Impact of T_(i)/T_(e )ratio on ion transport based on EAST H-mode plasmas

At the EAST tokamak, the ion temperature(T_(i)) is observed to be clamped around 1.25 keV in electron cyclotron resonance(ECR)-heated plasmas, even at core electron temperatures up to 10 keV(depending on the ECR heating power and the plasma density). This clamping results from the lack of direct ion heating and high levels of turbulence-driven transport. Turbulent transport analysis shows that trapped electron mode and electron temperature gradient-driven modes are the most unstable modes in the core of ECR-heated H-mode plasmas. Nevertheless, recently it was found that the T_(i)/T_(e)ratio can increase further with the fraction of the neutral beam injection(NBI) power, which leads to a higher core ion temperature(Ti0). In NBI heating-dominant H-mode plasmas, the ion temperature gradient-driven modes become the most unstable modes.Furthermore, a strong and broad internal transport barrier(ITB) can form at the plasma core in high-power NBI-heated H-mode plasmas when the T_(i)/T_(e)ratio approaches ~1, which results in steep core Teand Tiprofiles, as well as a peaked neprofile. Power balance analysis shows a weaker Teprofile stiffness after the formation of ITBs in the core plasma region, where Ticlamping is broken,and the core Tican increase further above 2 keV, which is 80% higher than the value of Ticlamping in ECR-heated plasmas. This finding proposes a possible solution to the problem of Ticlamping on EAST and demonstrates an advanced operational regime with the formation of a strong and broad ITB for future fusion plasmas dominated by electron heating.

Kinetic equilibrium reconstruction with internal safety factor profile constraints on EAST tokamak

Reconstruction of plasma equilibrium plays an important role in the analysis and simulation of plasma experiments. The kinetic equilibrium reconstruction with pressure and edge current constraints has been employed on EAST tokamak. However, the internal safety factor(q) profile is not accurate. This paper proposes a new way of incorporating q profile constraints into kinetic equilibrium reconstruction. The q profile is yielded from the Polarimeter Interferometer(POINT)reconstruction. Virtual probes containing information on q profile constraints are added to inputs of the kinetic equilibrium reconstruction program to obtain the final equilibrium. The new equilibrium produces a more accurate internal q profile. This improved method would help analyze EAST experiments.

Investigation of the compact torus plasma motion in the KTX-CTI device based on circuit analyses

Compact torus(CT)injection is one of the most promising methods for the central fuelling of next-generation reactor-grade fusion devices due to its high density,high velocity,and selfcontained magnetised structure.A newly compact torus injector(CTI)device in Keda Torus e Xperiment(KTX),named KTX-CTI,was successfully developed and tested at the University of Science and Technology in China.In this study,first,we briefly introduce the basic principles and structure of KTX-CTI,and then,present an accurate circuit model that relies on nonlinear regression analysis(NRA)for studying the current waveform of the formation region.The current waveform,displacement,and velocity of CT plasma in the acceleration region are calculated using this NRA-based one-dimensional point model.The model results were in good agreement with the experiments.The next-step upgrading reference scheme of the KTX-CTI device is preliminarily investigated using this NRA-based point model.This research can provide insights for the development of experiments and future upgrades of the device.

Simulation studies of tungsten impurity behaviors during neon impurity seeding with tungsten bundled charge state model using SOLPS-ITER on EAST

An investigation into tungsten(W)impurity behaviors with the update of the EAST lower W divertor for H-mode has been carried out using SOLPS-ITER.This work aims to study the effect of external neon(Ne)impurity seeding on W impurity sputtering with the bundled charge state model.As the Ne seeding rate increases,plasma parameters,W concentration(C_(W)),and eroded W flux(Γ_(W)^(Ero))at both targets are compared and analyzed between the highly resolved bundled model‘jett’and the full W charge state model.The results indicate that‘jett’can produce divertor behaviors essentially in agreement with the full W charge state model.The bundled scheme with high resolution in low W charge states(<W^(20+))has no obvious effect on the Ne impurity distribution and thus little effect on W sputtering by Ne.Meanwhile,parametric scans of radial particle and thermal transport diffusivities(D_(⊥)andχ_(e,i))in the SOL are simulated using the‘jett’bundled model.The results indicate that the transport diffusivity variations have significant influences on the divertor parameters,especially for W impurity sputtering.