arXiv subjects

ASDEX Upgrade Team

Publications and source records attributed to ASDEX Upgrade Team.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Nonlinear generation of global zonal structures in gyrokinetic simulations of TCV and ASDEX Upgrade magnetic configurations

In tokamaks, turbulence is responsible not only for the anomalous transport of heat and particles from the core to the edge, which reduces heating efficiency, but also for the generation of zonal structures (ZSs). Examples of ZSs are those with characteristic sound frequency, like the geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs). Developing a theoretical model of ZS is essential, as they contribute to the turbulence saturation and thus indirectly influence transport. In this paper, we investigate the radial structure of ZS in the frequency range of GAMs, by means of numerical simulations using the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5. We find that radially extended coherent ZSs (labelled here as global ZSs) are non-linearly generated by the high-n part of the turbulence spectrum (with n being the toroidal mode number) by means of self-consistent simulations. We also reproduce this generation by mimicking the turbulence modes with an antenna, thus isolating the nonlinear generation mechanism.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Turbulent Nature of the Quasicontinuous Exhaust Regime for Fusion Plasmas

We demonstrate a turbulence mechanism that reconciles high plasma confinement with efficient heat exhaust -- a central challenge for fusion energy. Global two-fluid turbulence simulations of the reactor-relevant Quasicontinuous Exhaust regime on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak reveal that a quasicoherent mode drives mesoscopic oscillations of the pedestal boundary across the magnetic separatrix and ejects ballistic filaments (blobs), reproducing both the mean profiles and turbulent fluctuations observed experimentally. This behavior arises from a synergistic interplay between kinetic ballooning modes and resistive X-point modes straddling the separatrix. These first-principles results place extrapolations to future fusion reactors on a firm physical footing.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Integrated Data Analysis and Validation

A major challenge in nuclear fusion research is the coherent combination of data from heterogeneous diagnostics and modelling codes for machine control and safety as well as physics studies. Measured data from different diagnostics often provide information about the same subset of physical parameters. Additionally, information provided by some diagnostics might be needed for the analysis of other diagnostics. A joint analysis of complementary and redundant data allows, e.g., to improve the reliability of parameter estimation, to increase the spatial and temporal resolution of profiles, to obtain synergistic effects, to consider diagnostics interdependencies and to find and resolve data inconsistencies. Physics-based modelling and parameter relationships provide additional information improving the treatment of ill-posed inversion problems. A coherent combination of all kind of available information within a probabilistic framework allows for improved data analysis results. The concept of Integrated Data Analysis (IDA) in the framework of Bayesian probability theory is outlined and contrasted with conventional data analysis. Components of the probabilistic approach are summarized and specific ingredients beneficial for data analysis at fusion devices are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Combing physics-based and data-driven predictions for quantitatively accurate models that extrapolate well; with application to DIII-D, AUG, and ITER tokamak fusion reactors

Methodologies for combining the accuracy of data-driven models with extrapolability of physics-based models are described and tested, for the task of building transport models of tokamak fusion reactors that extrapolate well to new operational regimes. Information from multiple physics simulations (the ASTRA transport code with gyro-Bohm and TGLF estimates for turbulent diffusion) as well as multiple distinct experiments (DIII-D and AUG tokamaks) are considered. Applications of the methodology to the task of commissioning and controlling a new reactor such as ITER are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Tokamak edge-SOL turbulence in H-mode conditions simulated with a global, electromagnetic, transcollisional drift-fluid model

