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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Misalignment of magnetic field in DIII-D assessed by post-mortem analysis of divertor targets

Abstract We assess the toroidal magnetic field B t asymmetry in DIII-D due to a misalignment of the toroidal field coils with respect to the poloidal magnetic field coils and vacuum vessel. The peak-to-peak variation of the divertor strike point (SP) radius is measured to be 1 cm, with an n = 1 toroidal pattern. We use the centre of a narrow carbon deposition band on tungsten-coated divertor tiles just inside the outer strike point (OSP) as a proxy for the divertor SP location. The band occurred in a series of reverse B t discharges with the OSP positioned on the divertor inserts due to strong E × B drift transport of C from the inner to the outer SP through the private flux region. The variation in band radius (and hence the magnetic SP) is a (4.89 ± 0.31) mm shift toward (310 ± 4)° toroidal direction. These measurements agree well with previous measurements of the 3D magnetic field distribution (Luxon 2003 Nucl. Fusion 43 1813), simulations performed by the mafot field line integration code, and recent Langmuir probe measurements in the small-angle-slot (SAS) divertor (Watkins et al 2019 Nucl. Mater. Energy 18 46). Comparison of these measurements in the SAS divertor also indicates that there is the possibility of a tilt (in conjunction with the shift) of the B t coil field of (0.04 ± 0.07)° towards the toroidal angle of (215 ± 25)°. Previous measurements suggested a field misalignment of (4.6 ± 0.3) mm in the 270° toroidal direction, and a tilt of (0.06 ± 0.02)° toward the 114° toroidal direction, which is similar to the results reported here. These studies will be important for better understanding the radial variation of the toroidal strike line in DIII-D, for designing the new generation of SAS divertor, and for developing an understanding of the impact of error fields on tokamaks with tightly baffled slot divertors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design and construction of the MUSE permanent magnet stellarator

This paper documents the design and construction of MUSE, the world's first permanent magnet (PM) stellarator and the first quasi-axisymmetric experiment. The purpose of MUSE is to develop and assess a new way of building optimised stellarators that uses simple planar coils PMs. Our PM optimisation algorithm consists of initialising a geometry to pack dipoles densely, running the FAMUS code to minimise surface field error subject to PM constraints and applying discrete jumps to reach a physically realisable solution. FAMUS treats the PM system as a set of ideal point dipoles. From there we construct finite-volume magnet towers to be housed in 3D-printed PM holders. We describe the design of the PM holders, which were validated by laser metrology. We analyse the effects of finite permeability, sensitivity to perturbations and magnetostatic forces. An exact analytic formula for the magnetic field from a finite-volume PM tower is presented to compute PM–PM forces and stress on the PM holder. Stellarator construction is complete and experiments are underway.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Impact of Resonant Magnetic Perturbations on the Toroidal Location of the Runaway Electron Final Loss Strike Point

It is demonstrated that the peak toroidal impact phase of the post-disruption runaway electrons (REs) can be varied shot-to-shot by means of applied static non-axisymmetric (3D) magnetic fields, or resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs). In the experiments, high-current (500 kA), purged RE plateaus (i.e. low impurity post-disruption plasmas with current carried completely by REs) were terminated on the DIII-D tokamak center post (CP). The global toroidal impact peak of the REs appears to be dominantly set by the toroidal phase of a wall-locked tearing mode, typically (m/n) = (2/1), but sometimes (m/n) = (3/2). In the absence of external RMP, the locked mode reliably locks close to a preferred toroidal phase Φ ≃ 75◦ probably set by intrinsic error fields. With applied RMP, the locked mode and RE impact phase is pushed to a new location. When the tearing mode is (m/n) = (2/1), the phase is well controlled and tracks the applied RMP phase, but in the case of an (m/n) = (3/2) tearing mode, the new phase location is not well controlled. These results could have application in ITER and other fusion power plant (FPP) - sized tokamaks as a method for spreading disruption first wall damage from REs

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evaluating 3 decades of precipitation in the Upper Colorado River basin from a high-resolution regional climate model

