William L. Rowan

Electron thermal confinement studies with applied resonant fields on TEXT

Externally applied magnetic fields are used on the Texas Experimental Tokamak (TEXT) to study the possibility of controlling the particle, impurity and heat fluxes at the plasma edge. Fields with toroidal mode number n = 2 or 3 and multiple poloidal mode numbers m (dominantly m = 7) are used, with a poloidally and toroidally averaged ratio of radial to toroidal field components 〈|br/Bo〉 ≅0. 1%. Calculations show that it is possible to produce mixed islands and stochastic regions at the plasma edge (r/a ≥ 0.8) without affecting the interior. The expected magnetic field structure is described and experimental evidence of the existence of this structure is presented. The edge electron temperature decreases with increasing 〈|br/Bo〉, while interior values are not significantly affected. The implied increase in edge electron thermal diffusivity is compared with theoretical expectations and is shown to agree with applicable theories to within a factor of three.

An experimental counter‐example to the local transport paradigm

The response of a tokamak discharge to a sharp drop in edge temperature differs significantly from that expected from typical local transport models in several important respects. Laser ablation of carbon induces large (ΔT/T≤70%), rapid (<200 μs) electron temperature drops in the outermost region of the plasma, r/a≥0.9. This cold pulse proceeds through the outer plasma (r/a≥0.75), rapidly compared with power balance or sawtooth predictions. However, the pulse shrinks markedly thereafter, disappearing near r/a∼0.5. Within r/a∼0.3, the temperature rises promptly. The results are inconsistent with conventional local transport models; a nonlocal phenomenology, in which transport coefficients increase in the edge and decrease in the core, is suggested. The turbulence levels measured with a heavy ion beam probe increase near the edge but are unchanged in the core.

Global particle confinement in the Texas Experimental Tokamak

Particle transport in an ohmically heated tokamak plasma was investigated in the Texas Experimental Tokamak (TEXT). Spectroscopic measurements of the electron source were used with electron density measurements to derive particle confinement times from the continuity equation. Scalings were developed for particle confinement time with electron density, plasma current, toroidal field, and plasma positioning. Simultaneous measurement of electrostatic fluctuations with Langmuir probes may suggest a correlation between edge particle transport in TEXT and electrostatic turbulence. In addition, two major features of transport were isolated. First, transport is poloidally asymmetric at least in the plasma edge. Secondly, in some cases, the particle confinement scalings are closely associated with the scalings for recycling at particular surfaces. Similarities of the TEXT global particle confinement time scalings to those observed in other tokamaks may allow the conclusions of this work to be extended to other devices.

3s–3p, 3p–3d, and 3d–4f transitions of sodiumlike ions

New measurements have been made for wavelengths of the 3s–3p, 3p–3d, and 3d–4f transitions of the sodiumlike ions Cu18+, Zn19+, Ga20+, Ge21+, As22+, Se23+, Br24+, Kr25+, Y28+, Zr29+, Nb30+, Mo31+, Ru33+, Rh34+, Pd35+, Ag36+, and Sn39+. The measurements were made by photographing laser-produced plasmas and tokamak plasmas with grazing-incidence spectrographs. The energies of the transitions were also calculated with Dirac–Fock computer codes. By fitting the differences between the observed and calculated wave numbers to simple formulas, least-squares-fitted wavelengths for all sodiumlike ions from Ar7+ to Xe43+ were determined. The estimated uncertainty of the fitted wavelengths is ±0.007 A, which makes them useful as reference values. The wavelengths range from 9 to 713 A.

