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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Effect of particle pinch on the fusion performance and profile features of an international thermonuclear experimental reactor-like fusion reactor

The evolution of the plasma temperature and density in an international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER)-like fusion device has been studied by numerically solving the energy transport equation coupled with the particle transport equation. The effect of particle pinch, which depends on the magnetic curvature and the safety factor, has been taken into account. The plasma is primarily heated by the alpha particles which are produced by the deuterium-tritium fusion reactions. A semi-empirical method, which adopts the ITERH-98P(y,2) scaling law, has been used to evaluate the transport coefficients. The fusion performances (the fusion energy gain factor, Q) similar to the ITER inductive scenario and non-inductive scenario (with reversed magnetic shear) are obtained. It is shown that the particle pinch has significant effects on the fusion performance and profiles of a fusion reactor. When the volume-averaged density is fixed, particle pinch can lower the pedestal density by ∼30%, with the Q value and the central pressure almost unchanged. When the particle source or the pedestal density is fixed, the particle pinch can significantly enhance the Q value by 60%, with the central pressure also significantly raised.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Reversal of particle flux in collisional-finite beta tokamak discharges

The mixed gradient method [Zhong et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 265001 (2013)] is adopted and effects of collisions and finite beta are included in the Weiland 9-equation fluid model. The particle flux and particle pinch, obtained using the Weiland anomalous transport fluid model, are compared with Tore Supra experimental results. Particle transport is also studied using predictive simulation data for an experimental advanced superconducting tokamak discharge in which neutral beam heating is utilized. The effects of collisions on particle transport are studied by turning collisions on and off in the Weiland model. It is found that the particle pinch region is related to the mode structure. The particle pinch region coincides with the region where the strong ballooning modes are present due to large gradients. The general properties of the fluid model are examined by finding regions where collisions can enhance the particle pinch.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

UCLA Tokamak Program Close Out Report

The results of UCLA experimental fusion program are summarized. Starting with smaller devices like Microtor, Macrotor, CCT and ending the research on the large (5 m) Electric Tokamak. CCT was the most diagnosed device for H-mode like physics and the effects of rotation induced radial fields. ICRF heating was also studied but plasma heating of University Type Tokamaks did not produce useful results due to plasma edge disturbances of the antennae. The Electric Tokamak produced better confinement in the seconds range. However, it presented very good particle confinement due to an "electric particle pinch". This effect prevented us from reaching a quasi steady state. This particle accumulation effect was numerically explained by Shaing's enhanced neoclassical theory. The PI believes that ITER will have a good energy confinement time but deleteriously large particle confinement time and it will disrupt on particle pinching at nominal average densities. The US fusion research program did not study particle transport effects due to its undue focus on the physics of energy confinement time. Energy confinement time is not an issue for energy producing tokamaks. Controlling the ash flow will be very expensive.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of non-diffusive processes on transport and its interpretation in the tokamak plasma edge

An interpretive methodology improved to account for two non-diffusive transport mechanisms—particle pinch and ion orbit loss—was applied to interpret the difference in transport (i) between a discharge with Resonance Magnetic Perturbations and a High confinement mode discharge with otherwise identical operating parameters and (ii) between the Low confinement and High confinement phases of a discharge free of Edge Localized Modes. Differences in particle and energy diffusion coefficients and in the particle pinch were inferred from the experimental data, and the inferred experiment thermal diffusion coefficients were compared with various theoretical predictions. The effect of taking ion orbit loss into account in the interpretation was quantified, and the possible relation of ion orbit loss to the observed transport “edge shortfall” is discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Multispecies density peaking in gyrokinetic turbulence simulations of low collisionality Alcator C-Mod plasmas

