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Analyses of a beam under five-point and three-point bending are presented, using orthotropic plane elasticity to investigate the interlaminar shear failure of unidirectional composites. The approach uses Fourier series expansions of the applied concentrated loads, together with the Saint Venant's semi-inverse method in which the stresses are obtained by a non-dimensional stress function. The computations of the stresses and displacements are conducted by a CRAY XM-P/25 supercomputer. The comparison of stress analyses between the fivepoint and three-point bending configuration is presented for a T300/5208 graphite/epoxy unidirectional composite with a span-to-height ratio of four. It has been found that five-point loading provides the advantage of a specimen having both high shear stresses and almost zero bending stresses over a substantial region of the specimen. This provides the possibility of using the five-point test configuration to measure interlaminar shear strength of unidirectional composites. In addition to the shear dominated stress distributions, the five-point bending fixture has several advantages against other test methods, such as simple fabrication of the specimen, economical testing jig, and easy stopping of test for study of phenomenon, and it can be used to take photographs of a failure. An optimal design in terms of the loading configuration, especially the load line distance of the upper loading applicators, is recommended for the most favorable stress states for interlaminar shear failure of a given composite beam.

The construction of ITER is an extremely important project, not only within the fusion society but also for mankind: By solving critical energy and environmental problems, another major step in human history will be taken. Design, construction, and assembly of an ultra large scale machine such as ITER require thoroughly well defined plans, strategies, and predictions of potential problems and solutions. It is believed that preceding devices and projects may provide useful references for the several important considerations noted above. The KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research), a representative superconducting tokamak, has the most similar characteristics to the design concept of the ITER. Therefore, the lessons learned from KSTAR can be categorized according to the following engineering aspects: 1) policies to prioritize decisions, 2) catch-up plans for delayed schedules, 3) strategies in site assembly, 4) troubleshooting, 5) standard indexes or guides for tests and acceptance of individual systems and of site assemblies, and 6) interfaces that can be easily omitted in view of the system integration. This paper will summarize the lessons we have learned from the KSTAR project, focusing on engineering related points that can be considered to suggest guidelines for the ITER construction.

In- and outboard Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) of KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reasearch) have been fully installed in 2010 for D shaped diverted plasmas. Before the start of plasma operation, the PFCs were baked up to 200 °C by hot nitrogen gas circulation system to remove impurities including water. The surface temperature of the PFC tiles was monitored by 200 thermo-couple sensors during the plasma operation (plasma shot or Glow Discharge Cleaning(GDC)), and the temporal and spatial (poloidal) temperature profiles are obtained. Depending on the heat flux on each tile, the surface temperature shows time-dependency. After 1-hour morning He GDC, the temperature of the PFCs at inboard side has reached at 40 °C. After an H-mode shot, the temperature of divertor tiles around the striking points was substantially increased. The time-averaged total heat flux after an specific H-mode in 2010 was estimated to be approximately 10kW/m2.

A method for determining the critical debond size between the facesheet and the core in composite sandwich panels under in-plane compression is described. The approach uses fracture mechanics together with a buckling criterion for a debonded faceskin. The technique yields predictions for the critical in-plane compressive load for debond propagation as a function of core-to-faceskin debond size, faceskin thickness, lay-up, composite material properties, and honeycomb properties and geometries. A computer program, developed in this work, calculates the critical buckling load and facesheet deformed shape by solving an eigenvalue problem. An experimental study was conducted to determine the onset of delamination buckling in composite sandwich panels containing such flaws. Sandwich panel specimens of graphite/epoxy faceskins and aluminum honeycomb core were constructed with embedded delaminations and with varying faceskin thicknesses and core sizes. Four-point bending tests were conducted such that the faceskin containing the debond was under in-plane compression. The predicted critical fracture loads, computed using the proposed theoretical models which were solved using a numerical computational scheme, closely followed the experimental measurements.

A method for determining the critical debond size between the facesheet and the core in composite sandwich panels under in-plane compression is described. The approach uses fracture mechanics together with a buckling criterion for a debonded faceskin. The technique yields predictions for the critical in-plane compressive load for debond propagation as a function of core-to-faceskin debond size, faceskin thickness, lay-up, composite material properties, and honeycomb properties and geometry. A computer program, developed in this work, calculates the critical buckling load and facesheet deformed shape by solving an eigenvalue problem. The output predicts, for several cases, critical initial debond lengths comparable to those that have been observed on tests on sandwich panels.