Abstract. Convection-permitting regional climate models (RCMs) have recently become tractable for applications at multi-decadal timescales. These types of models have tremendous utility for water resource studies, but better characterization of precipitation biases is needed, particularly for water-resource-critical mountain regions, where precipitation is highly variable in space, observations are sparse, and the societal water need is great. This study examines 34 years (1987–2020) of RCM precipitation from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF; v3.8.1), using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFS; CFSv2) initial and lateral boundary conditions and a 1 km × 1 km innermost grid spacing. The RCM is centered over the Upper Colorado River basin, with a focus on the high-elevation, 750 km2 East River watershed (ERW), where a variety of high-impact scientific activities are currently ongoing. Precipitation is compared against point observations (Natural Resources Conservation Service Snow Telemetry or SNOTEL), gridded climate datasets (Newman, Livneh, and PRISM), and Bayesian reconstructions of watershed mean precipitation conditioned on streamflow and high-resolution snow remote-sensing products. We find that the cool-season precipitation percent error between WRF and 23 SNOTEL gauges has a low overall bias (x^ = 0.25 %, s = 13.63 %) and that WRF has a higher percent error during the warm season (x^ = 10.37 %, s = 12.79 %). Warm-season bias manifests as a high number of low-precipitation days, though the low-resolution or SNOTEL gauges limit some of the conclusions that can be drawn. Regional comparisons between WRF precipitation accumulation and three different gridded datasets show differences on the order of ± 20 %, particularly at the highest elevations and in keeping with findings from other studies. We find that WRF agrees slightly better with the Bayesian reconstruction of precipitation in the ERW compared to the gridded precipitation datasets, particularly when changing SNOTEL densities are taken into account. The conclusions are that the RCM reasonably captures orographic precipitation in this region and demonstrates that leveraging additional hydrologic information (streamflow and snow remote-sensing data) improves the ability to characterize biases in RCM precipitation fields. Error characteristics reported in this study are essential for leveraging the RCM model outputs for studies of past and future climates and water resource applications. The methods developed in this study can be applied to other watersheds and model configurations. Hourly 1 km × 1 km precipitation and other meteorological outputs from this dataset are publicly available and suitable for a wide variety of applications.

Geology↗
DOE OSTI2019

Overview of new MAST physics in anticipation of first results from MAST Upgrade

We report that the mega amp spherical tokamak (MAST) was a low aspect ratio device (R/a = 0.85/0.65 ~ 1.3) with similar poloidal cross-section to other medium-size tokamaks. The physics programme concentrates on addressing key physics issues for the operation of ITER, design of DEMO and future spherical tokamaks by utilising high resolution diagnostic measurements closely coupled with theory and modelling to significantly advance our understanding. An empirical scaling of the energy confinement time that favours higher power, lower collisionality devices is consistent with gyrokinetic modelling of electron scale turbulence. Measurements of ion scale turbulence with beam emission spectroscopy and gyrokinetic modelling in up-down symmetric plasmas find that the symmetry of the turbulence is broken by flow shear. Near the non-linear stability threshold, flow shear tilts the density fluctuation correlation function and skews the fluctuation amplitude distribution. Results from fast particle physics studies include the observation that sawteeth are found to redistribute passing and trapped fast particles injected from neutral beam injectors in equal measure, suggesting that resonances between the m = 1 perturbation and the fast ion orbits may be playing a dominant role in the fast ion transport. Measured D–D fusion products from a neutron camera and a charged fusion product detector are 40% lower than predictions from TRANSP/NUBEAM, highlighting possible deficiencies in the guiding centre approximation. Modelling of fast ion losses in the presence of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) can reproduce trends observed in experiments when the plasma response and charge-exchange losses are accounted for. Measurements with a neutral particle analyser during merging-compression start-up indicate the acceleration of ions and electrons. Transport at the plasma edge has been improved through reciprocating probe measurements that have characterised a geodesic acoustic mode at the edge of an ohmic L-mode plasma and particle-in-cell modelling has improved the interpretation of plasma potential estimates from ball-pen probes. The application of RMPs leads to a reduction in particle confinement in L-mode and H-mode and an increase in the core ionization source. The ejection of secondary filaments following type-I ELMs correlates with interactions with surfaces near the X-point. Simulations of the interaction between pairs of filaments in the scrape-off layer suggest this results in modest changes to their velocity, and in most cases can be treated as moving independently. A stochastic model of scrape-off layer profile formation based on the superposition of non-interacting filaments is in good agreement with measured time-average profiles. Transport in the divertor has been improved through fast camera imaging, indicating the presence of a quiescent region devoid of filament near the X-point, extending from the separatrix to $ψ_n$ ~ 1.02. Simulations of turbulent transport in the divertor show that the angle between the divertor leg on the curvature vector strongly influences transport into the private flux region via the interchange mechanism. Coherence imaging measurements show counter-streaming flows of impurities due to gas puffing increasing the pressure on field lines where the gas is ionised. MAST Upgrade is based on the original MAST device, with substantially improved capabilities to operate with a Super-X divertor to test extended divertor leg concepts. SOLPS-ITER modelling predicts the detachment threshold will be reduced by more than a factor of 2, in terms of upstream density, in the Super-X compared with a conventional configuration and that the radiation front movement is passively stabilised before it reaches the X-point. 1D fluid modelling reveals the key role of momentum and power loss mechanisms in governing detachment onset and evolution. Analytic modelling indicates that long legs placed at large major radius, or equivalently low at the target compared with the X-point are more amenable to external control. With MAST Upgrade experiments expected in 2019, a thorough characterisation of the sources of the intrinsic error field has been carried out and a mitigation strategy developed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Study of Abnormal Vertical Emittance Growth in ATF Extraction Line

