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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Overview of Liquid-Metal PFC R&D at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The design and implementation of future flowing liquid-lithium plasma-facing components (LLPFCs) will be dependent on several factors. Of course, one of the most important is the need to be able to deal with high heat fluxes incident on the surface of the LLPFCs, but there are also several other important liquid-metal behaviors that have been identified for their critical impact on the feasibility of a LLPFC. One of these is the ability to constantly wet 100% of the plasma-facing component area and the best way to achieve that. Another key point is knowing and understanding the erosion and corrosion of the surfaces subject to a flowing liquid-lithium system and the ability for hydrogen and helium uptake by the system. The Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI) has been tasked with looking at these various issues. The Mock-up Entry module for EAST device was used to investigate wetting and erosion effects and to design a suitable distribution and collection system with a liquid-lithium loop. The vapor shielding effects of lithium on the surface were also modeled and studied. A model coupling CRANE, an open-source global reaction network solver, and Zapdos, a plasma transport solver, is being developed to better understand the dynamics of the vapor cloud. Experiments on the Magnum-PSI at the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research have been carried out to study the vapor shielding effect and obtain experimental benchmarks to verify the model. Also, initial experiments using the Hybrid Illinois Device for Research and Applications have been performed to understand the pumping effects of lithium on helium. Experiments with a drop of liquid lithium (~100 mg) into a helium plasma have shown the ability of lithium to take out the cold recycling helium gas as well as hydrogen and oxygen impurity gases. The improvement in plasma performance was significant, and further understanding of this effect will have impacts on how future LLPFCs will be designed. Further investigation into the exact mechanism for helium pumping by lithium needs to be performed in the future. Finally, this paper presents a summary of the results obtained at the CPMI.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

The non-thermal origin of the tokamak low-density stability limit

DIII-D plasmas at very low density exhibit onset of n=1 error field (EF) penetration (the `low-density locked mode') not at a critical density or EF, but instead at a critical level of runaway electron (RE) intensity. Raising the density during a discharge does not avoid EF penetration, so long as RE growth proceeds to the critical level. Penetration is preceded by non-thermalization of the electron cyclotron emission, anisotropization of the total pressure, synchrotron emission shape changes, as well as decreases in the loop voltage and bulk thermal electron temperature. The same phenomena occur despite various types of optimal EF correction, and in some cases modes are born rotating. Similar phenomena are also found at the low-density limit in JET. These results stand in contrast to the conventional interpretation of the low-density stability limit as being due to residual EFs and demonstrate a new pathway to EF penetration instability due to REs. Existing scaling laws for penetration project to increasing EF sensitivity as bulk temperatures decrease, though other possible mechanisms include classical tearing instability, thermo-resistive instability, and pressure-anisotropy driven instability. Regardless of first-principles mechanism, known scaling laws for Ohmic energy confinement combined with theoretical RE production rates allow rough extrapolation of the RE criticality condition, and thus, the low-density limit to other tokamaks. Furthermore, the extrapolated low-density limit by this pathway decreases with increasing machine size and is considerably below expected operating conditions for ITER. While likely unimportant for ITER, this effect can explain the low-density limit of existing tokamaks operating with small residual EFs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Autonomous Navigation, Guidance, and Control Software in a Low SWaP Box

