Sample records for iter operating limit

  1. Approximation by the iterates of Bernstein operator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zapryanova, Teodora; Tachev, Gancho

    2012-11-01

    We study the degree of pointwise approximation of the iterated Bernstein operators to its limiting operator. We obtain a quantitative estimates related to the conjecture of Gonska and Raşa from 2006.

  2. Novel aspects of plasma control in ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Humphreys, D.; Jackson, G.; Walker, M.

    2015-02-15

    ITER plasma control design solutions and performance requirements are strongly driven by its nuclear mission, aggressive commissioning constraints, and limited number of operational discharges. In addition, high plasma energy content, heat fluxes, neutron fluxes, and very long pulse operation place novel demands on control performance in many areas ranging from plasma boundary and divertor regulation to plasma kinetics and stability control. Both commissioning and experimental operations schedules provide limited time for tuning of control algorithms relative to operating devices. Although many aspects of the control solutions required by ITER have been well-demonstrated in present devices and even designed satisfactorily formore » ITER application, many elements unique to ITER including various crucial integration issues are presently under development. We describe selected novel aspects of plasma control in ITER, identifying unique parts of the control problem and highlighting some key areas of research remaining. Novel control areas described include control physics understanding (e.g., current profile regulation, tearing mode (TM) suppression), control mathematics (e.g., algorithmic and simulation approaches to high confidence robust performance), and integration solutions (e.g., methods for management of highly subscribed control resources). We identify unique aspects of the ITER TM suppression scheme, which will pulse gyrotrons to drive current within a magnetic island, and turn the drive off following suppression in order to minimize use of auxiliary power and maximize fusion gain. The potential role of active current profile control and approaches to design in ITER are discussed. Issues and approaches to fault handling algorithms are described, along with novel aspects of actuator sharing in ITER.« less

  3. Novel aspects of plasma control in ITER

    DOE PAGES

    Humphreys, David; Ambrosino, G.; de Vries, Peter; ...

    2015-02-12

    ITER plasma control design solutions and performance requirements are strongly driven by its nuclear mission, aggressive commissioning constraints, and limited number of operational discharges. In addition, high plasma energy content, heat fluxes, neutron fluxes, and very long pulse operation place novel demands on control performance in many areas ranging from plasma boundary and divertor regulation to plasma kinetics and stability control. Both commissioning and experimental operations schedules provide limited time for tuning of control algorithms relative to operating devices. Although many aspects of the control solutions required by ITER have been well-demonstrated in present devices and even designed satisfactorily formore » ITER application, many elements unique to ITER including various crucial integration issues are presently under development. We describe selected novel aspects of plasma control in ITER, identifying unique parts of the control problem and highlighting some key areas of research remaining. Novel control areas described include control physics understanding (e.g. current profile regulation, tearing mode suppression (TM)), control mathematics (e.g. algorithmic and simulation approaches to high confidence robust performance), and integration solutions (e.g. methods for management of highly-subscribed control resources). We identify unique aspects of the ITER TM suppression scheme, which will pulse gyrotrons to drive current within a magnetic island, and turn the drive off following suppression in order to minimize use of auxiliary power and maximize fusion gain. The potential role of active current profile control and approaches to design in ITER are discussed. Finally, issues and approaches to fault handling algorithms are described, along with novel aspects of actuator sharing in ITER.« less

  4. Prospects for Advanced Tokamak Operation of ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neilson, George H.

    1996-11-01

    Previous studies have identified steady-state (or "advanced") modes for ITER, based on reverse-shear profiles and significant bootstrap current. A typical example has 12 MA of plasma current, 1,500 MW of fusion power, and 100 MW of heating and current-drive power. The implementation of these and other steady-state operating scenarios in the ITER device is examined in order to identify key design modifications that can enhance the prospects for successfully achieving advanced tokamak operating modes in ITER compatible with a single null divertor design. In particular, we examine plasma configurations that can be achieved by the ITER poloidal field system with either a monolithic central solenoid (as in the ITER Interim Design), or an alternate "hybrid" central solenoid design which provides for greater flexibility in the plasma shape. The increased control capability and expanded operating space provided by the hybrid central solenoid allows operation at high triangularity (beneficial for improving divertor performance through control of edge-localized modes and for increasing beta limits), and will make it much easier for ITER operators to establish an optimum startup trajectory leading to a high-performance, steady-state scenario. Vertical position control is examined because plasmas made accessible by the hybrid central solenoid can be more elongated and/or less well coupled to the conducting structure. Control of vertical-displacements using the external PF coils remains feasible over much of the expanded operating space. Further work is required to define the full spectrum of axisymmetric plasma disturbances requiring active control In addition to active axisymmetric control, advanced tokamak modes in ITER may require active control of kink modes on the resistive time scale of the conducting structure. This might be accomplished in ITER through the use of active control coils external to the vacuum vessel which are actuated by magnetic sensors near the first wall. The enhanced shaping and positioning flexibility provides a range of options for reducing the ripple-induced losses of fast alpha particles--a major limitation on ITER steady-state modes. An alternate approach that we are pursuing in parallel is the inclusion of ferromagnetic inserts to reduce the toroidal field ripple within the plasma chamber. The inclusion of modest design changes such as the hybrid central solenoid, active control coils for kink modes, and ferromagnetic inserts for TF ripple reduction show can greatly increase the flexibility to accommodate advance tokamak operation in ITER. Increased flexibility is important because the optimum operating scenario for ITER cannot be predicted with certainty. While low-inductance, reverse shear modes appear attractive for steady-state operation, high-inductance, high-beta modes are also viable candidates, and it is important that ITER have the flexibility to explore both these, and other, operating regimes.

  5. CORSICA modelling of ITER hybrid operation scenarios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, S. H.; Bulmer, R. H.; Campbell, D. J.; Casper, T. A.; LoDestro, L. L.; Meyer, W. H.; Pearlstein, L. D.; Snipes, J. A.

    2016-12-01

    The hybrid operating mode observed in several tokamaks is characterized by further enhancement over the high plasma confinement (H-mode) associated with reduced magneto-hydro-dynamic (MHD) instabilities linked to a stationary flat safety factor (q ) profile in the core region. The proposed ITER hybrid operation is currently aiming at operating for a long burn duration (>1000 s) with a moderate fusion power multiplication factor, Q , of at least 5. This paper presents candidate ITER hybrid operation scenarios developed using a free-boundary transport modelling code, CORSICA, taking all relevant physics and engineering constraints into account. The ITER hybrid operation scenarios have been developed by tailoring the 15 MA baseline ITER inductive H-mode scenario. Accessible operation conditions for ITER hybrid operation and achievable range of plasma parameters have been investigated considering uncertainties on the plasma confinement and transport. ITER operation capability for avoiding the poloidal field coil current, field and force limits has been examined by applying different current ramp rates, flat-top plasma currents and densities, and pre-magnetization of the poloidal field coils. Various combinations of heating and current drive (H&CD) schemes have been applied to study several physics issues, such as the plasma current density profile tailoring, enhancement of the plasma energy confinement and fusion power generation. A parameterized edge pedestal model based on EPED1 added to the CORSICA code has been applied to hybrid operation scenarios. Finally, fully self-consistent free-boundary transport simulations have been performed to provide information on the poloidal field coil voltage demands and to study the controllability with the ITER controllers. Extended from Proc. 24th Int. Conf. on Fusion Energy (San Diego, 2012) IT/P1-13.

