arXiv subjects

N. T. Howard

Publications and source records attributed to N. T. Howard.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Steady state, core, operational optimization of an ARC-like tokamak via plasma composition and shape

Impurity composition, plasma shape, and pedestal density all provide strong levers on fusion power. Here, we explore the ways in which their variation changes fusion power and seek to find the optimum of these parameters. The key impacts of these variables are through changes in the core turbulent transport, the density of the fuel species, the pedestal pressure, and the plasma volume. ITG stabilization due to increased amounts of impurities is observed. The dependence of all of these parameters on the pedestal pressure is especially complicated because of the separate impacts on the peeling and ballooning modes, which can each limit the pedestal. Optimization of this multidimensional operating space is enabled by the use of Bayesian optimization, resulting in an operating point similar to ARC V3A with ~30% more fusion power and a higher fusion power density. Increased shaping parameters, including elongation, triangularity, and squareness are all beneficial, as is high Zeff. When elongation is also allowed to vary, a ~65% increase in fusion power can be achieved. While not commonly considered, we find squareness is an important lever on fusion power. The plasma performance is limited by the Greenwald density limit constraint. This workflow developed here and demonstrated with the example of ARC V3A can readily be applied to other tokamak designs.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Accelerating integrated modeling with surrogate-based optimization: the MAESTRO workflow

This paper introduces the MAESTRO workflow, that enables the coupling of the PORTALS framework [P. Rodriguez-Fernandez et al, Nucl. Fusion 2024] with external solvers for the plasma equilibrium, pedestal physics, divertor constraints and heating. The surrogate-based optimization nature of the transport solver is ideally suited for external coupling, allowing efficient steady-state predictions of plasma profiles with full physics models. Improvements in the surrogate modeling of quasilinear transport models with PORTALS are presented, which enable the efficient handling of discontinuities in the transport fluxes that can arise from numerical issues or physical instabilities with extreme stiffness. The combination of physics-informed methods and advanced numerical techniques allows the MAESTRO workflow to provide accurate and efficient predictions of steady-state plasma profiles, which are critical for fusion reactor design and optimization.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Effects of Tungsten Radiative Cooling on Impurity, Heat and Momentum Transport in DIII-D Plasmas

A first-of-its-kind experiment was conducted in the DIII-D tokamak under WEST similarity constraints on plasma shape and core parameters. This work presents a detailed transport study comparing a reference regime dominated by intrinsic carbon radiation and a high-radiation regime resulting from controlled tungsten (W) injection using the Laser Blow-Off system, with a core tungsten concentration $n_{\mathrm{W}}/n_e \sim 3\times 10^{-4}$ and a radiated-power fraction $f_\mathrm{rad}>0.5$. The W-induced radiative cooling lowered the electron temperature, thereby decreasing $T_e/T_i$ and stabilizing trapped-electron-mode (TEM) turbulence. This transition in turbulence regime reduced momentum and ion thermal diffusivities, yielding ion temperature peaking and a factor-of-two increase in toroidal rotation. At the outer plasma region, enhanced $E\timesB$ shear and increased collisionality further suppressed ion-scale turbulence, causing a sharp drop in ion heat flux. Consequently, impurity transport, predominantly turbulent in the low-radiation regime, acquired a strong neoclassical inward W convection during radiative cooling, bootstrapping the cooling cycle. Despite $f_\mathrm{rad}>0.5$, radiative collapse was not observed, likely owing to collisional ion-to-electron energy exchange acting as an electron-energy reservoir, together with $1/1$ MHD activity modulating the radiated power through core impurity neoclassical $T_i$-screening. These results support preparation for a tungsten wall change in DIII-D by elucidating tungsten-induced turbulence stabilization. They also provide key insights for interpreting plasma performance in WEST and are relevant to future reactors expected to operate with radiating tungsten-walled plasmas.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Impact of model uncertainty on SPARC operating scenario predictions with empirical modeling

Understanding and accounting for uncertainty helps to ensure next-step tokamaks such as SPARC will robustly achieve their goals. While traditional Plasma OPerating CONtour (POPCON) analyses guide design, they often overlook the significant impact of uncertainties in scaling laws, plasma profiles, and impurity concentrations on performance predictions. This work confronts these challenges by introducing statistical POPCONs, which leverage Monte Carlo analysis to quantify the sensitivity of SPARC's operating points [1] to these crucial variables. For profiles, a physically motivated gradient-based functional form is introduced. We further develop a multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization workflow that effectively identifies operating points maximizing the probability of meeting performance goals, which gives a significant speed-up over brute force methods. Our findings reveal that accounting for these uncertainties leads to an optimal operating point different from deterministic predictions, which balances H-mode access, confinement, impurity dilution, and auxiliary power.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Core performance predictions in projected SPARC first-campaign plasmas with nonlinear CGYRO

