Locked-mode avoidance and recovery without external momentum input

POSTER

Abstract

Error-field-induced locked-modes (LMs) have been studied in C-Mod at ITER toroidal fields without NBI fueling and momentum input. The use of ICRH heating in synch with the error-field ramp-up resulted in a successful delay of the mode-onset when $P_{ICRH}> 1$ MW and a transition into H-mode when $P_{ICRH}> 2$ MW. The recovery experiments consisted in applying ICRH power during the LM non-rotating phase successfully unlocking the core plasma. The ``induced'' toroidal rotation was in the counter-current direction, restoring the direction and magnitude of the toroidal flow before the LM formation, but contrary to the expected Rice-scaling in the co-current direction. However, the LM occurs near the LOC/SOC transition where rotation reversals are commonly observed. Once $P_{ICRH}$ is turned off, the core plasma ``locks'' at later times depending on the evolution of $n_{e}$ and $V_{t}$. This work was performed under US DoE contracts including DE-FC02-99ER54512 and others at MIT and DE-AC02-09CH11466 at PPPL.

Authors

  • Luis F. Delgado Aparicio

    • PPPL
    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
  • D.A. Gates

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
    • PPPL
  • S.M. Wolfe

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • MIT Plasma Science \& Fusion Center
    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
  • J. Rice

    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
    • MIT/PSFC
  • C. Gao

    • MIT-PSFC
  • S.J. Wukitch

    • MIT PSFC
    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
  • M. Greenwald

    • MIT - PSFC
    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
  • Jerry Hughes

    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
    • MIT PSFC
  • E.S. Marmar

    • MIT-PSFC
    • MIT
  • S.D. Scott

    • PPPL