  6. In-vessel tritium retention and removal in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Federici, G.; Anderl, R. A.; Andrew, P.; Brooks, J. N.; Causey, R. A.; Coad, J. P.; Cowgill, D.; Doerner, R. P.; Haasz, A. A.; Janeschitz, G.; Jacob, W.; Longhurst, G. R.; Nygren, R.; Peacock, A.; Pick, M. A.; Philipps, V.; Roth, J.; Skinner, C. H.; Wampler, W. R.

    Tritium retention inside the vacuum vessel has emerged as a potentially serious constraint in the operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). In this paper we review recent tokamak and laboratory data on hydrogen, deuterium and tritium retention for materials and conditions which are of direct relevance to the design of ITER. These data, together with significant advances in understanding the underlying physics, provide the basis for modelling predictions of the tritium inventory in ITER. We present the derivation, and discuss the results, of current predictions both in terms of implantation and codeposition rates, and critically discuss their uncertainties and sensitivity to important design and operation parameters such as the plasma edge conditions, the surface temperature, the presence of mixed-materials, etc. These analyses are consistent with recent tokamak findings and show that codeposition of tritium occurs on the divertor surfaces primarily with carbon eroded from a limited area of the divertor near the strike zones. This issue remains an area of serious concern for ITER. The calculated codeposition rates for ITER are relatively high and the in-vessel tritium inventory limit could be reached, under worst assumptions, in approximately a week of continuous operation. We discuss the implications of these estimates on the design, operation and safety of ITER and present a strategy for resolving the issues. We conclude that as long as carbon is used in ITER - and more generically in any other next-step experimental fusion facility fuelled with tritium - the efficient control and removal of the codeposited tritium is essential. There is a critical need to develop and test in situ cleaning techniques and procedures that are beyond the current experience of present-day tokamaks. We review some of the principal methods that are being investigated and tested, in conjunction with the R&D work still required to extrapolate their applicability to ITER. Finally, unresolved issues are identified and recommendations are made on potential R&D avenues for their resolution.

  7. Thermo-mechanical analysis of ITER first mirrors and its use for the ITER equatorial visible∕infrared wide angle viewing system optical design.

    PubMed

    Joanny, M; Salasca, S; Dapena, M; Cantone, B; Travère, J M; Thellier, C; Fermé, J J; Marot, L; Buravand, O; Perrollaz, G; Zeile, C

    2012-10-01

    ITER first mirrors (FMs), as the first components of most ITER optical diagnostics, will be exposed to high plasma radiation flux and neutron load. To reduce the FMs heating and optical surface deformation induced during ITER operation, the use of relevant materials and cooling system are foreseen. The calculations led on different materials and FMs designs and geometries (100 mm and 200 mm) show that the use of CuCrZr and TZM, and a complex integrated cooling system can limit efficiently the FMs heating and reduce their optical surface deformation under plasma radiation flux and neutron load. These investigations were used to evaluate, for the ITER equatorial port visible∕infrared wide angle viewing system, the impact of the FMs properties change during operation on the instrument main optical performances. The results obtained are presented and discussed.

  8. Long-pulse stability limits of the ITER baseline scenario

    DOE PAGES

    Jackson, G. L.; Luce, T. C.; Solomon, W. M.; ...

    2015-01-14

    DIII-D has made significant progress in developing the techniques required to operate ITER, and in understanding their impact on performance when integrated into operational scenarios at ITER relevant parameters. We demonstrated long duration plasmas, stable to m/n =2/1 tearing modes (TMs), with an ITER similar shape and I p/aB T, in DIII-D, that evolve to stationary conditions. The operating region most likely to reach stable conditions has normalized pressure, B N≈1.9–2.1 (compared to the ITER baseline design of 1.6 – 1.8), and a Greenwald normalized density fraction, f GW 0.42 – 0.70 (the ITER design is f GW ≈ 0.8).more » The evolution of the current profile, using internal inductance (l i) as an indicator, is found to produce a smaller fraction of stable pulses when l i is increased above ≈ 1.1 at the beginning of β N flattop. Stable discharges with co-neutral beam injection (NBI) are generally accompanied with a benign n=2 MHD mode. However if this mode exceeds ≈ 10 G, the onset of a m/n=2/1 tearing mode occurs with a loss of confinement. In addition, stable operation with low applied external torque, at or below the extrapolated value expected for ITER has also been demonstrated. With electron cyclotron (EC) injection, the operating region of stable discharges has been further extended at ITER equivalent levels of torque and to ELM free discharges at higher torque but with the addition of an n=3 magnetic perturbation from the DIII-D internal coil set. Lastly, the characterization of the ITER baseline scenario evolution for long pulse duration, extension to more ITER relevant values of torque and electron heating, and suppression of ELMs have significantly advanced the physics basis of this scenario, although significant effort remains in the simultaneous integration of all these requirements.« less

  9. Density control in ITER: an iterative learning control and robust control approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ravensbergen, T.; de Vries, P. C.; Felici, F.; Blanken, T. C.; Nouailletas, R.; Zabeo, L.

    2018-01-01

    Plasma density control for next generation tokamaks, such as ITER, is challenging because of multiple reasons. The response of the usual gas valve actuators in future, larger fusion devices, might be too slow for feedback control. Both pellet fuelling and the use of feedforward-based control may help to solve this problem. Also, tight density limits arise during ramp-up, due to operational limits related to divertor detachment and radiative collapses. As the number of shots available for controller tuning will be limited in ITER, in this paper, iterative learning control (ILC) is proposed to determine optimal feedforward actuator inputs based on tracking errors, obtained in previous shots. This control method can take the actuator and density limits into account and can deal with large actuator delays. However, a purely feedforward-based density control may not be sufficient due to the presence of disturbances and shot-to-shot differences. Therefore, robust control synthesis is used to construct a robustly stabilizing feedback controller. In simulations, it is shown that this combined controller strategy is able to achieve good tracking performance in the presence of shot-to-shot differences, tight constraints, and model mismatches.

  10. Heating and current drive requirements towards steady state operation in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, F. M.; Bonoli, P. T.; Kessel, C. E.; Batchelor, D. B.; Gorelenkova, M.; Harvey, B.; Petrov, Y.