Onboard autonomy is a necessity for responsive space operations. Autonomous navigation, guidance, and control (NGC) enables space missions to reduce their dependence on high demand ground assets and costly ground personnel. It also allows for in-situ decision making and higher return on mission data. A flight software and hardware system providing this capability, called “autoNGC,” is currently being developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for infusion into multiple future missions. The autoNGC flight software is built on the plug-and-play architecture of the core Flight System (cFS) consisting of the standard cFS apps and newly developed autoNGC interface apps and libraries. The various apps cooperate through communication over the message-based software bus. With the plug-and-play architecture of autoNGC, cFS apps can easily be added and replaced to meet the needs of different missions, even after launch. The first flight software release of autoNGC is targeted for Summer 2024 to provide autonomous navigation at the Moon and beyond. It can perform sensor fusion of multiple measurement types including pseudo-range from a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver (including weak signal), 1-way and 2-way range and Doppler from ground stations (i.e., direct to Earth (DTE)), bearing and range from optical camera images, and accelerometer data. Accurate onboard navigation and timing is obtained through the Goddard Enhanced Onboard Navigation System (GEONS) software library which fuses different measurement types through an extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework. Optical measurements that are ingested in GEONS are first extracted from optical images by the cFS Goddard Image Analysis and Navigation Tool (cGIANT) app. If the imaged body is far enough away that it appears as a pixel or cluster of pixels, then bearing angles to the body centroid can be provided. If the body is close enough and the shape is known coarsely, then bearing angles and range to the body centroid can be derived from the limb. Bearing angles to individual surface features can also be extracted (i.e., terrain relative navigation (TRN)). Onboard guidance and control capabilities are being developed for a future release to perform autonomous station-keeping and trajectory correction maneuvers in multiple orbital regimes. Capabilities to enable distributed systems missions and constellations, such as crosslink measurements, and onboard time management are being developed as well. The first hardware implementation of autoNGC is a minimal size, weight, and power (SWaP) design allowing for inclusion into CubeSats and SmallSat-size buses. Advancements in miniaturized space processors, such as the SpaceCube 3.0 Mini and the SpaceCube Mini-Z are utilized for low SWaP while maintaining a high level of performance. The current enclosure design is 12 cm x 17 cm x 13.5 cm. The box mass is expected to be less than 2 kg, and the nominal power is 21 W. In order to accommodate a wide range of missions, the hardware interfaces are designed for flexibility with a variety of sensor inputs. Through comprehensive testing in the software-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop, and hardware-in-the-loop test beds that are concurrently being developed, autoNGC is expected to achieve TRL 6 by late 2024.

Sun Hur-Diaz↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Source Permeator System and Tritium Transport in the TEX PbLi Loop

In this work, permeation is investigated for the introduction of hydrogen isotopes into PbLi for the Tritium Extraction eXperiment (TEX). TEX is a forced-convection PbLi loop under construction at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) that will test the vacuum permeator (VP) method of tritium extraction from PbLi. The source permeator (SP) delivers atomic hydrogen (H, D, and T) from a gas-phase reservoir into the PbLi via a permeable dense metal membrane. A modular and a fixed source permeator system are presented. In the modular design, PbLi flows through the inside of a tubular membrane and gas-phase hydrogen is introduced on the outside of the membrane. Atomic hydrogen permeates radially inward through the membrane into the PbLi. In the fixed design, PbLi flows into an expansion chamber with closed-ended tubular membranes inserted. Gas-phase hydrogen is introduced on the inside of the closed-ended membranes and atomic hydrogen permeates radially outward into the flowing PbLi. Hydrogen-transport models based on steady-state mass transport through PbLi and permeation through the metal membrane were developed to assess the operation of the source permeator relative to experimental variables and to allow understanding of uncertain parameter effects, such as PbLi hydrogen-transport properties and the effective hydrogen permeability of the vacuum permeator. This modeling effort considers iron as the source permeator material and vanadium as the vacuum permeator material.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dynamics of laser-generated magnetic fields using long laser pulses

In this work, we report on the experimental investigation of magnetic field generation with a half-loop gold sheet coil driven by long-duration (10 ns) and high-power (0.5 TW) laser pulses. The amplitude of the magnetic field was characterized experimentally using proton deflectometry. The field rises rapidly in the first 1 ns of laser irradiation, and then increases slowly and continuously up to 10 ns during further laser irradiation. The transient dynamics of current shape were investigated with a two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation that included Ohmic heating of the coil and the resultant change of electrical resistivity determined by the coil material temperature. The numerical simulations show rapid heating at the coil edges by current initially localized at the edges. This current density then diffuses to the central part of the sheet coil in a way that depends both on normal current diffusion as well as temporal changes of the coil resistance induced by the Ohmic heating. The measured temporal evolution of the magnetic field is compared with a model that determines a solution to the coil current and voltage that is consistent with a plasma diode model of the drive region and a 2D simulation of current diffusion and dynamic resistance due to Ohmic heating in the laser coil.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Arabidopsis SKU5 gene encodes an extracellular glycosyl phosphatidylinositol-anchored glycoprotein involved in directional root growth

