Physics of Plasma Burn-Through and DYON Simulations for the JET ITER-Like Wall
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PAPER Related content - Plasma burn-through simulations using the Physics of plasma burn-through and DYON DYON code and predictions for ITER Hyun-Tae Kim, A C C Sips, P C de Vries simulations for the JET ITER-like wall et al. - Enhancement of plasma burn-through simulation and validation in JET To cite this article: Hyun-Tae Kim et al 2013 Nucl. Fusion 53 083024 Hyun-Tae Kim, W. Fundamenski, A.C.C. Sips et al. - Characterisation of plasma breakdown at JET with a carbon and ITER-like wall P.C. de Vries, A.C.C. Sips, H.T. Kim et al. View the article online for updates and enhancements. Recent citations - Plasma production and preliminary results from the ADITYA Upgrade tokamak R L TANNA et al - Pre-ionization by AC Ohmic coil operation in the TST-2 spherical tokamak A. Ejiri et al - 0-D modeling of SST-1 plasma break- down & start-up using ECRH assisted pre- ionization Aveg Kumar and Subrata Pradhan This content was downloaded from IP address 194.81.223.66 on 19/09/2018 at 09:55 IOP PUBLISHING and INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY NUCLEAR FUSION Nucl. Fusion 53 (2013) 083024 (16pp) doi:10.1088/0029-5515/53/8/083024 Physics of plasma burn-through and DYON simulations for the JET ITER-like wall Hyun-Tae Kim1,2, A.C.C. Sips1,3 and EFDA-JET Contributorsa JET-EFDA Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, OX14 3DB, UK 1 Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK 2 EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association, Abingdon, OX14 3DB, UK 3 JET/EFDA, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, OX14 3DB, UK E-mail: [email protected] Received 14 December 2012, accepted for publication 10 June 2013 Published 24 July 2013 Online at stacks.iop.org/NF/53/083024 Abstract This paper presents the DYON simulations of the plasma burn-through phase at Joint European Torus (JET) with the ITER-like wall. The main purpose of the study is to validate the simulations with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)-like wall, made of beryllium. Without impurities, the burn-through process of a pure deuterium plasma is described using DYON simulations, and the criterion for deuterium burn-through is derived analytically. The plasma burn-through with impurities are simulated using wall-sputtering models in the DYON code, which are modified for the ITER-like wall. The wall-sputtering models and the validation against JET data are presented. The impact of the assumed plasma parameters in DYON simulations are discussed by means of parameter scans. As a result, the operation space of prefill gas pressure and toroidal electric field for plasma burn-through in JET is compared with the Townsend avalanche criterion. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal) 1. Introduction radiation and ionizations of the remaining neutrals, so that it prevents electron temperature from increasing in the ramp- 1.1. Motivation up phase of plasma current [3]. It should be noted that the required loop voltage for plasma burn-through, the burn- Tokamak start-up consists of the electron avalanche phase, the plasma burn-through phase and the ramp-up phase of the through criterion, is generally higher than that for electron avalanche in present tokamaks [2], and a number of start-up plasma current Ip [2]. The Townsend avalanche theory [3, 4] is generally used to calculate the required electric field for failures in current devices result from the failure of plasma burn-through. For experiments with the carbon wall in Joint electron avalanche (Eavalanche) at a given prefill gas pressure p European Torus (JET), more than 85% of all non-sustained and effective connection length Lf as shown below: break-down failures occurred during the plasma burn-through 1.25 × 104 × p(Torr) E ( −1) . phase [5]. These start-up failures could be reduced by avalanche Vm × × (1.1) ln(510 p(Torr) Lf (m)) understanding key physics aspects of the plasma burn-through The required Eavalanche for plasma initiation in the International phase. Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has also been Furthermore, due to the engineering issues in ITER, calculated using equation (1.1) as presented in the ITER resulting from the use of superconducting central solenoid Physics Basis [2]. coils and a continuous vacuum vessel, the maximum toroidal However, the Townsend avalanche theory is not sufficient electric field on-axis is limited up to 0.35 V m−1 [6], which to explain all non-sustained break-down discharges. In order is much lower than the typical toroidal electric field used for for plasma current to increase, sufficient ionization of the prefill plasma burn-through in current devices, e.g. ∼1Vm−1 in JET. gas (deuterium) and impurities, i.e. plasma burn-through, is Tokamak start-up using such a low electric field limits the necessary. Otherwise, most heating power is lost through operation space available for the range of prefill gas pressure, a See the appendix of [1]. magnetic error fields, and impurity content [7]. In order to 0029-5515/13/083024+16$33.00 1 © 2013 IAEA, Vienna Printed in the UK & the USA Nucl. Fusion 53 (2013) 083024 H.