The design of commercially feasible magnetic confinement fusion reactors strongly relies on the reduced turbulent transport in the plasma edge during operation in the high confinement mode (H-mode). We present first global turbulence simulations of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) in ITER baseline H-mode conditions. Reasonable agreement with the experiment is obtained for outboard mid-plane measurements of plasma density, electron and ion temperature, as well as the radial electric field. The radial heat transport is underpredicted by roughly 1/3. These results were obtained with the GRILLIX code implementing a transcollisional, electromagnetic, global drift-fluid plasma model, coupled to diffusive neutrals. The transcollisional extensions include neoclassical corrections for the ion viscosity, as well as either a Landau-fluid or free-streaming limited model for the parallel heat conduction. Electromagnetic fluctuations are found to play a critical role in H-mode conditions. We investigate the structure of the significant $E \times B$ flow shear, finding both neoclassical components as well as zonal flows. But unlike in L-mode, geodesic acoustic modes are not observed. The turbulence mode structure is mostly that of drift-Alfv\'en waves. However, in the upper part of the pedestal, it is very weak and overshadowed by neoclassical transport. At the pedestal foot, on the other hand, we find instead the (electromagnetic) kinetic ballooning mode (KBM), most clearly just inside the separatrix. Our results pave the way towards predictive simulations of fusion reactors.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

MHD simulations of formation, sustainment and loss of Quiescent H-mode in the all-tungsten ASDEX Upgrade

Periodic edge localized modes (ELMs) are the non-linear consequences of pressure-gradient-driven ballooning modes and current-driven peeling modes becoming unstable in the pedestal region of high confinement fusion plasmas. In future tokamaks like ITER, large ELMs are foreseen to severely affect the lifetime of wall components as they transiently deposit large amounts of heat onto a narrow region at the divertor targets. Several strategies exist for avoidance, suppression, or mitigation of these instabilities, such as the naturally ELM-free quiescent H-mode (QH-mode). In the present article, an ASDEX Upgrade equilibrium that features a QH-mode is investigated through non-linear extended MHD simulations covering the dynamics over tens of milliseconds. The equilibrium is close to the ideal peeling limit and non-linearly develops saturated modes at the edge of the plasma. A dominant toroidal mode number of $n=1$ is found, for which the characteristic features of the edge harmonic oscillation are recovered. The saturated modes contribute to heat and particle transport preventing pedestal build-up to the ELM triggering threshold. The non-linear dynamics of the mode, in particular its interaction with the evolution of the edge safety factor is studied, which suggest a possible new saturation mechanism for the QH-mode. The simulations show good qualitative and quantitative agreement to experiments in AUG. In particular, the processes leading to the termination of QH-mode above a density threshold is studied, which results in the transition into an ELM regime. In the vicinity of this threshold, limit cycle oscillations are observed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Experimental validation of the intensity refractometry principle for density measurements at the edge of a tokamak

Experimental validation is presented for a new type of microwave diagnostic, first introduced in the theoretical study in M. Usoltceva et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 93, 013502 (2022). A new term is adopted for this technique to highlight its difference from interferometry: intensity refractometry. The diagnostic allows measuring electron density, and in this work, it is applied at the edge of a tokamak. The implementation of this technique at ASDEX Upgrade, called Microwave Intensity refractometer in the Limiter Shadow (MILS), provides the first experimental proof of the diagnostic concept. Densities predicted by MILS are compared to several other diagnostics. The agreement and discrepancy in various radial regions of the density profile are analyzed and possible reasons are discussed. A wide density coverage is shown in the example discharges with densities from 2*10^17 m^-3 to 2*10^19 m^-3 at the limiter position. In these experiments, the radial location of the measurements varied from 5 cm in front of the limiter (up to 1 cm inside the separatrix was measured) to 3 cm in the limiter shadow. Experimental challenges of MILS operation and data processing are presented.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Sensitivity of Microwave Interferometer in the Limiter Shadow to filaments in ASDEX Upgrade

Microwave interferometer in the Limiter Shadow (MILS) is a new diagnostic, installed on ASDEX Upgrade for electron density measurements in the far Scrape-Off Layer (SOL). At the chosen frequency of 47 GHz the region of measurements varies within several centimeters before and after the limiter, depending on the density. 200 kHz data acquisition allows resolving transient events such as edge localised modes (ELMs) filaments and turbulence filaments. The measured quantities, phase shift and power decay of the microwave beam, which crosses the plasma, are directly connected to the density and do not depend on any other plasma quantity. In this work, we analyse the influence of a filamentary perturbation on MILS signals. Simple representation of a filament is adopted, with parameters relevant to experimental filament properties, reported for ASDEX Upgrade. Forward modelling is done in COMSOL software by using RAPLICASOL, to study the response of the MILS synthetic diagnostic to the presence of a filament. Qualitative and quantitative dependencies are obtained and the boundaries of MILS sensitivity to filaments, or to the density perturbation in far SOL in general, are outlined.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Transition from no-ELM response to pellet ELM triggering during pedestal build-up -- insights from extended MHD simulations