To investigate how roots respond to directional cues, we characterized a T-DNA-tagged Arabidopsis mutant named sku5 in which the roots skewed and looped away from the normal downward direction of growth on inclined agar surfaces. sku5 roots and etiolated hypocotyls were slightly shorter than normal and exhibited a counterclockwise (left-handed) axial rotation bias. The surface-dependent skewing phenotype disappeared when the roots penetrated the agar surface, but the axial rotation defect persisted, revealing that these two directional growth processes are separable. The SKU5 gene belongs to a 19-member gene family designated SKS (SKU5 Similar) that is related structurally to the multiple-copper oxidases ascorbate oxidase and laccase. However, the SKS proteins lack several of the conserved copper binding motifs characteristic of copper oxidases, and no enzymatic function could be assigned to the SKU5 protein. Analysis of plants expressing SKU5 reporter constructs and protein gel blot analysis showed that SKU5 was expressed most strongly in expanding tissues. SKU5 was glycosylated and modified by glycosyl phosphatidylinositol and localized to both the plasma membrane and the cell wall. Our observations suggest that SKU5 affects two directional growth processes, possibly by participating in cell wall expansion.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗
DOE OSTI2024

Laser-driven quasi-static B-fields for magnetized high-energy-density experiments

We present measurements of magnetic fields generated in laser-driven coil targets irradiated by laser pulses of nanosecond duration, 1.053 μm wavelength, 500 J energy, and ∼1015 W/cm2 intensity, at the LULI2000 facility. Using two perpendicular probing axes, proton deflectometry is used to characterize the coil current and static charge at different times. Results reveal various deflection features that can be unambiguously linked to a looping quasi-steady current of well-understood polarity or to a static charging of the coil surface. Measured currents are broadly consistent with predictions from a laser-driven diode-current source and lumped circuit model, supporting the quasi-steady assessment of the discharges. Peak magnetic fields of ∼50 T at the center of 500-μm-diameter coils, obtained at the moderate laser intensity, open up the use of such laser-driven coil targets at facilities worldwide to study numerous phenomena in magnetized high-energy-density plasmas, and its potential applications.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulation of plasma transport in MPS-LD linear plasma device by using BOUT++

