P.J. Byrne

The high beta tokamak-extended pulse magnetohydrodynamic mode control research program

The high beta tokamak-extended pulse (HBT-EP) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mode control research program is studying ITER relevant internal modular feedback control coil configurations and their impact on kink mode rigidity, advanced digital control algorithms and the effects of plasma rotation and three-dimensional magnetic fields on MHD mode stability. A new segmented adjustable conducting wall has been installed on the HBT-EP and is made up of 20 independent, movable, wall shell segments instrumented with three distinct sets of 40 saddle coils, totaling 120 in-vessel modular feedback control coils. Each internal coil set has been designed with varying toroidal angular coil coverage of 5, 10 and 15°, spanning the toroidal angle range of an ITER port plug based internal coil to test resistive wall mode (RWM) interaction and multimode MHD plasma response to such highly localized control fields. In addition, we have implemented 336 new poloidal and radial magnetic sensors to quantify the applied three-dimensional fields of our control coils along with the observed plasma response. This paper describes the design and implementation of the new control shell incorporating these control and sensor coils on the HBT-EP, and the research program plan on the upgraded HBT-EP to understand how best to optimize the use of modular feedback coils to control instability growth near the ideal wall stabilization limit, answer critical questions about the role of plasma rotation in active control of the RWM and the ferritic resistive wall mode, and to improve the performance of MHD control systems used in fusion experiments and future burning plasma systems.

Multimode observations and 3D magnetic control of the boundary of a tokamak plasma

We present high-resolution detection and control of the 3D magnetic boundary in the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) device. Measurements of non-axisymmetric radial and poloidal fields are made using 216 magnetic sensors positioned near the plasma surface. Control of 3D fields is accomplished using 40 independent saddle coils attached to the passive stabilizing wall. The control coils are energized with high-power solid-state amplifiers, and massively parallel, high-throughput feedback control experiments are performed using low-latency connections between PCI Express analogue input and output modules and a graphics processing unit. The time evolution of unstable and saturated wall-stabilized external kink modes are studied with and without applying magnetic perturbations using the control coils. The 3D dynamic structure of the magnetic field surrounding the plasma is determined through biorthogonal decomposition using the full set of magnetic sensors without the need to fit either a Fourier or a model-based basis. Naturally occurring external kinks are composed of multiple independent helical modes. Smooth transitions between dominant poloidal mode numbers are observed for simultaneous nxa0=xa01 and nxa0=xa02 modes as the edge safety factor changes. Relative amplitudes of coexistent m/nxa0=xa03/1 and 6/2 modes depend on the plasmas major radius and edge safety factor. When stationary 3/1 magnetic perturbations are applied, the resonant response can be linear, saturated, or disruptive, depending upon the perturbation amplitude and the edge safety factor; increased plasma–wall interactions from the perturbed plasma are proposed as a saturation mechanism. Initial feedback experiments have used 40 sensors and 40 control coils, producing mode amplification or suppression, and acceleration or deceleration depending on the feedback phase angle.

Adaptive control of rotating magnetic perturbations in HBT-EP using GPU processing

Feedback control has become a crucial tool in the research on magnetic confinement of plasmas for achieving controlled nuclear fusion. We present the first experimental results from a novel feedback control system that, for the first time, employs a graphics processing unit (GPU) for microsecond-latency, real-time control computations. The system was tested on the HBT-EP tokamak using an adaptive control algorithm for control of rotating magnetic perturbations. The algorithm assumes that perturbations of known shape are rotating rigidly, but dynamically derives and updates the rotation frequency to improve phase and gain accuracy of the control signals. Experiments were set up to control four rotating nxa0=xa01 perturbations at different poloidal angles. The perturbations are treated as coupled in frequency but independent of amplitude and phase, so that the system effectively controls a helical nxa0=xa01 perturbation with unknown poloidal spectrum. The control system suppresses the amplitude of the dominant 8xa0kHz mode by up to 60%. Deviation from the optimal feedback phase combines suppression with a speed up or slow down of the mode rotation frequency. The feedback performance is found to exceed previous results obtained with an FPGA- and Kalman-filter based control system without requiring any tuning of system model parameters.

