Enhanced Pedestal H-mode at low edge ion collisionality on NSTX
- Princeton University (PPPL)
The Enhanced Pedestal (EP) H-mode regime is an attractive wide-pedestal ELM-free high-betap scenario for NSTX-U and next-step devices as it achieves enhanced energy confinement (H98y,2 > 1.5), large normalized pressure (betaN > 5) and significant bootstrap fraction (f_BS > 0.6) at I_p/B_T = 2 MA/T. This regime is realized when the edge ion collisionality becomes sufficiently small that a positive feedback interaction occurs between a reduction in the ion neoclassical energy transport and an increase in the particle transport from pressure-driven edge instabilities. EP H-mode was most often observed as a transition following a large ELM in conditions with low edge neutral recycling. It is hypothesized that the onset of pressure-driven instabilities prior to the full recovery of the neutral density leads to a temporary period with elevated ion temperature gradient that triggers the transition to EP H-mode. Linear CGYRO and M3D-C1 calculations are compared to beam emission spectroscopy (BES) and magnetic spectroscopy in order to describe the evolution of the edge particle transport mechanisms during the ELM recovery and the saturated EP H-mode state. The observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the onset of pressure-driven edge instabilities, such as the KBM and kink-peeling, can be responsible for the increased particle transport in EP H-mode.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-09CH11466
- OSTI ID:
- 1661168
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Inter-ELM pedestal evolution and the role of edge fluctuations in the C-Mod and DIII-D tokamaks
Edge-localized mode avoidance and pedestal structure in I-mode plasmas