Since several years, the vertical beam emittance measured in the Extraction Line (EXT) of the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at KEK, that will transport the electron beam from the ATF Damping Ring (DR) to the future ATF2 Final Focus beam line, is significantly larger than the emittance measured in the DR itself, and there are indications that it grows rapidly with increasing beam intensity. This longstanding problem has motivated studies of possible sources of this anomalous emittance growth. One possible contribution is non-linear magnetic fields in the extraction region experimented by the beam while passing off-axis through magnets of the DR during the extraction process. In this paper, simulations of the emittance growth are presented and compared to observations. These simulations include the effects of predicted non-linear field errors in the shared DR magnets and orbit displacements from the reference orbit in the extraction region. Results of recent measurements using closed orbit bumps to probe the relation between the extraction trajectory and the anomalous emittance growth are also presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Solving PDEs in Irregular Geometries with Multiresolution Methods I: Embedded Dirichlet Boundary Conditions

In this work, we develop and analyze a formalism for solving boundary value problems in arbitrarily-shaped domains using the MADNESS (multiresolution adaptive numerical environment for scientific simulation) package for adaptive computation with multiresolution algorithms. We begin by implementing a previously-reported diffuse domain approximation for embedding the domain of interest into a larger domain (Li et al., 2009 [1]). Numerical and analytical tests both demonstrate that this approximation yields non-physical solutions with zero first and second derivatives at the boundary. This excessive smoothness leads to large numerical cancellation and confounds the dynamically-adaptive, multiresolution algorithms inside MADNESS. We thus generalize the diffuse domain approximation, producing a formalism that demonstrates first-order convergence in both near- and far-field errors. We finally apply our formalism to an electrostatics problem from nanoscience with characteristic length scales ranging from 0.0001 to 300 nm.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Wall-locking of kink modes in a line-tied screw pinch with a rotating wall

The effect of rotating conducting walls on mode-locking is studied in a line-tied, linear screw pinch experiment and then compared to a torque balance model which has been extended to include differential wall rotation. Wall rotation is predicted to asymmetrically affect the mode-unlocking threshold, with fast rotation eliminating the locking bifurcation. Static error fields are observed to lock the resistive wall mode (RWM) variant of the current driven kink instability by modifying the electromagnetic torque. Using locked modes, the stabilizing effect of wall rotation on the RWM is experimentally demonstrated by illustrating a reduction of the RWM growth rate and an extension of the RWM-stable operation window.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasma rotation and NTM onset driven by central EC deposition in TCV tokamak

The effects of the central electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and current drive (ECCD) on the spontaneous plasma rotation and on the presence of Tearing Modes (TM), observed in the TCV tokamak[1], were recently investigated as an interplay between the toroidal velocity and NTM onset in absence of sawteeth, ELMs and error fields [2–3]. In a set of reproducible TCV discharges (I{sub p}∼ −150 kA, B{sub t}∼ −1.4 T, ne,{sub av∼} 1.5 10{sup 19} m{sup −3}, T{sub e}∼ 3 keV and T{sub i}∼0.25 keV, q{sub 95}∼5.8) with both pure EC heating and current drive the cnt-Ip toroidal velocity was observed to be reduced with subsequent co-Ip appearance of 3/2 and 2/1 modes during the ramp up EC phases. The understanding of the capability of the on-axis EC power to modify the rotation profiles before and after the TM onset and of the sudden disappearance of 3/2 mode when 2/1 starts is the main purpose of this work. The velocity profile modifications are due to a direct effect of the EC absorbed power and also related to some variation of the perpendicular diffusion of the toroidal momentum and to magnetic braking effects of the kind of neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) due to the NTM resonant field perturbations associated to the presence of TM. Numerical investigations are performed using a 1D toroidal momentum balance equation including contributions by external sources, as EC power, and NTV torques. Furthermore, the combined evolution of the 3/2 and 2/1 modes requires considering also coupling effects included in a generalized Rutherford equation for the modelling of the TM time growth.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

