T. Odstrcil

Tungsten transport in JET H-mode plasmas in hybrid scenario, experimental observations and modelling

The behaviour of tungsten in the core of hybrid scenario plasmas in JET with the ITER-like wall is analysed and modelled with a combination of neoclassical and gyrokinetic codes. In these discharges, good confinement conditions can be maintained only for the first 2?3?s of the high power phase. Later W accumulation is regularly observed, often accompanied by the onset of magneto-hydrodynamical activity, in particular neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs), both of which have detrimental effects on the global energy confinement. The dynamics of the accumulation process is examined, taking into consideration the concurrent evolution of the background plasma profiles, and the possible onset of NTMs. Two time slices of a representative discharge, before and during the accumulation process, are analysed with two independent methods, in order to reconstruct the W density distribution over the poloidal cross-section. The same time slices are modelled, computing both neoclassical and turbulent transport components and consistently including the impact of centrifugal effects, which can be significant in these plasmas, and strongly enhance W neoclassical transport. The modelling closely reproduces the observations and identifies inward neoclassical convection due to the density peaking of the bulk plasma in the central region as the main cause of the accumulation. The change in W neoclassical convection is directly produced by the transient behaviour of the main plasma density profile, which is hollow in the central region in the initial part of the high power phase of the discharge, but which develops a significant density peaking very close to the magnetic axis in the later phase. The analysis of a large set of discharges provides clear indications that this effect is generic in this scenario. The unfavourable impact of the onset of NTMs on the W behaviour, observed in several discharges, is suggested to be a consequence of a detrimental combination of the effects of neoclassical transport and of the appearance of an island.

Theoretical description of heavy impurity transport and its application to the modelling of tungsten in JET and ASDEX upgrade

The effects of poloidal asymmetries and heated minority species are shown to be necessary to accurately describe heavy impurity transport in present experiments in JET and ASDEX Upgrade. Plasma rotation, or any small background electrostatic field in the plasma, such as that generated by anisotropic external heating can generate strong poloidal density variation of heavy impurities. These asymmetries have recently been added to numerical tools describing both neoclassical and turbulent transport and can increase neoclassical tungsten transport by an order of magnitude. Modelling predictions of the steady-state two-dimensional tungsten impurity distribution are compared with tomography from soft x-ray diagnostics. The modelling identifies neoclassical transport enhanced by poloidal asymmetries as the dominant mechanism responsible for tungsten accumulation in the central core of the plasma. Depending on the bulk plasma profiles, turbulent diffusion and neoclassical temperature screening can prevent accumulation. Externally heated minority species can significantly enhance temperature screening in ICRH plasmas.

Quantification of the impact of large and small-scale instabilities on the fast-ion confinement in ASDEX Upgrade

The confinement fast ions, generated by neutral beam injection (NBI), has been investigated at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. In plasmas that exhibit strong sawtooth crashes, a significant sawtooth-induced internal redistribution of mainly passing fast ions is observed, which is in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions based on the Kadomtsev model. Between the sawtooth crashes, the fishbone modes are excited which, however, do not cause measurable changes in the global fast-ion population. During experiments with on- and off-axis NBI and without strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes, the fast-ion measurements agree very well with the neo-classical predictions. This shows that the MHD-induced (large-scale), as well as a possible turbulence-induced (small-scale) fast-ion transport is negligible under these conditions. However, in discharges performed to study the off-axis NBI current drive efficiency with up to 10 MW of heating power, the fast-ion measurements agree best with the theoretical predictions that assume a weak level anomalous fast-ion transport. This is also in agreement with measurements of the internal inductance, a Motional Stark Effect diagnostic and a novel polarimetry diagnostic: the fast-ion driven current profile is clearly modified when changing the NBI injection geometry and the measurements agree best with the predictions that assume weak anomalous fast-ion diffusion.

Enhancement of the FIDA diagnostic at ASDEX Upgrade for velocity space tomography

Recent upgrades to the FIDA (fast-ion D-alpha) diagnostic at ASDEX Upgrade are discussed. The diagnostic has been extended from three to five line of sight arrays with different angles to the magnetic field, and a spectrometer redesign allows the simultaneous measurement of red- and blue-shifted parts of the Doppler spectrum. These improvements make it possible to reconstruct the 2D fast-ion velocity distribution from the FIDA measurements by tomographic inversion under a wide range of plasma parameters. Two applications of the tomography are presented: a comparison between the distributions resulting from 60 keV and 93 keV neutral beam injection and a velocity-space resolved study of fast-ion redistribution induced by a sawtooth crash inside and outside the sawtooth inversion radius.

Fast-ion transport and neutral beam current drive in ASDEX upgrade

The neutral beam current drive efficiency has been investigated in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak by replacing on-axis neutral beams with tangential off-axis beams. A clear modification of the radial fast-ion profiles is observed with a fast-ion D-alpha diagnostic that measures centrally peaked profiles during on-axis injection and outwards shifted profiles during off-axis injection. Due to this change of the fast-ion population, a clear modification of the plasma current profile is predicted but not observed by a motional Stark effect diagnostic.The fast-ion transport caused by MHD activity has been studied in low collisionality discharges that exhibit strong modes. In particular due to sawtooth crashes, significant radial redistribution of co-rotating fast-ions is observed which can very well be described by the Kadomtsev model. In addition, first tomographic reconstructions of the central 2D fast-ion velocity space in the presence of sawtooth crashes allow the investigation of the pitch dependence of the mode-imposed redistribution: a stronger redistribution of mainly co-rotating fast ions is observed than of those with smaller pitch values.

