Comparison benchmark between tokamak simulation code and TokSys for Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor vertical displacement control design

Vertical displacement event(VDE) is a big challenge to the existing tokamak equipment and that being designed. As a Chinese next-step tokamak, the Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor(CFETR) has to pay attention to the VDE study with full-fledged numerical codes during its conceptual design. The tokamak simulation code(TSC) is a free boundary time-dependent axisymmetric tokamak simulation code developed in PPPL, which advances the MHD equations describing the evolution of the plasma in a rectangular domain. The electromagnetic interactions between the surrounding conductor circuits and the plasma are solved self-consistently. The TokSys code is a generic modeling and simulation environment developed in GA. Its RZIP model treats the plasma as a fixed spatial distribution of currents which couple with the surrounding conductors through circuit equations. Both codes have been individually used for the VDE study on many tokamak devices, such as JT-60U, EAST, NSTX, DIII-D, and ITER. Considering the model differences, benchmark work is needed to answer whether they reproduce each other's results correctly. In this paper, the TSC and TokSys codes are used for analyzing the CFETR vertical instability passive and active controls design simultaneously. It is shown that with the same inputs, the results from these two codes conform with each other.

Estimation of Ground Vertical Displacement in Landslide Prone Areas Using PS-InSAR. A Case Study of Bududa, Uganda

Estimation of ground displacement in landslide susceptible regions is very critical to understanding how landslides develop. The knowledge of ground displacement rates and magnitudes helps plan for the safety of the people and infrastructure. The early detection of landslides in Bududa is still a challenge due to the limited technology, hard to access, and a need for an affordable technique that can monitor a wide area continuously. In recent studies, the use of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (PS-InSAR) has provided vital information on landslide monitoring through the measurement of ground displacement. In this study, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) band C series of Sentinel 1-A and 1-B Satellite images were acquired between 2019 and 2020 along ascending and descending orbit paths. The Line of Sight Sight (LOS) displacement was determined for both satellite tracks, and then the LOS displacement was projected to the vertical direction. The PS-InSAR derived vertical displacement was then compared with GPS vertical displacement magnitudes over three GPS stations in the area. It was observed that vertical displacement velocity reached 20 cm/yr in Mountain Elgon. This displacement rate showed that there are points in the region that are highly unstable. The displacement velocity and magnitude in Bududa reached 6 cm/yr and 13 cm in two years. This rate and magnitude showed that Bududa is highly unstable compared with displacement velocities and magnitudes in landslide susceptible areas globally. The displacement was generally subsidence over the observation period. The vertical displacement estimated by PS-InSAR was comparable with GPS based on the estimated RMSE. The vertical displacement was highest at slopes between 32° and 60° and lowest between 0° and 9°. The vertical ground displacement was highly correlated with the rainfall that was received. The soil texture in Bududa has high clay content, with clay layering hence low drainage rates, field capacity, saturation and bulk density. It was observed that ground displacement was highly influenced by slope, rainfall and soil texture. Displacement could be estimated in three dimensions using PS-InSAR in the future if sufficient SAR images in ascending and descending tracks are made available with significantly different geometries. This would add to the knowledge of displacement patterns in the east and north directions at a large spatial scale.

Vertical and horizontal displacements of a reservoir slope due to slope aging effect,rainfall,and reservoir water

Landslides are common hazards in reservoir areas and significantly affect dam operation and human lives.For the prevention and management of landslides,accurate assessment of the factors influencing their generation is essential.This study evaluated the key external factors influencing horizontal and vertical displacements of Luobogang Reservoir Slope in Hanyuan County,China.Displacements had been monitored by a surface-displacement-monitoring system consisting of 118 GPS stations during 2012-2015.To identify the external driving factors,their influence zones,and slope responses,we analyzed 32 months of displacement measurements and other multi-source datasets using the empirical orthogonal function.Overall,the results show that slope aging effect,rainfall,and reservoir water levels are three main driving factors.For horizontal displacement,aging effect is the most critical factor and predominantly affects the edges of landslides,the gob cave,and the public building zones.The secondary factor is the reservoir water level,which mainly acts on the boundary between the slope and reservoir water surface.The closer the slope zone is to the reservoir water,the more significant the impact is.Regarding vertical displacement,the most important factor is rainfall.The vertical displacement caused by rainfall accounts for 56.76% of the total vertical displacements.However,rainfall induces elastic displacements that generally cause less damage to the slope.The secondary factor is aging effect,and the vertical displacement caused by aging effect accounts for 9.42%.However,seven individual zones are highly affected by slope aging effect,which is consistent with the distribution of public buildings.