    2014-02-01

    Steady state scenarios envisaged for ITER aim at optimizing the bootstrap current, while maintaining sufficient confinement and stability to provide the necessary fusion yield. Non-inductive scenarios will need to operate with Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs) in order to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. However, the large pressure gradients associated with ITBs in regions of weak or negative magnetic shear can be conducive to ideal MHD instabilities, reducing the no-wall limit. The E × B flow shear from toroidal plasma rotation is expected to be low in ITER, with a major role in the ITB dynamics being played by magnetic geometry. Combinations of H/CD sources that maintain weakly reversed magnetic shear profiles throughout the discharge are the focus of this work. Time-dependent transport simulations indicate that, with a trade-off of the EC equatorial and upper launcher, the formation and sustainment of quasi-steady state ITBs could be demonstrated in ITER with the baseline heating configuration. However, with proper constraints from peeling-ballooning theory on the pedestal width and height, the fusion gain and the maximum non-inductive current are below the ITER target. Upgrades of the heating and current drive system in ITER, like the use of Lower Hybrid current drive, could overcome these limitations, sustaining higher non-inductive current and confinement, more expanded ITBs which are ideal MHD stable.

  11. Conceptual Design of the ITER Plasma Control System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Snipes, J. A.

    2013-10-01

    The conceptual design of the ITER Plasma Control System (PCS) has been approved and the preliminary design has begun for the 1st plasma PCS. This is a collaboration of many plasma control experts from existing devices to design and test plasma control techniques applicable to ITER on existing machines. The conceptual design considered all phases of plasma operation, ranging from non-active H/He plasmas through high fusion gain inductive DT plasmas to fully non-inductive steady-state operation, to ensure that the PCS control functionality and architecture can satisfy the demands of the ITER Research Plan. The PCS will control plasma equilibrium and density, plasma heat exhaust, a range of MHD instabilities (including disruption mitigation), and the non-inductive current profile required to maintain stable steady-state scenarios. The PCS architecture requires sophisticated shared actuator management and event handling systems to prioritize control goals, algorithms, and actuators according to dynamic control needs and monitor plasma and plant system events to trigger automatic changes in the control algorithms or operational scenario, depending on real-time operating limits and conditions.

  12. X-Divertors on ITER - with no hardware changes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Valanju, Prashant; Covele, Brent; Kotschenreuther, Mike; Mahajan, Swadesh; Kessel, Charles

    2014-10-01

    Using CORSICA, we have discovered that X-Divertor (XD) equilibria are possible on ITER - without any extra PF coils inside the TF coils, and with no changes to ITER's poloidal field (PF) coil set, divertor cassette, strike points, or first wall. Starting from the Standard Divertor (SD), a sequence of XD configurations (with increasing flux expansions at the divertor plate) can be made by reprogramming ITER PF coil currents while keeping them all under their design limits (Lackner and Zohm have shown this to be impossible for Snowflakes). The strike point is held fixed, so no changes in the divertor or pumping hardware will be needed. The main plasma shape is kept very close to the SD case, so no hardware changes to the main chamber will be needed. Time-dependent ITER-XD operational scenarios are being checked using TSC. This opens the possibility that many XDs could be tested and used to assist in high-power operation on ITER. Because of the toroidally segmented ITER divertor plates, strongly detached operation may be critical for making use of the largest XD flux expansion possible. The flux flaring in XDs is expected to increase the stability of detachment, so that H-mode confinement is not affected. Detachment stability is being examined with SOLPS. This work supported by US DOE Grants DE-FG02-04ER54742 and DE-FG02-04ER54754 and by TACC at UT Austin.

  13. THERMAL DESIGN OF THE ITER VACUUM VESSEL COOLING SYSTEM

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Carbajo, Juan J; Yoder Jr, Graydon L; Kim, Seokho H

    RELAP5-3D models of the ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV) Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) have been developed. The design of the cooling system is described in detail, and RELAP5 results are presented. Two parallel pump/heat exchanger trains comprise the design one train is for full-power operation and the other is for emergency operation or operation at decay heat levels. All the components are located inside the Tokamak building (a significant change from the original configurations). The results presented include operation at full power, decay heat operation, and baking operation. The RELAP5-3D results confirm that the design can operate satisfactorily during bothmore » normal pulsed power operation and decay heat operation. All the temperatures in the coolant and in the different system components are maintained within acceptable operating limits.« less

  14. Overview of ASDEX Upgrade results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zohm, H.; Adamek, J.; Angioni, C.; Antar, G.; Atanasiu, C. V.; Balden, M.; Becker, W.; Behler, K.; Behringer, K.; Bergmann, A.; Bertoncelli, T.; Bilato, R.; Bobkov, V.; Boom, J.; Bottino, A.; Brambilla, M.; Braun, F.; Brüdgam, M.; Buhler, A.; Chankin, A.; Classen, I.; Conway, G. D.; Coster, D. P.; de Marné, P.; D'Inca, R.; Drube, R.; Dux, R.; Eich, T.; Engelhardt, K.; Esposito, B.; Fahrbach, H.-U.; Fattorini, L.; Fink, J.; Fischer, R.; Flaws, A.; Foley, M.; Forest, C.; Fuchs, J. C.; Gál, K.; García Muñoz, M.; Gemisic Adamov, M.; Giannone, L.; Görler, T.; Gori, S.; da Graça, S.; Granucci, G.; Greuner, H.; Gruber, O.; Gude, A.; Günter, S.; Haas, G.; Hahn, D.; Harhausen, J.; Hauff, T.; Heinemann, B.; Herrmann, A.; Hicks, N.; Hobirk, J.; Hölzl, M.; Holtum, D.; Hopf, C.; Horton, L.; Huart, M.; Igochine, V.; Janzer, M.; Jenko, F.; Kallenbach, A.; Kálvin, S.; Kardaun, O.; Kaufmann, M.; Kick, M.; Kirk, A.; Klingshirn, H.-J.; Koscis, G.; Kollotzek, H.; Konz, C.; Krieger, K.; Kurki-Suonio, T.; Kurzan, B.; Lackner, K.; Lang, P. T.; Langer, B.; Lauber, P.; Laux, M.; Leuterer, F.; Likonen, J.; Liu, L.; Lohs, A.; Lunt, T.; Lyssoivan, A.; Maggi, C. F.; Manini, A.; Mank, K.; Manso, M.-E.; Mantsinen, M.; Maraschek, M.; Martin, P.; Mayer, M.; McCarthy, P.; McCormick, K.; Meister, H.; Meo, F.; Merkel, P.; Merkel, R.; Mertens, V.; Merz, F.; Meyer, H.; Mlynek, A.; Monaco, F.; Müller, H.-W.; Münich, M.; Murmann, H.; Neu, G.; Neu, R.; Neuhauser, J.; Nold, B.; Noterdaeme, J.-M.; Pautasso, G.; Pereverzev, G.; Poli, E.; Potzel, S.; Püschel, M.; Pütterich, T.; Pugno, R.; Raupp, G.; Reich, M.; Reiter, B.; Ribeiro, T.; Riedl, R.; Rohde, V.; Roth, J.; Rott, M.; Ryter, F.; Sandmann, W.; Santos, J.; Sassenberg, K.; Sauter, P.; Scarabosio, A.; Schall, G.; Schilling, H.-B.; Schirmer, J.; Schmid, A.; Schmid, K.; Schneider, W.; Schramm, G.; Schrittwieser, R.; Schustereder, W.; Schweinzer, J.; Schweizer, S.; Scott, B.; Seidel, U.; Sempf, M.; Serra, F.; Sertoli, M.; Siccinio, M.; Sigalov, A.; Silva, A.; Sips, A. C. C.; Speth, E.; Stäbler, A.; Stadler, R.; Steuer, K.-H.; Stober, J.; Streibl, B.; Strumberger, E.; Suttrop, W.; Tardini, G.; Tichmann, C.; Treutterer, W.; Tröster, C.; Urso, L.; Vainonen-Ahlgren, E.; Varela, P.; Vermare, L.; Volpe, F.; Wagner, D.; Wigger, C.; Wischmeier, M.; Wolfrum, E.; Würsching, E.; Yadikin, D.; Yu, Q.; Zasche, D.; Zehetbauer, T.; Zilker, M.

