Publications related to Spheromak

Shedding light on the MRI-driven dynamo in a stratified shearing box

We study the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) dynamo in a geometrically thin disc (H/R < 1) using stratified zero net (vertical) flux shearing box simulations. We find that mean fields and electromotive forces (EMFs) oscillate with a primary frequency ...

2024

NBI optimization on SMART and implications for scenario development

Mario Ludovico Podesta, Francesca Maria Poli

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) under commissioning at the University of Seville, Spain, aims to explore confinement properties and possible advantages in confinement for compact/spherical tokamaks operating at negative vs. positive triangularity. T ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

Progress in the development of the ITER baseline scenario in TCV

Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Benoît Labit, Alessandro Pau, Alexander Karpushov, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Oleg Krutkin, Cassandre Ekta Contré, Reinart Andreas J. Coosemans, Yann Camenen, Olivier Claude Martin Février, Matteo Vallar, Filippo Bagnato, Simon Van Mulders, Stefano Marchioni

Under the auspices of EUROfusion, the ITER baseline (IBL) scenario has been jointly investigated on AUG and TCV in the past years and this paper reports on the developments on TCV. It is found that the performance of TCV IBL is mainly limited by (neoclassi ...

2024

Experimental study and interpretative modelling of the Power Exhaust in Configurations with Multiple X-Points in TCV

Sophie Danielle Angelica Gorno

Nuclear fusion presents a promising clean energy source to mitigate future energy crises, with magnetic confinement fusion well-positioned to provide a baseload scenario to power future reactors. The unmitigated power exhaust of such reactors threatens its ...

EPFL2024

Long plasma duration operation analyses with an international multi-machine (tokamaks and stellarators) database

Stefano Coda, Jeffrey Huang

Combined high-fusion performance and long-pulse operation is one of the key integration challenges for fusion energy development in magnetic devices. Addressing these challenges requires an integrated vision of physics and engineering aspects with the purp ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2024

Decay law of magnetic turbulence with helicity balanced by chiral fermions

Kohei Kamada, Jennifer Waltraud Schober

In plasmas composed of massless electrically charged fermions, chirality can be interchanged with magnetic helicity while preserving the total chirality through the quantum chiral anomaly. The decay of turbulent energy in plasmas such as those in the early ...

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2023

Nonlinear saturation of resistive tearing modes in a cylindrical tokamak with and without solving the dynamics

Joaquim Loizu Cisquella

We show that the saturation of resistive tearing modes in a cylindrical tokamak, as well as the corresponding island width, can be directly calculated with a magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibrium code without solving the dynamics and without considering r ...

Cambridge University Press2023

Equilibrium pressure limits in stellarators

Antoine Baillod

This thesis delves into the potential of magnetic fusion energy, and in particular focuses on the stellarator concept. Stellarators use external coils to produce 3-dimensional (3D) magnetic fields that confine a thermonuclear plasma in a topologically toro ...

EPFL2023

Fast ion generation with ICRF waves and beams in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

Mike Machielsen

The largest operating stellarator, Wendelstein 7-X, is of the quasi-isodynamic type. For this design to scale up to a fusion reactor, several criteria must be met, one of them being good fast ion confinement. The latter still has to be tested experimentall ...

EPFL2023

On the relationship between the multi-region relaxed variational principle and resistive inner-layer theory

Joaquim Loizu Cisquella, Ankit Kumar

We show that the variational energy principle of the multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamic (MRxMHD) model can be used to predict finite-pressure linear tearing instabilities. In this model, the plasma volume is sliced into sub-volumes separated by 'idea ...

2023

Influence of Sphericity on Surface Termination of Icosahedral Colloidal Clusters

Esther Amstad

Colloids self-organize into icosahedral clusters composed of a Mackay core and an anti-Mackay shell under spherical confinement to minimize the free energy. This study explores the variation of surface arrangements of colloids in icosahedral clusters, focu ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2023

Equilibrium β-limits dependence on bootstrap current in classical stellarators

Jonathan Graves, Joaquim Loizu Cisquella, Antoine Baillod

While it is important to design stellarators with high magnetohydrodynamic stability β-limit, it is also crucial to ensure that good magnetic surfaces exist in a large range of β values. As β increases, pressure-driven currents perturb the vacuum magnetic ...

Cambridge University Press2023

Study of fast-ion-driven toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes impacting on the global confinement in TCV L-mode plasmas

Stefano Coda, Laurent Villard, Stephan Brunner, Justin Richard Ball, Oleg Krutkin, Luke Simons, Umesh Kumar, Baruch Rofman, Jesús Poley Sanjuán, Javier García Hernández, Matteo Vallar, Aylwin Iantchenko, Samuele Mazzi

Following recent observations of unstable Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs) in a counter-current Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) scenario developed in TCV, an in-depth analysis of the impact of such modes on the global confinement and performance is carried o ...

2023

Characterisation of electron cyclotron wall conditioning plasma in ASDEX Upgrade

Richard Pitts

Electron cyclotron wall condition (ECWC) discharges are characterised in ASDEX Upgrade with full tungsten plasma facing components and X2 polarised waves launched from the equatorial ports, relevant to ECWC conditions in ITER Pre-Fusion Power Operation pha ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

How accurate are flux-tube (local) gyrokinetic codes in modeling energetic particle effects on core turbulence?

Olivier Sauter, Alberto Bottino, Emanuele Poli

Flux-tube (local) gyrokinetic codes are widely used to simulate drift-wave turbulence in magnetic confinement devices. While a large number of studies show that flux-tube codes provide an excellent approximation for turbulent transport in medium-large devi ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

An experimental and computational study of tokamak plasma turbulence

Aylwin Iantchenko

Turbulence driven by small-scale instabilities results in strong heat and particle transport, which significantly shortens the confinement time and prevents the formation of a self-sustained plasma reaction in magnetic confinement devices. Control and poss ...

EPFL2023

Exploration of the parameter space for the excitation and saturation of Edge Harmonic Oscillations

Guillermo Bustos Ramirez

This thesis presents advancements in the understanding of the plasma conditions leading to the excitation and saturation of the Edge Harmonic Oscillations (EHOs) observed during QH-mode operation in tokamak plasmas. Such operations represent a safer altern ...

EPFL2023

3D Characterisation of Turbulent Plasma Filaments Using Gas Puff Imaging in the Tokamak à Configuration Variable

Nicola Offeddu

A key challenge for the development of fusion reactors based on magnetic confinement, such as tokamaks and stellarators, is the control of the turbulent processes. The most prominent feature of turbulence in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL), the volume between t ...

EPFL2023

Addressing the challenges of homogeneity, quality control and waste handling in soil bio-cementation: A large-scale experiment

Lyesse Laloui, Dimitrios Terzis, Ray Harran

In an attempt to go beyond the conventional laboratory experiments widely reported in literature around the emerging technique of soil bio-cementation, this work addresses key challenges related to its large-scale application. Precisely, a state-of-the-art ...

JAPANESE GEOTECHNICAL SOC2023

Runaway dynamics in reactor-scale spherical tokamak disruptions

Understanding generation and mitigation of runaway electrons in disruptions is important for the safe operation of future tokamaks. In this paper we investigate the runaway dynamics in reactor-scale spherical tokamaks, focusing on a compact nominal design ...

Cambridge University Press2022