From minimum-viable-products to full models: a step-wise development of diagnostic forward models in support of design, analysis and modelling on the ST40 tokamak

The Tokamak Energy Team

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Like most magnetic confined fusion experiments, the ST40 tokamak started off with a small subset of diagnostics and gradually increased the diagnostic set to include more complex and comprehensive systems. To make the most of each operational phase, forward models of various diagnostics are used and developed to aid design, provide consistency-checks during commissioning, test analysis methods, and build workflows to constrain high-level parameters to inform interpretation, theory and modelling. For new models and new analysis workflows, minimum-viable-products are released early, and their complexity is increased in a step-wise manner, facilitating the support of all programme phases on multiple parallel applications, while enabling learning opportunities and feedback loops. In this contribution we review the philosophy, scope and architecture of the framework under development. We discuss the details of some forward models, with examples on how they are used to aid diagnostic design, to investigate analysis methodologies through synthetic data, and how they are embedded in experimental analysis workflows. We compare previously published experimental results with new, more advanced analysis workflows employing more recent, detailed models and new diagnostic data, providing confirmation of the published material from the 2021–22 experimental campaign.

Original languageEnglish
Article number095011
JournalPlasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Volume66
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2024

Funding

Contributions from collaborators at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory were supported through U.S. Department of Energy CRADA NFE-19-07769. The authors would also like to thank Chris MacMackin (UKAEA) for his substantial contribution in creating the first version of Indica, much of which is still in use today, and S M Kaye (PPPL) for his invaluable contribution in the TRANSP interpretative analyses.

Keywords

  • data analysis
  • diagnostics
  • experimental plasma physics
  • forward models
  • inference
  • integrated data analysis
  • magnetic confined fusion

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