Here a linear plasma device (LPD) module based on the 2D transport module under the BOUT++ framework is developed in this paper to simulate plasma transport in the LPD. The LPD module includes three parts, i.e. magnetic field calculation, simulation mesh generation and plasma transport setup. The magnetic field is calculated with the circular current loop using the location and current information of each coil. The mesh generation code can produce a simulation mesh for LPD by employing the magnetic field. The plasma transport model is based on the reduced Braginskii equations, which consist of the continuity equation, momentum equation, and energy equation. The fluid neutral model is applied for neutral particle simulation. Deuterium (D) and helium (He) ions and atoms can be simulated by the model. The first attempt to simulate plasma transport in the new LPD, called multiple plasma simulation linear plasma device (MPS-LD), is presented using the developed model. The D plasma transport in the MPS-LD is simulated and benchmarked against the two-point model, showing the validation of the BOUT++ simulation. The effects of radial transport on the heat load to the target are studied, which illustrates the significant impact of the radial diffusivities $D_⟂$ and $\mathcal{X}_{⟂i,e}$ on the plasma. Moreover, the He impurity injection process during the discharge is studied with emphasis on plasma–impurity interactions. The simulation results show that He injection can reduce the plasma energy load to the target significantly, and the efficiency depends on the He source density and injection velocity. The present work provides an alternative and flexible simulation tool for plasma transport in LPDs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Plasma Science and Innovation Center at Washington, Wisconsin, and Utah State: Final Scientific Report for the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison component of the Plasma Science and Innovation Center (PSI Center) contributed to modeling capabilities and algorithmic efficiency of the Non-Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics with Rotation (NIMROD) Code, which is widely used to model macroscopic dynamics of magnetically confined plasma. It also contributed to the understanding of direct-current (DC) injection of electrical current for initiating and sustaining plasma in three spherical torus experiments: the Helicity Injected Torus-II (HIT-II), the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment, and the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The effort was funded through the PSI Center's cooperative agreement with the University of Washington and Utah State University over the period of March 1, 2005 - August 31, 2016. In addition to the computational and physics accomplishments, the Wisconsin effort contributed to the professional education of four graduate students and two postdoctoral research associates. The modeling for HIT-II and Pegasus was directly supported by the cooperative agreement, and contributions to the NSTX modeling were in support of work by Dr. Bickford Hooper, who was funded through a separate grant. Our primary contribution to model development is the implementation of detailed closure relations for collisional plasma. Postdoctoral associate Adam Bayliss implemented the temperature-dependent effects of Braginskii's parallel collisional ion viscosity. As a graduate student, John O'Bryan added runtime options for Braginskii's models and Ji's K2 models of thermal conduction with magnetization effects and thermal equilibration. As a postdoctoral associate, O'Bryan added the magnetization effects for ion viscosity. Another area of model development completed through the PSI-Center is the implementation of Chodura's phenomenological resistivity model. Finally, we investigated and tested linear electron parallel viscosity, leveraged by support from the Center for Extended Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling (CEMM). Work on algorithmic efficiency improved NIMROD's element-based computations. We reordered arrays and eliminated a level of looping for computations over the data points that are used for numerical integration over elements. Moreover, the reordering allows fewer and larger communication calls when using distributed-memory parallel computation, thereby avoiding a data starvation problem that limited parallel scaling over NIMROD's Fourier components for the periodic coordinate. Together with improved parallel preconditioning, work that was supported by CEMM, these developments allowed NIMROD's first scaling to over 10,000 processor cores. Another algorithm improvement supported by the PSI Center is nonlinear numerical diffusivities for implicit advection. We also developed the Stitch code to enhance the flexibility of NIMROD's preprocessing. Our simulations of HIT-II considered conditions with and without fluctuation-induced amplification of poloidal flux, but our validation efforts focused on conditions without amplification. A significant finding is that NIMROD reproduces the dependence of net plasma current as the imposed poloidal flux is varied. The modeling of Pegasus startup from localized DC injectors predicted that development of a tokamak-like configuration occurs through a sequence of current-filament merger events. Comparison of experimentally measured and numerically computed cross-power spectra enhance confidence in NIMROD's simulation of magnetic fluctuations; however, energy confinement remains an open area for further research. Our contributions to the NSTX study include adaptation of the helicity-injection boundary conditions from the HIT-II simulations and support for linear analysis and computation of 3D current-driven instabilities.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Advances in the steady-state hybrid regime in DIII-D – a fully non-inductive, ELM-suppressed scenario for ITER

Here, the hybrid regime with beta, collisionality, safety factor and plasma shape relevant to the ITER steady-state mission has been successfully integrated with ELM suppression by applying an odd parity n=3 resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP). Fully non-inductive hybrids in the DIII-D tokamak with high beta (< β> ≤ 2.8%) and high confinement (H 98y2 ≤ 1.4) in the ITER similar shape have achieved zero surface loop voltage for up to two current relaxation times using efficient central current drive from ECCD and NBCD. The n=3 RMP causes surprisingly little increase in thermal transport during ELM suppression. Poloidal magnetic flux pumping in hybrid plasmas maintains q above 1 without loss of current drive efficiency, except that experiments show that extremely peaked ECCD profiles can create sawteeth. During ECCD, Alfvén eigenmode (AE) activity is replaced by a more benign fishbone-like mode, reducing anomalous beam ion diffusion by a factor of 2. While the electron and ion thermal diffusivities substantially increase with higher ECCD power, the loss of confinement can be offset by the decreased fast ion transport resulting from AE suppression. Extrapolations from DIII-D along a dimensionless parameter scaling path as well as those using self-consistent theory-based modeling show that these ELM-suppressed, fully non-inductive hybrids can achieve the Q fus = 5 ITER steady-state mission.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

