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Title: Connection between plasma response and resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) edge localized mode (ELM) suppression in DIII-D [Connection between plasma response and RMP ELM suppression in DIII-D]

Journal Article · · Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

Calculations of the plasma response to applied non-axisymmetric elds in several DIII-D discharges show that predicted displacements depend strongly on the edge current density. This result is found using both a linear two- uid-MHD model (M3D-C1) and a nonlinear ideal-MHD model (VMEC). Furthermore, it is observed that the probability of a discharge to be edge localized mode (ELM)-suppressed is most closely related to the edge current density, as opposed to the pressure gradient. It is found that discharges with stronger kink-response are closer to the peeling-ballooning stability limit in ELITE simulations and eventually cross into the unstable region, causing ELMs to reappear. Thus for e ective ELM suppression, the RMP has to hold back the plasma from generating a large kink response, associated with ELM instability. Experimental observations are in agreement with the nding; discharges which have a strong kink response in the MHD simulations show ELMs or ELM mitigation during the RMP phase of the experiment while discharges with small kink response in the MHD simulations are fully ELM suppressed in the experiment by the applied resonant magnetic perturbation. The results are cross-checked against modeled 3-D ideal MHD equilibria, using the VMEC code. The procedure to construct optimal 3-D equilibria for diverted H-mode discharges using VMEC is presented. It is found that the kink displacements in VMEC scale with the edge current density, similar to M3D-C1, but the displacements are smaller. A direct correlation of the ux surface displacements to the bootstrap current is shown.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; FC02-04ER54698
OSTI ID:
1265646
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1238958; OSTI ID: 1356345
Journal Information:
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 57, Issue 10; ISSN 0741-3335
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Comparative investigation of ELM control based on toroidal modelling of plasma response to RMP fields journal May 2017
Predict-first experimental analysis using automated and integrated magnetohydrodynamic modeling journal May 2018
Penetration properties of resonant magnetic perturbation in EAST Tokamak journal November 2019
Equilibrium drives of the low and high field side n   =  2 plasma response and impact on global confinement journal April 2016
Dynamics of ideal modes and subsequent ELM crashes in 3D tokamak geometry from external magnetic perturbations journal November 2018
Numerical survey of predicted peeling response in edge localised mode mitigated and suppressed phases on ASDEX upgrade journal August 2019
Use of reconstructed 3D equilibria to determine onset conditions of helical cores in tokamaks for extrapolation to ITER journal January 2018
Experimental conditions to suppress edge localised modes by magnetic perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak journal July 2018
Magnetic field topology modeling under resonant magnetic perturbations on EAST journal April 2019
Experimental conditions to suppress edge localised modes by magnetic perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak text January 2018