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

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.

Modeling and control of the current density profile in tokamaks and its relation to electron transport

Costanza Zucca

The current density in tokamak plasmas strongly affects transport phenomena, therefore its understanding and control represent a crucial challenge for controlled thermonuclear fusion. Within the vast framework of tokamak studies, three topics have been tackled in the course of the present thesis: first, the modelling of the current density evolution in electron Internal Transport Barrier (eITB) discharges in the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV); second, the study of current diffusion and inversion of electron transport properties observed during Swing Electron Cyclotron Current Drive (Swing ECCD) discharges in TCV; third, the analysis of the current density tailoring obtained by local ECCD driven by the improved EC system for sawtooth control and reverse shear scenarios in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The work dedicated to the study of eITBs in TCV has been undertaken to identify which of the main parameters, directly related to the current density, played a relevant role in the confinement improvement created during these advanced scenarios. In this context, the current density has to be modeled, there being no measurement currently available on TCV. Since the Rebut-Lallia-Watkins (RLW) model has been validated on TCV ohmic heated plasmas, the corresponding scaling factor has often been used as a measure of improved confinement on TCV. The many interpretative simulations carried on different TCV discharges have shown that the thermal confinement improvement factor, HRLW, linearly increases with the absolute value of the minimum shear outside ρ > 0.3, ρ indicating a normalized radial coordinate. These investigations, performed with the transport code ASTRA, therefore confirmed a general observation, formulated through previous studies, that the formation of the transport barrier is correlated with the magnetic shear reversal. This was, indeed, found to be true in all cases studied, regardless of the different heating and current drive schemes employed. The increase of confinement with the negative magnetic shear was observed to be gradual, but constant, and did not depend on specific values of the safety factor. Therefore, the transition from standard to improved confinement appeared to be smooth, although it can be very fast. The flexible EC system in TCV allowed us to attain strong global confinement improvement to produce eITB regimes. It also permitted us to perform transport studies on plasmas characterized by low confinement, in which we modified the magnetic shear profile, locally, around the deposition location. For instance, alternate and periodic injection of co- and counter-ECCD within the same plasma discharge has been realized on TCV, while maintaining the same amount of total input EC power. Such a heating scheme has been the basis of Swing ECCD experiments, which were initially carried out using nearly on-axis EC deposition locations in the plasma, in order to maximize the EC power absorption, and therefore the magnetic shear variation. ASTRA, interfaced with the experimental data and the CQL3D code for the computation of the EC heating and current drive sources, has again been used as a reliable tool for transport analysis and planning of new experiments. The simulations have pointed out the effects of Swing ECCD on the magnetic shear and on the electron temperature profile around the radius at which the EC waves are absorbed. Both profiles turned out to be modulated at the same frequency as the frequency of the Swing ECCD. Moreover, the maximum magnetic shear variation has been observed to be independent of the transport models used for the simulations, therefore underlying the robustness of the modeling. Additionally, the numerical results have motivated further experiments with more off-axis EC deposition, which were found roughly in agreement with recent gyrokinetic predictions, according to which, at higher positive values of the magnetic shear, an inversion of the transport properties should occur. The aim of the study regarding the ITER project has been to analyse the capabilities of a possible variant of the EC system, recently proposed with the intent to optimize the combined action of the Upper and Equatorial EC Launchers and, therefore, to allow a broader operational domain for ITER. This variant will maintain the main goals for which the ITER EC system has originally been designed, namely the stabilization of Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs) and of the sawtooth instability. This is a necessary feature that has been carefully analyzed in the present study. Besides allowing excellent performance in controlling NTMs and the sawtooth period, the suggested variant paves a way for further exploitation of EC waves for ITER. The present ITER base-line design has all EC launchers providing only co-ECCD. The performed numerical modeling has shown that the possibility to drive counter-ECCD with one of the three rows of equatorial mirrors offers greater control of the plasma current density. The counter-ECCD may also be balanced with co-ECCD to provide pure EC heating, with no net driven current. This would be an additional asset if EC waves were found to be needed to assist the L-H transition during plasma ramp-up. The overall decrease in co-ECCD, by turning one row to counter-ECCD, is estimated to be negligible, because the difference between full off-axis co-ECCD using all 20 MW from the Equatorial Launcher or co-ECCD driven by 2/3 from the Equatorial Launcher and 1/3 from the Upper Launcher is small. Therefore the latter analysis provides, in our opinion, a strong evidence of the substantial gain in flexibility if the suggested variant of the ITER EC system were accepted as the base-line design.