Gyrokinetic study of turbulent convection of heavy impurities in tokamak plasmas at comparable ion and electron heat fluxes

In tokamaks, the role of turbulent transport of heavy impurities, relative to that of neoclassical transport, increases with increasing size of the plasma, as clarified by means of general scalings, which use the ITER standard scenario parameters as reference, and by actual results from a selection of discharges from ASDEX Upgrade and JET. This motivates the theoretical investigation of the properties of the turbulent convection of heavy impurities by nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations in the experimentally relevant conditions of comparable ion and electron heat fluxes. These conditions also correspond to an intermediate regime between dominant ion temperature gradient turbulence and trapped electron mode turbulence. At moderate plasma toroidal rotation, the turbulent convection of heavy impurities, computed with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations, is found to be directed outward, in contrast to that obtained by quasi-linear calculations based on the most unstable linear mode, which is directed inward. In this mixed turbulence regime, with comparable electron and ion heat fluxes, the nonlinear results of the impurity transport can be explained by the coexistence of both ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes in the turbulent state, both contributing to the turbulent convection and diffusion of the impurity. The impact of toroidal rotation on the turbulent convection is also clarified.

Plasma response measurements of external magnetic perturbations using electron cyclotron emission and comparisons to 3D ideal MHD equilibrium

The plasma response from an external n = 2 magnetic perturbation field in ASDEX Upgrade has been measured using mainly electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics and a rigid rotating field. To interpret ECE and ECE-imaging (ECE-I) measurements accurately, forward modeling of the radiation transport has been combined with ray tracing. The measured data is compared to synthetic ECE data generated from a 3D ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibrium calculated by VMEC. The measured amplitudes of the helical displacement around the outboard midplane are in reasonable agreement with the one from the synthetic VMEC diagnostics. Both exceed the predictions from the vacuum field calculations and indicate the presence of a kink response at the edge, which amplifies the perturbation. VMEC and MARS-F have been used to calculate the properties of this kink mode. The poloidal mode structure of the magnetic perturbation of this kink mode at the edge peaks at poloidal mode numbers larger than the resonant components vertical bar m vertical bar g vertical bar nq vertical bar, whereas the poloidal mode structure of its displacement is almost resonant vertical bar m vertical bar approximate to vertical bar nq vertical bar. This is expected from ideal MHD in the proximity of rational surfaces. The displacement measured by ECE-I confirms this resonant response.

High-definition velocity-space tomography of fast-ion dynamics

Author(s): Salewski, M; Geiger, B; Jacobsen, AS; Hansen, PC; Heidbrink, WW; Korsholm, SB; Leipold, F; Madsen, J; Moseev, D; Nielsen, SK; Nocente, M; Odstrcil, T; Rasmussen, J; Stagner, L; Stejner, M; Weiland, M | Abstract:

Numerical and experimental study of the redistribution of energetic and impurity ions by sawteeth in ASDEX Upgrade

In the non-linear phase of a sawtooth, the complete reconnection of field lines around the q = 1 flux surface often occurs resulting in a radial displacement of the plasma core. A complete time-dependent electromagnetic model of this type of reconnection has been developed and implemented in the EBdyna_go code. This contribution aims at studying the behaviour of ions, both impurity and fast particles, in the pattern of reconnecting field lines during sawtoothing plasma experiments in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak by using the newly developed numerical framework. Simulations of full reconnection with tungsten impurity that include the centrifugal force are achieved and recover the soft x-ray measurements. Based on this full-reconnection description of the sawtooth, a simple tool dedicated to estimate the duration of the reconnection is introduced. This work then studies the redistribution of fast ions during several experimentally observed sawteeth. In some cases of sawteeth at ASDEX Upgrade, full reconnection is not always observed or expected so the code gives an upper estimate of the actual experimental redistribution. The results of detailed simulations of the crashes are compared with measurements from various diagnostics such as collective Thomson scattering and fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) spectroscopy, including FIDA tomography. A convincing qualitative agreement is found in different parts of velocity space.

Interplay between central ECRH and saturated (m, n) = (1, 1) MHD activity in mitigating tungsten accumulation at ASDEX Upgrade

The interplay between central electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and saturated (m, n) = (1, 1) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities in mitigating central W accumulation at ASDEX Upgrade is analysed. The evolution of the intrinsic tungsten density in a typical ASDEX Upgrade H-mode discharge with central ECRH and saturated (1, 1) modes in-between sawtooth crashes is presented. The W density profile evaluated averaging over mode rotation and assuming axisymmetry are deeply hollow inside the q = 1 surface during mode saturation. In order to provide a mode-resolved picture, a new technique for the determination of 2D mode-resolved intrinsic W density maps in the presence of saturated MHD instabilities is developed. For the first time the full decoupling of the impurity density from electron density and temperature contributions to experimental 2D SXR tomographic reconstructions in the presence of saturated MHD activity can be performed. These mode-resolved 2D W density maps reveal that the impurity hole is located inside the displaced core of the saturated (1, 1) mode, while the W density inside the magnetic island is flat. Modelling the W density using the combined neoclassical and gyrokinetic codes NEO and GKW assuming axisymmetry and including the effects of toroidal rotation reproduces the poloidal asymmetries outside of the q = 1 surface correctly, but predicts centrally peaked W density profiles in the centre. This suggests that the hollowness inside the q = 1 surface is tied to the presence of the saturated (1, 1) mode.