This work characterizes the core transport physics of SPARC early-campaign plasmas using the PORTALS-CGYRO framework. Empirical modeling of SPARC plasmas with L-mode confinement indicates an ample window of breakeven (Q>1) without the need of H-mode operation. Extensive modeling of multi-channel (electron energy, ion energy and electron particle) flux-matched conditions with the nonlinear CGYRO code for turbulent transport coupled to the macroscopic plasma evolution using PORTALS reveal that the maximum fusion performance to be attained will be highly dependent on the near-edge pressure. Stiff core transport conditions are found, particularly when fusion gain approaches unity, and predicted density peaking is found to be in line with empirical databases of particle source-free H-modes. Impurity optimization is identified as a potential avenue to increase fusion performance while enabling core-edge integration. Extensive validation of the quasilinear TGLF model builds confidence in reduced-model predictions. The implications of projecting L-mode performance to high-performance and burning-plasma devices is discussed, together with the importance of predicting edge conditions.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Prediction of Performance and Turbulence in ITER Burning Plasmas via Nonlinear Gyrokinetic Profile Prediction

Burning plasma performance, transport, and the effect of hydrogen isotope on confinement has been predicted for ITER baseline scenario (IBS) conditions using nonlinear gyrokinetic profile predictions. Accelerated by surrogate modeling [P. Rodriguez-Fernandez NF 2022], high fidelity, nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations performed with the CGYRO code [J. Candy JCP 2016], were used to predict profiles of Ti, Te, and ne while including the effects of alpha heating, auxiliary power, collisional energy exchange, and radiation losses. Predicted profiles and resulting energy confinement are found to produce fusion power and gain that are approximately consistent with mission goals (Pfusion = 500MW at Q=10) for the baseline scenario and exhibit energy confinement that is within 1 sigma of the H-mode energy confinement scaling. The power of the surrogate modeling technique is demonstrated through the prediction of alternative ITER scenarios with reduced computational cost. These scenarios include conditions with maximized fusion gain and an investigation of potential Resonant Magnetic Perturbation effects on performance with a minimal number of gyrokinetic profile iterations required. These predictions highlight the stiff ITG nature of the core turbulence predicted in the ITER baseline and demonstrate that Q>17 conditions may be accessible by reducing auxiliary input power while operating in IBS conditions. Prediction of full kinetic profiles allowed for the projection of hydrogen isotope effects around ITER baseline conditions. The gyrokinetic fuel ion species was varied from H, D, and 50/50 D-T and kinetic profiles were predicted. Results indicate that a weak or negligible isotope effect will be observed to arise from core turbulence in ITER baseline scenario conditions. The resulting energy confinement, turbulence, and density peaking, and the implications for ITER operations will be discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Enhancing predictive capabilities in fusion burning plasmas through surrogate-based optimization in core transport solvers

This work presents the PORTALS framework, which leverages surrogate modeling and optimization techniques to enable the prediction of core plasma profiles and performance with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations at significantly reduced cost, with no loss of accuracy. The efficiency of PORTALS is benchmarked against standard methods, and its full potential is demonstrated on a unique, simultaneous 5-channel (electron temperature, ion temperature, electron density, impurity density and angular rotation) prediction of steady-state profiles in a DIII-D ITER Similar Shape plasma with GPU-accelerated, nonlinear CGYRO. This paper also provides general guidelines for accurate performance predictions in burning plasmas and the impact of transport modeling in fusion pilot plants studies.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Predictions of improved confinement in SPARC via energetic particle turbulence stabilization

The recent progress in high-temperature superconductor technologies has led to the design and construction of SPARC, a compact tokamak device expected to reach plasma breakeven with up to $25$MW of external ion cyclotron resonant heating (ICRH) power. This manuscript presents local (flux-tube) and radially global gyrokinetic GENE (Jenko et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas {\bf 7} 1904) simulations for a reduced-field and current H-mode SPARC scenario showing that supra-thermal particles - generated via ICRH - strongly suppress ion-scale turbulent transport by triggering a fast ion-induced anomalous transport barrier (F-ATB). The trigger mechanism is identified as a wave-particle resonant interaction between the fast particle population and plasma micro-instabilities (Di Siena et al 2021 Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 125} 025002). By performing a series of global simulations employing different profiles for the thermal ions, we show that the fusion gain of this SPARC scenario could be substantially enhanced up to $\sim 80\%$ by exploiting this fast ion stabilizing mechanism. A study is also presented to further optimize the energetic particle profiles, thus possibly leading experimentally to an even more significant fusion gain.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Interpreting Radial Correlation Doppler Reflectometry using Gyrokinetic Simulations

