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Title: Progress In Understanding The Enhanced Petestal H-mode In NSTX

Technical Report ·

ThIS paper describes the enhanced pedestal (EP) H-mode observed in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The defining characteristics of EP H-mode are given, namely i)transition after the L- to H-mode transition, ii) region of very steep ion temperature gradient, and iii) associated region of strong rotational shear. A newly observed long-pulse EP H-mode example shows quiescent behavior for as long as the heating and current drive sources are maintained. Cases are shown where the region of steep ion temperature gradient is located at the very edge, and cases where it is shifted up to 10 cm inward from the plasma edge; these cases are united by a common dependence of the ion temperature gradient on the toroidal rotation frequency shear. EP H-mode examples have been observed across a wide range of q95 and pedestal collisionality. No strong changes in the fluctuation amplitudes have been observed following the eP H-mode transition, and transport analysis indicates that the ion t hermal transport is comparable to or less than anticipated from a simple neoclassical transport model. Cases are shown where EP H-modes were reliably generated, through these low-q95 examples were difficult to sustain. A case where an externally triggered ELM precipitates the transition to EP H-mode is also shown, though an initial experiment designed to trigger EP-H-modes in this fashion was successful.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-09CH11466
OSTI ID:
1165350
Report Number(s):
PPPL-5031
Resource Relation:
Related Information: PACS numbers: 52.55.Fa doi:10.1088/0029-5515/54/8/083021
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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