    2009-10-01

    ASDEX Upgrade was operated with a fully W-covered wall in 2007 and 2008. Stationary H-modes at the ITER target values and improved H-modes with H up to 1.2 were run without any boronization. The boundary conditions set by the full W wall (high enough ELM frequency, high enough central heating and low enough power density arriving at the target plates) require significant scenario development, but will apply to ITER as well. D retention has been reduced and stationary operation with saturated wall conditions has been found. Concerning confinement, impurity ion transport across the pedestal is neoclassical, explaining the strong inward pinch of high-Z impurities in between ELMs. In improved H-mode, the width of the temperature pedestal increases with heating power, consistent with a \\beta_{pol,ped}^{1/2} scaling. In the area of MHD instabilities, disruption mitigation experiments using massive Ne injection reach volume averaged values of the total electron density close to those required for runaway suppression in ITER. ECRH at the q = 2 surface was successfully applied to delay density limit disruptions. The characterization of fast particle losses due to MHD has shown the importance of different loss mechanisms for NTMs, TAEs and also beta-induced Alfven eigenmodes (BAEs). Specific studies addressing the first ITER operational phase show that O1 ECRH at the HFS assists reliable low-voltage breakdown. During ramp-up, additional heating can be used to vary li to fit within the ITER range. Confinement and power threshold in He are more favourable than in H, suggesting that He operation could allow us to assess H-mode operation in the non-nuclear phase of ITER operation.

  15. Development of ITER non-activation phase operation scenarios

    DOE PAGES

    Kim, S. H.; Poli, F. M.; Koechl, F.; ...

    2017-06-29

    Non-activation phase operations in ITER in hydrogen (H) and helium (He) will be important for commissioning of tokamak systems, such as diagnostics, heating and current drive (HCD) systems, coils and plasma control systems, and for validation of techniques necessary for establishing operations in DT. The assessment of feasible HCD schemes at various toroidal fields (2.65–5.3 T) has revealed that the previously applied assumptions need to be refined for the ITER non-activation phase H/He operations. A study of the ranges of plasma density and profile shape using the JINTRAC suite of codes has indicated that the hydrogen pellet fuelling into Hemore » plasmas should be utilized taking the optimization of IC power absorption, neutral beam shine-through density limit and H-mode access into account. The EPED1 estimation of the edge pedestal parameters has been extended to various H operation conditions, and the combined EPED1 and SOLPS estimation has provided guidance for modelling the edge pedestal in H/He operations. The availability of ITER HCD schemes, ranges of achievable plasma density and profile shape, and estimation of the edge pedestal parameters for H/He plasmas have been integrated into various time-dependent tokamak discharge simulations. In this paper, various H/He scenarios at a wide range of plasma current (7.5–15 MA) and field (2.65–5.3 T) have been developed for the ITER non-activation phase operation, and the sensitivity of the developed scenarios to the used assumptions has been investigated to provide guidance for further development.« less

  16. Development of ITER non-activation phase operation scenarios

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kim, S. H.; Poli, F. M.; Koechl, F.

    Non-activation phase operations in ITER in hydrogen (H) and helium (He) will be important for commissioning of tokamak systems, such as diagnostics, heating and current drive (HCD) systems, coils and plasma control systems, and for validation of techniques necessary for establishing operations in DT. The assessment of feasible HCD schemes at various toroidal fields (2.65–5.3 T) has revealed that the previously applied assumptions need to be refined for the ITER non-activation phase H/He operations. A study of the ranges of plasma density and profile shape using the JINTRAC suite of codes has indicated that the hydrogen pellet fuelling into Hemore » plasmas should be utilized taking the optimization of IC power absorption, neutral beam shine-through density limit and H-mode access into account. The EPED1 estimation of the edge pedestal parameters has been extended to various H operation conditions, and the combined EPED1 and SOLPS estimation has provided guidance for modelling the edge pedestal in H/He operations. The availability of ITER HCD schemes, ranges of achievable plasma density and profile shape, and estimation of the edge pedestal parameters for H/He plasmas have been integrated into various time-dependent tokamak discharge simulations. In this paper, various H/He scenarios at a wide range of plasma current (7.5–15 MA) and field (2.65–5.3 T) have been developed for the ITER non-activation phase operation, and the sensitivity of the developed scenarios to the used assumptions has been investigated to provide guidance for further development.« less

  17. Restoration of multichannel microwave radiometric images

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chin, R. T.; Yeh, C. L.; Olson, W. S.

    1983-01-01

    A constrained iterative image restoration method is applied to multichannel diffraction-limited imagery. This method is based on the Gerchberg-Papoulis algorithm utilizing incomplete information and partial constraints. The procedure is described using the orthogonal projection operators which project onto two prescribed subspaces iteratively. Some of its properties and limitations are also presented. The selection of appropriate constraints was emphasized in a practical application. Multichannel microwave images, each having different spatial resolution, were restored to a common highest resolution to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. Both noise-free and noisy images were used in this investigation.

  18. First Operation with the JET ITER-Like Wall

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neu, Rudolf

    2012-10-01

    To consolidate ITER design choices and prepare for its operation, JET has implemented ITER's plasma facing materials, namely Be at the main wall and W in the divertor. In addition, protection systems, diagnostics and the vertical stability control were upgraded and the heating capability of the neutral beams was increased to over 30 MW. First results confirm the expected benefits and the limitations of all metal plasma facing components (PFCs), but also yield understanding of operational issues directly relating to ITER. H-retention is lower by at least a factor of 10 in all operational scenarios compared to that with C PFCs. The lower C content (˜ factor 10) have led to much lower radiation during the plasma burn-through phase eliminating breakdown failures. Similarly, the intrinsic radiation observed during disruptions is very low, leading to high power loads and to a slow current quench. Massive gas injection using a D2/Ar mixture restores levels of radiation and vessel forces similar to those of mitigated disruptions with the C wall. Dedicated L-H transition experiments indicate a reduced power threshold by 30%, a distinct minimum density and pronounced shape dependence. The L-mode density limit was found up to 30% higher than for C allowing stable detached divertor operation over a larger density range. Stable H-modes as well as the hybrid scenario could be only re-established when using gas puff levels of a few 10^21e/s. On average the confinement is lower with the new PFCs, but nevertheless, H factors around 1 (H-Mode) and 1.2 (at βN˜3, Hybrids) have been achieved with W concentrations well below the maximum acceptable level (<10-5).

