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Title: Stationary QH-mode plasmas with high and wide pedestal at low rotation on DIII-D

Abstract

A stationary, quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) regime with a wide pedestal and improved confinement at low rotation has been discovered on DIII-D with reactor relevant edge parameters and no ELMs. As the injected neutral beam torque is ramped down and the edge ExB rotation shear reduces, the transition from standard QH to the wide pedestal QH-mode occurs. And at the transition, the coherent edge harmonic oscillations (EHO) that usually regulate the standard QH edge cease and broadband edge MHD modes appear along with a rapid increase in the pedestal pressure height (by ≤60%) and width (by ≤50%). We posit that the enhanced edge turbulence-driven transport, enabled by the lower edge ExB flow shear due to lower torque reduces the pedestal gradient and, combined with the high edge instability limit provided by the balanced double-null plasma shape, permits the development of a broader and thus higher pedestal that is turbulence-transport-limited. Even with the significantly enhanced pedestal pressure, the edge operating point is below the peeling ballooning mode stability boundary and thus without ELMs. Improved transport in the outer core region (0.8≤ρ≤0.9) owing to increased ExB flow shear in that region and the enhanced pedestal boost the overall confinement by up to 45%.more » Our findings advance the physics basis for developing stationary ELM-free high-confinement operation at low rotation for future burning plasma where similar collisionality and rotation levels are expected.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [1];  [7];  [3];  [7];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [5]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
  2. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  6. Graduate Univ. for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Kanagawa (Japan)
  7. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Contributing Org.:
the DIII-D Team
OSTI Identifier:
1372267
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1327560
Grant/Contract Number:  
FC02-04ER54698; FG03-95ER54309; FC02-06ER54873; AC02-09CH11466; FG02-08ER54984; FG02-99ER54531; FG02-08ER54999; FG02-94ER54235
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nuclear Fusion
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 57; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP Science
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; QH-mode; low rotation; E x B shear; ELM-free; turbulence; pedestal transport

Citation Formats

Chen, Xi, Burrell, K. H., Osborne, T. H., Solomon, W. M., Barada, K., Garofalo, A. M., Groebner, R. J., Luhmann, N. C., McKee, G. R., Muscatello, C. M., Ono, M., Petty, C. C., Porkolab, M., Rhodes, T. L., Rost, J. C., Snyder, P. B., Staebler, G. M., Tobias, B. J., and Yan, Z. Stationary QH-mode plasmas with high and wide pedestal at low rotation on DIII-D. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1088/0029-5515/57/2/022007.
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Chen, Xi, Burrell, K. H., Osborne, T. H., Solomon, W. M., Barada, K., Garofalo, A. M., Groebner, R. J., Luhmann, N. C., McKee, G. R., Muscatello, C. M., Ono, M., Petty, C. C., Porkolab, M., Rhodes, T. L., Rost, J. C., Snyder, P. B., Staebler, G. M., Tobias, B. J., & Yan, Z. Stationary QH-mode plasmas with high and wide pedestal at low rotation on DIII-D. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/57/2/022007
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Chen, Xi, Burrell, K. H., Osborne, T. H., Solomon, W. M., Barada, K., Garofalo, A. M., Groebner, R. J., Luhmann, N. C., McKee, G. R., Muscatello, C. M., Ono, M., Petty, C. C., Porkolab, M., Rhodes, T. L., Rost, J. C., Snyder, P. B., Staebler, G. M., Tobias, B. J., and Yan, Z. Fri . "Stationary QH-mode plasmas with high and wide pedestal at low rotation on DIII-D". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/57/2/022007. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1372267.
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@article{osti_1372267,
title = {Stationary QH-mode plasmas with high and wide pedestal at low rotation on DIII-D},
author = {Chen, Xi and Burrell, K. H. and Osborne, T. H. and Solomon, W. M. and Barada, K. and Garofalo, A. M. and Groebner, R. J. and Luhmann, N. C. and McKee, G. R. and Muscatello, C. M. and Ono, M. and Petty, C. C. and Porkolab, M. and Rhodes, T. L. and Rost, J. C. and Snyder, P. B. and Staebler, G. M. and Tobias, B. J. and Yan, Z.},
abstractNote = {A stationary, quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) regime with a wide pedestal and improved confinement at low rotation has been discovered on DIII-D with reactor relevant edge parameters and no ELMs. As the injected neutral beam torque is ramped down and the edge ExB rotation shear reduces, the transition from standard QH to the wide pedestal QH-mode occurs. And at the transition, the coherent edge harmonic oscillations (EHO) that usually regulate the standard QH edge cease and broadband edge MHD modes appear along with a rapid increase in the pedestal pressure height (by ≤60%) and width (by ≤50%). We posit that the enhanced edge turbulence-driven transport, enabled by the lower edge ExB flow shear due to lower torque reduces the pedestal gradient and, combined with the high edge instability limit provided by the balanced double-null plasma shape, permits the development of a broader and thus higher pedestal that is turbulence-transport-limited. Even with the significantly enhanced pedestal pressure, the edge operating point is below the peeling ballooning mode stability boundary and thus without ELMs. Improved transport in the outer core region (0.8≤ρ≤0.9) owing to increased ExB flow shear in that region and the enhanced pedestal boost the overall confinement by up to 45%. Our findings advance the physics basis for developing stationary ELM-free high-confinement operation at low rotation for future burning plasma where similar collisionality and rotation levels are expected.},
doi = {10.1088/0029-5515/57/2/022007},
journal = {Nuclear Fusion},
number = 2,
volume = 57,
place = {United States},
year = {2016},
month = {9}
}
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    A Riccati solution for the ideal MHD plasma response with applications to real-time stability control
    journal, March 2018

    • Glasser, Alexander S.; Kolemen, Egemen; Glasser, A. H.
    • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 3
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    Physics of increased edge electron temperature and density turbulence during ELM-free QH-mode operation on DIII-D
    journal, May 2018

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    Edge state selection by modulating E  ×  B shearing profile in toroidally confined plasmas
    journal, May 2019

    • Zhang, Y.; Guo, Z. B.; Xu, X. Q.
    • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 5
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5093773

    Long-lived predator-prey dynamics in the pedestal of near-zero torque high performance DIII-D plasmas
    journal, September 2019

    • Barada, K.; Rhodes, T. L.; Burrell, K. H.
    • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 9
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5097143
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