Detecting Droughts in Southwest China from GPS Vertical Position Displacements

The solid Earth responds elastically to terrestrial water storage(TWS)changes.Here global positioning system(GPS)vertical position data at 31 stations from the crustal movement observation network of China(CMONOC)from August 2010 to December 2016 are used to detect droughts in Southwest China.Monthly GPS vertical position displacements respond negatively to precipitation changes and TWS changes observed by gravity recovery and climate experiments(GRACE)as well as river water level variations.GPS vertical position anomalies(the non-seasonal term)are well correlated negatively(correlations of about-0.70)with the commonly used meteorological composite index(CI)in China and the GRACE drought severity index(GRACE-DSI),but less correlated with the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index(SPEI).Compared to CI,GPS vertical position anomalies have the advantage of detecting droughts caused by abrupt precipitation deficits in a short time.GRACE-DSI is less accurate in drought monitoring for some periods due to the missing data,while the severity of abrupt precipitation absent in some cases can be overestimated from SPEI with big variability.This study shows the reliability and advantages of GPS data in drought monitoring.

Vertical Displacement Measurement in a Slow-Moving Sinkhole Using BOTDA

The effectiveness of monitoring and early-warning systems for ground deformation phenomena,such as sinkholes,depends on their ability to accurately resolve the ongoing ground displacement and detect the subtle deformation preceding catastrophic failures.Sagging sinkholes with a slow subsidence rate and diffuse edges pose a significant challenge for subsidence monitoring due to the low deformation rates and limited lateral strain gradients.In this work,we satisfactorily illustrate the practicality of the Brillouin optical time domain analysis(BOTDA)to measure the spatial-temporal patterns of the vertical displacement in such challenging slow-moving sagging sinkholes.To assess the performance of the approach,we compare the strain recorded by the distributed optical fiber sensor with the vertical displacement measured by high-precision leveling.The results show a good spatial correlation with the ability to identify the maximum subsidence point.There is also a good temporal correlation with the detection of an acceleration phase in the subsidence associated with a flood event.

Analysis of terrestrial water storage changes in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Region using GPS and GRACE/GFO

Both the Global Positioning System(GPS)and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE)/GRACE Follow-On(GFO)provide effective tools to infer surface mass changes.In this paper,we combined GPS,GRACE/GFO spherical harmonic(SH)solutions and GRACE/GFO mascon solutions to analyze the total surface mass changes and terrestrial water storage(TWS)changes in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Region(SGNR)over the period from December 2010 to February 2021.To improve the reliability of GPS inversion results,an improved regularization Laplace matrix and monthly optimal regularization parameter estimation strategy were employed to solve the ill-posed problem.The results show that the improved Laplace matrix can suppress the edge effects better than that of the traditional Laplace matrix,and the corre-lation coefficient and standard deviation(STD)between the original signal and inversion results from the traditional and improved Laplace matrix are 0.84 and 0.88,and 17.49 mm and 15.16 mm,respectively.The spatial distributions of annual amplitudes and time series changes for total surface mass changes derived from GPS agree well with GRACE/GFO SH solutions and mascon solutions,and the correlation coefficients of total surface mass change time series between GPS and GRACE/GFO SH solutions,GPS and GRACE/GFO mascon solutions are 0.80 and 0.77.However,the obvious differences still exist in local regions.In addition,the seasonal characteristics,increasing and decreasing rate of TWS change time series derived from GPS,GRACE/GFO SH and mascon solutions agree well with the Global Land Data Assimilation System(GLDAS)hydrological model in the studied area,and generally consistent with the precipitation data.Meanwhile,TWS changes derived from GPS and GRACE mascon solutions in the SGNR are more reliable than those of GRACE SH solutions over the period from January 2016 to June 2017(the final operation phase of the GRACE mission).

Similarity Solution for the Synchronous Grouting of Shield Tunnel Under the Vertical Non-Axisymmetric Displacement Boundary Condition

Abstract.Similarity solution is investigated for the synchronous grouting of shield tunnel under the vertical non-axisymmetric displacement boundary condition in the paper.The synchronous grouting process of shield tunnel was simplified as the cylindrical expansion problem,which was based on the mechanism between the slurry and stratum of the synchronous grouting.The stress harmonic function on the horizontal and vertical ground surfaces is improved.Based on the virtual image technique,stress function solutions and Boussinesq’s solution,elastic solution under the vertical non-axisymmetric displacement boundary condition on the vertical surface was proposed for synchronous grouting problems of shield tunnel.In addition,the maximum grouting pressure was also obtained to control the vertical displacement of horizontal ground surface.The validity of the proposed approach was proved by the numerical method.It can be known fromthe parameter analysis that larger vertical displacement of the horizontal ground surface was induced by smaller tunnel depth,smaller tunnel excavation radius,shorter limb distance,larger expansion pressure and smaller elastic modulus of soils.