Pellet ELM triggering is a well established scheme for decreasing the time between two successive ELM crashes below its natural value. Reliable ELM pacing has been demonstrated experimentally in several devices increasing the ELM frequency considerably. However, it was also shown that the frequency cannot be increased arbitrarily due to a so-called lag-time. During this time after a preceding natural or triggered ELM crash, neither a natural ELM crash occurs nor the triggering of an ELM crash by pellet injection is possible. For this article, pellet ELM triggering simulations are advanced beyond previous studies in two ways. Firstly, realistic ExB and diamagnetic background flows are included. And secondly, the pellet is injected at different stages of the pedestal build-up. This allows to recover the lag-time for the first time in simulations and investigate it in detail. A series of non-linear extended MHD simulations is performed to investigate the plasma dynamics resulting from an injection at different time points during the pedestal build-up. The experimentally observed lag-time is qualitatively reproduced well. In particular, a sharp transition is observed between the regime where no ELMs can be triggered and the regime where pellet injection causes an ELM crash. Via variations of pellet parameters and injection time, the two regimes are studied and compared in detail revealing pronounced differences in the non-linear dynamics. The toroidal mode spectrum is significantly broader when an ELM crash is triggered enhancing the stochasticity and therefore also the losses of thermal energy along magnetic field lines. In the heat fluxes to the divertor targets, pronounced toroidal asymmetries are observed. In case of high injection velocities leading to deep penetration, also the excitation of core modes like the $2/1$ neoclassical tearing mode is observed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Recent progress towards a quantitative description of filamentary SOL transport

A summary of recent results on filamentary transport, mostly obtained in the ASDEX-Upgrade tokamak (AUG), is presented and discussed in an attempt to produce a coherent picture of SOL filamentary transport: A clear correlation is found between L-mode density shoulder formation in the outer midplane and a transition between the sheath limited and the inertial filamentary regimes. Divertor collisionality is found to be the parameter triggering the transition. A clear reduction of the ion temperature takes place in the far SOL after the transition, both for the background and the filaments. This coincides with a strong variation of the ion temperature distribution, which deviates from Gaussianity and becomes dominated by a strong peak below $5$ eV. The filament transition mechanism triggered by a critical value of collisionality seems to be generally applicable to inter-ELM H-mode plasmas, although a secondary threshold related to deuterium fueling is observed. EMC3-EIRENE simulations of neutral dynamics show that an ionization front near the main chamber wall is formed after the shoulder formation. Finally, a clear increase of SOL opacity to neutrals is observed associated to the shoulder formation. A common SOL transport framework is proposed account for all these results, and their potential implications for future generation devices are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Nonlinear dynamics of energetic-particle driven geodesic acoustic modes in ASDEX Upgrade

Turbulence in tokamaks generates radially sheared zonal flows. Their oscillatory counterparts, geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs), appear due to the action of the magnetic field curvature. The GAMs can be driven unstable by an anisotropic energetic particle (EP) population leading to the formation of global radial structures, called EGAMs. The EGAMs can redistribute EP energy to the bulk plasma through collisionless wave-particle interaction. In such a way, the EGAMs might contribute to the plasma heating. Thus, investigation of EGAM properties, especially in the velocity space, is necessary for precise understanding of the transport phenomena in tokamak plasmas. In this work, the nonlinear dynamics of EGAMs without considering the mode interaction with the turbulence is investigated with the help of a Mode-Particle-Resonance (MPR) diagnostic implemented in the global gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5. An ASDEX Upgrade discharge is chosen as a reference case for this investigation due to its rich EP nonlinear dynamics. An experimentally relevant magnetic field configuration, thermal species profiles and an EP density profile are taken for EGAM chirping modelling and its comparison with available empirical data. The same magnetic configuration is used to explore energy transfer by the mode from the energetic particles to the thermal plasma including kinetic electron effects. For a given EGAM level the plasma heating by the mode can be significantly enhanced by varying the EP parameters. Electron dynamics decreases the EGAM saturation amplitude and consequently reduces the plasma heating, even though the mode transfers its energy to thermal ions much more than to electrons.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2019