  19. The influence of plasma-surface interaction on the performance of tungsten at the ITER divertor vertical targets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Temmerman, G.; Hirai, T.; Pitts, R. A.

    2018-04-01

    The tungsten (W) material in the high heat flux regions of the ITER divertor will be exposed to high fluxes of low-energy particles (e.g. H, D, T, He, Ne and/or N). Combined with long-pulse operations, this implies fluences well in excess of the highest values reached in today’s tokamak experiments. Shaping of the individual monoblock top surface and tilting of the vertical targets for leading-edge protection lead to an increased surface heat flux, and thus increased surface temperature and a reduced margin to remain below the temperature at which recrystallization and grain growth begin. Significant morphology changes are known to occur on W after exposure to high fluences of low-energy particles, be it H or He. An analysis of the formation conditions of these morphology changes is made in relation to the conditions expected at the vertical targets during different phases of operations. It is concluded that both H and He-related effects can occur in ITER. In particular, the case of He-induced nanostructure (also known as ‘fuzz’) is reviewed. Fuzz formation appears possible over a limited region of the outer vertical target, the inner target being generally a net Be deposition area. A simple analysis of the fuzz growth rate including the effect of edge-localized modes (ELMs) and the reduced thermal conductivity of fuzz shows that the fuzz thickness is likely to be limited by the occurrence of annealing during ELM-induced thermal excursions. Not only the morphology, but the material mechanical and thermal properties can be modified by plasma exposure. A review of the existing literature is made, but the existing data are insufficient to conclude quantitatively on the importance and extent of these effects for ITER. As a consequence of the high surface temperatures in ITER, W recrystallization is an important effect to consider, since it leads to a decrease in material strength. An approach is proposed here to develop an operational budget for the W material, i.e. the time the divertor material can be operated at a given temperature before a significant fraction of the material is recrystallized. In general, while it is clear that significant surface damage can occur during ITER operations, the tolerable level of damage in terms of plasma operations currently remains unknown.

  20. A Three-Phase Microgrid Restoration Model Considering Unbalanced Operation of Distributed Generation

    DOE PAGES

    Wang, Zeyu; Wang, Jianhui; Chen, Chen

    2016-12-07

    Recent severe outages highlight the urgency of improving grid resiliency in the U.S. Microgrid formation schemes are proposed to restore critical loads after outages occur. Most distribution networks have unbalanced configurations that are not represented in sufficient detail by single-phase models. This study provides a microgrid formation plan that adopts a three-phase network model to represent unbalanced distribution networks. The problem formulation has a quadratic objective function with mixed-integer linear constraints. The three-phase network model enables us to examine the three-phase power outputs of distributed generators (DGs), preventing unbalanced operation that might trip DGs. Because the DG unbalanced operation constraintmore » is non-convex, an iterative process is presented that checks whether the unbalanced operation limits for DGs are satisfied after each iteration of optimization. We also develop a relatively conservative linear approximation on the unbalanced operation constraint to handle larger networks. Compared with the iterative solution process, the conservative linear approximation is able to accelerate the solution process at the cost of sacrificing optimality to a limited extent. Simulation in the IEEE 34 node and IEEE 123 test feeders indicate that the proposed method yields more practical microgrid formations results. In addition, this paper explores the coordinated operation of DGs and energy storage (ES) installations. The unbalanced three-phase outputs of ESs combined with the relatively balanced outputs of DGs could supply unbalanced loads. In conclusion, the case study also validates the DG-ES coordination.« less

  1. A Three-Phase Microgrid Restoration Model Considering Unbalanced Operation of Distributed Generation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Zeyu; Wang, Jianhui; Chen, Chen

    Recent severe outages highlight the urgency of improving grid resiliency in the U.S. Microgrid formation schemes are proposed to restore critical loads after outages occur. Most distribution networks have unbalanced configurations that are not represented in sufficient detail by single-phase models. This study provides a microgrid formation plan that adopts a three-phase network model to represent unbalanced distribution networks. The problem formulation has a quadratic objective function with mixed-integer linear constraints. The three-phase network model enables us to examine the three-phase power outputs of distributed generators (DGs), preventing unbalanced operation that might trip DGs. Because the DG unbalanced operation constraintmore » is non-convex, an iterative process is presented that checks whether the unbalanced operation limits for DGs are satisfied after each iteration of optimization. We also develop a relatively conservative linear approximation on the unbalanced operation constraint to handle larger networks. Compared with the iterative solution process, the conservative linear approximation is able to accelerate the solution process at the cost of sacrificing optimality to a limited extent. Simulation in the IEEE 34 node and IEEE 123 test feeders indicate that the proposed method yields more practical microgrid formations results. In addition, this paper explores the coordinated operation of DGs and energy storage (ES) installations. The unbalanced three-phase outputs of ESs combined with the relatively balanced outputs of DGs could supply unbalanced loads. In conclusion, the case study also validates the DG-ES coordination.« less

  2. ICRH system performance during ITER-Like Wall operations at JET and the outlook for DT campaign

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Monakhov, Igor; Blackman, Trevor; Dumortier, Pierre; Durodié, Frederic; Jacquet, Philippe; Lerche, Ernesto; Noble, Craig

    2017-10-01

    Performance of JET ICRH system since installation of the metal ITER-Like Wall (ILW) has been assessed statistically. The data demonstrate steady increase of the RF power coupled to plasmas over recent years with the maximum pulse-average and peak values exceeding respectively 6MW and 8MW in 2016. Analysis and extrapolation of power capabilities of conventional JET ICRH antennas is provided and key performance-limiting factors are discussed. The RF plant operational frequency options are presented highlighting the issues of efficient ICRH application within a foreseeable range of DT plasma scenarios.

  3. Ideal MHD stability and performance of ITER steady-state scenarios with ITBs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, F. M.; Kessel, C. E.; Chance, M. S.; Jardin, S. C.; Manickam, J.