Peaked density profiles in low-collisionality AUG and JET H-mode plasmas are probably caused by a turbulently driven particle pinch, and Alcator C-Mod experiments confirmed that collisionality is a critical parameter. Density peaking in reactors could produce a number of important effects, some beneficial, such as enhanced fusion power and transport of fuel ions from the edge to the core, while others are undesirable, such as lower beta limits, reduced radiation from the plasma edge, and consequently higher divertor heat loads. Fundamental understanding of the pinch will enable planning to optimize these impacts. We show that density peaking is predicted by nonlinear gyrokinetic turbulence simulations based on measured profile data from low collisionality H-mode plasma in Alcator C-Mod. Multiple ion species are included to determine whether hydrogenic density peaking has an isotope dependence or is influenced by typical levels of low-Z impurities, and whether impurity density peaking depends on the species. We find that the deuterium density profile is slightly more peaked than that of hydrogen, and that experimentally relevant levels of boron have no appreciable effect on hydrogenic density peaking. The ratio of density at r/a = 0.44 to that at r/a = 0.74 is 1.2 for the majority D and minority H ions (and for electrons), and increases with impurity Z: 1.1 for helium, 1.15 for boron, 1.3 for neon, 1.4 for argon, and 1.5 for molybdenum. The ion temperature profile is varied to match better the predicted heat flux with the experimental transport analysis, but the resulting factor of two change in heat transport has only a weak effect on the predicted density peaking.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Observation of weakly damped modes using high resolution measurement of turbulence in a dipole confined plasma

When plasma is confined by a levitated superconducting current ring, the turbulent radial particle flux changes the direction depending upon the gradient of the particle number within tubes of equal magnetic flux [Garnier et al., Phys. Plasmas 24, 012506 (2017)]. When the density profile is highly peaked, the particle flux is outward. When the density profile is less peaked, turbulence drives an inward “particle pinch.” This change in the direction of particle flux coincides with a reversal of the mean toroidal propagation direction of turbulent fluctuations. Previously, only the mean wavenumber of the fluctuations was reported. The mean wavenumber was computed from the ensemble correlation between two probes. Here, the full frequency-wavenumber power spectrum of the saturated turbulence is calculated by applying Capon’s “maximum likelihood method” to floating potential measurements from an array of probes. The power spectrum shows that the highest intensity modes are due to unstable entropy modes, and the less intense modes coincide with weakly damped convective cells, which rotate toroidally in the direction opposite to the unstable modes. Because the weakly damped modes make up a significant fraction of the fluctuating power, these measurements imply that saturated turbulence in a dipole-confined plasma involves the excitation of weakly damped rotating convective cells.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Self-organized confinement in whole-device modeling of laboratory magnetospheres

Turbulent self-organization driven by global ideal interchange modes in a dipole-confined plasma is explored with self-consistent, whole-plasma simulations using a flux-tube averaged magnetohydrodynamic model in dipole magnetic geometry. We show the existence of robust particle pinch driven by ideal interchange-mode fluctuations, in which the particles are transported up the density gradient. It is found that the plasma profiles in a dipole field spontaneously relax to a marginally stable state as centrally peaked pressure and density are created by global interchange-mode transport.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Collisionality driven turbulent particle transport changes in DIII-D H-mode plasmas

The results of the experimental dimensionless scan in this paper confirm that there is an increase in density peaking towards lower collisionality and that this can be partly linked to a shift in the turbulence regime from ITG towards TEM. However at the lowest collisionality, the changes in turbulence and transport are much more pronounced than expected from direct collisionality effect on the turbulence. In this paper, the collisionality, ν * is varied by a factor 5, while keeping ρ * , q , β , M , fixed. Additionally, a 3 Hz gas puff modulation is applied to modulate the electron density profile and extract the perturbed transport coefficients using two diagnostics. The transport analysis shows that the increase in density peaking at low ν * is linked to an increase in the inward particle pinch and not an increase in core fueling. These observations are not only in agreement with prior modeling scans of how turbulence changes as a function of collisionality and its impact upon the particle fluxes, but also with the multi-machine database (Fable E. et al 2010 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 015007) (Angioni C. et al 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 205003). The changes in turbulence across the collisionality scan were captured at large scale by the BES and at smaller scale by the DBS. A comparison with gradient-driven GENE simulations showed similar trends at both scales. Moreover, the changes observed in overall transport are in agreement with gradient-driven TGLF particle flux simulations. This indicates that TGLF/GENE when given the gradients as input, are able to reproduce the experimentally observed turbulence changes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Analysis of toroidal phasing of resonant magnetic perturbation effects on edge transport in the DIII-D tokamak

