Tunable biasing magnetic field design of ferrite tuner for ICRF heating system in EAST

Ion cyclotron range of frequency（ICRF） heating has been used in tokamaks as one of the most successful auxiliary heating tools and has been adopted in the EAST. However, the antenna load will fluctuate with the change of plasma parameters in the ICRF heating process. To ensure the steady operation of the ICRF heating system in the EAST, fast ferrite tuner（FFT） has been carried out to achieve real-time impedance matching. For the requirements of the FFT impedance matching system, the magnet system of the ferrite tuner（FT） was designed by numerical simulations and experimental analysis, where the biasing magnetic circuit and alternating magnetic circuit were the key researched parts of the ferrite magnet. The integral design goal of the FT magnetic circuit is that DC bias magnetic field is 2000 Gs and alternating magnetic field is±400 Gs. In the FTT, E-type magnetic circuit was adopted. Ferrite material is Nd Fe B with a thickness of 30 mm by setting the working point of Nd Fe B, and the ampere turn of excitation coil is 25 through the theoretical calculation and simulation analysis. The coil inductance to generate alternating magnetic field is about 7 m H. Eddy-current effect has been analyzed, while the magnetic field distribution has been measured by a Hall probe in the medium plane of the biasing magnet. Finally, the test results show the good performance of the biasing magnet satisfying the design and operating requirements of the FFT.

Current Status of ICRF Heating Experiments on EAST

Radio frequency （RF） heating in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies （ICRF） is one of the primary auxiliary heating methods for EAST. The ICRF system provides 6 MW power in primary phase and will be capable of 10 MW later. Three 1.5 MW ICRF systems in a fr@quency range of 25 MHz to 70 MHz have already been in operation. The ICRF heating launchers are designed to have two current straps with each driven by a RF power source of 1.5 MW. In this paper a brief introduction of the ICRF heating system capability in EAST and the preliminary results in EAST are presented.

Power Compensation for ICRF Heating in EAST

The source system covering a working frequency range of 24 MHz to 70 MHz with a total maximum output power of 12 MW has already been fabricated for Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency（ICRF） heating in EAST from 2012. There are two continuous wave（CW） antennas consisting of four launching elements each fed by a separate 1.5 MW transmitter. Due to the strong mutual coupling among the launching elements, the injection power for launching elements should be imbalance to keep the k｜｜（parallel wave number） spectrum of the launcher symmetric for ICRF heating. Cross power induced by the mutual coupling will also induce many significant issues,such as an uncontrollable phase of currents in launching elements, high voltage standing wave ratio（VSWR）, and impedance mismatching. It is necessary to develop a power compensation system for antennas to keep the power balance between the feed points. The power balance system consists of two significant parts： a decoupler and phase control. The decoupler helps to achieve ports isolation to make the differential phase controllable and compensate partly cross power. After that, the differential phase of 0 or π will keep the power balance of two feed points completely. The first power compensation system consisting of four decouplers was assembled and tested for the port B antenna at the working frequency of 35 MHz. With the application of the power compensation system, the power balance, phase feedback control, and voltage standing wave ratio（VSWR） had obviously been improved in the 2015 EAST campaign.

Observation of Electron Energy Pinch in HT-7 ICRF Heated Plasmas

Inward energy transport （pinch phenomenon） in the electron channel is observed in HT-7 plasmas using off-axis ion cyclotron resonance frequency （ICRF） heating. Experimental results and power balance transport analysis by TRANSP code are presented in this article. With the aids of GLF23 and Chang-Hinton transport models, which predict energy diffusivity in experimental conditions, the estimated electron pinch velocity is obtained by experimental data and is found reasonably comparable to the results in the previous study, such as Song on Tore Supra. Density scanning shows that the energy convective velocity in the electron channel has a close relation to density scale length~ which is qualitatively in agreement with Wang＇s theoretical prediction. The parametric dependence of electron energy convective velocity on plasma current is still ambiguous and is worthy of future research on EAST.

Observation of Central Toroidal Rotation Induced by ICRF on EAST

Core plasma rotation of both L-mode and H-mode discharges with ion cyclotron range of frequency（ICRF） minority heating（MH） scheme was measured with a tangential X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer on EAST（Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak）.Cocurrent central impurity toroidal rotation change was observed in ICRF-heated L-and H-mode plasmas.Rotation increment as high as 30 km/s was generated at ~1.7 MW ICRF power.Scaling results showed similar trend as the Rice scaling but with significant scattering,especially in L-mode plasmas.We varied the plasma current,toroidal field and magnetic configuration individually to study their effect on L-mode plasma rotation,while keeping the other major plasma parameters and heating unchanged during the scanning.It was found that larger plasma current could induce plasma rotation more efficiently.A scan of the toroidal magnetic field indicated that the largest rotation was obtained for on-axis ICRF heating.A comparison between lower-single-null（LSN）and double-null（DN） configurations showed that LSN discharges rendered a larger rotation change for the same power input and plasma parameters.

Recent Progress in Plasma Control Studies on the Improvement of Plasma Performance in Heliotron J

Recent progress in plasma control studies on the improvement of plasma performance in Heliotron J is reviewed. The supersonic molecular beam injection （SMBI） fueling is successfully applied to Heliotron J plasma. A supersonic H2-beam is effectively injected to increase fueling efficiency and generate a peaked density profile. Local fueling with a short-pulsed SMBI can increase the core plasma density and avoid the degradation arising from edge cooling. Second harmonic electron cyclotron current drive （ECCD） experiments were conducted by launching a focused Gaussian beam with a parallel refractive index of -0.05 ≤ Nil 〈 0.6. Results show that the electron cyclotron （EC） driven current is determined not only by Nil but also by local magnetic field （B） structure where the EC power is deposited. Detailed analysis of the observed NI and B dependences is in progress with a ray-tracing simulation using the TRAVIS code. Fast ion velocity distribution was investigated using fast protons generated by ion cyclotron resonant frequency （ICRF） minority heating. For the standard configuration in Heliotron J, charge ex- change neutral particle analysis （CX-NPA） measurements show higher effective temperature of fast minority protons in the on-axis resonance case compared to that in the HFS （high field side） off-axis resonance case. However, the increase in bulk ion temperature in the HFS resonance case is larger than that in the on-axis resonance.