EPFL2009

Pedestal Characteristics and MHD Stability of H-Mode Plasmas in TCV

Andreas Pitzschke

The tokamak à configuration variable (TCV) is unique in its ability to create a variety of plasma shapes and to heat the electron population in high density regimes using microwave power at the third harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency. In the frame of this thesis, the impact of plasma shaping and heating on the properties of the edge transport barrier (ETB) in the high confinement mode (H-mode) was studied. This mode of operation is foreseen as one of the reference scenarios for ITER, the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor, which is being built to demonstrate the feasibility of thermonuclear fusion using magnetic confinement. A feature of H-mode regime operation are edge localized modes (ELMs), instabilities driven by the steep pressure gradients that form in the plasma edge region due to a transport barrier. During an ELM event, energy and particles are expelled from the plasma in a short burst. This will cause serious problems with respect to the heat load on plasma facing components in a tokamak of the size of ITER. Understanding of the phenomena associated with ELMs is thus required and dedicated investigations of their theory and experimental observations are carried out in many laboratories worldwide. This thesis presents several experimental and numerical investigations of tokamak behavior for configurations where the plasma edge plays an important role. From the experimental viewpoint, studies of transport barriers are challenging, as plasma parameters change strongly within a narrow spatial region. As part of the work presented here, the TCV Thomson scattering system was upgraded to meet the requirements for diagnosing electron temperature and density with high spatial resolution in the region of internal and external transport barriers. Simultaneously, the data analysis was significantly improved to cope with statistical uncertainties and alleviate eventual systematic errors. For measurements of the time evolution of density and temperature profile during the ELM cycle, the low repetition rate of the lasers used for Thomson scattering is a limiting. Although the system on TCV comprises 3 laser units that may be triggered in sequence with time separations down to 1 ms, time evolution over longer periods can only be reconstructed from repetitive events. In this context, an adjustment of the laser trigger to improve the synchronization with the ELM event is an advantage. A method was developed and implemented to generate a synchronizing trigger sequence, by a real-time monitoring of the D-alpha emission, which provides a marker for the ELM event. Recently, a "snowflake" (SF) divertor configuration, proposed as a possible solution to reduce the plasma-wall interaction by changing the divertor's poloidal magnetic field topology, was generated, for the first time, in TCV. A numerical code (KINX), based on a magnetohydrodynamic model (ideal MHD), was used to investigate the stability limits of this configuration under H-mode conditions and compare them with a similar standard single-null equilibrium. In a series of experiments, improved energy confinement was found and explained by improved stability of the edge region in the SF configuration. The influence of the pedestal structure in ELMy H-mode plasmas on the energy confinement and on ELM energy losses was investigated. The different ELM regimes found in TCV were analyzed, in particular the transition between type-III to type-I ELMs. The operational boundary of each ELM regime was characterized and verified by ideal MHD stability simulations for the ETB region. Recent studies on the scaling of the pedestal width with normalized poloidal pressure were confirmed. Using the capabilities of TCV, the influence of plasma shaping on pedestal parameters and MHD stability limits was investigated. In the past, models were developed to describe the onset of type-I ELMs, which are associated with modes in the ETB region arising from a coupling of pressure- and current-driven instabilities (coupled kink-ballooning modes). Experimental studies were performed to trace the temporal evolution of pedestal parameters characterizing the ETB during an ELM cycle. The results of these experiments were analyzed using information from MHD stability calculations. It is concluded that these models are capable of predicting limits as necessary conditions for ELM activity, but are not sufficient to fully explain ELM triggering.

EPFL2011

Model-based optimization of magnetic control in the TCV tokamak: design and experiments

Federico Pesamosca

Thermonuclear controlled fusion is a promising answer to the current energy and climate issues, providing a safe carbon-free source of energy which is virtually inexhaustible. In magnetic confinement thermonuclear fusion based on tokamak reactors, hydrogen fuel in the state of plasma is confined using a system of external and self-generated magnetic fields. This thesis contributes to the development of magnetic confinement fusion research by applying techniques derived from control engineering to designing magnetic controllers for tokamak plasmas. Specifically, a new design for feedback control of plasma shape and position in the TCV tokamak is provided, and its efficacy is studied in dedicated simulations and experiments.Elongated plasmas lead to improved plasma performance in tokamaks, which is key to sustaining fusion conditions in reactors. The required magnetic field for shaping the plasma column however results in an unstable equilibrium that makes feedback control of the vertical plasma position mandatory. Active stabilization of the axisymmetric plasma vertical instability is a standard feature of elongated tokamaks and will be a fundamental feature in the ITER magnetic control system, since a loss of vertical control and the subsequent plasma disruption can lead to unacceptable heat loads on the plasma facing components.The TCV tokamak is the ideal benchmark for investigating the effect of plasma shaping on tokamak physics and performance, with its system of 16 independently powered poloidal field coils and a vessel with an elongated cross section. Shape and position control are coupled problems in TCV as they share the same poloidal field coils as actuators, requiring a multivariable approach to designing magnetic controllers.In this thesis, controller design for TCV is based on a model for the coupled plasma-vessel-coils electromagnetic dynamics: the RZIp model. In this axisymmetric model, the plasma current distribution is fixed but is free to move radially and vertically in the poloidal plane of a toroidal reference frame. An extension to this model is suggested, relaxing the assumption of rigid displacement in the radial direction to include plasma shape deformation and leading to a semi-rigid RZIp model which better fits numerical equilibria.An improvement to the existing algorithm for shape and position control in TCV is then proposed. In this new approach, tuning of the plasma position controller, in charge of vertical stabilization, can be performed independently of the shape controller, which itself acts on a stable system. Static decoupling is achieved and the shape controller is designed on the basis of an improved model for the plasma deformation, which includes the plasma contribution to the static magnetic flux perturbation. Simulations in closed loop with the RZIp model are provided to evaluate several optimized schemes.Finally, the vertical controller is optimized including the plasma dynamics as part of the controller design. Structured H-infinity, extending classical H-infinity to fixed-structure control systems, is applied to obtain a controller using all available coils for position control, and in particular a coil combination optimized for vertical stabilization. Closed-loop performance improvement is demonstrated in dedicated TCV experiments, confirming the simulation results and paving the way for the routine integration of the optimized position and shape controller in TCV discharges.

EPFL2021