Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade
Abstract
One of the goals of the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) (Menard et al 2012 Nucl. Fusion 52 083015) is the demonstration of fully non-inductive start-up, current ramp-up and sustainment. This work discusses predictive simulations where the available heating and current drive systems are combined to maximize the non-inductive current and minimize the solenoidal contribution. Radio-frequency waves at harmonics higher than the ion cyclotron resonance (high-harmonic fast waves (HHFW)) and neutral beam injection are used to ramp the plasma current non-inductively starting from an initial Ohmic plasma. An interesting synergy is observed in the simulations between the HHFW and electron cyclotron (EC) wave heating. Furthermore, time-dependent simulations indicate that, depending on the phasing of the HHFW antenna, EC wave heating can significantly increase the effectiveness of the radio-frequency power, by heating the electrons and increasing the current drive efficiency, thus relaxing the requirements on the level of HHFW power that needs to be absorbed in the core plasma to drive the same amount of fast-wave current.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1256702
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1238877
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-5125
Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-CH0911466
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nuclear Fusion
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 55; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515
- Publisher:
- IOP Science
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; ramp-up; non-inductive; magnetic fusion; neutral beams; radio frequency; waves; current drive; aspect-ratio; tokamak; transport; plasmas; injection; geometry; facility; physics; design
Citation Formats
Poli, F. M., Andre, R. G., Bertelli, N., Gerhardt, S. P., Mueller, D., and Taylor, G. Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1088/0029-5515/55/12/123011.
Poli, F. M., Andre, R. G., Bertelli, N., Gerhardt, S. P., Mueller, D., & Taylor, G. Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/55/12/123011
Poli, F. M., Andre, R. G., Bertelli, N., Gerhardt, S. P., Mueller, D., and Taylor, G. Fri .
"Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/55/12/123011. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1256702.
@article{osti_1256702,
title = {Simulations towards the achievement of non-inductive current ramp-up and sustainment in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade},
author = {Poli, F. M. and Andre, R. G. and Bertelli, N. and Gerhardt, S. P. and Mueller, D. and Taylor, G.},
abstractNote = {One of the goals of the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) (Menard et al 2012 Nucl. Fusion 52 083015) is the demonstration of fully non-inductive start-up, current ramp-up and sustainment. This work discusses predictive simulations where the available heating and current drive systems are combined to maximize the non-inductive current and minimize the solenoidal contribution. Radio-frequency waves at harmonics higher than the ion cyclotron resonance (high-harmonic fast waves (HHFW)) and neutral beam injection are used to ramp the plasma current non-inductively starting from an initial Ohmic plasma. An interesting synergy is observed in the simulations between the HHFW and electron cyclotron (EC) wave heating. Furthermore, time-dependent simulations indicate that, depending on the phasing of the HHFW antenna, EC wave heating can significantly increase the effectiveness of the radio-frequency power, by heating the electrons and increasing the current drive efficiency, thus relaxing the requirements on the level of HHFW power that needs to be absorbed in the core plasma to drive the same amount of fast-wave current.},
doi = {10.1088/0029-5515/55/12/123011},
journal = {Nuclear Fusion},
number = 12,
volume = 55,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Features of spherical torus plasmas
journal, June 1986
- Peng, Y-K. M.; Strickler, D. J.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 26, Issue 6
Small Tokamaks for Fusion Technology Testing
journal, May 1992
- Peng, Y-K. M.; Galambos, J. D.; Shipe, P. C.
- Fusion Technology, Vol. 21, Issue 3P2A
A component test facility based on the spherical tokamak
journal, November 2005
- Peng, Y-K M.; Fogarty, P. J.; Burgess, T. W.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 47, Issue 12B
Remote Handling and Plasma Conditions to Enable Fusion Nuclear Science R&D Using a Component Testing Facility
journal, August 2009
- Peng, Y. K. M.; Burgess, T. W.; Carroll, A. J.