The development of the plasma shape control system of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak and Advanced Research (KSTAR) continues from the first utilization for plasma current/ major radii to the full-scale utilizations of the poloidal superconducting magnets and the in-vessel stabilization coils for the highly elongated (κ ∼ 2.0) plasmas planned in 2009/2010. In this paper the shape control of KSTAR is analyzed as a complete integrated form, including the operation design and experiences. In the first plasma campaign held in 2008, the plasma shape control system has been prepared as part of the pulse operation controls for the first daily operation. A time-synchronized shot sequence supervisions and actuator integrations has been done by the full-digital centralization scheme via the EPICS communicating layers and the dedicated fast communication layers. In the end a reliable real-time plasma feedback system have been accomplished for making/sustaining plasma current and major radius. The status of the shape control upgrade proposed for upcoming years is shown as well as the actuator control developments and the newly-introduced in-vessel vertical stabilization control scheme.

The electron cyclotron heating (ECH)‐assisted startup was successful in the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) first plasma campaign completed in June, 2008. It was observed that the second harmonic EC wave of 0.35 MW was sufficient to achieve breakdown in the ECH pre‐ionization phase, to allow burn through, and to sustain the plasma during the current ramp with a low loop voltage of 2.0 V. This corresponds to a toroidal electric field of 0.24 Vm−1 at the innermost vacuum vessel wall (R = 1.3 m). Since there is no feedback control of the plasma radial position in the initial phase of the KSTAR first plasma campaign, wall contact caused the plasma current fall to zero soon after the ECH beam was turned off. Extending pulse duration of the ECH power to 190 ms allowed the plasma current to rise up to more than 100 kA with a ramp‐up rate of 0.8 MA/s and the pulse duration of 210 ms. Later in the first plasma campaign, the plasma was sustained up to 865 ms with the help of additional heati...

The KSTAR cryostat is a 8.8 m diameter vacuum vessel that provides the necessary thermal barrier between the ambient temperature test cell and the supercritical helium cooled superconducting magnet providing the base pressure of 1/spl times/10/sup -5/ torr. The cryostat is a single walled vessel consisting of central cylindrical section and two end closures, a flat base structure with external reinforcements and a dome-shaped lid structure. The base structure has 8 equally spaced support legs anchored on the concrete base. The cryostat vessel design was executed to satisfy the performance and operation requirements. The mechanical penetration components with bellows were designed to restrict the displacements of all kinds of ports due to EM loads and thermal loads within the allowable limits. The major loads considered in this paper for the design of cryostat vessel are the vacuum pressure, the dead weight of vacuum vessel, PFC, and magnet which are total about 400 tons, the electromagnetic load driven by plasma disruption, and seismic loads. Based on these loads, structural analyses were performed. It was found that the maximum stress intensity was below the allowable limit, and that the cryostat vessel had buckling safety of over 5. Based on the results, structural robustness of the cryostat vessel has been proved.

Experiments on a 28 GHz, five cavity gyroklystron amplifier are underway. Initial hot tests show that the stable amplified radiation produces a peak power of 50 kW at 27.85 GHz. A strong oscillation in the output cavity with power exceeding 200 kW is measured near the amplifier operating point. A careful magnetic field tuning near 10 kG is currently underway to optimize the amplifier performance. Experimental results and comparison with numerical simulation results are presented.

The KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) project is the major effort of the Korean National Fusion Program to design, construct, and operate a steady-state-capable superconducting tokamak. The project is led by Korea Basic Science Institute and shared by national laboratories, universities, and industry along with international collaboration. It is in the conceptual design phase and aims for the first plasma by mid 2002. The key design features of KSTAR are: major radius 1.8 m, minor radius 0.5 m, toroidal field 3.5 T, plasma current 2 MA, and flexible plasma shaping (elongation 2.0; triangularity 0.8; double-null poloidal divertor). Both the toroidal and the poloidal field magnets are superconducting coils. The device is configured to be initially capable of 20 s pulse operation and then to be upgraded for operation up to 300 s with non-inductive current drive. The auxiliary heating and current drive system consists of neutral beam, ICRF, lower hybrid, and ECRF. Deuterium operation is planned with a full radiation shielding.

