Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality

The ‘density limit’ is one of the fundamental bounds on tokamak operating space, and is commonly estimated via the empirical Greenwald scaling. This limit has garnered renewed interest in recent years as it has become clear that ITER and many tokamak pilot plant concepts must operate near or above t...

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Main Authors: A.D. Maris, C. Rea, A. Pau, W. Hu, B. Xiao, R. Granetz, E. Marmar, the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation team, the Alcator C-Mod team, the ASDEX Upgrade team, the DIII-D Team, the EAST Team, and the TCV team
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2024-01-01
Series:Nuclear Fusion
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad90f0
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author A.D. Maris
C. Rea
A. Pau
W. Hu
B. Xiao
R. Granetz
E. Marmar
the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation team
the Alcator C-Mod team
the ASDEX Upgrade team
the DIII-D Team
the EAST Team
and the TCV team
author_facet A.D. Maris
C. Rea
A. Pau
W. Hu
B. Xiao
R. Granetz
E. Marmar
the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation team
the Alcator C-Mod team
the ASDEX Upgrade team
the DIII-D Team
the EAST Team
and the TCV team
author_sort A.D. Maris
collection DOAJ
description The ‘density limit’ is one of the fundamental bounds on tokamak operating space, and is commonly estimated via the empirical Greenwald scaling. This limit has garnered renewed interest in recent years as it has become clear that ITER and many tokamak pilot plant concepts must operate near or above the Greenwald limit to achieve their objectives. Evidence has also grown that the Greenwald scaling—in its remarkable simplicity—may not capture the full complexity of the density limit. In this study, we assemble a multi-machine database to quantify the effectiveness of the Greenwald limit as a predictor of the L-mode density limit and compare it with data-driven approaches. We find that a boundary in the plasma edge involving dimensionless collisionality and pressure, $\nu_{*, \mathrm{edge}}^\text{limit} = 3.5 \beta_{T,\text{edge}}^{-0.40}$ , achieves significantly higher accuracy (false positive rate (FPR) of 2.3% at a true positive rate (TPR) of 95%) of predicting density limit disruptions than the Greenwald limit (FPR of 13.4% at a TPR of 95%) across a multi-machine dataset including metal- and carbon-wall tokamaks (AUG, C-Mod, DIII-D, and TCV). This two-parameter boundary succeeds at predicting L-mode density limits by robustly identifying the radiative state preceding the terminal MHD instability. This boundary can be applied for density limit avoidance in current devices and in ITER, where it can be measured and responded to in real time.
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spelling doaj-art-38de6b1b70cd46feb367d1b7b53772882025-08-20T02:33:44ZengIOP PublishingNuclear Fusion0029-55152024-01-0165101605110.1088/1741-4326/ad90f0Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionalityA.D. Maris0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9457-8927C. Rea1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9948-2649A. Pau2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7122-3346W. Hu3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3420-2607B. Xiao4R. Granetz5E. Marmar6the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation teamthe Alcator C-Mod teamthe ASDEX Upgrade teamthe DIII-D Teamthe EAST Teamand the TCV teamPlasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaPlasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaÉcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) , CH-1015 Lausanne, SwitzerlandInstitute of Plasma Physics , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaInstitute of Plasma Physics , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, ChinaPlasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaPlasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaThe ‘density limit’ is one of the fundamental bounds on tokamak operating space, and is commonly estimated via the empirical Greenwald scaling. This limit has garnered renewed interest in recent years as it has become clear that ITER and many tokamak pilot plant concepts must operate near or above the Greenwald limit to achieve their objectives. Evidence has also grown that the Greenwald scaling—in its remarkable simplicity—may not capture the full complexity of the density limit. In this study, we assemble a multi-machine database to quantify the effectiveness of the Greenwald limit as a predictor of the L-mode density limit and compare it with data-driven approaches. We find that a boundary in the plasma edge involving dimensionless collisionality and pressure, $\nu_{*, \mathrm{edge}}^\text{limit} = 3.5 \beta_{T,\text{edge}}^{-0.40}$ , achieves significantly higher accuracy (false positive rate (FPR) of 2.3% at a true positive rate (TPR) of 95%) of predicting density limit disruptions than the Greenwald limit (FPR of 13.4% at a TPR of 95%) across a multi-machine dataset including metal- and carbon-wall tokamaks (AUG, C-Mod, DIII-D, and TCV). This two-parameter boundary succeeds at predicting L-mode density limits by robustly identifying the radiative state preceding the terminal MHD instability. This boundary can be applied for density limit avoidance in current devices and in ITER, where it can be measured and responded to in real time.https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad90f0tokamakdensity limitmachine learningGreenwald limit
spellingShingle A.D. Maris
C. Rea
A. Pau
W. Hu
B. Xiao
R. Granetz
E. Marmar
the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation team
the Alcator C-Mod team
the ASDEX Upgrade team
the DIII-D Team
the EAST Team
and the TCV team
Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
Nuclear Fusion
tokamak
density limit
machine learning
Greenwald limit
title Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
title_full Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
title_fullStr Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
title_full_unstemmed Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
title_short Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality
title_sort correlation of the l mode density limit with edge collisionality
topic tokamak
density limit
machine learning
Greenwald limit
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ad90f0
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