-T. Kim et al obtain more confidence in the start-up scenario at ITER, a Table 1. Plasma parameters assumed for DYON simulations predictive simulation for plasma burn-through is required. (figures 1, 2, 4, 5 and 13). For reliable start-up using a low electric field, RF-assisted Plasma parameters Input values start-up using electron cyclotron heating (ECH) [8]orion Toroidal magnetic field B 2.3 T cyclotron heating (ICH) [9] is planned in ITER. However, φ Vertical magnetic field Bv 0.001 T launching excessive RF power into the vacuum vessel without Initial plasma current 382.5 × E = 405.8Am−2 a plasma or with a very low temperature plasma can result density Jp(0) in serious damage to the diagnostic systems, due to the low Initial eddy current IMK2(0) 0A absorption efficiency of the RF power. Hence, in order to Initial electron 1 eV temperature T (0) estimate the required ECH power (although not presented in e Initial ion temperature Ti(0) 0.03 eV this paper) understanding the plasma burn-through conditions Prefilled gas pressure p(0) Figures 1 and 2 : 5 and (or requirements) is also important. 7(×10−5 Torr) The DYON (DYnamic 0D model of Non-fully ionized Figure 4 :1,3,5and − plasma) code is a plasma burn-through simulator, developed at 7(×10 5 Torr) × −5 JET. In the DYON code, the confinement time is modelled as a Figure 5 :5 10 Torr Figure 13 :1× 10−6–2 × 10−4 Torr function of plasma parameters considering parallel transport 0 × 22 × Initial D atom density nD(0) 2.78 10 p(0) Torr as well as perpendicular transport, and the impurity influx Initial degree of 0.002 is calculated using wall-sputtering models. The impurity ionization γiz(0) 0 densities in each charge state are calculated self-consistently Initial impurity nI (0) 0 D by particle balances in non-coronal equilibrium. In this YD 1 calculation, neutral screening effects are also taken into Fuelling efficiency 0% i.e. No additional fuelling PSI model Figures 1, 2 and 4 : no PSI effects account, and the atomic reactions and the resultant radiation Figures 5 and 13 : no PSI, are computed using the Atomic Data and Analysis Structure C wall or Be wall (ADAS) package [10]. A detailed description of the DYON Plasma major radius R 3m code can be found in [11]. Plasma minor radius a Figures 1, 2 and 4 : 0.5 m The DYON simulation results show a reasonable Figures 5 and 13 : 0.9 m Internal inductance l 0.5 agreement with JET data with the carbon wall [11]. The recent i Loop voltage Ul 20 V installation of the ITER-like wall at JET i.e. a combination Effective vessel volume 100 m−3 of beryllium and tungsten protection tiles [12], enabled us to validate the wall-sputtering models for a beryllium wall with results from recent experiments. In this paper, the modified To gain an insight into the key physics aspects in the plasma wall-sputtering model in the DYON code will be explained, burn-through phase, it is worth starting the investigation and the simulation results are compared with JET data with of a pure deuterium plasma. Furthermore, according to the ITER-like wall. Using the validated models, the operation recent observation in JET with the ITER-like wall, deuterium window of prefill gas pressure and toroidal electric field for radiation can be critical for plasma burn-through with a plasma burn-through in JET is computed, and it is compared beryllium wall. with the Townsend criterion. The results presented in this section are obtained by DYON simulations (figures 1, 2 and 4) without any impurity 1.2. Structure of the paper model. Figure 3 is drawn using an analytical formula. The plasma parameters assumed in the DYON simulations of a pure Plasma burn-through of a pure deuterium plasma will be deuterium plasma are given in table 1. In order to simulate discussed in section 2. In section 3, the previous wall- the cases of successful and failed plasma burn-through, two sputtering model for the carbon wall is reviewed. In section different prefill gas pressures are assumed, 5 × 10−5 Torr 4, the modification of the wall-sputtering model for the JET (success) and 7 × 10−5 Torr (failure) in figures 1 and 24.In ITER-like wall will be introduced.