A high power microwave-assisted plasma heating experiment is underway at KBSI. The plasma heating system consists of a 28 GHz, 200 kW gyroklystron amplifier, TE01 transmission lines with low loss mitre bends, and a quasi-optical mode launcher. The design of the 200 kW gyroklystron amplifier has been completed. An experimental tube for peak power demonstration is fabricated and currently under rf cold-tests.

A high power five-cavity gyroklystron amplifier operating at 28GHz is under development at KBSI. The amplifier consists of a high power magnetron-injection-gun (MIG), a hybrid coaxial input coupler, three idler cavities, an output cavity, and a beam collector. Numerical codes used in the amplifier design include large-signal non-linear codes for amplifier gain and efficiency calculations, a 3-D electromagnetic simulator (HFSS), a thermal analysis code (ANSYS), and an electron trajectory code (EGUN).

We evaluate the characteristics of global energy confinement in KSTAR (?E,KSTAR) quantitatively in three ways; firstly by comparing it with multi-machine scalings, secondly by deriving multiple regression equations for the L- and the H-mode plasmas, respectively, and lastly by comparing confinement enhancement of the H-mode phase with respect to the L-mode phase in each discharge defined as Hexp. The KSTAR database exhibits ?E,KSTAR of ?0.04 to ?0.16?s and of ?0.06 to ?0.19?s in L-mode and in H-mode plasmas, respectively. The multiple regression equations derived by statistical analysis present the similar dependency on PL and higher dependency on Ip compared with the multi-machine scalings, however the dependency on ? in both L- and H-mode plasmas draw the negative power dependency of ??0.68 and ??0.76 for H-mode and for L-mode database, respectively on the contrary to the positive dependency in all multi-machine empirical scalings. It is found that the energy confinement of both L-mode and H-mode of the discharges with Hexp?>?1.5 can be well-predicted by multi-machine scalings, ?E,89L and ?E,92H. Apart from this, the H-mode confinement with 1.5?Hexp?

We report recent experimental results from HL-2A and KSTAR on ELM mitigation by supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI). Cold particle deposition within the pedestal by SMBI is verified in both machines. The signatures of ELM mitigation by SMBI are an ELM frequency increase and ELM amplitude decrease. These persist for an SMBI influence time τI. Here, τI is the time for the SMBI influenced pedestal profile to refill. An increase in fELMSMBI/fELM0 and a decrease in the energy loss per ELM ΔWELM were achieved in both machines. Physical insight was gleaned from studies of density and vΦ (toroidal rotation velocity) evolution, particle flux and turbulence spectra, divertor heat load. The characteristic gradients of the pedestal density soften and a change in vΦ was observed during a τI time. The spectra of the edge particle flux Γ ∼ 〈ṽrñe〉 and density fluctuation with and without SMBI were measured in HL-2A and in KSTAR, respectively. A clear phenomenon observed is the decrease in divertor heat load during the τI time in HL-2A. Similar results are the profiles of saturation current density Jsat with and without SMBI in KSTAR. We note that τI/τp (particle confinement time) is close to ∼1, although there is a large difference in individual τI between the two machines. This suggests that τI is strongly related to particle-transport events. Experiments and analysis of a simple phenomenological model support the important conclusion that ELM mitigation by SMBI results from an increase in higher frequency fluctuations and transport events in the pedestal. © 2014 IAEA, Vienna.

