Search

381. Design of Faraday cup ion detectors built by thin film deposition

Author(s):
Szalkowski, G.A.; Darrow, D.S.; Cecil, F.E.
Abstract:
Thin film Faraday cup detectors can provide measurements of fast ion loss from magnetically confined fusion plasmas. These multilayer detectors can resolve the energy distribution of the lost ions in addition to giving the total loss rate. Prior detectors were assembled from discrete foils and insulating sheets. Outlined here is a design methodology for creating detectors using thin film deposition that are suited to particular scientific goals. The intention is to use detectors created by this method on JET and NSTX-U. The detectors will consist of alternating layers of aluminum and silicon dioxide, with layer thicknesses chosen to isolate energies of interest. Thin film deposition offers the advantage of relatively simple and more mechanically robust construction compared to other methods, as well as allowing precise control of film thickness. Furthermore, this depositional fabrication technique places the layers in intimate thermal contact, providing for three-dimensional conduction and dissipation of the ion-produced heating in the layers, rather than the essentially two-dimensional heat conduction in the discrete foil stack implementation.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
January 2017

382. Experimental calibration procedures for rotating Lorentz-force flowmeters

Author(s):
Hvasta, M. G.; Slighton, N. T.; Kolemen, E.; Fisher, A. E.
Abstract:
Rotating Lorentz-force flowmeters are a novel and useful technology with a range of applications in a variety of different industries. However, calibrating these flowmeters can be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. In this paper, simple calibration procedures for rotating Lorentz-force flowmeters are presented. These procedures eliminate the need for expensive equipment, numerical modeling, redundant flowmeters, and system down-time. The calibration processes are explained in a step-by-step manner and compared to experimental results.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2017

383. Kinetic neoclassical calculations of impurity radiation profiles

Author(s):
Stotler, D.P.; Battaglia, D.J.; Hager, R.; Kim, K.; Koskela, T.; Park, G.; Reinke, M.L.
Abstract:
Modifications of the drift-kinetic transport code XGC0 to include the transport, ionization, and recombination of individual charge states, as well as the associated radiation, are described. The code is first applied to a simulation of an NSTX H-mode discharge with carbon impurity to demonstrate the approach to coronal equilibrium. The effects of neoclassical phenomena on the radiated power profile are examined sequentially through the activation of individual physics modules in the code. Orbit squeezing and the neoclassical inward pinch result in increased radiation for temperatures above a few hundred eV and changes to the ratios of charge state emissions at a given electron temperature. Analogous simulations with a neon impurity yield qualitatively similar results.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2017

384. Modeling of Lithium Granule Injection in NSTX with M3D-C1

Author(s):
Fil, A.; Kolemen, E.; Bortolon, A.; Ferraro, N.; Jardin, S.; Parks, P.B.; Lunsford, R.; Maingi, R.
Abstract:
In this paper we present initial simulations of pedestal control by Lithium Granule Injection (LGI) in NSTX. A model for small granule ablation has been implemented in the M3D-C1 code [1], allowing the simulation of realistic Lithium granule injections. 2D simulations in NSTX L-mode and H-mode plasmas are done and the effect of granule size, injection angle and velocity on the pedestal gradient increase are studied. For H-mode cases, the amplitude of the local pressure perturbation caused by the granules is highly dependent on the solid granule size. In our simulations, reducing the granule injection velocity allows one to inject more particles at the pedestal top.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
January 2017

385. Nonlinear fishbone dynamics in spherical tokamaks

Author(s):
Wang, F.; Fu, G.Y.; Shen, W.
Abstract:
Linear and nonlinear kinetic-MHD hybrid simulations have been carried out to investigate linear stability and nonlinear dynamics of beam-driven fishbone instability in spherical tokamak plasmas. Realistic NSTX parameters with finite toroidal rotation were used. The results show that the fishbone is driven by both trapped and passing particles. The instability drive of passing particles is comparable to that of trapped particles in the linear regime. The effects of rotation are destabilizing and a new region of instability appears at higher qmin (>1.5) values, qmin being the minimum of safety factor profile. In the nonlinear regime, the mode saturates due to flattening of beam ion distribution, and this persists after initial saturation while mode frequency chirps down in such a way that the resonant trapped particles move out radially and keep in resonance with the mode. Correspondingly, the flattening region of beam ion distribution expands radially outward. A substantial fraction of initially non- resonant trapped particles become resonant around the time of mode saturation and keep in resonance with the mode as frequency chirps down. On the other hand, the fraction of resonant passing particles is significantly smaller than that of trapped particles. Our analysis shows that trapped particles provide the main drive to the mode in the nonlinear regime.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
January 2017

