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Control of the tearing mode by sawtooth activity has been achieved in the Joint European Torus tokamak experiments. It has been shown that the tearing mode can be stabilized by short-period sawtooth oscillation. Based on the experimental results, a model for the tearing mode stabilized by sawtooth activity has been proposed, which mainly focuses on the periodic variation of the current during sawtooth activity. Both the current oscillation and the induced electric field which is due to the rapid variation of the current play important roles in the tearing mode stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI), as an advanced diagnostic, provides two-dimensional (2D) images of electron temperature fluctuation in the core plasma region. The ECEI system on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) tokamak consists of 384 channels by 24 (vertical) × 16 (horizontal). The system nearly covers the wholesurface in cross-section of EAST. Here, we present a quantitative method to estimate the sawtooth collapse time. All of the electron temperature fluctuations inside thesurface are summed up, and the collapse time is estimated as the time lag between the maximum and minimum values of the total fluctuation during one sawtooth cycle. Using this method, statistical analysis of sawtooth behaviors is studied in the EAST Ohmic heating plasma. Relationships of heat flux, sawtooth period and collapse time are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sawtooth oscillations in tokamaks are defined by their effect on electron temperature: a rapid flattening of the core profile followed by an outward heat pulse and a slow core recovery caused by central heating. Recent high-resolution, multi-chord interferometer measurements on JTEXT extend these studies to particle transport. Sawteeth only partially flatten the core density profile, but enhanced particle diffusion on the time scale of the thermal crash occurs over much of the profile, relevant for impurities. Recovery between crashes implies an inward pinch velocity extending to the center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport of impurities by a sawtooth crash is simulated with the XTOR-2F code. Impurities are modeled as passive scalars, evolving in the compressible MHD flow inferred from the main MHD plasma. For a peaked impurity density profile, the non-linear kink flow of the sawtooth crash redistributes the profile efficiently and most of the particles in the peak inside the q=1 surface are expelled. For an initially hollow impurity density profile, the crash leads to a significant penetration up to the magnetic axis. The results are compared with Kadomtsev's model. Despite essentially different mechanisms, the evolution of the particle content inside the q=1 surface for Kadomtsev's model and for the non-linear case are virtually identical for the peaked profile, while the model slightly overestimates penetration for the hollow case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges using a two-fluid model for cold ions and electrons. Explosive growth of the tearing mode enabled by electron inertia is analytically estimated using an energy principle with a nonlinear displacement map. Decrease in the potential energy in the nonlinear regime (where the island width exceeds the electron skin depth) is found to be steeper than in the linear regime, resulting in accelerated reconnection. Release of potential energy by such a fluid displacement leads to unsteady and strong convective flow, which is not damped by the small dissipation effects in high-temperature tokamak plasmas. Direct numerical simulation in slab geometry substantiates the theoretical prediction of the nonlinear growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sawtooth crash algorithm that can automatically detect irregular sawteeth with strongly varying crash characteristics, including inverted crashes with central signal increase, has been developed. Such sawtooth behaviour is observed in ASDEX Upgrade with its tungsten wall, especially in phases with central ECRH. This application of ECRH for preventing impurity accumulation is envisaged also for ITER. The detection consists of three steps: a sensitive edge detection, a multichannel combination to increase detection performance, and a profile analysis that tests generic sawtooth crash features. The effect of detection parameters on the edge detection results has been investigated using synthetic signals and tested in an application to ASDEX Upgrade soft x-ray data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tokamak plasmas, the sawtooth oscillation (ST) and the edge-localized-mode (ELM) are characterized by a phase of a slow evolution of the plasma conditions, followed by a crash-like instability that resets the plasma conditions when certain criteria of the plasma conditions are satisfied. Typically, the crashes induce losses of heat and energetic particles and may also trigger secondary instabilities. As the amplitude of the crash-like perturbation scales with the period between two crashes, period control of these oscillations is important for operations of large fusion facilities such as ITER and DEMO. In several present-day experimental facilities, a pacing control algorithm has been successfully applied for controlling the sawtooth period and the ELM period. However, a formal analysis has been lacking so far, which therefore forms the objective of the present paper. For this purpose, a reset model for the sawtooth period is introduced and, after a proper transformation a nonlinear discrete-time system is obtained, which is used for the formal analysis of pacing control. By representing the model in a Lur’e (or Lurie) form, we can derive conditions under which global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop (pacing) period control system is guaranteed. Moreover, we will show that the controller exhibits inherent robustness for model uncertainties. We envision that the analytical results in the area of pacing control of the sawtooth are also applicable to pacing period control of the ELM oscillation period. The presented reset model also explains why in recent experiments the sawtooth period locks with a periodically modulated power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of sawteeth on impurity dynamics is studied with the XTOR-2F code. Non-linear full 3D MHD simulations including appropriate fluid equations for impurities in the high collisional regime show that the presence of regular sawtooth crashes affects the impurity behaviour. A spatial non-uniformity of in post-crash impurity density profiles persists due to 2D structures of impurity density which appear during sawtooth crashes. They are shown to be mainly driven by the velocity, and are responsible for the sudden impurity transport in the core plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the non-linear phase of a sawtooth, the complete reconnection of field lines around the q  =  1 flux surface often occurs resulting in a radial displacement of the plasma core. A complete time-dependent electromagnetic model of this type of reconnection has been developed and implemented in the EBdyna_go code. This contribution aims at studying the behaviour of ions, both impurity and fast particles, in