Scaling of the power exhaust channel in Alcator C-Mod

Parametric dependences of the heat flux footprint on the outer divertor target plate are explored in EDA H-mode and ohmic L-mode plasmas over a wide range of parameters with attached plasma conditions. Heat flux profile shapes are found to be independent of toroidal field strength, independent of power flow along magnetic field lines and insensitive to x-point topology (single-null versus double-null). The magnitudes and widths closely follow that of the “upstream” pressure profile, which are correlated to plasma thermal energy content and plasma current. Heat flux decay lengths near the strike-point in H- and L-mode plasmas scale approximately with the inverse of plasma current, with a diminished dependence at high collisionality in L-mode. Consistent with previous studies, pressure gradients in the boundary scale with plasma current squared, holding the magnetohydrodynamic ballooning parameter approximately invariant at fixed collisionality—strong evidence that critical-gradient transport physics plays ...

Edge energy transport barrier and turbulence in the I-mode regime on Alcator C-Mod

We report extended studies of the I-mode regime [Whyte et al., Nucl. Fusion 50, 105005 (2010)] obtained in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [Marmar et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 51(3), 3261 (2007)]. This regime, usually accessed with unfavorable ion B × ∇B drift, features an edge thermal transport barrier without a strong particle transport barrier. Steady I-modes have now been obtained with favorable B × ∇B drift, by using specific plasma shapes, as well as with unfavorable drift over a wider range of shapes and plasma parameters. With favorable drift, power thresholds are close to the standard scaling for L–H transitions, while with unfavorable drift they are ∼ 1.5–3 times higher, increasing with Ip. Global energy confinement in both drift configurations is comparable to H-mode scalings, while density profiles and impurity confinement are close to those in L-mode. Transport analysis of the edge region shows a decrease in edge χeff, by typically a factor of 3, between L- and I-mode. The decrease correlates with ...

Particle transport studies with applied resonant fields on TEXT

Externally applied resonant magnetic fields have been used on TEXT to modify the particle flux and the radial electric field near the plasma edge. Magnetic fields with primary mode numbers m/n = 7/3 and 7/2, and an average radial field amplitude |br|/B ? 0.1% have been employed. This perturbation produces mixed islands and stochastic regions at the plasma edge (r/a ? 0.8) without affecting the interior. Working particle transport is shown to be increased by typically 30% only in the presence of (computed) magnetic islands. The effect is diminished at high perturbing field strength when the islands become stochastic. A novel transport mechanism due to ? convection is proposed to explain this. Outward impurity transport is increased as well.

Biased limiter experiments on text

Experiments using an electrically biased limiter have been performed on the Texas Experimental Tokamak (TEXT). A small movable limiter is inserted past the main poloidal ring limiter (which is electrically connected to the vacuum vessel) and biased at VLim with respect to it. The floating potential, plasma potential and shear layer position can be controlled. With ¦VLim¦⩾ 50 V the plasma density increases. For VLim 0 the results obtained are inconclusive. Variation of VLim changes the electrostatic turbulence which may explain the observed total flux changes.

Observation of Pd-like resonance lines through Pt 32+ and Zn-like resonance lines of Er 38+ and Hf 42+

Spectra of highly ionized Er, Yb, Hf, W, and Pt were observed by injecting these elements into the plasma of the TEXT tokamak. Resonance lines of the 4d10–4d94f transition array in the Pd i isoelectronic sequence were identified by comparison with plots of observed-minus-calculated transition energies. These plots were based on data previously known through Ho21+. They were fitted to low-order polynomials that permitted accurate predictions of wavelengths to Bi37+. In addition, resonance lines of Zn-like Er38+ and Hf42+ were observed.

TEXT tokamak edge turbulence modeling

Experimental results on the Texas Experimental Tokamak (TEXT) [Nucl. Technol./Fusion 1, 479 (1982)] and the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) torsatron [Fusion Technol. 10, 179 (1986)] indicate that electrostatic fluctuations can explain the edge transport of particles and perhaps energy. Certain mechanisms for drive (radiation and ionization, as well as density and temperature gradients) and stabilization (velocity shear) are suggested by these results. The experimental fluctuation levels and turbulence characteristics can be reproduced by considering the nonlinear evolution of fluid‐type equations, incorporating thermal and ionization drives.