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 56, Issue 2
Overview of the physics and engineering design of NSTX upgrade
journal, July 2012
- Menard, J. E.; Gerhardt, S.; Bell, M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 52, Issue 8
Resistive wall stabilized operation in rotating high beta NSTX plasmas
journal, April 2006
- Sabbagh, S. A.; Sontag, A. C.; Bialek, J. M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 46, Issue 5
Formation of a 100-kA Tokamak Discharge in the Princeton Large Torus by Lower Hybrid Waves
journal, March 1984
- Jobes, F.; Stevens, J.; Bell, R.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 52, Issue 12
Formation of Advanced Tokamak Plasmas without the Use of an Ohmic-Heating Solenoid
journal, January 2004
- Shiraiwa, S.; Ide, S.; Itoh, S.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 92, Issue 3
Non-inductive plasma start-up experiments on the TST-2 spherical tokamak using waves in the lower-hybrid frequency range
journal, June 2015
- Shinya, T.; Takase, Y.; Wakatsuki, T.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 7
Penetration of high-frequency waves into a weakly inhomogeneous magnetized plasma at oblique incidence and their transformation to Bernstein modes
journal, August 1973
- Preinhaelter, J.; Kopecký, V.
- Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Coupling to Z mode near critical angle
journal, February 1984
- Mjølhus, E.
- Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 31, Issue 1
Full-wave calculations of the O-X mode conversion process
journal, April 1988
- Hansen, F. R.; Lynov, J. P.; Maroli, C.
- Journal of Plasma Physics, Vol. 39, Issue 2
Internally generated currents in a small-aspect-ratio tokamak geometry
journal, June 1992
- Forest, C. B.; Hwang, Y. S.; Ono, M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 68, Issue 24
Electron Bernstein wave assisted plasma current start-up in MAST
journal, January 2010
- Shevchenko, V. F.; O'Brien, M. R.; Taylor, D.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 50, Issue 2
Noninductive plasma initiation and startup in the DIII-D tokamak
journal, July 2011
- Jackson, G. L.; Humphreys, D. A.; Hyatt, A. W.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 8
Long Pulse EBW Start-up Experiments in MAST
journal, January 2015
- Shevchenko, V. F.; Baranov, Y. F.; Bigelow, T.
- EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 87
Centre-solenoid-free merging start-up of spherical tokamak plasmas in UTST
journal, February 2015
- Inomoto, M.; Watanabe, T. G.; Gi, K.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 3
Formation and Steady-State Sustainment of a Tokamak by Coaxial Helicity Injection
journal, January 1989
- Jarboe, Thomas R.
- Fusion Technology, Vol. 15, Issue 1
Demonstration of Tokamak Ohmic Flux Saving by Transient Coaxial Helicity Injection in the National Spherical Torus Experiment
journal, March 2010
- Raman, R.; Mueller, D.; Nelson, B. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 9
Demonstration of 300 kA CHI-startup current, coupling to transformer drive and flux savings on NSTX
journal, May 2011
- Nelson, B. A.; Jarboe, T. R.; Mueller, D.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 6
Non-inductive plasma start-up on NSTX and projections to NSTX-U using transient CHI
journal, June 2013
- Raman, R.; Mueller, D.; Jardin, S. C.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 7
Design Details of the Transient CHI Plasma Start-up System on NSTX-U
journal, August 2014
- Raman, Roger; Jarboe, T. R.; Nelson, B. A.
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 42, Issue 8
Physics Design of the National Spherical Torus Experiment
journal, July 1999
- Kaye, Stanley M.; Ono, Masayuki; Peng, Yueng-Kay Martin
- Fusion Technology, Vol. 36, Issue 1
Exploration of spherical torus physics in the NSTX device
journal, March 2000
- Ono, M.; Kaye, S. M.; Peng, Y. -K. M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 40, Issue 3Y
Dynamic modeling of transport and positional control of tokamaks
journal, October 1986
- Jardin, S. C.; Pomphrey, N.; Delucia, J.
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 66, Issue 2
TSC simulation of Ohmic discharges in TFTR
journal, March 1993
- Jardin, S. C.; Bell, M. G.; Pomphrey, N.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 33, Issue 3
New techniques for calculating heat and particle source rates due to neutral beam injection in axisymmetric tokamaks
journal, September 1981
- Goldston, R. J.; McCune, D. C.; Towner, H. H.