the pattern of reconnecting field lines during sawtoothing plasma experiments in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak by using the newly developed numerical framework. Simulations of full reconnection with tungsten impurity that include the centrifugal force are achieved and recover the soft x-ray measurements. Based on this full-reconnection description of the sawtooth, a simple tool dedicated to estimate the duration of the reconnection is introduced. This work then studies the redistribution of fast ions during several experimentally observed sawteeth. In some cases of sawteeth at ASDEX Upgrade, full reconnection is not always observed or expected so the code gives an upper estimate of the actual experimental redistribution. The results of detailed simulations of the crashes are compared with measurements from various diagnostics such as collective Thomson scattering and fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) spectroscopy, including FIDA tomography. A convincing qualitative agreement is found in different parts of velocity space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External n  =  1 magnetic fields are applied in RFX-mod and DIII-D low safety factor Tokamak plasmas to investigate their interaction with the internal MHD dynamics and in particular with the sawtooth instability. In these experiments the applied magnetic fields cause a reduction of both the sawtooth amplitude and period, leading to an overall stabilizing effect on the oscillations. In RFX-mod sawteeth eventually disappear and are replaced by a stationary m  =  1, n  =  1 helical equilibrium without an increase in disruptivity. However toroidal rotation is significantly reduced in these plasmas, thus it is likely that the sawtooth mitigation in these experiments is due to the combination of the helically deformed core and the reduced rotation. The former effect is qualitatively well reproduced by nonlinear MHD simulations performed with the PIXIE3D code. The results obtained in these RFX-mod experiments motivated similar ones in DIII-D L-mode diverted Tokamak plasmas at low q95. These experiments succeeded in reproducing the sawtooth mitigation with the approach developed in RFX-mod. In DIII-D this effect is correlated with a clear increase of the n  =  1 plasma response, that indicates an enhancement of the coupling to the marginally stable n  =  1 external kink, as simulations with the linear MHD code IPEC suggest. A significant rotation braking in the plasma core is also observed in DIII-D. Numerical calculations of the neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) carried out with PENT identify this torque as a possible contributor for this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perturbative thermal diffusivity has been measured on Alcator C-Mod via the use of the extended-time-to-peak method on heat pulses generated by partial sawtooth crashes. Perturbative thermal diffusivity governs the propagation of heat pulses through a plasma. It differs from power balance thermal diffusivity, which governs steady state thermal transport. Heat pulses generated by sawtooth crashes have been used extensively in the past to study heat pulse thermal diffusivity (Lopes Cardozo 1995 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion37 799), but the details of the sawtooth event typically lead to non-diffusive ‘ballistic’ transport, making them an unreliable measure of perturbative diffusivity on many tokamaks (Fredrickson et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas7 5051). Partial sawteeth are common on numerous tokamaks, and generate a heat pulse without the ‘ballistic’ transport that often accompanies full sawteeth (Fredrickson et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas7 5051). This is the first application of the extended-time-to-peak method of diffusivity calculation (Tubbing et al 1987 Nucl. Fusion27 1843) to partial sawtooth crashes. This analysis was applied to over 50 C-Mod shots containing both L- and I-Mode. Results indicate correlations between perturbative diffusivity and confinement regime (L- versus I-mode), as well as correlations with local temperature, density, the associated gradients, and gradient scale lengths (a/LTe and a/Ln). In addition, diffusivities calculated from partial sawteeth are compared to perturbative diffusivities calculated with the nonlinear gyrokinetic code GYRO. We find that standard ion-scale simulations (ITG/TEM turbulence) under-predict the perturbative thermal diffusivity, but new multi-scale (ITG/TEM coupled with ETG) simulations can match the experimental perturbative diffusivity within error bars for an Alcator C-Mod L-mode plasma. Perturbative diffusivities extracted from heat pulses due to partial sawteeth provide a new constraint that can be used to validate gyrokinetic simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolution of the safety factor (q) profile during L–H transitions in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was accompanied by strong core crashes prior to regular sawtooth behavior. These crashes appeared in the absence of q = 1 (q is the safety factor) rational surface inside the plasma. Analysis indicates that the m/n = 2/1 tearing mode is destabilized and phase-locked with the m/n = 1/1 non-resonant kink mode (the q = 1 rational surface is absent) due to the self-consistent evolution of plasma profiles as the L–H transition occurs (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively). The growing m/n = 1/1 mode destabilizes the m/n = 2/2 kink mode which eventually triggers the strong crash due to an anomalous heat conductivity, as predicted by the transport model of stochastic magnetic fields using experimental parameters. It is also shown that the magnetic topology changes with the amplitude of m/n = 2/2 mode and the value of center safety factor in a reasonable range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a tokamak-based fusion power plant, possible scenarios may include regulated sawtooth oscillations to remove thermalized helium from the core of the plasma. During a sawtooth crash, the helium ash and other impurities trapped in the core are driven by the instability to an outer region. However, in a fusion plasma, high energy ions will represent a significant population. We thus study the behaviour of these energetic particles during a sawtooth. This paper presents the modelling of the redistribution of fast ions during a sawtooth reconnection event in a tokamak plasma. Along the lines of the model for the evolution of the flux surfaces during a sawtooth collapse described in Ya.I. Kolesnichenko and Yu.V. Yakovenko 1996 Nucl. Fusion36 159, we have built a time-dependent electromagnetic model of a sawtooth reconnection. The trajectories of the ions are described by a complete gyro-orbit integration. The fast particles were evolved from specific initial parameters (given energy and uniform spread in pitch) or distributed initially according to a slowing-down distribution created by fusion reactions. Our modelling is used to understand the main equilibrium parameters driving the motions during the collapse and to determine the evolution of the distribution function of energetic ions when different geometries of reconnection are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]