Plasma and Fusion Research
Volume 9, 3402081 (2014)
Regular Articles
- Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom-ENEA sulla Fusione, Padova, Italy
- 1)
- Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, UK
- 2)
- Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Naka 311-0193, Japan
- 3)
- Università di Padova, Italy
- 4)
- Ass. Euratom/ENEA/CREATE, DAEIMI, Università di Cassino, Italy
Abstract
In present day devices, the external kink ideal MHD instability establishes hard operational boundaries for both the tokamak and the Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) configurations. An interesting feature of it is that its growth rate critically depends on the device passive boundary characteristics and this can slow it down to time scales accessible to modern real time feedback control systems, normally using external active coils as actuators. 3D passive structures and external fields play a key role in determining physics and control of this instability. This is in particular true for equilibria with multimodal unstable RWM spectra where modes can couple to specific 3D features of passive and active magnetic boundary. In the paper we will present recent data and simulations from RFX-mod, a medium size (R = 2 m, a = 0.459 m) device able to confine RFP and tokamak plasmas with currents up to 2 MA and 120 kA, respectively. Successful quantitative modeling of multimodal RWM control experiments performed using different actuator configurations will be presented and commented.
Keywords
MHD stability, MHD feedback control, Resistive Wall Modes, 3D modeling, FEM modeling, tokamak, Reversed Field Pinch
Full Text
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This paper may be cited as follows:
Tommaso BOLZONELLA, Matteo BARUZZO, Yueqiang LIU, Giuseppe MARCHIORI, Go MATSUNAGA, Leonardo PIGATTO, Anton SOPPELSA, Manabu TAKECHI and Fabio VILLONE, Plasma Fusion Res. 9, 3402081 (2014).