Since the first H-mode discharges in 2010, the duration of the H-mode state has been extended and a significantly wider operational window of plasma parameters has been attained. Using a second neutral beam (NB) source and improved tuning of equilibrium configuration with real-time plasma control, a stored energy of Wtot???450?kJ has been achieved with a corresponding energy confinement time of ?E???163?ms. Recent discharges, produced in the fall of 2012, have reached plasma ?N up to 2.9 and surpassed the n?=?1 ideal no-wall stability limit computed for H-mode pressure profiles, which is one of the key threshold parameters defining advanced tokamak operation. Typical H-mode discharges were operated with a plasma current of 600?kA at a toroidal magnetic field BT?=?2?T. L?H transitions were obtained with 0.8?3.0?MW of NB injection power in both single- and double-null configurations, with H-mode durations up to ?15?s at 600?kA of plasma current. The measured power threshold as a function of line-averaged density showed a roll-over with a minimum value of ?0.8?MW at . Several edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques during H-mode were examined with successful results including resonant magnetic perturbation, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogging and electron cyclotron current drive injection into the pedestal region. We observed various ELM responses, i.e. suppression or mitigation, depending on the relative phase of in-vessel control coil currents. In particular, with the 90? phase of the n?=?1 RMP as the most resonant configuration, a complete suppression of type-I ELMs was demonstrated. In addition, fast vertical jogging of the plasma column was also observed to be effective in ELM pace-making. SMBI-mitigated ELMs, a state of mitigated ELMs, were sustained for a few tens of ELM periods. A simple cellular automata (?sand-pile?) model predicted that shallow deposition near the pedestal foot induced small-sized high-frequency ELMs, leading to the mitigation of large ELMs. In addition to the ELM control experiments, various physics topics were explored focusing on ITER-relevant physics issues such as the alteration of toroidal rotation caused by both electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and externally applied 3D fields, and the observed rotation drop by ECRH in NB-heated plasmas was investigated in terms of either a reversal of the turbulence-driven residual stress due to the transition of ion temperature gradient to trapped electron mode turbulence or neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque by the internal kink mode. The suppression of runaway electrons using massive gas injection of deuterium showed that runaway electrons were avoided only below 3?T in KSTAR. Operation in 2013 is expected to routinely exceed the n?=?1 ideal MHD no-wall stability boundary in the long-pulse H-mode (?10?s) by applying real-time shaping control, enabling n?=?1 resistive wall mode active control studies. In addition, intensive works for ELM mitigation, ELM dynamics, toroidal rotation changes by both ECRH and NTV variations, have begun in the present campaign, and will be investigated in more detail with profile measurements of different physical quantities by techniques such as electron cyclotron emission imaging, charge exchange spectroscopy, Thomson scattering and beam emission spectroscopy diagnostics.

Initial H-mode operation of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is expanded to higher normalized beta and lower plasma internal inductance moving towards design target operation. As a key supporting device for ITER, an important goal for KSTAR is to produce physics understanding of MHD instabilities at long pulse with steady-state profiles, at high normalized beta, and over a wide range of plasma rotation profiles. An advance from initial plasma operation is a significant increase in plasma stored energy and normalized beta, with Wtot = 340 kJ, βN = 1.9, which is 75% of the level required to reach the computed ideal n = 1 no-wall stability limit. The internal inductance was lowered to 0.9 at sustained H-mode duration up to 5 s. In ohmically heated plasmas, the plasma current reached 1 MA with prolonged pulse length up to 12 s. Rotating MHD modes are observed in the device with perturbations having tearing rather than ideal parity. Modes with m/n = 3/2 are triggered during the H-mode phase but are relatively weak and do not substantially reduce Wtot. In contrast, 2/1 modes to date only appear when the plasma rotation profiles are lowered after H–L back-transition. Subsequent 2/1 mode locking creates a repetitive collapse of βN by more than 50%. Onset behaviour suggests the 3/2 mode is close to being neoclassically unstable. A correlation between the 2/1 mode amplitude and local rotation shear from an x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer suggests that the rotation shear at the mode rational surface is stabilizing. As a method to access the ITER-relevant low plasma rotation regime, plasma rotation alteration by n = 1, 2 applied fields and associated neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) induced torque is presently investigated. The net rotation profile change measured by a charge exchange recombination diagnostic with proper compensation of plasma boundary movement shows initial evidence of non-resonant rotation damping by the n = 1, 2 applied field configurations. The result addresses perspective on access to low rotation regimes for MHD instability studies applicable to ITER. Computation of active RWM control using the VALEN-3D code examines control performance using midplane locked mode detection sensors. The LM sensors are found to be strongly affected by mode and control coil-induced vessel current, and consequently lead to limited control performance theoretically.

