Advancing the Physics Basis of Quiescent H-mode through Exploration of ITER Relevant Parameters
- PPPL
- General Atomics
- LLNL
- ITER
- U of Wisc, Madison
Recent experiments on DIII-D have overcome a long-standing limitation in accessing quiescent H-mode (QH-mode), a high confinement state of the plasma that does not exhibit the explosive instabilities associated with edge localized modes (ELMs). In the past, QH-mode was associated with low density operation, but has now been extended to high normalized densities compatible with operation envisioned for ITER. Through the use of strong shaping, QH-mode plasmas have been maintained at high densities, both absolute (ηe ≈ 7 × 1019 m—3) and normalized Greenwald fraction (ηe/ηG > 0:7) . In these plasmas, the pedestal can evolve to very high pressures and current as the density is increased. Calculations of the pedestal height and width from the EPED model are quantitatively consistent with the experimental observed evolution with density. The comparison of the dependence of the maximum density threshold for QH-mode with plasma shape help validate the underlying theoretical peeling-ballooning models describing ELM stability. High density QH-mode operation with strong shaping has allowed stable access to a previously predicted regime of very high pedestal dubbed \Super H-mode". In general, QH-mode is found to achieve ELM-stable operation while maintaining adequate impurity exhaust, due to the enhanced impurity transport from an edge harmonic oscillation, thought to be a saturated kink- peeling mode driven by rotation shear. In addition, the impurity confinement time is not affected by rotation, even though the energy confinement time and measured E Χ B shear is observed to increase at low toroidal rotation. Together with demonstrations of high beta, high confinement and low q95 for many energy confinement times, these results suggest QH-mode as a potentially attractive operating scenario for ITER's Q=10 mission.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Contributing Organization:
- 1) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543-0451, USA 2) General Atomics, San Diego, California 92186-5608, USA 3) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA 4) ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, 13115 St Paul Lez Durance, France 5) University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-09CH11466
- OSTI ID:
- 1182662
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-5074
- Journal Information:
- 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference Proceedings [PPC/P2-37] on IAEA Physics website, Conference: 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia, 13-18 October 2014.
- Publisher:
- IAEA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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