    2012-06-01

    Non-inductive steady-state scenarios on ITER will need to operate with internal transport barriers (ITBs) in order to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. The large pressure gradients at the location of the internal barrier are conducive to the development of ideal MHD instabilities that may limit the plasma performance and may lead to plasma disruptions. Fully non-inductive scenario simulations with five combinations of heating and current drive sources are presented in this work, with plasma currents in the range 7-10 MA. For each configuration the linear, ideal MHD stability is analysed for variations of the Greenwald fraction and of the pressure peaking factor around the operating point, aiming at defining an operational space for stable, steady-state operations at optimized performance. It is shown that plasmas with lower hybrid heating and current drive maintain the minimum safety factor above 1.5, which is desirable in steady-state operations to avoid neoclassical tearing modes. Operating with moderate ITBs at 2/3 of the minor radius, these plasmas have a minimum safety factor above 2, are ideal MHD stable and reach Q ≳ 5 operating above the ideal no-wall limit.

  4. Examinations for leak tightness of actively cooled components in ITER and fusion devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hirai, T.; Barabash, V.; Carrat, R.; Chappuis, Ph; Durocher, A.; Escourbiac, F.; Merola, M.; Raffray, R.; Worth, L.; Boscary, J.; Chantant, M.; Chuilon, B.; Guilhem, D.; Hatchressian, J.-C.; Hong, S. H.; Kim, K. M.; Masuzaki, S.; Mogaki, K.; Nicolai, D.; Wilson, D.; Yao, D.

    2017-12-01

    Any leak in one of the ITER actively cooled components would cause significant consequences for machine operations; therefore, the risk of leak must be minimized as much as possible. In this paper, the strategy of examination to ensure leak tightness of the ITER internal components (i.e. examination of base materials, vacuum boundary joints and final components) and the hydraulic parameters for ITER internal components are summarized. The experiences of component tests, especially hot helium leak tests in recent fusion devices, were reviewed and the parameters were discussed. Through these experiences, it was confirmed that the hot He leak test was effective to detect small leak paths which were not always possible to detect by volumetric examination due to limited spatial resolution.

  5. Integrated simulations of H-mode operation in ITER including core fuelling, divertor detachment and ELM control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Polevoi, A. R.; Loarte, A.; Dux, R.; Eich, T.; Fable, E.; Coster, D.; Maruyama, S.; Medvedev, S. Yu.; Köchl, F.; Zhogolev, V. E.

    2018-05-01

    ELM mitigation to avoid melting of the tungsten (W) divertor is one of the main factors affecting plasma fuelling and detachment control at full current for high Q operation in ITER. Here we derive the ITER operational space, where ELM mitigation to avoid melting of the W divertor monoblocks top surface is not required and appropriate control of W sources and radiation in the main plasma can be ensured through ELM control by pellet pacing. We apply the experimental scaling that relates the maximum ELM energy density deposited at the divertor with the pedestal parameters and this eliminates the uncertainty related with the ELM wetted area for energy deposition at the divertor and enables the definition of the ITER operating space through global plasma parameters. Our evaluation is thus based on this empirical scaling for ELM power loads together with the scaling for the pedestal pressure limit based on predictions from stability codes. In particular, our analysis has revealed that for the pedestal pressure predicted by the EPED1  +  SOLPS scaling, ELM mitigation to avoid melting of the W divertor monoblocks top surface may not be required for 2.65 T H-modes with normalized pedestal densities (to the Greenwald limit) larger than 0.5 to a level of current of 6.5–7.5 MA, which depends on assumptions on the divertor power flux during ELMs and between ELMs that expand the range of experimental uncertainties. The pellet and gas fuelling requirements compatible with control of plasma detachment, core plasma tungsten accumulation and H-mode operation (including post-ELM W transient radiation) have been assessed by 1.5D transport simulations for a range of assumptions regarding W re-deposition at the divertor including the most conservative assumption of zero prompt re-deposition. With such conservative assumptions, the post-ELM W transient radiation imposes a very stringent limit on ELM energy losses and the associated minimum required ELM frequency. Depending on W transport assumptions during the ELM, a maximum ELM frequency is also identified above which core tungsten accumulation takes place.

  6. High internal inductance for steady-state operation in ITER and a reactor

    DOE PAGES

    Ferron, John R.; Holcomb, Christopher T.; Luce, Timothy C.; ...

    2015-06-26

    Increased confinement and ideal stability limits at relatively high values of the internal inductance (more » $${{\\ell}_{i}}$$ ) have enabled an attractive scenario for steady-state tokamak operation to be demonstrated in DIII-D. Normalized plasma pressure in the range appropriate for a reactor has been achieved in high elongation and triangularity double-null divertor discharges with $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}\\approx 5$$ at $${{\\ell}_{i}}\\approx 1.3$$ , near the ideal $n=1$ kink stability limit calculated without the effect of a stabilizing vacuum vessel wall, with the ideal-wall limit still higher at $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}>5.5$$ . Confinement is above the H-mode level with $${{H}_{98\\left(\\text{y},2\\right)}}\\approx 1.8$$ . At $${{q}_{95}}\\approx 7.5$$ , the current is overdriven, with bootstrap current fraction $${{f}_{\\text{BS}}}\\approx 0.8$$ , noninductive current fraction $${{f}_{\\text{NI}}}>1$$ and negative surface voltage. For ITER (which has a single-null divertor shape), operation at $${{\\ell}_{i}}\\approx 1$$ is a promising option with $${{f}_{\\text{BS}}}\\approx 0.5$$ and the remaining current driven externally near the axis where the electron cyclotron current drive efficiency is high. This scenario has been tested in the ITER shape in DIII-D at $${{q}_{95}}=4.8$$ , so far reaching $${{f}_{\\text{NI}}}=0.7$$ and $${{f}_{\\text{BS}}}=0.4$$ at $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}\\approx 3.5$$ with performance appropriate for the ITER Q=5 mission, $${{H}_{89}}{{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}/q_{95}^{2}\\approx 0.3$$ . Modeling studies explored how increased current drive power for DIII-D could be applied to maintain a stationary, fully noninductive high $${{\\ell}_{i}}$$ discharge. Lastly, stable solutions in the double-null shape are found without the vacuum vessel wall at $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}=4$$ , $${{\\ell}_{i}}=1.07$$ and $${{f}_{\\text{BS}}}=0.5$$ , and at $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}=5$$ with the vacuum vessel wall.« less

  7. GPU-accelerated iterative reconstruction for limited-data tomography in CBCT systems.

    PubMed

    de Molina, Claudia; Serrano, Estefania; Garcia-Blas, Javier; Carretero, Jesus; Desco, Manuel; Abella, Monica

    2018-05-15

    Standard cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) involves the acquisition of at least 360 projections rotating through 360 degrees. Nevertheless, there are cases in which only a few projections can be taken in a limited angular span, such as during surgery, where rotation of the source-detector pair is limited to less than 180 degrees. Reconstruction of limited data with the conventional method proposed by Feldkamp, Davis and Kress (FDK) results in severe artifacts. Iterative methods may compensate for the lack of data by including additional prior information, although they imply a high computational burden and memory consumption. We present an accelerated implementation of an iterative method for CBCT following the Split Bregman formulation, which reduces computational time through GPU-accelerated kernels. The implementation enables the reconstruction of large volumes (>1024 3 pixels) using partitioning strategies in forward- and back-projection operations. We evaluated the algorithm on small-animal data for different scenarios with different numbers of projections, angular span, and projection size. Reconstruction time varied linearly with the number of projections and quadratically with projection size but remained almost unchanged with angular span. Forward- and back-projection operations represent 60% of the total computational burden. Efficient implementation using parallel processing and large-memory management strategies together with GPU kernels enables the use of advanced reconstruction approaches which are needed in limited-data scenarios. Our GPU implementation showed a significant time reduction (up to 48 ×) compared to a CPU-only implementation, resulting in a total reconstruction time from several hours to few minutes.