The fourth KSTAR campaign in 2011 concentrated on active edge-localized mode (ELM) control by various methods such as non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogs of the plasma column and edge electron heating. The segmented in-vessel control coil (IVCC) system is capable of applying n ⩽ 2 perturbed field with different phasing among top, middle and bottom coils. Application of an n = 1 perturbed field showed a desirable ELM suppression result. Fast vertical jogs of the plasma column achieved ELM pace-making and ELMs locked to 50 Hz vertical jogs were observed with a high probability of phase locking. A newly installed SMBI system was used for ELM control and the state of mitigated ELMs was sustained by the optimized repetitive SMBI pulse for a few tens of ELM periods. A change in ELM behaviour was seen due to edge electron heating although the effect of ECH launch needs supplementary analyses. The ECEI images of suppressed/mitigated ELM states showed apparent differences when compared with natural ELMy states. Further analyses are ongoing to explain the observed ELM control results.

The first comprehensive particle balance study is carried out in the KSTAR 2010 campaign with a full graphite first wall and diverted plasmas. The dominant retention is observed during the gas puffing into the plasmas. Statistical analysis shows that deuterium retention is increased with the number of injected particles. Particle balance analysis in the whole campaign shows that the long-term retention ratio is ~21%, and the retention via implantation can be partially recovered by He-glow discharge cleaning (GDC), while long-term retention via co-deposition. The wall pumping capability is decreased with the D2 plasma due to fuel accumulation in the first wall, and He-GDC is effective in recovering the wall pumping. Boronization assisted by the D2 glow discharge using C2B10H12 strongly enhances the wall puffing and leads to negative retentions, but the wall pumping capability is recovered in 2–3 days by He-GDCs. Electron cyclotron resonance heating enhances wall outgassing during the discharge. During a diverted H-mode discharge, the retention rate decreases to a very low value, and a high divertor particle flux of ~1.5 × 1023 D s−1 is observed indicating the strong recycling divertor. The amount of recovered deuterium after discharges mainly depends on the plasma–wall interaction when the plasma is terminated, and disruptive discharges release more particles from the first wall.

Typical ELMy H-mode discharges have been obtained in the KSTAR tokamak with the combined auxiliary heating of neutral beam injection (NBI) and electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH). The minimum external heating power required for the L?H transition is about 0.9?MW for a line-averaged density of ~2.0 ? 1019?m?3. There is a clear indication of the increase in the L?H threshold power with decreasing density for densities lower than ~2 ? 1019?m?3. The L?H transitions typically occurred shortly after the beginning of plasma current flattop (Ip = 0.6?MA) period and after the fast shaping to a highly elongated double-null divertor configuration. The maximum heating power available was marginal for the L?H transition, which is also implied by the relatively slow transition time (>10?ms) and the synchronization of the transition with large sawtooth crashes. The initial analysis of thermal energy confinement time (?E) indicates that ?E is higher than the prediction of multi-machine scaling laws by 10?20%. A clear increase in electron and ion temperature in the pedestal is observed in the H-mode phase but the core temperature does not change significantly. On the other hand, the toroidal rotation velocity increased over the whole radial range in the H-mode phase. The measured ELM frequency was around 10?30?Hz for the large ELM bursts and 50?100?Hz for the smaller ones. In addition, very small and high frequency (200?300?Hz) ELMs appeared between large ELM spikes when the ECRH is added to the NBI-heated H-mode plasmas. The drop of total stored energy during a large ELM is up to 5% in most cases.

The initial phase wall conditioning in KSTAR is depicted. The KSTAR wall conditioning procedure consists of vessel baking, glow discharge cleaning (GDC), ICRH wall conditioning (ICWC) and boronization (Bz). Vessel baking is performed for the initial vacuum conditioning in order to remove various kinds of impurities including H2O, carbon and oxygen and for the plasma operation. The total outgassing rates after vessel baking in three successive KSTAR campaigns are compared. GDC is regularly performed as a standard wall cleaning procedure. Another cleaning technique is ICWC, which is useful for inter-shot wall conditioning under a strong magnetic field. In order to optimize the operation time and removal efficiency of ICWC, a parameter scan is performed. Bz is a standard technique to remove oxygen impurity from a vacuum vessel. KSTAR has used carborane powder which is a non-toxic boron-containing material. The KSTAR Bz has been successfully performed through two campaigns: water and oxygen levels in the vacuum vessel are reduced significantly. As a result, KSTAR has achieved its first L–H mode transition, although the input power was marginal for the L–H transition threshold. The characteristics of boron-containing thin films deposited for boronization are investigated.

