Publications de Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle

Simulation validation of an Extremum Seeking-based Vertical Stabilization system for TCV

Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Cristian Galperti, Stefano Marchioni

This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the Extremum Seeking-based Vertical Stabilization system originally proposed in Dubbioso et al. (2022), in view of possible deployment on the TCV tokamak. The control algorithm has been modified to adapt it t ...

2025

Milestone in predicting core plasma turbulence: successful multi-channel validation of the gyrokinetic code GENE

Basil Duval, Timothy Goodman, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Laurie Porte, Benoît Labit, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Umar Sheikh, Mengdi Kong, Simon Van Mulders, Cristian Sommariva, Alessandro Pau

On the basis of several recent breakthroughs in fusion research, many activities have been launched around the world to develop fusion power plants on the fastest possible time scale. In this context, high-fidelity simulations of the plasma behavior on lar ...

2025

Design and implementation of a model-based hierarchical architecture for plasma shape control in the TCV tokamak

Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Cristian Galperti

Plasma shape control is a fundamental tool for effective tokamak operation, allowing improved plasma performance and the pursuit of challenging scientific objectives. In this framework, the Tokamak á Configuration Variable (TCV) of the École Polytechnique ...

IOP Publishing2025

Nonlinear excitation of energetic particle driven geodesic acoustic mode by resonance overlap with Alfvén instability in ASDEX Upgrade

Basil Duval, Timothy Goodman, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Laurie Porte, Benoît Labit, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Umar Sheikh, Mengdi Kong, Simon Van Mulders, Cristian Sommariva, Alessandro Pau

The Alfvén instability nonlinearly excited the energetic-particle-driven geodesic acoustic mode on the ASDEX-Upgrade tokamak, as demonstrated experimentally. The mechanism of the energetic-particle-driven geodesic acoustic mode excitation and the mode nonl ...

Nature Research2025

Effect of energetic ions on edge-localized modes in tokamak plasmas

Patrick Blanchard, Timothy Goodman, Jean-Marc Moret, Olivier Sauter, Holger Reimerdes, Stefano Coda, Alexander Karpushov, Yanis Andrebe, Duccio Testa, Benoît Labit, Christian Gabriel Theiler, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Hugo De Oliveira, Claudio Marini, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Anna Teplukhina, Joan Decker, Cedric Kar-Wai Tsui, Umar Sheikh, Cristian Galperti, Kevin Henricus Annemarie Verhaegh, Dahye Choi, Aylwin Iantchenko, Mengdi Kong, Roberto Maurizio, Francesco Carpanese, Mirko Wensing, Lorenzo Stipani, Federico Pesamosca, Olivier Claude Martin Février, Filippo Bagnato, Cristian Sommariva, Davide Galassi

The most efficient and promising operational regime for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor tokamak is the high-confinement mode. In this regime, however, periodic relaxations of the plasma edge can occur. These edge-localized modes pose a ...

2025

Dynamic steady-state coil current allocation for plasma shape control: A study on the TCV tokamak

Stefano Coda, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle

This work addresses the input current allocation problem for the magnetic control system of the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV). Given the available actuators (i.e. poloidal field coils) on the TCV device, this work aims to optimize the input curren ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2024

Progress in the development of the ITER baseline scenario in TCV

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

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

Study of impurity C transport and plasma rotation in negative triangularity on the TCV tokamak

Basil Duval, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Alexander Karpushov, Laurie Porte, Benoît Labit, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Justin Richard Ball, Filippo Bagnato, Alessandro Pau, Dmytry Mykytchuk

Carbon impurity transport is studied in the TCV tokamak using a charge exchange recombination diagnostic. TCVs flexible shaping capabilities were exploited to extend previous impurity transport studies to negative triangularity (delta < 0). A practical way ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

Automated shot-to-shot optimization of the plasma start-up scenario in the TCV tokamak

Basil Duval, Stefano Coda, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Curdin Tobias Wüthrich, Pedro Andres Molina Cabrera, Cristian Galperti, Artur Perek

Plasma start-up is typically achieved manipulating poloidal magnetic fields, gas injection and possibly auxiliary heating. Model-based design techniques have been gaining increasing attention in view of future large tokamaks which have more stringent const ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2024

Observation of magnetic islands in tokamak plasmas during the suppression of edge-localized modes

Basil Duval, Timothy Goodman, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Laurie Porte, Benoît Labit, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Umar Sheikh, Mengdi Kong, Cristian Sommariva, Alessandro Pau

In tokamaks, a leading platform for fusion energy, periodic filamentary plasma eruptions known as edge-localized modes occur in plasmas with high-energy confinement and steep pressure profiles at the plasma edge. These edge-localized modes could damage the ...

2024

X-point radiator and power exhaust control in configurations with multiple X-points in TCV

Holger Reimerdes, Christian Gabriel Theiler, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Curdin Tobias Wüthrich, Olivier Claude Martin Février, Garance Hélène Salomé Durr-Legoupil-Nicoud, Filippo Bagnato, Lorenzo Martinelli, Sophie Danielle Angelica Gorno, Claudia Colandrea, Guang-Yu Sun, Luke Simons, Artur Perek

Novel power exhaust solutions are being developed to address the challenge of integrating a high performance fusion core plasma with a well-protected divertor, if the single null configuration does not scale to a reactor device. This work aims to elucidate ...