Numerical study of tearing mode seeding in tokamak X-point plasma

A detailed understanding of island seeding is crucial to avoid (N)TMs and their negative consequences like confinement degradation and disruptions. In the present work, we investigate the growth of 2/1 islands in response to magnetic perturbations. Although we use externally applied perturbations produced by resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) coils for this study, results are directly transferable to island seeding by other MHD instabilities creating a resonant magnetic field component at the rational surface. Experimental results for 2/1 island penetration from ASDEX Upgrade are presented extending previous studies. Simulations are based on an ASDEX Upgrade L-mode discharge with low collisionality and active RMP coils. Our numerical studies are performed with the 3D, two fluid, non-linear MHD code JOREK. All three phases of mode seeding observed in the experiment are also seen in the simulations: first a weak response phase characterized by large perpendicular electron flow velocities followed by a fast growth of the magnetic island size accompanied by a reduction of the perpendicular electron velocity, and finally the saturation to a fully formed island state with perpendicular electron velocity close to zero. Thresholds for mode penetration are observed in the plasma rotation as well as in the RMP coil current. A hysteresis of the island size and electron perpendicular velocity is observed between the ramping up and down of the RMP amplitude consistent with an analytically predicted bifurcation. The transition from dominant kink/bending to tearing parity during the penetration is investigated.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

Non-linear effects in electron cyclotron current drive applied for the stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes

Due to the smallness of the volumes associated with the flux surfaces around the O-point of a magnetic island, the electron cyclotron power density applied inside the island for the stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) can exceed the threshold for non-linear effects as derived previously by Harvey et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 (1989) 426. We study the non-linear electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) efficiency through bounce-averaged, quasi-linear Fokker-Planck calculations in the magnetic geometry as created by the islands. The calculations are performed for the parameters of a typical NTM stabilization experiment on ASDEX Upgrade. A particular feature of these experiments is that the rays of the EC wave beam propagate tangential to the flux surfaces in the power deposition region. The calculations show significant non-linear effects on the ECCD efficiency, when the ECCD power is increased from its experimental value of 1 MW to a larger value of 4 MW. The nonlinear effects are largest in case of locked islands or when the magnetic island rotation period is longer than the collisional time scale. The non-linear effects result in an overall reduction of the current drive efficiency for this case with absorption of the EC power on the low field side of the electron cyclotron resonance layer. As a consequence of the non-linear effects, also the stabilizing effect of the ECCD on the island is reduced from linear expectations.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2011

Influence of temperature fluctuations on plasma turbulence investigations with Langmuir probes

The reliability of Langmuir probe measurements for plasma-turbulence investigations is studied on GEMR gyro-fluid simulations and compared with results from conditionally sampled I-V characteristics as well as self-emitting probe measurements in the near scrape-off layer of the tokamak ASDEX Upgrade. In this region, simulation and experiment consistently show coherent in-phase fluctuations in density, plasma potential and also in electron temperature. Ion-saturation current measurements turn out to reproduce density fluctuations quite well. Fluctuations in the floating potential, however, are strongly influenced by temperature fluctuations and, hence, are strongly distorted compared to the actual plasma potential. These results suggest that interpreting floating as plasma-potential fluctuations while disregarding temperature effects is not justified near the separatrix of hot fusion plasmas. Here, floating potential measurements lead to corrupted results on the ExB dynamics of turbulent structures in the context of, e.g., turbulent particle and momentum transport or instability identification on the basis of density-potential phase relations.

physics.plasm-ph↗