Resonant Magnetic Perturbation (RMP) fields produced by external control coils are considered a viable option for the suppression of Edge Localized Modes in present and future tokamaks. In DIII-D, the RMPs are generated by six pairs of I-coils, each spanning 60° in toroidal angle, with the currents flowing in opposite directions in adjacent pairs of I-coils. Reversal of the currents in all I-coils, which produces a 60° toroidal shift in the RMP field configuration, generates uniquely different edge pedestal profiles of the density, temperature, and rotation velocities, implying different effects on the related edge transport phenomena caused by the difference in toroidal phase of the I-coil currents. The diffusive and non-diffusive transport effects of this RMP toroidal phase reversal are analyzed by comparing the ion and electron heat diffusivities, angular momentum transport frequencies, ion diffusion coefficients, and the particle pinch velocities interpreted from the measured profiles for the two phases of the I-coil currents.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Inward particle transport at high collisionality in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak

We have made the first drift wave study of particle transport in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (Wan et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104011 (2009)). The results reveal that collisions make the particle flux more inward in the high collisionality regime. This can be traced back to effects that are quadratic in the collision frequency. The particle pinch is due to electron trapping which is not very efficient in the high collisionality regime so the approach to equilibrium is slow. We have included also the electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode to give the right electron temperature gradient, since the Trapped Electron Mode (TE mode) is weak in this regime. However, at the ETG mode number ions are Boltzmann distributed so the ETG mode does not give particle transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multi-scale transport in the DIII-D ITER baseline scenario with direct electron heating and projection to ITER

Multi-scale fluctuations measured by turbulence diagnostics spanning long and short wavelength spatial scales impact energy confinement and the scale-lengths of plasma kinetic profiles in the DIII-D ITER baseline scenario with direct electron heating. Contrasting discharge phases with ECH + neutral beam injection (NBI) and NBI only at similar rotation reveal higher energy confinement and lower fluctuations when only NBI heating is used. Modeling of the core transport with TGYRO using the TGLF turbulent transport model and NEO neoclassical transport reproduces the experimental profile changes upon application of direct electron heating and indicates that multi-scale transport mechanisms are responsible for changes in the temperature and density profiles. Intermediate and high-k fluctuations appear responsible for the enhanced electron thermal flux, and intermediate-k electron modes produce an inward particle pinch that increases the inverse density scale length. Projection to ITER is performed with TGLF and indicates a density profile that has a finite scale length due to intermediate-k electron modes at low collisionality and increases the fusion gain. For a range of E×B shear, the dominant mechanism that increases fusion performance is suppression of outward low-k particle flux and increased density peaking.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Multi-scale transport in the DIII-D ITER baseline scenario with direct electron heating and projection to ITER

Multi-scale fluctuations measured by turbulence diagnostics spanning long and short wavelength spatial scales impact energy confinement and the scale-lengths of plasma kinetic profiles in the DIII-D ITER baseline scenario with direct electron heating. Contrasting discharge phases with ECH + neutral beam injection (NBI) and NBI only at similar rotation reveal higher energy confinement and lower fluctuations when only NBI heating is used. Modeling of the core transport with TGYRO using the TGLF turbulent transport model and NEO neoclassical transport reproduces the experimental profile changes upon application of direct electron heating and indicates that multi-scale transport mechanisms are responsible for changes in the temperature and density profiles. Intermediate and high-k fluctuations appear responsible for the enhanced electron thermal flux, and intermediate-k electron modes produce an inward particle pinch that increases the inverse density scale length. Projection to ITER is performed with TGLF and indicates a density profile that has a finite scale length due to intermediate-k electron modes at low collisionality and increases the fusion gain. Finally, for a range of E×B shear, the dominant mechanism that increases fusion performance is suppression of outward low-k particle flux and increased density peaking.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Spatio-temporal evolution of the L {yields} I {yields} H transition