WEST L-mode record long pulses guided by predictions using Integrated Modeling

A new record was set on the WEST Tokamak, designed to operate long duration plasmas in a tungsten (W) environment, with an injected energy of 1.15 GJ and a plasma duration 364s. Scenario development was supported by integrated modeling using the High Fidelity Plasma Simulator (HFPS), the European IMAS-coupled version of JETTO/JINTRAC, which integrates physics-driven modules into a unified framework. In particular, a reduced model for Lower-Hybrid heating and Current-Drive (LHCD) and the quasi-linear turbulent transport model TGLF are crucial for long pulses predictions up to the Last Closed Flux Surface (LCFS). Using this workflow, a 100 s reference discharge was modeled and plasma kinetic profiles and loop voltage were quantitatively well matched. In preparation for the recent long duration experiments, non-inductive current-drive actuators (I P , n e , P LHCD ) were varied to determine the operational domain going towards fully non-inductive discharges. In particular, decreasing the plasma current is shown to ease the access to such conditions, with a careful monitoring of (n e , P LHCD ) to avoid machine limitations. In addition, post-prediction experiments conducted within the investigated parameter range validated the predicted dependencies and were shown to be in quantitative agreement. Exploratory work on the use of ECCD for MHD stability purpose is also introduced.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Toward UV models of kinetic mixing and portal matter. VI. A more complex dark matter sector?

Portal matter (PM), having both Standard Model (SM) and dark sector charges, can induce kinetic mixing between the 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐷 dark photon and the SM gauge fields at the 1-loop level offering an attractive mechanism by which light (≲1 GeV) thermal dark matter (DM) can interact with visible matter and obtain its observed relic density. In doing so, if the DM is fermionic, the CMB and other astrophysical observations inform us that it must be Majorana/pseudo-Dirac in nature to avoid velocity/temperature-independent 𝑠-wave annihilation to SM final states. How does this idea fit into a more UV-complete picture also including the SM interactions? There are some reasons to believe that at least a first step along this path may not lie too far away in energy due to the renormalization group equations running of the dark gauge coupling, which for a significant range of parameters, becomes nonperturbative at/before the ∼10’s of TeV energy range. This implies that 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐷 must become embedded in an asymptotically free, non-Abelian group, 𝐺 𝐷 , before this can occur. The breaking of this larger group then produces the masses for the PM and the additional gauge fields associated with 𝐺 𝐷 then can lead to new interactions between the SM and the dark sector. Following several bottom-up approaches, we have examined a set of distinctive and testable phenomenological features associated with this general setup, based upon a number of simplifying assumptions. Clearly, it behooves us to explore the impact of these specific assumptions on these predictions for the array of possible experimental tests of this class of models. In most past analyses it has been assumed that DM is a vectorlike, complex singlet under the group 𝐺 𝐷 . If this assumption is relaxed, the dark sector must be augmented by additional fermion(s) and the associated scalar fields needed to break the gauge symmetries while generating the needed Majorana-like mass terms for the DM. In this paper, we analyze the simplest extension of this kind wherein the DM lies in a vectorlike doublet of 𝐺 𝐷 , which we take to have the structure 𝑆⁢𝑈⁢(2) 𝐼 ×𝑈⁢(1) 𝑌 𝐼 as in earlier work, leading to new phenomenological implications. We find, for example, that given the current LHC search constraints on the masses of heavy gauge bosons, the production of these new dark states with large rates is unlikely to occur at colliders unless they are produced singly in 𝑔⁡𝑔 fusion or their pair production cross sections are resonantly enhanced. Here, we also find that an additional mechanism arises to generate hierarchal neutrino masses in such a setup.

Extensions of Higgs sector↗
DOE OSTI2015

The high-β{sub N} hybrid scenario for ITER and FNSF steady-state missions

New experiments on DIII-D have demonstrated the steady-state potential of the hybrid scenario, with 1 MA of plasma current driven fully non-inductively and β{sub N} up to 3.7 sustained for ∼3 s (∼1.5 current diffusion time, τ{sub R}, in DIII-D), providing the basis for an attractive option for steady-state operation in ITER and FNSF. Excellent confinement is achieved (H{sub 98y2} ∼ 1.6) without performance limiting tearing modes. The hybrid regime overcomes the need for off-axis current drive efficiency, taking advantage of poloidal magnetic flux pumping that is believed to be the result of a saturated 3/2 tearing mode. This allows for efficient current drive close to the axis, without deleterious sawtooth instabilities. In these experiments, the edge surface loop voltage is driven down to zero for >1 τ{sub R} when the poloidal β is increased above 1.9 at a plasma current of 1.0 MA and the ECH power is increased to 3.2 MW. Stationary operation of hybrid plasmas with all on-axis current drive is sustained at pressures slightly above the ideal no-wall limit, while the calculated ideal with-wall MHD limit is β{sub N} ∼ 4–4.5. Off-axis Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) power has been used to broaden the pressure and current profiles in this scenario, seeking to take advantage of higher predicted kink stability limits and lower values of the tearing stability index Δ′, as calculated by the DCON and PEST3 codes. Results based on measured profiles predict ideal limits at β{sub N} > 4.5, 10% higher than the cases with on-axis NBI. A 0-D model, based on the present confinement, β{sub N} and shape values of the DIII-D hybrid scenario, shows that these plasmas are consistent with the ITER 9 MA, Q = 5 mission and the FNSF 6.7 MA scenario with Q = 3.5. With collisionality and edge safety factor values comparable to those envisioned for ITER and FNSF, the high-β{sub N} hybrid represents an attractive high performance option for the steady-state missions of these devices.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Real-time avoidance of the L-mode and H-mode density limit via machine-learned stability metrics