American Institute of Physics (AIP)2024

Experimental research on the TCV tokamak

Patrick Blanchard, Stefano Alberti, Ambrogio Fasoli, Timothy Goodman, Yves Martin, Olivier Sauter, Henri Weisen, Ivo Furno, Holger Reimerdes, Jean-Philippe Hogge, Stefano Coda, Alexander Karpushov, Yanis Andrebe, Duccio Testa, Benoît Labit, Christian Gabriel Theiler, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Jérémy Genoud, Hugo De Oliveira, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Antoine Baillod, Joan Decker, Cedric Kar-Wai Tsui, Pedro Andres Molina Cabrera, Umar Sheikh, Cristian Galperti, Marcelo Baquero Ruiz, Aylwin Iantchenko, Mengdi Kong, Francesco Carpanese, Federico Pesamosca, Olivier Claude Martin Février, Simon Van Mulders, Nicola Offeddu, Garance Hélène Salomé Durr-Legoupil-Nicoud, Maurizio Giacomin, Filippo Bagnato, Davide Galassi, Arsène Stéphane Tema Biwole, Lorenzo Martinelli, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Overview of the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation programme in support of ITER and DEMO

Patrick Blanchard, Basil Duval, Timothy Goodman, Jean-Marc Moret, Olivier Sauter, Henri Weisen, Holger Reimerdes, Stefano Coda, Alexander Karpushov, Duccio Testa, Benoît Labit, Christian Gabriel Theiler, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Joan Decker, Cedric Kar-Wai Tsui, Umar Sheikh, Cristian Galperti, Marcelo Baquero Ruiz, Aylwin Iantchenko, Mengdi Kong, Olivier Claude Martin Février, Paulo Giovane Paschoali Pereira Puglia, Simon Van Mulders, Nicola Offeddu, Garance Hélène Salomé Durr-Legoupil-Nicoud, Filippo Bagnato, Davide Galassi, Lorenzo Martinelli, Jean Arthur Cazabonne, Alessandro Pau, Matteo Vallar, Sophie Danielle Angelica Gorno, Claudia Colandrea, Dmytry Mykytchuk, Gino Marceca, Davide Mancini, Cassandre Ekta Contré, Guang-Yu Sun, , , , , , , , , ,

An interpretable isoflux-based observer for plasma shape control errors in tokamaks

Stefano Coda, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle

In tokamaks, plasma shape control is often achieved through a so-called isoflux approach that regulates the poloidal flux differences between a reference point and a set of control points and magnetic field values at suitable locations to obtain the desire ...

2024

Design of a novel plasma shape controller for the TCV tokamak

Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Cristian Galperti

Tokamaks are experimental nuclear fusion reactors that exploit magnetic-field-generating coils to confine a plasma. In these devices, plasma shape control is crucial to achieving high performance and pursuing challenging scientific objectives. With its lar ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2024

Overview of the TCV digital real-time plasma control system and its applications

Basil Duval, Blaise Marlétaz, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Alexander Karpushov, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Joan Decker, Marcelo Baquero Ruiz, Mengdi Kong, Francesco Carpanese, Federico Pesamosca, Anna Ngoc Minh Trang Vu, Alessandro Pau, Gino Marceca, Stefano Marchioni, Artur Perek

Real-time plasma control systems are at the heart of operation of modern tokamaks. The control system of the TCV tokamak has recently seen a major upgrade in terms of its hardware and software components. Control algorithms are entirely programmed and test ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2024

Overview of ASDEX upgrade results in view of ITER and DEMO

Basil Duval, Timothy Goodman, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Benoît Labit, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Umar Sheikh, Mengdi Kong, Simon Van Mulders, Cristian Sommariva, Alessandro Pau

Experiments on ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) in 2021 and 2022 have addressed a number of critical issues for ITER and EU DEMO. A major objective of the AUG programme is to shed light on the underlying physics of confinement, stability, and plasma exhaust in order to ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2024

TCV Tokamak Neutron Shielding Upgrade for Dual NBI Operation

Patrick Blanchard, Basil Duval, Henri Weisen, Alexander Karpushov, Duccio Testa, Jérémie Dubray, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Matteo Vallar

The Tokamak a Configuration variable (TCV) is equipped with two neutral beam injection (NBI) systems delivering up to 1.2 MW each for pulse durations of up to 2 s. The first system (NBI1), designed for an injection energy in the range of 25 to 30 keV has b ...

2023

Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning

Basil Duval, Ambrogio Fasoli, Jean-Marc Moret, Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Jonas Buchli, Federico Alberto Alfredo Felici, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Cristian Galperti, Francesco Carpanese, Federico Pesamosca, Cristian Sommariva, Jonas Degrave, Brendan Tracey

Nuclear fusion using magnetic confinement, in particular in the tokamak configuration, is a promising path towards sustainable energy. A core challenge is to shape and maintain a high-temperature plasma within the tokamak vessel. This requires high-dimensi ...

2022

Enhanced confinement in diverted negative-triangularity L-mode plasmas in TCV

Olivier Sauter, Stefano Coda, Laurie Porte, Benoît Labit, Alessandro Marinoni, Antoine Pierre Emmanuel Alexis Merle, Leonardo Pigatto, Cedric Kar-Wai Tsui, Umar Sheikh, Filippo Bagnato, Alessandro Pau, Matteo Vallar

The favorable confinement properties of negative-triangularity (NT) tokamak configurations were discovered in the TCV tokamak in the late 1990s and were documented over the two following decades, through investigations of predominantly electron-heated plas ...

2022