Since the successful first plasma generation in the middle of 2008, three experimental campaigns were successfully made for the KSTAR device, accompanied with a necessary upgrade in the power supply, heating, wall-conditioning and diagnostic systems. KSTAR was operated with the toroidal magnetic field up to 3.6 T and the circular and shaped plasmas with current up to 700 kA and pulse length of 7 s, have been achieved with limited capacity of PF magnet power supplies. The mission of the KSTAR experimental program is to achieve steady-state operations with high performance plasmas relevant to ITER and future reactors. The first phase (2008–2012) of operation of KSTAR is dedicated to the development of operational capabilities for a super-conducting device with relatively short pulse. Development of start-up scenario for a super-conducting tokamak and the understanding of magnetic field errors on start-up are one of the important issues to be resolved. Some specific operation techniques for a super-conducting device are also developed and tested. The second harmonic pre-ionization with 84 and 110 GHz gyrotrons is an example. Various parameters have been scanned to optimize the pre-ionization. Another example is the ICRF wall conditioning (ICWC), which was routinely applied during the shot to shot interval. The plasma operation window has been extended in terms of plasma beta and stability boundary. The achievement of high confinement mode was made in the last campaign with the first neutral beam injector and good wall conditioning. Plasma control has been applied in shape and position control and now a preliminary kinetic control scheme is being applied including plasma current and density. Advanced control schemes will be developed and tested in future operations including active profiles, heating and current drives and control coil-driven magnetic perturbation.

A time series of static nonlinear ferromagnetic calculations was performed to mimic the time-dependent modelling of plasma start-up by assessing the effects of the ferromagnetic Incoloy 908 used in the superconducting coil jackets of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. Time-series calculations of a two-dimensional axisymmetric circuit model with nonlinear ferromagnetic effects enabled us to find appropriate waveforms for the KSTAR poloidal field coil currents that satisfied various start-up requirements, such as the formation and sustainment of field nulls, a sufficient amount of magnetic flux for further plasma current ramp-up, sufficiently large Et ?Bt/B? > 1?kV?m?1 contours for successful breakdown, plasma current toroidal equilibria, etc. In addition to the aforementioned requirements, the results introduced in this report also provided the positional stability of the plasma current channel against radial as well as vertical perturbations by compensating the field deformation originating from the ferromagnetic effects. With the improved positional stability, robust plasma start-up was achieved during the 2010 KSTAR campaign under various discharge conditions such as the recovery process from plasma disruptions.

Along with an expanded evaluation of the equilibrium operating space of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, KSTAR, experimental equilibria of the most recent plasma discharges were reconstructed using the EFIT code. In near-circular plasmas created in 2009, equilibria reached a stored energy of 54 kJ with a maximum plasma current of 0.34 MA. Highly shaped plasmas with near double-null configuration in 2010 achieved H-mode with clear edge localized mode (ELM) activity, and transiently reached a stored energy of up to 257 kJ, elongation of 1.96 and normalized beta of 1.3. The plasma current reached 0.7 MA. Projecting active and passive stabilization of global MHD instabilities for operation above the ideal no-wall beta limit using the designed control hardware was also considered. Kinetic modification of the ideal MHD n = 1 stability criterion was computed by the MISK code on KSTAR theoretical equilibria with a plasma current of 2 MA, internal inductance of 0.7 and normalized beta of 4.0 with simple density, temperature and rotation profiles. The steep edge pressure gradient of this equilibrium resulted in the need for significant plasma toroidal rotation to allow thermal particle kinetic resonances to stabilize the resistive wall mode (RWM). The impact of various materials and electrical connections of the passive stabilizing plates on RWM growth rates was analysed, and copper plates reduced the RWM passive growth rate by a factor of 15 compared with stainless steel plates at a normalized beta of 4.4. Computations of active RWM control using the VALEN code showed that the n = 1 mode can be stabilized at normalized beta near the ideal wall limit via control fields produced by the midplane in-vessel control coils (IVCCs) with as low as 0.83 kW control power using ideal control system assumptions. The ELM mitigation potential of the IVCC, examined by evaluating the vacuum island overlap created by resonant magnetic perturbations, was analysed using the TRIP3D code. Using a combination of all IVCCs with dominant n = 2 field and upper/lower coils in an even parity configuration, a Chirikov parameter near unity at normalized poloidal flux 0.83, an empirically determined condition for ELM mitigation in DIII-D, was generated in theoretical high-beta equilibria. Chirikov profile optimization was addressed in terms of coil parity and safety factor profile.