  8. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Garofalo, Andrea M.; Burrell, Keith H.; Eldon, David

    For the first time, DIII-D experiments have achieved stationary quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) operation for many energy confinement times at simultaneous ITER-relevant values of beta, confinement, and safety factor, in an ITER similar shape. QH-mode provides excellent energy confinement, even at very low plasma rotation, while operating without edge localized modes (ELMs) and with strong impurity transport via the benign edge harmonic oscillation (EHO). By tailoring the plasma shape to improve the edge stability, the QH-mode operating space has also been extended to densities exceeding 80% of the Greenwald limit, overcoming the long-standing low-density limit of QH-mode operation. In the theory,more » the density range over which the plasma encounters the kink-peeling boundary widens as the plasma cross-section shaping is increased, thus increasing the QH-mode density threshold. Here, the DIII-D results are in excellent agreement with these predictions, and nonlinear MHD analysis of reconstructed QH-mode equilibria shows unstable low n kink-peeling modes growing to a saturated level, consistent with the theoretical picture of the EHO. Furthermore, high density operation in the QH-mode regime has opened a path to a new, previously predicted region of parameter space, named “Super H-mode” because it is characterized by very high pedestals that can be more than a factor of two above the peeling-ballooning stability limit for similar ELMing H-mode discharges at the same density.« less

  9. External heating and current drive source requirements towards steady-state operation in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, F. M.; Kessel, C. E.; Bonoli, P. T.; Batchelor, D. B.; Harvey, R. W.; Snyder, P. B.

    2014-07-01

    Steady state scenarios envisaged for ITER aim at optimizing the bootstrap current, while maintaining sufficient confinement and stability to provide the necessary fusion yield. Non-inductive scenarios will need to operate with internal transport barriers (ITBs) in order to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. However, the large pressure gradients associated with ITBs in regions of weak or negative magnetic shear can be conducive to ideal MHD instabilities, reducing the no-wall limit. The E × B flow shear from toroidal plasma rotation is expected to be low in ITER, with a major role in the ITB dynamics being played by magnetic geometry. Combinations of heating and current drive (H/CD) sources that sustain reversed magnetic shear profiles throughout the discharge are the focus of this work. Time-dependent transport simulations indicate that a combination of electron cyclotron (EC) and lower hybrid (LH) waves is a promising route towards steady state operation in ITER. The LH forms and sustains expanded barriers and the EC deposition at mid-radius freezes the bootstrap current profile stabilizing the barrier and leading to confinement levels 50% higher than typical H-mode energy confinement times. Using LH spectra with spectrum centred on parallel refractive index of 1.75-1.85, the performance of these plasma scenarios is close to the ITER target of 9 MA non-inductive current, global confinement gain H98 = 1.6 and fusion gain Q = 5.

  10. A Framework for Synthesizing the United States Code in Support of Cyberspace Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-03-01

    inter- title operations, it is unclear whether this de facto shift in the application of U.S.C. statutes is necessary. The U.S.C. has a limited number of...de facto shift in the application of U.S.C. statutes is necessary. The U.S.C. has a limited number of exclusionary distinctions de jure, which is...NATION STATE Though statecraft has progressed through numerous iterations over the course of human history, in the current post -colonial era, the

  11. Review of the ITER diagnostics suite for erosion, deposition, dust and tritium measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reichle, R.; Andrew, P.; Bates, P.; Bede, O.; Casal, N.; Choi, C. H.; Barnsley, R.; Damiani, C.; Bertalot, L.; Dubus, G.; Ferreol, J.; Jagannathan, G.; Kocan, M.; Leipold, F.; Lisgo, S. W.; Martin, V.; Palmer, J.; Pearce, R.; Philipps, V.; Pitts, R. A.; Pampin, R.; Passedat, G.; Puiu, A.; Suarez, A.; Shigin, P.; Shu, W.; Vayakis, G.; Veshchev, E.; Walsh, M.

    2015-08-01

    Dust and tritium inventories in the vacuum vessel have upper limits in ITER that are set by nuclear safety requirements. Erosion, migration and re-deposition of wall material together with fuel co-deposition will be largely responsible for these inventories. The diagnostic suite required to monitor these processes, along with the set of the corresponding measurement requirements is currently under review given the recent decision by the ITER Organization to eliminate the first carbon/tungsten (C/W) divertor and begin operations with a full-W variant Pitts et al. [1]. This paper presents the result of this review as well as the status of the chosen diagnostics.

  12. Control of particle and power exhaust in pellet fuelled ITER DT scenarios employing integrated models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wiesen, S.; Köchl, F.; Belo, P.; Kotov, V.; Loarte, A.; Parail, V.; Corrigan, G.; Garzotti, L.; Harting, D.

    2017-07-01

    The integrated model JINTRAC is employed to assess the dynamic density evolution of the ITER baseline scenario when fuelled by discrete pellets. The consequences on the core confinement properties, α-particle heating due to fusion and the effect on the ITER divertor operation, taking into account the material limitations on the target heat loads, are discussed within the integrated model. Using the model one can observe that stable but cyclical operational regimes can be achieved for a pellet-fuelled ITER ELMy H-mode scenario with Q  =  10 maintaining partially detached conditions in the divertor. It is shown that the level of divertor detachment is inversely correlated with the core plasma density due to α-particle heating, and thus depends on the density evolution cycle imposed by pellet ablations. The power crossing the separatrix to be dissipated depends on the enhancement of the transport in the pedestal region being linked with the pressure gradient evolution after pellet injection. The fuelling efficacy of the deposited pellet material is strongly dependent on the E  ×  B plasmoid drift. It is concluded that integrated models like JINTRAC, if validated and supported by realistic physics constraints, may help to establish suitable control schemes of particle and power exhaust in burning ITER DT-plasma scenarios.