386. Optimization of the angular orientation for a fast ion loss detector in a tokamak

Author(s):
Darrow, D.
Abstract:
A scintillator type fast ion loss detector measures the gyroradius and pitch angle distribution of superthermal ions escaping from a magnetically confined fusion plasma at a single location. Described here is a technique for optimizing the angular orientation of such a detector in an axisymmetric tokamak geometry in order to intercept losses over a useful and interesting ranges of pitch angle. The method consists of evaluating the detector acceptance as a function of the fast ion constants of motion, i.e. energy, canonical toroidal momentum, and magnetic moment. The detector acceptance can then be plotted in a plane of constant energy and compared with the relevant orbit class boundaries and fast ion source distributions. Knowledge of expected or interesting mechanisms of loss can further guide selection of the detector orientation. The example of a fast ion loss detector for the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) is considered.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
January 2017

387. Sensitivity of WallDYN material migration modeling to uncertainties in mixed-material surface binding energies

Author(s):
Nichols, J.H.; Jaworski, M.A.; Schmid, K.
Abstract:
The WallDYN package has recently been applied to a number of tokamaks to self-consistently model the evolution of mixed-material plasma facing surfaces. A key component of the WallDYN model is the concentration-dependent surface sputtering rate, calculated using SDTRIM.SP. This modeled sputtering rate is strongly influenced by the surface binding energies (SBEs) of the constituent materials, which are well known for pure elements but often are poorly constrained for mixed-materials. This work examines the sensitivity of WallDYN surface evolution calculations to different models for mixed-material SBEs, focusing on the carbon/lithium/oxygen/deuterium system present in NSTX. A realistic plasma background is reconstructed from a high density, H-mode NSTX discharge, featuring an attached outer strike point with local density and temperature of 4e20 m^-3 and 4 eV, respectively. It is found that various mixed-material SBE models lead to significant qualitative and quantitative changes in the surface evolution profile at the outer divertor, with the highest leverage parameter being the C-Li binding model. Uncertainties of order 50%, appearing on time scales relevant to tokamak experiments, highlight the importance of choosing an appropriate mixed-material sputtering representation when modeling the surface evolution of plasma facing components. These results are generalized to other fusion-relevant materials with different ranges of SBEs.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2017

389. The Structured `Low Temperature' Phase of the Retinal Population Code

Author(s):
Ioffe, Mark Lev; Berry II, Michael J.
Abstract:
Recent advances in experimental techniques have allowed the simultaneous recordings of populations of hundreds of neurons, fostering a debate about the nature of the collective structure of population neural activity. Much of this debate has focused on the empirical findings of a phase transition in the parameter space of maximum entropy models describing the measured neural probability distributions, interpreting this phase transition to indicate a critical tuning of the neural code. Here, we instead focus on the possibility that this is a first-order phase transition which provides evidence that the real neural population is in a `structured', collective state. We show that this collective state is robust to changes in stimulus ensemble and adaptive state. We find that the pattern of pairwise correlations between neurons has a strength that is well within the strongly correlated regime and does not require fine tuning, suggesting that this state is generic for populations of 100+ neurons. We find a clear correspondence between the emergence of a phase transition, and the emergence of attractor-like structure in the inferred energy landscape. A collective state in the neural population, in which neural activity patterns naturally form clusters, provides a consistent interpretation for our results.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2017

390. Validation and benchmarking of two particle-in-cell codes for a glow discharge

Author(s):
Carlsson, J.; Khrabrov, A.; Kaganovich, I.; Sommerer, T.; Keating, D.
Abstract:
The two particle-in-cell codes EDIPIC and LSP are benchmarked and validated for a parallel-plate glow discharge in helium, in which the axial electric field had been carefully measured, primarily to investigate and improve the fidelity of their collision models. The scattering anisotropy of electron-impact ionization, as well as the value of the secondary-electron emission yield, are not well known in this case. The experimental uncertainty for the emission yield corresponds to a factor of two variation in the cathode current. If the emission yield is tuned to make the cathode current computed by each code match the experiment, the computed electric fields are in excellent agreement with each other, and within about 10% of the experimental value. The non-monotonic variation of the width of the cathode fa ll with the applied voltage seen in the experiment is reproduced by both codes. The electron temperature in the negative glow is within experimental error bars for both codes, but the density of slow trapped electrons is underestimated. A more detailed code comparison don e for several synthetic cases of electron-beam injection into helium gas shows that the codes are in excellent agreement for ionization rate, as well as for elastic and excitation collisions with isotropic scattering pattern. The remaining significant discrepancies between the two codes are due to differences in their electron binary-collision models, and for anisotropic scattering due to elastic and excitation collisions.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2017