An in-situ ellipsometer based on four-detector polarimeter(FDP) is under development at KSTAR. In-situ ellipsometer for tokamak discharges will measure the characteristics of thin films deposited onto a quartz window near the edge region in real time. These characteristics contain local deposition/erosion rates as well as hydrogen to carbon ratio, which have to be measured in-situ, for more clear insight view of plasma-wall interaction in tokamak edge plasmas. This paper reports the status of in-situ ellipsometer development for tokamak discharges at KSTAR, to study plasma-wall interaction and fuel retention. Basic concept, design and construction of the ellipsometer are described.

This letter reports on the successful demonstration of the second harmonic electron cyclotron heating (ECH)-assisted startup in the first plasma experiments recently completed in the fully superconducting Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device whose major and minor radii are 1.8 m and 0.5 m, respectively. For the second harmonic ECH-assisted startup, an 84 GHz EC wave at 0.35 MW was launched before the onset of the toroidal electric field of the Ohmic system. And it was observed that this was sufficient to achieve breakdown in the ECH pre-ionization phase, allow burn-through and sustain the plasma during the current ramp with a low loop voltage of 2.0 V and a corresponding toroidal electric field of 0.24 V m−1at the innermost vacuum vessel wall (R = 1.3 m). This is a lower value than 0.3 Vm−1 which is the maximum electric field in ITER. Due to the limited volt-seconds and the loop voltage of the Ohmic power system, the extended pulse duration of the ECH power up to 180 ms allowed the plasma current to rise up to more than 100 kA with a ramp-up rate of 0.8 MA s−1.

A piezoelectric valve, which has a flow rate of about 463 mbar l/s, has been installed to fuel the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak. The valve flow rate is in situ calibrated by analyzing the pressure rise curve while fueling the vessel at a constant rate. The calibration method and results are presented. In addition to the flow rate, other vacuum system parameters, such as the pumping speed and the vessel volume, were experimentally obtained. Based on these measurements, a KSTAR vacuum system simulator was developed to calculate the valve drive signal to obtain a programmed pressure trace. An arbitrarily shaped pressure trace was successfully controlled in KSTAR with this hardware and software system.

A fracture control plan for composite structures is proposed. Such a plan provides for a fail-safe approach to the design of composite primary structures. It integrates inspection techniques with proof testing to define the minimum flaw that can exist in a structure without failure. While crack propagation of a general flaw in composites is a complex problem, a specific flaw such as delamination is a common failure mode in typical engineering laminates. Using linear fracture mechanics, it is relatively straightforward to calculate the tendency for a delamination flaw to propagate. This approach, coupled with appropriate inspection techniques, constitutes the basis of the proposed plan. Currently, no fracture control plans exist for composite structures. The proposed plan is envisaged as a first step toward assuring the design of damage-tolerant composite structures.

Identifying which business ideas have real commercial potential is fraught with uncertainty, and even the most admired companies have stumbled. It's not as if they don't know what the challenges of innovation are. A new product has to offer customers exceptional utility at an attractive price, and the company must be able to deliver it at a tidy profit. But the uncertainties surrounding innovation are so great that even the most insightful managers have a hard time evaluating the commercial readiness of new business ideas. In this article, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne introduce three tools that managers can use to help strip away some of that uncertainty. The first tool, "the buyer utility map," indicates how likely it is that customers will be attracted to a new business idea. The second, "the price corridor of the mass," identifies what price will unlock the greatest number of customers. And the third tool, "the business model guide," offers a framework for figuring out whether and how a company can profitably deliver the new idea at the targeted price. Applying the tools, though, is not the end of the story. Many innovations have to overcome adoption hurdles--strong resistance from stakeholders inside and outside the company. Often overlooked in the planning process, adoption hurdles can make or break the commercial viability of even the most powerful new ideas. The authors conclude by discussing how managers can head off negative reactions from stakeholders.