Recent ICRF coupling experiments on EAST

Recent ion cyclotron resonance frequency(ICRF) coupling experiments for optimizing ICRF heating in high power discharge were performed on EAST. The coupling experiments were focus on antenna phasing and gas puffing, which were performed separately on two ports of the ion cyclotron resonance heating(ICRH) system of EAST. The antenna phasing was performed on the I-port antenna, which consists of four toroidally spaced radiating straps operating in multiple phasing cases; the coupling performance was better under low wave number ∣k_‖∣(ranging from 4.5 to 6.5). By fuelling the plasma from gas injectors, placed as uniformly spaced array from top to bottom at each side limiter of the B-port antenna, which works in dipole phasing, the coupling resistance of the B-port antenna increased obviously.Furthermore, the coupling resistance of the I-port antenna was insensitive to a smaller rate of gas puffing but when the gas injection rate was more than a certain value(1021 s~(-1)), a sharp increase in the coupling resistance of the I-port antenna occurred, which was mainly caused by the toroidal asymmetric boundary density arising from gas puffing. A more specific analysis is given in the paper.     

Spectroscopic Measurements of Impurity Spectra on the EAST Tokamak

Ultraviolet (UV) and visible impurity spectra (200～750 nm) are commonly used to study plasma and wall interactions in magnetic fusion plasmas. Two optical multi-channel analysis (OMA) systems have been installed for the UV-visible spectrum measurement on EAST. These two OMA systems are both equipped with the Czerny-Turner (C-T) type spectrometer. The upper vacuum vessel and inner divertor baffle can be viewed simultaneously through two optical lenses. The OMA1 system is mainly used for multi-impurity lines radiation measurement. A 280 nm wavelength range can be covered by a 300 mm focal length spectrometer equipped with a 300 grooves/mm grating. The Dα/Hα line shapes can be resolved by the OMA2 system. The focal length is 750 mm. The spectral resolution can be up to 0.01 nm using a 1800 grooves/mm grating. The impurity behaviour and hydrogen ratio evolution after boroniztion, lithium coating, and siliconization are compared. Lithium coating has shown beneficial effects on the reduction of edge recycling and low Z impurity (C,O) influx. The impurity expelling effect of the divertor configuration is also briefly discussed through multi-channels observation of OMA1 system.     

Dealing with Asymmetrical Abel Inversion Using Fourier-Bessel Expansions

1. IntroductionIn plasma diagnostics, many important physics parameters are meajsured by the chord integrated quantities, such as electron density by Interferometry,emission of impurity by spectroscopy. The Abel inversion has many approximate methods [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].Bars's method is universally used in symmetric Abelinversion [2]. Yasutomo introduced the weight function, and successfully applied Bars's method to theasymmetric distribution [6].The inverted result of Bars's method has suc…     

Investigation of the Energy Confinement in Ohmic and LHCD Plasmas in HT-7

Investigation of the energy confinement in ohmic and lower hybrid current drive （LHCD） plasmas in HT-7 has been performed. In ohmic discharges at low densities the global energy confinement time rE increases almost linearly with the density, saturates at a critical density （2.5×10^13/cm^3 for HT-7） and is nearly constant at higher densities. The energy confinement time is in good agreement with the Neo-Alcator scaling law at different densities and currents. In the LHCD plasmas the global energy confinement time similar to that of the L-mode discharges has been observed to be in good agreement with the low confinement mode （L mode） scaling law of ITER89-P in higher electron density and plasma current.     

Recent Experimental Progress in the HT—7 Tokamak

Recent experimental campaign in the HT-7 tokamak was scheduled to be ran from November 2002to March 31,2003,During which various issues were in vestgated on geting high electron temperature,long pulse discharges and high performance plasma under quasi-steady-state condition.New systems including LHCD launcher,cryogenic compressor,real-time ploidal control,water-cooled toroidal belt limiter,ferretic liner and several diagnostics were installed and operated to satisfy long-pulse operation requirements.The maximum total injected power was over 1 MW and the longest discharge duration was near to 64 s。     

