering pattern on antenna limiters. Indications of some PWIs at the outer divertor entrance are observed which do not result in higher W flux compared to the NBI phases, but are characterized by small antenna-specific (up to 25% with respect to ohmic phases) bipolar variations of WI emission. The first TOPICA calculations show a particularity of the A2 antennas compared to the ITER antenna, due to the presence of long antenna limiters in the RF image current loop and thus high near-fields across the most part of the JET outer wall.

Bobkov, V.↗

DOE OSTI2012

Note: Statistical errors estimation for Thomson scattering diagnostics

A practical way of estimating statistical errors of a Thomson scattering diagnostic measuring plasma electron temperature and density is described. Analytically derived expressions are successfully tested with Monte Carlo simulations and implemented in an automatic data processing code of the JET LIDAR diagnostic.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