The influence of an ITER-like wall on disruptions at JET

In order to preserve the integrity of large tokamaks such as ITER, the number of disruptions has to be limited. JET has operated previously with a low frequency of disruptions (i.e., disruption rate) of 3.4% [P. C. de Vries et al., Nucl. Fusion 51, 053018 (2011)]. The start of operations with the new full-metal ITER-like wall at JET showed a marked rise in the disruption rate to 10%. A full survey was carried out to identify the root causes, the chain-of-events and classifying each disruption, similar to a previous analysis for carbon-wall operations. It showed the improvements made to avoid various disruption classes, but also indicated those disruption types responsible for the enhanced disruption rate. The latter can be mainly attributed to disruptions due to too high core radiation but also due to density control issues and error field locked modes. Detailed technical and physics understanding of disruption causes is essential for devising optimized strategies to avoid or mitigate these events.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of chaos on plasma filament dynamics and turbulence in the scrape-off layer

Naturally occurring error fields as well as resonant magnetic perturbations applied for stability control are known to cause magnetic field-line chaos in the scrape-off layer (SOL) region of tokamaks. Here, 2D simulations with the BOUT++ simulation framework are used to investigate the effect of the field-line chaos on the SOL and in particular on its width and peak particle flux. The chaos enters the SOL dynamics only through the connection length, which is evaluated using a Poincaré map. The variation of experimentally relevant quantities, such as the SOL gradient length scale and the intermittency of the particle flux in the SOL, is described as a function of the strength of the magnetic perturbation. It is found that the effect of the chaos is to broaden the profile of the sheath-loss coefficient, which is proportional to the inverse connection length. That is, the SOL transport in a chaotic field is equivalent to that in a model where the sheath-loss coefficient is replaced by its average over the unperturbed flux surfaces. The model does not include the effects of chaotic features other than the parallel connection length.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Simulation of magnetic island dynamics under resonant magnetic perturbation with the TEAR code and validation of the results on T-10 tokamak data

Simulation of the magnetic island evolution under Resonant Magnetic Perturbation (RMP) in rotating T-10 tokamak plasma is presented with intent of TEAR code experimental validation. In the T-10 experiment chosen for simulation, the RMP consists of a stationary error field, a magnetic field of the eddy current in the resistive vacuum vessel and magnetic field of the externally applied controlled halo current in the plasma scrape-off layer (SOL). The halo-current loop consists of a rail limiter, plasma SOL, vacuum vessel, and external part of the circuit. Effects of plasma resistivity, viscosity, and RMP are taken into account in the TEAR code based on the two-fluid MHD approximation. Radial distribution of the magnetic flux perturbation is calculated with account of the externally applied RMP. A good agreement is obtained between the simulation results and experimental data for the cases of preprogrammed and feedback-controlled halo current in the plasma SOL.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Broadband cross-polarization-based heteronuclear dipolar recoupling for structural and dynamic NMR studies of rigid and soft solids

Dipolar recoupling is an essential part of current solid-state NMR methodology for probing atomic-resolution structure and dynamics in solids and soft matter. Recently described magic-echo amplitude- and phase-modulated cross-polarization heteronuclear recoupling strategy aims at efficient and robust recoupling in the entire range of coupling constants both in rigid and highly dynamic molecules. In the present study, the properties of this recoupling technique are investigated by theoretical analysis, spin-dynamics simulation, and experimentally. The resonance conditions and the efficiency of suppressing the rf field errors are examined and compared to those for other recoupling sequences based on similar principles. The experimental data obtained in a variety of rigid and soft solids illustrate the scope of the method and corroborate the results of analytical and numerical calculations. The technique benefits from the dipolar resolution over a wider range of coupling constants compared to that in other state-of-the-art methods and thus is advantageous in studies of complex solids with a broad range of dynamic processes and molecular mobility degrees.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Superbanana transport in the collisional heating of a plasma column forced across a squeeze potential

