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Title: Experimental studies of high-confinement mode plasma response to non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations in ASDEX Upgrade

Journal Article · · Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [1]
  1. Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Garching (Germany)
  2. Culham Science Centre, Oxon (United Kingdom)
  3. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  4. Culham Science Centre, Oxon (United Kingdom); Univ. of York, York (United Kingdom)

Here, the interaction of externally applied small non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations (MP) with tokamak high-confinement mode (H-mode) plasmas is reviewed and illustrated by recent experiments in ASDEX Upgrade. The plasma response to the vacuum MP field is amplified by stable ideal kink modes with low toroidal mode number n driven by the H-mode edge pressure gradient (and associated bootstrap current) which is experimentally evidenced by an observable shift of the poloidal mode number m away from field alignment (m = qn, with q being the safety factor) at the response maximum. A torque scan experiment demonstrates the importance of the perpendicular electron flow for shielding of the resonant magnetic perturbation, as expected from a two-fluid MHD picture. Two significant effects of MP occur in H-mode plasmas at low pedestal collisionality, $$\nu _{\text{ped}}^{\ast}\leqslant 0.4$$ : (a) a reduction of the global plasma density by up to $$61 \% $$ and (b) a reduction of the energy loss associated with edge localised modes (ELMs) by a factor of up to 9. A comprehensive database of ELM mitigation pulses at low $${{\nu}^{\ast}}$$ in ASDEX Upgrade shows that the degree of ELM mitigation correlates with the reduction of pedestal pressure which in turn is limited and defined by the onset of ELMs, i. e. a modification of the ELM stability limit by the magnetic perturbation.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
The ASDEX Upgrade Team; The DIII-D Team; The Eurofusion MST1 Team
Grant/Contract Number:
633053; AC02-09CH11466
OSTI ID:
1340288
Journal Information:
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 1; ISSN 0741-3335
Publisher:
IOP ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 47 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (19)

Insights into type-I edge localized modes and edge localized mode control from JOREK non-linear magneto-hydrodynamic simulations journal April 2018
Summary of magnetic fusion plasma physics in 1st AAPPS-DPP meeting journal March 2018
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
Non-linear modeling of the threshold between ELM mitigation and ELM suppression by resonant magnetic perturbations in ASDEX upgrade journal April 2019
Density control by pellets in plasmas with ELM mitigation by RMPs in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak journal June 2018
Dynamics of ideal modes and subsequent ELM crashes in 3D tokamak geometry from external magnetic perturbations journal November 2018
Effect of magnetic perturbations for ELM control on divertor power loads, detachment and consequences of field penetration in ASDEX Upgrade journal November 2018
Numerical survey of predicted peeling response in edge localised mode mitigated and suppressed phases on ASDEX upgrade journal August 2019
Access and sustainment of naturally ELM-free and small-ELM regimes journal September 2018
Experimental conditions to suppress edge localised modes by magnetic perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak journal July 2018
Grassy-ELM regime with edge resonant magnetic perturbations in fully noninductive plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak journal July 2018
The effect of plasma shape and neutral beam mix on the rotation threshold for RMP-ELM suppression journal March 2019
Observation of accelerated beam ion population during edge localized modes in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak journal May 2019
Optimizing multi-modal, non-axisymmetric plasma response metrics with additional coil rows on DIII-D journal July 2019
Active conditioning of ASDEX Upgrade tungsten plasma-facing components and discharge enhancement through boron and boron nitride particulate injection journal October 2019
Nonlinear modeling of the effect of n   =  2 resonant magnetic field perturbation on peeling-ballooning modes in KSTAR journal January 2020
The impact of plasma physics on the timescale to a tokamak fusion power plant journal February 2019
Experimental conditions to suppress edge localised modes by magnetic perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak text January 2018