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 43, Issue 1
The tokamak Monte Carlo fast ion module NUBEAM in the National Transport Code Collaboration library
journal, June 2004
- Pankin, Alexei; McCune, Douglas; Andre, Robert
- Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 159, Issue 3
Collisionality dependence of a shielding factor of a beam driven current
journal, February 2012
- Honda, M.; Kikuchi, M.; Azumi, M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 52, Issue 2
Overview of the initial NSTX experimental results
journal, October 2001
- Ono, M.; Bell, M. G.; Bell, R. E.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 41, Issue 10
High harmonic fast wave heating efficiency enhancement and current drive at longer wavelength on the National Spherical Torus Experiment
journal, May 2008
- Hosea, J.; Bell, R. E.; LeBlanc, B. P.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 5
Fast wave heating in the NSTX-Upgrade device
conference, January 2014
- Bertelli, N.; Jaeger, E. F.; Berry, L.
- RADIOFREQUENCY POWER IN PLASMAS: Proceedings of the 20th Topical Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings
`Quasi-local' wave equations in toroidal geometry with applications to fast wave propagation and absorption at high harmonics of the ion cyclotron frequency
journal, October 2002
- Brambilla, Marco
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 44, Issue 11
Approximate formula for radiofrequency current drive efficiency with magnetic trapping
journal, October 1991
- Ehst, D. A.; Karney, C. F. F.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 31, Issue 10
ECRH/EBWH system for NSTX-U
journal, January 2012
- Taylor, G.; Ellis, R. A.; Harvey, R. W.
- EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 32
A megawatt-level 28 GHz heating system for the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade
journal, January 2015
- Taylor, G.; Ellis, R. A.; Fredd, E.
- EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 87
The optimized li advanced tokamak scenario with high bootstrap current fraction
journal, October 1999
- Lin-Liu, Y. R.; Turnbull, A. D.; Chu, M. S.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 6, Issue 10
Electron cyclotron current drive in low collisionality limit: On parallel momentum conservation
journal, March 2011
- Marushchenko, N. B.; Beidler, C. D.; Kasilov, S. V.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 3
High non-inductive fraction H-mode discharges generated by high-harmonic fast wave heating and current drive in the National Spherical Torus Experiment
journal, April 2012
- Taylor, G.; Hosea, J. C.; Kessel, C. E.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 4
Physics basis of Multi-Mode anomalous transport module
journal, March 2013
- Rafiq, T.; Kritz, A. H.; Weiland, J.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 3
Microinstability-based model for anomalous thermal confinement in tokamaks
journal, December 1986
- Tang, W. M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 26, Issue 12
Comparison of turbulent transport models of L- and H-mode plasmas
journal, April 2006
- Honda, M.; Fukuyama, A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 46, Issue 5
Bootstrap current and neoclassical transport in tokamaks of arbitrary collisionality and aspect ratio
journal, September 1997
- Houlberg, W. A.; Shaing, K. C.; Hirshman, S. P.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 4, Issue 9
High-Harmonic Fast-Wave Power Flow along Magnetic Field Lines in the Scrape-Off Layer of NSTX
journal, July 2012
- Perkins, R. J.; Hosea, J. C.; Kramer, G. J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 4
Full wave simulations of fast wave heating losses in the scrape-off layer of NSTX and NSTX-U
journal, May 2014
- Bertelli, N.; Jaeger, E. F.; Hosea, J. C.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 54, Issue 8
Theory of current drive in plasmas
journal, January 1987
- Fisch, Nathaniel J.
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 59, Issue 1
Works referencing / citing this record:
Integrated Tokamak modeling: When physics informs engineering and research planning
journal, May 2018
- Poli, Francesca Maria
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 5
Orchestrating TRANSP Simulations for Interpretative and Predictive Tokamak Modeling with OMFIT
journal, February 2018
- Grierson, B. A.; Yuan, X.; Gorelenkova, M.
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 74, Issue 1-2