Reliable operation of burning plasma tokamaks will require robust control strategies to avoid macroscopic instability limits such as the L-mode and H-mode density limits (LDL, HDL). In this work, we explore closed-loop avoidance of these phenomena at DIII-D using machine-learned risk metrics. Feedback control is implemented via the ‘DL Supervisor’ scheme, which regulates the chosen risk metric by reducing the density target or increasing NBI heating in real-time. Using the LDL 25 risk metric, the LDL is reproducibly suppressed. We also introduce an HDL risk metric in this study, HDL 25 , which reduces the False Positive Rate by 2x compared to the Greenwald fraction. Applying this scaling to a plasma current ramp-down, we successfully avoid an HDL-driven H/L back-transition. These experiments constitute the first demonstration of real-time DL avoidance using machine-learned risk metrics. These instability metrics outline a path to safer high-density operation, more reliable ramp-down scenarios, and improved off-normal control for next-step devices such as ITER and SPARC.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Explainable AI for Multivariate Time Series Pattern Exploration: Latent Space Visual Analytics With Temporal Fusion Transformer and Variational Autoencoders in Power Grid Event Diagnosis

Detecting and analyzing complex patterns in multivariate time-series data is crucial for decision-making in urban and environmental system operations. However, challenges arise from the high dimensionality, intricate complexity, and interconnected nature of complex patterns, which hinder the understanding of their underlying physical processes. Existing AI methods often face limitations in interpretability, computational efficiency, and scalability, reducing their applicability in real-world scenarios. This paper proposes a novel visual analytics framework that integrates two generative AI models, Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT) and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), to reduce complex patterns into lower-dimensional latent spaces and visualize them in 2D using dimensionality reduction techniques such as PCA, t-SNE, and UMAP with DBSCAN. These visualizations, presented through coordinated and interactive views and tailored glyphs, enable intuitive exploration of complex multivariate temporal patterns, identifying patterns’ similarities and uncover their potential correlations for a better interpretability of the AI outputs. The framework is demonstrated through a case study on power grid signal data, where it identifies multi-label grid event signatures, including faults and anomalies with diverse root causes. Additionally, novel metrics and visualizations are introduced to validate the models and assess the performance, efficiency, and consistency of latent maps generated by VAE, which have been utilized in prior studies for latent space cartography and used as a benchmark in this study, and the emerging TFT architecture under various configurations. These analyses provide actionable insights for model parameter tuning and reliability improvements. Comparative results highlight that TFT achieves shorter run times and superior scalability to diverse time-series data shapes compared to VAE. This work advances fault diagnosis in multivariate time series, fostering explainable AI to support critical system operations.

Explainable AI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development and experimental qualification of novel disruption prevention techniques on DIII-D