A linear response, local model for the DBS amplitude applied to gyrokinetic simulations shows that radial correlation Doppler reflectometry measurements (RCDR, Schirmer et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 49 1019 (2007)) are not sensitive to the average turbulence radial correlation length, but to a correlation length that depends on the binormal wavenumber $k_\perp$ selected by the Doppler backscattering (DBS) signal. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations show that the turbulence naturally exhibits a non-separable power law spectrum in wavenumber space, leading to a power law dependence of the radial correlation length with binormal wavenumber $l_r \sim C k_\perp^{-α} (α\approx 1)$ which agrees with the inverse proportionality relationship between the measured $l_r$ and $k_\perp $ in experiments (Fernandez-Marina et al., Nucl. Fusion 54 072001 (2014)). This offers the possibility of characterizing the eddy aspect ratio in the perpendicular plane to the magnetic field and motivates future use of a non-separable turbulent spectrum to quantitatively interpret RCDR and potentially other turbulence diagnostics. The radial correlation length is only measurable when the radial resolution at the cutoff location $W_n$ satisfies $W_n \ll l_r$, while the measurement becomes dominated by $W_n$ for $W_n \gg l_r$. This suggests that $l_r$ is likely inaccessible for electron-scale DBS measurements ($k_\perpρ_s > 1$). The effect of $W_n$ on ion-scale radial correlation lengths could be non-negligible.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental Inference of Neutral and Impurity Transport in Alcator C-Mod Using High-Resolution X-Ray and Ultra-Violet Spectra

We present experimental inferences of cross-field impurity transport coefficients for Alcator C-Mod plasmas using a novel forward model for the entire Ca K-alpha spectrum, including satellite lines within the spectral range, to compare to high-resolution X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectroscopy (XICS). These measurements are complemented by Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) spectroscopy that constrains transport closer to the edge. Using new atomic data sets for both XICS and EUV analysis has enabled consideration of line ratios across both spectral ranges and has increased the accuracy of inferred transport coefficients. Inclusion of charge exchange between edge thermal neutrals and impurities is shown to be extremely important in C-Mod pedestals. We obtain D atomic neutral densities from experimental D Ly-alpha measurements at the midplane and compare these to SOLPS-ITER simulations, finding good agreement. Bayesian inferences of impurity transport coefficients are presented for L-, EDA H-, and I-mode discharges, making use of the Aurora package for forward modeling and combining our spectroscopic constraints. Experimentally inferred diffusion profiles are found to match turbulent transport models at midradius within uncertainties, using both quasilinear gyro-fluid TGLF SAT-1 and nonlinear ion-scale gyrokinetic CGYRO simulations. Significant discrepancies in convection are observed in some cases, suggesting difficulties in predictions of flat or hollow impurity profiles.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Modeling of Particle Transport, Neutrals and Radiation in Magnetically-Confined Plasmas with Aurora

We present Aurora, an open-source package for particle transport, neutrals and radiation modeling in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. Aurora's modern multi-language interface enables simulations of 1.5D impurity transport within high-performance computing frameworks, particularly for the inference of particle transport coefficients. A user-friendly Python library allows simple interaction with atomic rates from the Atomic Data and Atomic Structure database as well as other sources. This enables a range of radiation predictions, both for power balance and spectroscopic analysis. We discuss here the superstaging approximation for complex ions, as a way to group charge states and reduce computational cost, demonstrating its wide applicability within the Aurora forward model and beyond. Aurora also facilitates neutral particle analysis, both from experimental spectroscopic data and other simulation codes. Leveraging Aurora's capabilities to interface SOLPS-ITER results, we demonstrate that charge exchange is unlikely to affect the total radiated power from the ITER core during high performance operation. Finally, we describe the ImpRad module in the OMFIT framework, developed to enable experimental analysis and transport inferences on multiple devices using Aurora.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Inference of Experimental Radial Impurity Transport on Alcator C-Mod: Bayesian Parameter Estimation and Model Selection

We present a fully Bayesian approach for the inference of radial profiles of impurity transport coefficients and compare its results to neoclassical, gyrofluid and gyrokinetic modeling. Using nested sampling, the Bayesian Impurity Transport InferencE (BITE) framework can handle complex parameter spaces with multiple possible solutions, offering great advantages in interpretative power and reliability with respect to previously demonstrated methods. BITE employs a forward model based on the pySTRAHL package, built on the success of the well-known STRAHL code [Dux, IPP Report, 2004], to simulate impurity transport in magnetically-confined plasmas. In this paper, we focus on calcium (Ca, Z=20) Laser Blow-Off injections into Alcator C-Mod plasmas. Multiple Ca atomic lines are diagnosed via high-resolution X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectroscopy and Vacuum Ultra-Violet measurements. We analyze a sawtoothing I-mode discharge for which neoclassical and turbulent (quasilinear and nonlinear) predictions are also obtained. We find good agreement in diffusion across the entire radial extent, while turbulent convection and density profile peaking are estimated to be larger in experiment than suggested by theory. Efforts and challenges associated with the inference of experimental pedestal impurity transport are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Effect of plasma elongation on current dynamics during tokamak disruptions

Plasma terminating disruptions in tokamaks may result in relativistic runaway electron beams with potentially serious consequences for future devices with large plasma currents. In this paper we investigate the effect of plasma elongation on the coupled dynamics of runaway generation and resistive diffusion of the electric field. We find that elongated plasmas are less likely to produce large runaway currents, partly due to the lower induced electric fields associated with larger plasmas, and partly due to direct shaping effects, which mainly lead to a reduction in the runaway avalanche gain.

physics.plasm-ph↗