Adaptive feedback control of rotating external kink modes in HBT-EP

An advanced adaptive control algorithm is used to study the control of external kink modes that are excited in the HBT-EP tokamak and have a natural toroidal rotation frequency near 8xa0kHz. The controllers system model is parametrized and the parameters are adjusted in real-time to match the measured plasma evolution. Depending upon a programmed phase angle, active feedback control is shown to either suppress or amplify the controlled amplitude by an amount comparable to the variations observed over a variety of plasma discharges. With negative feedback, the maximum amplitude is reduced to 40% of the uncontrolled value. With positive feedback, the amplitude increases to 155%. Intermediate feedback phases lead to an acceleration or deceleration of the mode rotation frequency in addition to changes in mode amplitude. As the feedback gain increases, the level of both mode suppression and mode amplification also increases. However, for sufficiently high gain, kink mode suppression becomes limited by the excitation of an additional, slowly rotating 1.4xa0kHz mode having the same helical structure as the uncontrolled kink. High gain amplification is limited by disruptive loss of plasma current. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations based on a single helicity model, and qualitative agreement is found.

Measurement of 3D plasma response to external magnetic perturbations in the presence of a rotating external kink

The detailed measurements of the 3D plasma response to applied external magnetic perturbations in the presence of a rotating external kink are presented, and compared with the predictions of a single-helicity linear model of kink mode dynamics. The modular control coils of the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) device are used to apply resonant m/n = 3/1 magnetic perturbations to wall-stabilized tokamak plasmas with a pre-existing rotating 3/1 kink mode. The plasma response is measured in high-resolution with the extensive magnetic diagnostic set of the HBT-EP device. The spatial structures of both the naturally rotating kink mode and the externally driven response are independently measured and observed to be identical, while the temporal dynamics are consistent with the independent evolution and superposition of the two modes. This leads to the observation of a characteristic change in 3D field dynamics as a function of the applied field amplitude. This amplitude dependence is found to be different for poloidal and radial fields. The measured 3D response is compared to and shown to be consistent with the predictions of the linear single-helicity model in the “high-dissipation” regime, as reported previously [M. E. Mauel et al., Nucl. Fusion 45, 285 (2005)].

High resolution detection and excitation of resonant magnetic perturbations in a wall-stabilized tokamaka)

We report high-resolution detection of the 3D plasma magnetic response of wall-stabilized tokamak discharges in the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse [T. H. Ivers et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 1926 (1996)] device. A new adjustable conducting wall has been installed on HBT-EP made up of 20 independent, movable, wall segments instrumented with three distinct sets of 40 modular coils that can be independently driven to generate a wide variety of magnetic perturbations. High-resolution detection of the plasma response is made with 216 poloidal and radial magnetic sensors that have been located and calibrated with high-accuracy. Static and dynamic plasma responses to resonant and non-resonant magnetic perturbations are observed through measurement of the step-response following a rapid change in the toroidal phase of the applied perturbations. Biorthogonal decomposition of the full set of magnetic sensors clearly defines the structures of naturally occurring external kinks as being composed of independent m/nu2009=u20093/1 and 6/2 modes. Resonant magnetic perturbations were applied to discharges with pre-existing, saturated m/nu2009=u20093/1 external kink mode activity. This m/nu2009=u20093/1 kink mode was observed to lock to the applied perturbation field. During this kink mode locked period, the plasma resonant response is characterized by a linear, a saturated, and a disruptive plasma regime dependent on the magnitude of the applied field and value of the edge safety factor and plasma rotation.We report high-resolution detection of the 3D plasma magnetic response of wall-stabilized tokamak discharges in the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse [T. H. Ivers et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 1926 (1996)] device. A new adjustable conducting wall has been installed on HBT-EP made up of 20 independent, movable, wall segments instrumented with three distinct sets of 40 modular coils that can be independently driven to generate a wide variety of magnetic perturbations. High-resolution detection of the plasma response is made with 216 poloidal and radial magnetic sensors that have been located and calibrated with high-accuracy. Static and dynamic plasma responses to resonant and non-resonant magnetic perturbations are observed through measurement of the step-response following a rapid change in the toroidal phase of the applied perturbations. Biorthogonal decomposition of the full set of magnetic sensors clearly defines the structures of naturally occurring external kinks as being composed of independent m/nu2009=u20093/1 ...