Novel disruption prevention solutions spanning a range of control regimes are being developed and tested on DIII-D to enable ITER success. First, a new real-time control algorithm has been developed and tested for regulating nearness to stability limits and maintaining safety-margins. Its first application has been for reliable prevention of vertical displacement events (VDEs) by adjusting plasma elongation (κ) and the inner-gap between the plasma and inner-wall in response to real- time open-loop VDE growth rate (γ) estimators. VDEs were robustly prevented up to average open-loop growth rates of 800 rad/s with initial tunings, with only applying shape modification when near safety limits. Second, the disruption risk during fast, emergency shutdown after large tearing and locked modes can be significantly improved by transitioning to a limited topology during shutdown. More than 50% of emergency limited shutdowns after locked modes reach a final normalized current I N < 0.3 before terminating, scaling to the 3 MA ITER requirement. This is in contrast to diverted shutdowns, the majority of which disrupt at I N > 0.8. Despite improvements, these results highlight the critical importance of early prevention. Third, a novel emergency shut down method has been developed which excites instabilities to form a warm, helical core post-thermal quench. The current quench extends to ~100ms and avoids VDEs and runaway electron generation. Novel real-time machine learning disruption prediction has been integrated with the DIII-D proximity controller, and a real- time compatible multi-mode MHD spectroscopy technique has been developed. Results presented here were enabled by a focused effort, the Disruption Free Protocol, in DIII-D’s 2019-20 campaign to complement disruption prevention experiments with a large piggy-back program. In addition to testing novel techniques, it is estimated to have helped avoid 32 potential disruptions in piggyback operations with rapid, early shutdowns after large rotating n=1 or locked modes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Studies of whistler propagation along a plasma density gradient that is parallel to the magnetic field

Low frequency plasma wave generation in space is important for both scientific and practical applications. One of the most promising techniques for doing this is to directly inject whistler waves into the space environment from an antenna onboard one or more satellites. This technique has been discussed for years, but there are still open questions about the best way to generate plasma waves. So far, most theoretical [Kondrat92], lab based [Pribyl2010, Stenzel2016] and space-based experiments [DSX] have focused on studying the generation of whistler waves from an electric dipole antenna. However, a dipole antenna is very inefficient because it puts a lot of energy in waves that are not effective for most applications. Theoretical [Kondrat92] and lab experimental [Stenzel2016] results indicate that a loop antenna is much more efficient at generating whistler waves than a dipole antenna. A satellite experiment will need to be developed to demonstrate that whistler waves can be generated from a loop antenna in the space environment. The challenge is that to efficiently transmit whistler modes in the natural plasma environment of space, the loop antenna will have to be very large. For example, at L=2 (one earth radius away from the surface of the earth) a loop antenna would need a radius on the order of ~200 m to radiate efficiently, as shown in fig. 1, left. The antenna size and complexity would require a prohibitively large and expensive satellite mission. Our proposed innovation is to exploit the fact that the characteristic wavelength of whistler waves decreases in more dense plasma, which reduces the size needed for an antenna to radiate efficiently. Fortunately, a technique already exists for enhancing the local plasma density in space, called a plasma contactor [Kovaleski2001]. A plasma contactor can be used to create a local environment where the plasma density is enhanced around the satellite, which in turn reduces the size of an antenna that is needed to radiate efficiently (Fig. 1, right).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Investigation of Plasmas Having Complex, Dynamic Evolving Morphology

Three different types of plasmas have been investigated using both experimental and theoretical methods. The first type of plasma is dense, highly ionized, governed by magnetohydrodynamics, and highly dynamic. This plasma is relevant to solar coronal loops, astrophysical jets, and other situations where strong magnetic forces act on the plasma. A well-diagnosed laboratory experiment creates a magnetohydrodynamically driven highly collimated plasma jet. This jet undergoes a kink instability such that it rapidly develops a corkscrew shape. The kink causes lateral acceleration of the jet, and this lateral acceleration drives a Rayleigh-Taylor instability that in turn chokes the current flowing in the jet and causes a magnetic reconnection. The magnetic reconnection causes electron and ion heating as well as emission of whistler waves. This entire sequence of events has been observed, measured in detail, and related to theoretical models. The second type of plasma is a transient rf-produced plasma used as a seed plasma for the magnetohydrodynamic experiments described above. Detailed atomic physics ionization processes have been investigated and modeled. The third type of plasma that has been studied is a dusty plasma where the dust particles are spontaneously growing ice grains. The rapid growth of the ice grains to large size and their highly ordered alignment has been investigated as well as collective motion of the ice grains, including well-defined flows on the surface of nested toroids. In addition to the experimental work described above, several related theoretical models have been developed, most notably a model showing how a complex interaction between gravity and magnetic fields on extremely weakly ionized plasma in an accretion disk provides an electric power source that can drive astrophysical jets associated with the accretion disk. Eighteen papers reporting this work have been published in a wide variety of journals.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