Search

A general phenomenon that the edge localized modes (ELMs) can be effectively mitigated with the enhanced coherent modes (CMs) has been observed on EAST. For this phenomenon, the experimental statistical analysis and electromagnetic (EM) simulations have been performed. There is a threshold value of the CM intensity in the experiments, which plays a key role in ELMs mitigation. Through the ELITE and conventional BOUT++ analysis, we found that when the insignificant ELM and enhanced CM co-exist, the pedestal is located in unstable Pâ€"B region and the ELM is relatively large. The simulation results only using the experimental profiles without considering other factors cannot reproduce the no significant ELM experiment. The CM enhances the edge turbulence, which can control ELMs. Therefore, the effects of CM are considered to explain the ELM mitigation. Modifying the three-field reduced model in BOUT++, an imposed perturbation is added as the CM. The simulation results indicate that: without the CM, the ELM size belongs to the relative large ELM region; after considering the CM, the ELM is mitigated and the energy loss is reduced by about 44.5%. Analysis shows that the CM enhances the three-wave nonlinear interactions in the pedestal and reduces the phase coherence time (PCT) between the pressure and potential, which lead the perturbation to tend to be ‘multiple-mode’ coupling. The competition of free energy between the multiple modes leads to the lack of obvious filament structures and the decreased energy loss. The above reveals that there is a competitive relationship between turbulence and ELMs, and the CM-enhanced turbulence can effectively reduce ELM energy loss. In addition, through the parameter scanning, there is a threshold of the amplitude A, which is consistent with the statistical results in the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impurity effects on quasi-linear turbulent heat transport induced by ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes in tokamak plasmas are numerically studied, using a full gyrokinetic description for main and impurity ions. The unstable modes in independent and hybrid states are all taken into account. The fluxes integrated over the complete spectrum rather than taking an individual characteristic k θ ρ s of poloidal wave-vector are systematically investigated. The results indicate that the injected impurity enhances the heat transport of main ions and electrons, and the maximum variations of the former are shown to be approximately twice as high as those of the latter, i.e. Î" Q iâˆ'sum ∼ 2Î" Q eâˆ'sum for the core plasmas of the parameters in this work. In contrast, the impurity ions can induce reduction of the edge ion heat fluxes, while the electron heat fluxes are almost unchanged. Such distinct behaviors are found to be associated with the transition of instabilities types and dominated regimes of heat transport. Significantly, reversed magnetic shear, large temperature ratios of electrons to main ions as well as high mass numbers of impurity ions contribute to the improvement of confinement and formation of energy pinch. The newly updated code identifies individual contributions to heat transport from conductive and convective fluxes, both of which are composed of diagonal, off-diagonal diffusive and non-diffusive components and thus is expected to be a powerful tool for experimental data analysis as well. The phase shift (larger than Ď€ /2) is demonstrated to be a reasonable mechanism for the induction of energy pinch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HL-2A tokamak has a very closed divertor geometry, and a new infrared camera has been installed for high resolution studies of edge-localized mode (ELM) heat load onto the outer divertor targets. The characteristics of power deposition patterns on the lower outer divertor target plates during ELMs are systematically analysed with infrared thermography. The ELM energy loss is in the range of 3%–8% of the total plasma stored energy. The peak heat flux on the outer divertor targets during ELMs currently achieved in HL-2A is about 1.5–3.2 MW m−2, the wetted area is about 0.5–0.7 m2, and the corresponding integrated power decay length at the midplane is about 25–40 mm. The rise time of the ELM power deposition is in the range of about 100 μs to 400 μs, and the decay time is typically 1.5 to 4 times longer than the corresponding rise time. Convective transport along open field lines during the ELM rise phase from the midplane towards the divertor targets is implied due to the correlation of parallel transport time in the scrape-off layer (SOL) and ELM power rise time. The peak ELM energy fluence is compared with those predicted by models and with experimental data from JET, ASDEX Upgrade, MAST, and COMPASS. The results, as a whole, show a good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turbulent transport of impurity ions with hollow density profiles (HDPs), which are widely observed in magnetically confined plasmas and desirable for fusion reactor, is self-consistently investigated. A full gyrokinetic description is employed for main and impurity ions. Instead of conventional ion temperature gradient (ITG, including impurity ITG) and trapped electron modes (TEMs), impurity modes (IMs), driven by impurity ion density gradient opposite to that of electrons, are considered. The impurity ion flux induced by IMs is shown to be approximately one order of magnitude higher than that induced by TEMs when both kinds of modes coexist. Main ITG and electron temperature gradient (ETG) are found to reduce influx of impurity ions significantly, resembling temperature screening effect of neoclassical transport of impurity ions. The simulation results such as peaking factor of the HDPs and the effects of main ITG are found in coincidence with the evidence observed in argon injection experiment on HL-2A tokamak. Thus, the IM turbulence is demonstrated to be a plausible mechanism for the transport of impurity ions with HDPs. A strong main ITG, ETG, and a low electron density gradient are expected to be beneficial for sustainment of HDPs of impurity ions and reduction of impurity accumulation in core plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reproducible stationary improved confinement mode (I-mode) has been achieved recently in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), featuring good confinement without particle transport barrier. The microscopic mechanism of sustaining stationary I-mode, based on the coupling between turbulence transitions and the edge temperature oscillation, has been discovered for the first time. A radially localized edge temperature ring oscillation (ETRO) with azimuthally symmetric structure (n = 0, m = 0) has been identified and it is accompanied by alternating turbulence transitions between an electron diamagnetic drift turbulence (ET) and an ion diamagnetic drift turbulence (IT). The transition is controlled by local electron temperature gradient and strong