Tokamak | EPFL Graph Search

A tokamak (ˈtoʊkəmæk; токамáк) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being developed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power. , it was the leading candidate for a practical fusion reactor. Tokamaks were initially conceptualized in the 1950s by Soviet physicists Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov, inspired by a letter by Oleg Lavrentiev. The first working tokamak was attributed to the work of Natan Yavlinsky on the T-1 in 1958. It had been demonstrated that a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that wind around the torus in a helix. Devices like the z-pinch and stellarator had attempted this, but demonstrated serious instabilities. It was the development of the concept now known as the safety factor (labelled q in mathematical notation) that guided tokamak development; by arranging the reactor so this critical factor q was always greater t

Particle transport in tokamak plasmas

Alexey Zabolotskiy

The transport of particles in magnetically confined plasmas is of great importance for the development of fusion energy. It will determine techniques for fuelling, for controlling impurity concentrations and for the removal of the alpha particles produced by fusion reactions. The issues related to particle transport have received, until relatively recently, less attention than those regarding heat transport. Besides the greater experimental difficulty of measuring particle transport, this may explain why our understanding of this subject is still incomplete. The aim of this thesis is to document and tentatively interpret the experimental density profile behaviour in the TCV (Tokamak à Configuration Variable) and JET (Joint European Torus) tokamaks in the framework of different theoretical and semi-empirical models. The TCV tokamak is well suited to transport studies due to its extreme shaping capability, which allows the exploration of a wide range of different plasma conditions. This versatility is matched by the powerful and flexible electron cyclotron heating (ECH) system on TCV, which allows a control of the local power deposition profiles and current drive profiles. A study of particle transport on the JET tokamak has allowed us to compare the results of TCV to those of a much larger device and supplement the TCV study with the analysis in reactor relevant high confinement regime (H-mode). The experimental information was compiled into a database of density profiles in steady state, containing nearly 1000 samples for TCV and 600 samples for JET. The data analyzed covered a wide range of discharge conditions, including low confinement regime (L-mode) and H-mode discharges, ECH, ICH (ion cyclotron heating), LHCD (low hybrid), beam heated plasmas and include fully current drive discharges. The most relevant parameters which influence the density profiles were determined by regression. A detailed analysis of the particle sources showed that edge fuelling in TCV and JET cannot be responsible for density gradient in the plasma bulk, confirming the presence of particle convection or a 'pinch'. The existence of an anomalous pinch was unambiguously demonstrated both on JET and on TCV by the observation of peaked density profiles in stationary, fully relaxed, fully current driven discharges and hence in the absence of the neoclassical Ware pinch. An unexpected difference in the parameter dependencies was found in L-and H-modes. In TCV and JET, density gradient lengths (or profile peaking parameters) in L-mode were found to depend on magnetic shear with no dependence on collisionality. This lack of collisionality dependence in L- mode is inconsistent with current theoretical models. H-mode density profiles in JET, on the other hand, are clearly dependent on collisionality in agreement with theory and a prior observation on ASDEX-Upgrade, while exhibiting only a weak or no dependence on shear and temperature profiles. It was found that for TCV and JET, L mode density peaking can be interpreted as being due to turbulent equipartition, which assumes conservation of the magnetic moment and the longitudinal invariant during transport. The observation of a reduction of peaking in TCV with ECH supports drift wave turbulence theory, which predicts the appearance of outward particle convection, when trapped electron modes are destabilized. In JET H-mode, the weak secondary correlation of peaking with the electron-ion temperature ratio Te/Ti, may also be considered, at least quantitatively, as being supportive of drift wave turbulence theory.

EPFL2005

Analysis of plasma dynamic response to modulated electron cyclotron heating in TCV tokamak

Ilya Pavlov

The need of durable, economically acceptable and safe energy sources continues to stimulate studies in a field of thermonuclear fusion. The most successful solution for controlled magnetic fusion is the tokamak. The improvement of tokamak performance depends on the optimization of pressure and current density spatial distributions which can be modified by means of an auxiliary heating and a current drive. Electron cyclotron heating, in particular is a very important tool for the study and control of basic physical processes governing plasma confinement and stability, particularly because it allows the injection of highly localized intense power. ECH power deposition location plays a crucial role in sawtooth control and suppression, it is also important for tearing mode stabilization, and for implementation of closed loop systems for automatic control/suppression of magnetohydrodynamic activity. A part of the ECH power can be modulated (MECH), and used to identify where the ECH power has been deposited, and can also be useful in the experimental analysis of the electron transport in general. Nevertheless, despite the goal of MECH being a diagnostic and analysis tool, MECH can couple to plasma oscillations, such as sawteeth. MECH-sawtooth phase coupling adds significant complications in ECH deposition location and transport analysis, in some cases making the interpretations of results misleading. This is why it is important to get an insight into the phenomenon of MECH-sawtooth interaction, and to establish the boundaries where conventional types of modulation analysis can be successfully implemented. This thesis presents the analysis and interpretation of perturbative MECH experiments performed in the TCV tokamak with particular attention paid to the non-linear phase coupling of heat waves. TCV is equipped with a very flexible and high power ECH system. Two independent ECH systems permit MECH to be deposited at two different spatial locations, with two different types of modulating signals. This set-up was used to study simultaneous propagation of heat waves induced by MECH in non-sawtoothing plasmas, and in discharges with sawtooth activity. A new analysis method for the characterization of the plasma non-linear dynamic response to modulated heating was developed on the basis of Higher Order Spectral Analysis (HOSA) technique. This method applied to signals from different diagnostics, such as electron cyclotron emission and soft X-ray measurements, was extensively used to quantitatively characterize the effect of nonlinear phase coupling. In sawtooth free discharges a detailed analysis of the propagation of heat waves demonstrated that their phase coupling is solely related to properties of heat sources. It was demonstrated that if two heat waves are induced by non-coupled power sources (multi-beam MECH) then no phase coupling occurs. In the opposite case, when a source of perturbation (MECH) contains coupled harmonics, the corresponding heat waves demonstrate phase coupling. It was shown that these coupled heat waves loose their phase coherence while propagating in plasma. The dissipation of phase coupling is due to different phase velocities of heat waves and their diffusive damping. The new type of ECH power modulation accompanied with bicoherence analysis was proposed as a candidate for a reliable identification of EC power deposition location in a case of high frequency and low modulation depth MECH, including multi-beam heating. This type of MECH can be particularly important for real time control applications. In cases when MECH is applied to sawtoothing plasmas a direct experimental evidence of MECH-sawtooth non-linear phase coupling has been demonstrated using HOSA techniques, in particular bispectrum and bicoherence profiles. The detailed analysis presented here demonstrates a direct proof of periodic modification of sawtooth behavior by modulated ECH. It was shown that a simple diffusive model for the perturbed electron temperature with MECH source term can not be used for transport analysis in the presence of MECH-sawtooth coupling. Self-consistent time dependant transport simulations including a sawtooth relaxation model is capable of properly reproducing the effect of MECH-sawtooth phase coupling and can be used for transport analysis. On the basis of these simulations, an hypothesis for MECH-sawtooth coupling based on periodic modifications of magnetic shear was proposed. Additional information provided by HOS analysis enabled a correct interpretation of the plasma dynamic response to modulated heating in the presence of MECH-sawtooth coupling.

EPFL2008