We investigate the dynamics of the low(L) {yields} high(H) transition using a time-dependent, one dimensional (in radius) model which self-consistently describes the time evolution of zonal flows (ZFs), mean flows (MFs), poloidal spin-up, and density and pressure profiles. The model represents the physics of ZF and MF competition, turbulence suppression via E Multiplication-Sign B shearing, and poloidal flows driven by turbulence. Numerical solutions of this model show that the L{yields}H transition can occur via an intermediate phase (I-phase) which involves oscillations of profiles due to ZF and MF competition. The I-phase appears as a nonlinear transition wave originating at the edge boundary and propagates inward. Locally, I-phase exhibits the characteristics of a limit-cycle oscillation. All these observations are consistent with recent experimental results. We examine the trigger of the L{yields}H transition, by defining a ratio of the rate of energy transfer from the turbulence to the zonal flow to the rate of energy input into the turbulence. When the ratio exceeds order unity, ZF shear gains energy, and a net decay of the turbulence is possible, thus triggering the L{yields}H transition. Numerical calculations indicate that the L{yields}H transition is triggered by this peak of the normalized ZF shearing. Zonal flows act as 'reservoir,' in which to store increasing fluctuation energy without increasing transport, thus allowing the mean flow shear to increase and lock in the transition. A counterpart of the L {yields} I{yields}H transition, i.e., an L{yields}H transition without I-phase, is obtained in a fast power ramp, for which I-phase is compressed into a single burst of ZF, which triggers the transition. Effects of neutral charge exchange on the L{yields}H transition are studied by varying ZF damping and neoclassical viscosity. Results show that the predicted L{yields}H transition power increases when either ZF damping or viscosity increase, suggesting a link between recycling, ZF damping, and the L{yields}H threshold. Studies of fueling effects on the transition and pedestal structure with an emphasis on the particle pinch are reported.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Interpretation of changes in diffusive and non-diffusive transport in the edge plasma during pedestal buildup following a low-high transition in DIII-D

The evolution of diffusive and non-diffusive transport during pedestal buildup following a low-high (L-H) transition has been interpreted from a particle-momentum-energy balance analysis of the measured density, temperature, and rotation velocity profiles in the plasma edge (0.82<{rho}<1.0) of a DIII-D [Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] discharge. In the discharge examined, there was an edge-localized-mode-free period of more than 600 ms following the L-H transition, and the majority of edge pedestal development occurred within the first 100 ms following the L-H transition. There appears to be a spatio-temporal correlation among the measured toroidal and poloidal rotation, the formation of a negative well in the measured radial electric field, the creation of a large inward particle pinch, the calculated intrinsic rotation due to ion orbit loss, and the measured formation of steep gradients in density and temperature in the outer region ({rho}>0.95) of the edge pedestal.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

The effect of Electron Cyclotron Heating on density fluctuations at ion and electron scales in ITER Baseline Scenario discharges on the DIII-D tokamak

Experiments simulating the ITER Baseline Scenario on the DIII-D tokamak show that torque-free pure electron heating, when coupled to plasmas subject to a net co-current beam torque, affects density fluctuations at electron scales on a sub-confinement time scale, whereas fluctuations at ion scales change only after profiles have evolved to a new stationary state. Modifications to the density fluctuations measured by the Phase Contrast Imaging diagnostic (PCI) are assessed by analyzing the time evolution following the switch-off of Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH), thus going from mixed beam/ECH to pure neutral beam heating at fixed β N . Within 20 ms after turning off ECH, the intensity of fluctuations is observed to increase at frequencies higher than 200 kHz; in contrast, fluctuations at lower frequency are seen to decrease in intensity on a longer time scale, after other equilibrium quantities have evolved. Non-linear gyro-kinetic modeling at ion and electron scales scales suggest that, while the low frequency response of the diagnostic is consistent with the dominant ITG modes being weakened by the slow-time increase in flow shear, the high frequency response is due to prompt changes to the electron temperature profile that enhance electron modes and generate a larger heat flux and an inward particle pinch. Furthermore, these results suggest that electron heated regimes in ITER will feature multi-scale fluctuations that might affect fusion performance via modifications to profiles.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Inference of main ion particle transport coefficients with experimentally constrained neutral ionization during edge localized mode recovery on DIII-D

Abstract The plasma and neutral density dynamics after an edge localized mode are investigated and utilized to infer the plasma transport coefficients for the density pedestal. The Lyman-Alpha Measurement Apparatus (LLAMA) diagnostic provides sub-millisecond profile measurements of the ionization and neutral density and shows significant poloidal asymmetries in both. Exploiting the absolute calibration of the LLAMA diagnostic allows quantitative comparison to the electron and main ion density profiles determined by charge-exchange recombination, Thomson scattering and interferometry. Separation of diffusion and convection contributions to the density pedestal transport are investigated through flux gradient methods and time-dependent forward modeling with Bayesian inference by adaptation of the Aurora transport code and IMPRAD framework to main ion particle transport. Both methods suggest time-dependent transport coefficients and are consistent with an inward particle pinch on the order of 1 m s −1 and diffusion coefficient of 0.05 m 2 s −1 in the steep density gradient region of the pedestal. While it is possible to recreate the experimentally observed phenomena with no pinch in the pedestal, low diffusion in the core and high outward convection in the near scrape-off layer are required without an inward pedestal pinch.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