non-linear couplings between weak coherent mode (WCM) and ET could be identified near the pedestal top, suggesting the unique status of the pedestal top region in sustaining the stationary I-mode confinement on EAST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of shear flows and turbulence in the pedestal region during the L-H transition have been studied in the HL-2A tokamak. It has been shown that ion diamagnetic shear flow plays a key role in triggering the L-H transition. A critical velocity shear has been found for the L-H transition. Statistical results indicate that the velocity shear threshold is independent of the plasma density and the total heating power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) fuelling on the plasma turbulence and shear flows, which form a self-consistent state, has been studied in the HL-2A tokamak. The SMBI flattens the shear layer by the collisional flow damping and increases the turbulence intensity. It is found that the SMBI can enhance the non-linear regulation dynamics and acts as an external tool for turbulence quench via stimulating two dynamic processes. The SMBI-stimulated non-linear interactions facilitate the L-H transition at the marginal heating power for accessing the H-mode. The effective reduction of the H-mode power threshold by SMBI is demonstrated. The result suggests that the SMBI could be a general tool for realization of controllable L-H transition via reducing the H-mode power threshold in future devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty-five discharges have been confirmed as I-mode discharges after searching the EAST database from 2016 to 2018, and some additional I-mode discharges were obtained in 2019. The I-mode regime features no edge localized modes (ELMs), high energy confinement, and a steep temperature pedestal, while particle confinement remains at L-mode levels. The I-mode regime has been obtained over a small parameter space (BT = 2.4 – 2.7 T, Ip = 0.4 – 0.6 MA, q95 = 4 – 6) using a configuration with drift away from the active X-point. Most of the discharges in EAST are dominated by lower hybrid wave (LHW) heating. In addition, some are heated with both LHW and neutral beam injection (NBI) heating, and a few discharges are heated by NBI and electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Turbulence suppression in density perturbation has been defined as signaling the onset of the L-I transition. The power threshold of the I-mode is slightly larger than that of the 2008 ITPA scaling law of H-mode. The minimum L-I power threshold varies only weakly with BT, and the power range for the I-mode increases with increasing BT. The I-mode is superior to the L-mode in terms of energy confinement but is still slightly inferior to the H-mode under similar conditions, although the energy confinement time decreases more slowly with increasing heating power than it does in the typical H-mode case. NBI has some benefit for achieving higher confinement. The I-mode is very sensitive to the density near the edge. Under a constant high heating power, a small enhancement in the density will terminate the I-mode, sometimes leading to the I-H transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turbulent fluctuations within a quasi-coherent frequency range (peak frequency of ∼130 kHz, Δf ≈ tens of kHz) are modulated by the rotation of low frequency tearing modes in the core of HL-2A ohmic plasmas. The quasi-coherent modes (QCMs) emerge outside the island boundary as the island O-point passes by in the large island cases (W > 4.5 cm), where the local electron temperature profile is steepened. Statistical analysis shows that for the QCM excitation, a threshold value of temperature gradient is identified and the QCM is solely observed in low density discharges, consistent with the linear ohmic confinement regime. These experimental evidence suggests that the observed QCMs are driven by the trapped electron mode, in agreement with linear stability calculations. Cross-correlation analysis reveals that the QCMs have long-range poloidal correlations and radially propagate outwards. Besides, the bispectral analysis indicates: (i) there exists non-linear coupling between the tearing mode and micro-turbulence, most significantly in the QCM frequency range; (ii) the QCMs nonlinearly couple by themselves to excite the second harmonic, whereas no non-linear interaction is observed between the QCMs and ambient turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using first-principles methods, we have investigated magnetic properties and thermospin effects of zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs) absorbed by a single Si atom. After a relaxation, a steady dumbbell-like structure is formed, which induces a weaker antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling between two zigzag edges. Therefore, a band gap is opened, meanwhile the adsorbed ZSiNRs show a spin semiconducting property. A large spin thermopower and weak charge thermopower in adsorbed ZSiNR-based devices can be simultaneously achieved, which is attributed to a nearly perfect mirror symmetry of spin-up and spin-down transmission spectra relative to the Fermi level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) and cluster jet injection (CJI) were applied to mitigate edge-localized modes (ELMs) in HL-2A successfully. The ELM frequency increased by a factor of 2–3 and the heat flux on the divertor target plates decreased by 50% on average after SMBI or CJI. Energetic particle induced modes were observed in different frequency ranges with high-power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). The high frequency (200–350 kHz) of the modes with a relatively small amplitude was close to the gap frequency of the toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmode. The coexistent multi-mode magnetic structures in the high-temperature and low-collision plasma could affect the plasma transport dramatically. Long-lived saturated ideal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities during strong neutral beam injection heating could be suppressed by high-power ECRH. The absolute rate of nonlinear energy transfer between turbulence and zonal flows was measured and the secondary mode competition between low-frequency (LF) zonal flows (ZFs) and geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) was identified, which demonstrated that ZFs played an important role in the L–H transition. The spontaneously generated E × B shear flow was identified to be responsible for the generation of a large-scale coherent structure (LSCS), which provided unambiguous experimental evidence for the LSCS generation mechanism. New meso-scale electric potential fluctuations (MSEFs) at frequency f ∼ 10.5 kHz with two components of n = 0 and m/n = 6/2 were also identified in the edge plasmas for the first time. The MSEFs coexisted and interacted with magnetic islands of m/n = 6/2, turbulence and LF ZFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]