Access to sustained high-beta with internal transport barrier and negative central magnetic shear in DIII-D

A. M. Garofalo, E. J. Doyle, J. R. Ferron, C. M. Greenfield, R. J. Groebner, A. W. Hyatt, G. L. Jackson, R. J. Jayakumar, J. E. Kinsey, R. J. La Haye, G. R. McKee, M. Murakami, M. Okabayashi, T. H. Osborne, C. C. Petty, P. A. Politzer, H. Reimerdes, J. T. Scoville, W. M. Solomon, H. E. St. JohnE. J. Strait, A. D. Turnbull, M. R. Wade, M. A. Vanzeeland

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Abstract

High values of normalized Β (ΒN ∼4) and safety factor (qmin ∼2) have been sustained simultaneously for ∼2 s in DIII-D [J.L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 64 (2002)], suggesting a possible path to high fusion performance, steady-state tokamak scenarios with a large fraction of bootstrap current. The combination of internal transport barrier and negative central magnetic shear at high Β results in high confinement (H89P >2.5) and large bootstrap current fraction (fBS >60%) with good alignment. Previously, stability limits in plasmas with core transport barriers have been observed at moderate values of ΒN (<3) because of the pressure peaking which normally develops from improved core confinement. In recent DIII-D experiments, the internal transport barrier is clearly observed in the electron density and in the ion temperature and rotation profiles at ρ ∼0.5 but not in the electron temperature profile, which is very broad. The misalignment of Ti and Te gradients may help to avoid a large local pressure gradient. Furthermore, at low internal inductance ∼0.6, the current density gradients are close to the vessel and the ideal kink modes are strongly wall-coupled. Simultaneous feedback control of both external and internal sets of n=1 magnetic coils was used to maintain optimal error field correction and resistive wall mode stabilization, allowing operation above the free-boundary Β limit. Large particle orbits at high safety factor in the core help to broaden both the pressure and the beam-driven current profiles, favorable for steady-state operation. At plasma current flat top and Β∼5%, a noninductive current fraction of ∼100% has been observed. Stability modeling shows the possibility for operation up to the ideal-wall limit at Β∼6%.

Original languageEnglish
Article number056110
JournalPhysics of Plasmas
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2006
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under DE-FG02-89ER53297, DE-FG03-01ER54615, DE-AC02-04ER54698, W-7405-ENG-48, DE-AC02-76CH03073, and DE-AC05-00OR22725.

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