When weakly collisional plasmas have locally trapped particle populations, perturbations to the plasma equilibrium (such as waves or static field-errors) can induce phase-space discontinuities in the particle distribution function that strongly enhance entropy production, plasma loss, and wave damping via superbanana transport. Here, this paper presents a simple version of this superbanana transport process, wherein a plasma is heated as it is slowly forced back and forth across a squeeze potential (at a frequency ω that is small compared with the particle bounce frequency). The squeeze potential traps low-energy particles on either side of the squeeze, but particles with higher energy can pass through it. Trapped and passing particles have different responses to the forcing, causing a collisionless discontinuity in the distribution function at the separatrix between the trapped and passing particles. Expressions for both the adiabatic and non-adiabatic distribution functions are presented, and the heating rate caused by collisional broadening of the separatrix discontinuity is derived. The heating rate is proportional to √νω , provided that ν<<ω, where ν is the collision rate (i.e., the √ν regime of superbanana theory).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Performance of Wendelstein 7-X stellarator plasmas during the first divertor operation phase

Wendelstein 7-X is the first comprehensively optimized stellarator aiming at good confinement with plasma parameters relevant to a future stellarator power plant. Plasma operation started in 2015 using a limiter configuration. After installing an uncooled magnetic island divertor, extending the energy limit from 4 to 80 MJ, operation continued in 2017. For this phase, the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) capability was extended to 7 MW, and hydrogen pellet injection was implemented. The enhancements resulted in the highest triple product (6.5 × 10 19 keV m ₋3 s) achieved in a stellarator until now. Plasma conditions [T e (0) ≈ T i (0) ≈ 3.8 keV, τ E > 200 ms] already were in the stellarator reactor-relevant ion-root plasma transport regime. Stable operation above the 2nd harmonic ECRH X-mode cutoff was demonstrated, which is instrumental for achieving high plasma densities in Wendelstein 7-X. Further important developments include the confirmation of low intrinsic error fields, the observation of current-drive induced instabilities, and first fast ion heating and confinement experiments. The efficacy of the magnetic island divertor was instrumental in achieving high performance in Wendelstein 7-X. Symmetrization of the heat loads between the ten divertor modules could be achieved by external resonant magnetic fields. Full divertor power detachment facilitated the extension of high power plasmas significantly beyond the energy limit of 80 MJ.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Analytical model of plasma response to external magnetic perturbation in absence of no-slip condition

Recent simulation and experimental results suggest that the magnetic island and flow on a resonant surface often do not satisfy the “no-slip” condition in the steady state. A new theoretical model on a nonlinear plasma response to external magnetic perturbation in the absence of a no-slip condition is proposed. The model is composed of the equations for the evolution of both the width and phase of the magnetic island due to forced reconnection driven by the external magnetic perturbation, and the force-balance equation for the plasma flow. When the island width is much less than the resistive layer width, the island growth is governed by the linear Hahm–Kulsrud–Taylor solution in the presence of time-dependent plasma flow. In the other regime when the island width is much larger than the resistive layer width, the evolution of both the island width and phase can be described using the Rutherford theory. The island solution is used to construct the quasilinear electromagnetic force, which, together with the viscous one, contributes to the nonlinear variation in plasma flow. The no-slip condition assumed in the conventional error field theory is not imposed here, where the island oscillation frequency depends on but does not necessarily equal to the plasma flow frequency at the rational surface.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Influence of anomalous perpendicular transport on linear tearing mode dynamics in tokamak plasmas

The analysis of a previous paper [A. Cole and R. Fitzpatrick, Phys. Plasmas 13, 032503 (2006)] that maps out all of the two-fluid response regimes of a linear tearing layer interacting with an externally generated resonant magnetic perturbation, in a large aspect-ratio tokamak plasma, is generalized to take into account realistic levels of perpendicular particle transport. A new response-regime map is obtained that differs substantially, in many respects, from the old one. The improved analysis is first employed to find all of the two-fluid growth-rate regimes of a non-interacting low-mode-number tearing mode in a large aspect-ratio tokamak plasma. The analysis is then used to determine the scaling of the error-field penetration threshold with machine parameters in large aspect-ratio tokamak plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dependence of a current driven ELM self-amplification process on the plasma shape

In this paper, the numerical model of the non-linear evolution of edge-localized modes (ELMs) in tokamaks being used assumes that thermoelectric currents flow in short connection length flux tubes, initially established by error fields or other non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations. The additional magnetic perturbation of the current filaments changes the magnetic topology. In a self-amplification process, more flux tubes are created which eventually allow more thermoelectric current to flow through the plasma edge. The process of flux tube formation is highly sensitive to the position of the secondary X-point in typical single null discharges in DIII-D. A new scenario for cases with large distances Δs between the secondary X-point and the primary separatrix is presented. In the numerical simulations, as Δs is increased the current evolution through short connection length flux tubes changes significantly. Finally, a final state with large stripe structures is found that results in footprints on the vessel wall which are similar to those found when Δs is small (Wingen et al 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 175001).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