Experimental and numerical investigation of the Doppler-shifted resonance condition for high frequency Alfven eigenmodes on ASDEX UpgradeShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Nuclear Fusion, ISSN 0029-5515, E-ISSN 1741-4326, Vol. 64, no 12, article id 126060Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The Doppler-shifted resonance condition for high frequency Alfv & eacute;nic eigenmodes has been extensively studied on ASDEX Upgrade in the presence of one or a combination of two neutral beam injected (NBI) fast ion populations. In general, only centrally deposited NBI sources drive these modes, while off-axis sources globally stabilize the mode activity. For the case of a single central NBI source, the observed trend is: the highest frequency modes are driven by the lowest energy and lowest pitch angle NBI sources, in line with the expectation from the Doppler-shifted resonance condition. The expected mode frequencies are determined analytically from the two-fluid cold plasma dispersion relation and the most unstable frequency relation, while the mode growth rates are estimated using the fast ion slowing down distribution functions from the ASCOT code. The overall mode frequency trend in a source-to-source variation is tracked, although a systematic overestimate of similar to 1 MHz is observed. Possible causes of this overestimate include the finite size of the resonant fast ion drift orbit and non-linear effects such as mode sideband formation. Alternatively, the expected mode frequencies are determined by tracking the growth rate maxima trajectories, this method improves the agreement with the experimentally measured values. A combination of two central mode-driving NBI sources results in the suppression of the mode driven by the lowest energy and the lowest pitch angle NBI source. Computing the analytically expected mode frequency following the method outlined above, again, generally tracks the experimentally observed trend. The mode's Alfv & eacute;nic nature allows for a practical application to track the core hydrogen fraction by following the mode frequency changes in response to a varying ion mass density. Such application is demonstrated in a discharge where the average ion mass is varied from similar to 2m(p) to similar to 1.5m(p) (where m(p) is the proton mass) via a hydrogen puff in a deuterium plasma, in the presence of a strong mode activity. The expected mode frequency changes are computed from the existence of the resonance condition, and the values track the measured results with an offset of similar to 0.5 MHz. Overall, the results suggest an intriguing possibility to monitor and control the D-T ion fraction in the core of a fusion reactor in real time using a non-invasive diagnostic.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IOP Publishing , 2024. Vol. 64, no 12, article id 126060
Keywords [en]
ASDEX upgrade, Alfven instability, fast ions, GAE, ICE
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-356098DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/ad8762ISI: 001341495900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85208284099OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-356098DiVA, id: diva2:1911648
Note
QC 20241108
2024-11-082024-11-082024-11-13Bibliographically approved