Physical Engineering Test and First Divertor Plasma Configuration in EAST

Physical engineering capability on the superconducting magnetic system of EAST was tested and first divertor plasma configuration in EAST was obtained. The extrapolation of the safety limit has verified the reliability of the system for long pulse operation. A stably controlled diverted plasmas configuration with an elongation n in excess of 1.8 and plasma current of up to 500 kA, by using the （copper） internal coils to control the vertical displacement instability was obtained by an optimized plasma control algorithm. Highly shaped plasma at various configurations, which almost covers all designed configurations for EAST, was generated stably. A number of operational issues, such as plasma initiation, ramp up and configuration control with constraints of superconducting coils, were successfully investigated. All of the results obtained proved both the capability of the superconducting poloidal magnets for operation under steady-state condition and effectiveness of the plasma control algorithm for EAST.     

The Experiment of Modulated Toroidal Current on HT-7 and HT-6M Tokamak

The Experiments of Modulated Toroidal Current were done on the HT-6M tokamak and HT-7 superconducting tokamak. The toroidal current was modulated by programming the Ohmic heating field. Modulation of the plasma current has been used successfully to suppress MHD activity in discharges near the density limit where large MHD m = 2 tearing modes were suppressed by sufficiently large plasma current oscillations. The improved Ohmic confinement phase was observed during modulating toroidal current (MTC) on the Hefei Tokamak-6M (HT-6M) and Hefei superconducting Tokamak-7 (HT-7). A toroidal frequency-modulated current, induced by a modulated loop voltage, was added on the plasma equilibrium current. The ratio of A.C. amplitude of plasma current to the main plasma current △Ip/Ip is about 12% ～ 30%. The different formats of the frequency-modulated toroidal current were compared.     

Modification of Boundary Parameters and Fluctuations by IBW and LHCD in the HT-7 Tokamak

Measurements of boundary parameters and their fluctuations have been performed in ohmic (OH) plasma and Ion Bernstein Wave (IBW) and Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) enhanced confinement plasma using a pneumatically driven Langmuir probe array on HT-7 toka-maX. In the enhanced confinement plasma~ the gradients of electron density and temperature become higher and a transport barrier comes into being in the vicinity of the limiter. The boundary potential shows a clear modification in the same region. The fluctuation levels are significantly depressed and the coherences between fluctuations are reduced evidently in the enhanced plasma.Meanwhile, we obtained the spectral features and the poloidal phase velocity of fluctuations us-ing a two-point correlation technique and found obvious modifications of the turbulence and the poloidal flow. The results suggest that the improved confinement in the IBW and LHCD enhanced plasma is at least partially due to the modification of the boundary parameters and the suppression of the boundary fluctuations and fluctuation induced fluxes.     

Bursty Behaviour of Turbulent Particle and Energy Fluxes in Edge Plasma of HT-7 Tokamak

High time resolution measurements of the electrostatic fluctuations and the turbulent particle and energy fluxes have been performed with a Langmuir probe array in the edge plasma in HT-7 tokamak. Bursty behaviour was observed in the time resolved turbulent fluxes with positive skewness and large kurtosis. The contribution of the large sporadic bursts to the transport losses were estimated. The analysis shows that the turbulent fluxes have different behaviour in different frequency domains and the probability distribution functions （PDFs） of the particle and energy fluxes present two distinct scaling ranges. All these are essentially consistent with the predictions of the self-organized criticality （SOC） model, though further studies are needed.     

Optical Design of ECEI Diagnostic System for HT-T Tokamak

Electron cyclotron emission imaging system in the frequency range of 95 GHz -125 GHz is going to be constructed for a two-dimensional diagnosis of the electron temperature profiles and fluctuations on the HT-7 Tokamak. The optical design for the ECEI diagnostic system is completed. Because of the superconducting technology used in HT-7, the vacuum chamber is rather thick (630 mm), the height of the horizontal windows is limited (maximum 450 mm), which constrains greatly the ECE imaging Gaussian beam that passing through the windows. We here comes to make a design compromise between the number of the beams that can pass through the windows and the spatial resolution (around 1.1 cm). We also find that due to the field curvature of the optical system, the gaussian beams of edge channels are always overlapped. To flatten the field curvature, it is needed to insert a concave made of a material with a low refractive index (compared with the one used in the convex). But the suitable material has not been avail