Active and passive kink mode studies in a tokamak with a movable ferromagnetic walla)

High-resolution active and passive kink mode studies are conducted in a tokamak with an adjustable ferromagnetic wall near the plasma surface. Ferritic tiles made from 5.6u2009mm thick Hiperco® 50 alloy have been mounted on the plasma-facing side of half of the in-vessel movable wall segments in the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse device [D. A. Maurer et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 53, 074016 (2011)] in order to explore ferritic resistive wall mode stability. Low-activation ferritic steels are a candidate for structural components of a fusion reactor, and these experiments examine MHD stability of plasmas with nearby ferromagnetic material. Plasma-wall separation for alternating ferritic and non-ferritic wall segments is adjusted between discharges without opening the vacuum vessel. Amplification of applied resonant magnetic perturbations and plasma disruptivity are observed to increase when the ferromagnetic wall is close to plasma surface instead of the standard stainless steel wall. Rapidly rotati...

In situ "artificial plasma" calibration of tokamak magnetic sensors.

A unique in situ calibration technique has been used to spatially calibrate and characterize the extensive new magnetic diagnostic set and close-fitting conducting wall of the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) experiment. A new set of 216 Mirnov coils has recently been installed inside the vacuum chamber of the device for high-resolution measurements of magnetohydrodynamic phenomena including the effects of eddy currents in the nearby conducting wall. The spatial positions of these sensors are calibrated by energizing several large in situ calibration coils in turn, and using measurements of the magnetic fields produced by the various coils to solve for each sensors position. Since the calibration coils are built near the nominal location of the plasma current centroid, the technique is referred to as an artificial plasma calibration. The fitting procedure for the sensor positions is described, and results of the spatial calibration are compared with those based on metrology. The time response of the sensors is compared with the evolution of the artificial plasma current to deduce the eddy current contribution to each signal. This is compared with simulations using the VALEN electromagnetic code, and the modeled copper thickness profiles of the HBT-EP conducting wall are adjusted to better match experimental measurements of the eddy current decay. Finally, the multiple coils of the artificial plasma system are also used to directly calibrate a non-uniformly wound Fourier Rogowski coil on HBT-EP.

Improved feedback control of wall stabilized kink modes with different plasma–wall couplings and mode rotation

A new algorithm for feedback control of rotating, wall-stabilized kink modes in the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) device maintains an accurate phase shift between the perturbation and the measured rotating mode through current control, with control power emphasizing fast rotation and phase jumps over fast amplitude changes. In HBT-EP, wall-stabilized kink modes become unstable above the ideal wall stability limit, and feedback suppression is aimed at delaying the onset of discharge disruption through reduction of the kink mode amplitude. Performance of the new feedback algorithm is tested under different experimental conditions, including variation of the plasma–wall coupling, insertion of a ferritic wall, changing mode rotation frequency over the range of 4–8 kHz using an internal biased electrode, and adjusting the feedback phase-angle to accelerate, amplify, or suppress the mode. We find the previously reported excitation of the slowly rotating mode at high feedback gain in HBT-EP is mitigated by the current control scheme. We also find good agreement between the observed and predicted changes to the mode rotation frequency and amplitude. When ferritic material is introduced, or the plasma–wall coupling becomes weaker as the walls are retracted from plasma, the feedback gain needs to be increased to achieve the same level of suppression. When mode rotation is slowed by a biased electrode, the feedback system still achieves mode suppression, and demonstrates wide bandwidth effectiveness.