  13. ELM mitigation techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, T. E.

    2013-07-01

    Large edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques must be developed to help ensure the success of burning and ignited fusion plasma devices such as tokamaks and stellarators. In full performance ITER tokamak discharges, with QDT = 10, the energy released by a single ELM could reach ˜30 MJ which is expected to result in an energy density of 10-15 MJ/m2on the divertor targets. This will exceed the estimated divertor ablation limit by a factor of 20-30. A worldwide research program is underway to develop various types of ELM control techniques in preparation for ITER H-mode plasma operations. An overview of the ELM control techniques currently being developed is discussed along with the requirements for applying these techniques to plasmas in ITER. Particular emphasis is given to the primary approaches, pellet pacing and resonant magnetic perturbation fields, currently being considered for ITER.

  14. Flat Tile Armour Cooled by Hypervapotron Tube: a Possible Technology for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schlosser, J.; Escourbiac, F.; Merola, M.; Schedler, B.; Bayetti, P.; Missirlian, M.; Mitteau, R.; Robin-Vastra, I.

    Carbon fibre composite (CFC) flat tile armours for actively cooled plasma facing components (PFC’s) are an important challenge for controlled fusion machines. Flat tile concepts, water cooled by tubes, were studied, developed, tested and finally operated with success in Tore Supra. The components were designed for 10 MW/m2 and mock-ups were successfully fatigue tested at 15 MW/m2, 1000 cycles. For ITER, a tube-in-tile concept was developed and mock-ups sustained up to 25 MW/m2 for 1000 cycles without failure. Recently flat tile armoured mock-ups cooled by a hypervapotron tube successfully sustained a cascade failure test under a mean heat flux of 10 MW/m2 but with a doubling of the heat flux on some tiles to simulate missing tiles (500 cycles). This encouraging results lead to reconsider the limits for flat tile concept when cooled by hypervapotron (HV) tube. New tests are now scheduled to investigate these limits in regard to the ITER requirements. Experimental evidence of the concept could be gained in Tore Supra by installing a new limiter into the machine.

  15. Operation of large RF sources for H-: Lessons learned at ELISE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fantz, U.; Wünderlich, D.; Heinemann, B.; Kraus, W.; Riedl, R.

    2017-08-01

    The goal of the ELISE test facility is to demonstrate that large RF-driven negative ion sources (1 × 1 m2 source area with 360 kW installed RF power) can achieve the parameters required for the ITER beam sources in terms of current densities and beam homogeneity at a filling pressure of 0.3 Pa for pulse lengths of up to one hour. With the experience in operation of the test facility, the beam source inspection and maintenance as well as with the results of the achieved source performance so far, conclusions are drawn for commissioning and operation of the ITER beam sources. Addressed are critical technical RF issues, extrapolations to the required RF power, Cs consumption and Cs ovens, the need of adjusting the magnetic filter field strength as well as the temporal dynamic and spatial asymmetry of the co-extracted electron current. It is proposed to relax the low pressure limit to 0.4 Pa and to replace the fixed electron-to-ion ratio by a power density limit for the extraction grid. This would be highly beneficial for controlling the co-extracted electrons.

  16. First operation with the JET International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor-like walla)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neu, R.; Arnoux, G.; Beurskens, M.; Bobkov, V.; Brezinsek, S.; Bucalossi, J.; Calabro, G.; Challis, C.; Coenen, J. W.; de la Luna, E.; de Vries, P. C.; Dux, R.; Frassinetti, L.; Giroud, C.; Groth, M.; Hobirk, J.; Joffrin, E.; Lang, P.; Lehnen, M.; Lerche, E.; Loarer, T.; Lomas, P.; Maddison, G.; Maggi, C.; Matthews, G.; Marsen, S.; Mayoral, M.-L.; Meigs, A.; Mertens, Ph.; Nunes, I.; Philipps, V.; Pütterich, T.; Rimini, F.; Sertoli, M.; Sieglin, B.; Sips, A. C. C.; van Eester, D.; van Rooij, G.; JET-EFDA Contributors

    2013-05-01

    To consolidate International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) design choices and prepare for its operation, Joint European Torus (JET) has implemented ITER's plasma facing materials, namely, Be for the main wall and W in the divertor. In addition, protection systems, diagnostics, and the vertical stability control were upgraded and the heating capability of the neutral beams was increased to over 30 MW. First results confirm the expected benefits and the limitations of all metal plasma facing components (PFCs) but also yield understanding of operational issues directly relating to ITER. H-retention is lower by at least a factor of 10 in all operational scenarios compared to that with C PFCs. The lower C content (≈ factor 10) has led to much lower radiation during the plasma burn-through phase eliminating breakdown failures. Similarly, the intrinsic radiation observed during disruptions is very low, leading to high power loads and to a slow current quench. Massive gas injection using a D2/Ar mixture restores levels of radiation and vessel forces similar to those of mitigated disruptions with the C wall. Dedicated L-H transition experiments indicate a 30% power threshold reduction, a distinct minimum density, and a pronounced shape dependence. The L-mode density limit was found to be up to 30% higher than for C allowing stable detached divertor operation over a larger density range. Stable H-modes as well as the hybrid scenario could be re-established only when using gas puff levels of a few 1021 es-1. On average, the confinement is lower with the new PFCs, but nevertheless, H factors up to 1 (H-Mode) and 1.3 (at βN≈3, hybrids) have been achieved with W concentrations well below the maximum acceptable level.

  17. Physics and Engineering Design of the ITER Electron Cyclotron Emission Diagnostic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rowan, W. L.; Austin, M. E.; Houshmandyar, S.; Phillips, P. E.; Beno, J. H.; Ouroua, A.; Weeks, D. A.; Hubbard, A. E.; Stillerman, J. A.; Feder, R. E.; Khodak, A.; Taylor, G.; Pandya, H. K.; Danani, S.; Kumar, R.

    2015-11-01

    Electron temperature (Te) measurements and consequent electron thermal transport inferences will be critical to the non-active phases of ITER operation and will take on added importance during the alpha heating phase. Here, we describe our design for the diagnostic that will measure spatial and temporal profiles of Te using electron cyclotron emission (ECE). Other measurement capability includes high frequency instabilities (e.g. ELMs, NTMs, and TAEs). Since results from TFTR and JET suggest that Thomson Scattering and ECE differ at high Te due to driven non-Maxwellian distributions, non-thermal features of the ITER electron distribution must be documented. The ITER environment presents other challenges including space limitations, vacuum requirements, and very high-neutron-fluence. Plasma control in ITER will require real-time Te. The diagnosic design that evolved from these sometimes-conflicting needs and requirements will be described component by component with special emphasis on the integration to form a single effective diagnostic system. Supported by PPPL/US-DA via subcontract S013464-C to UT Austin.

  18. The quiescent H-mode regime for high performance edge localized mode-stable operation in future burning plasmas [The quiescent H-mode regime for high performance ELM-stable operation in future burning plasmas

    DOE PAGES

    Garofalo, Andrea M.; Burrell, Keith H.; Eldon, David; ...

    2015-05-26

    For the first time, DIII-D experiments have achieved stationary quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) operation for many energy confinement times at simultaneous ITER-relevant values of beta, confinement, and safety factor, in an ITER similar shape. QH-mode provides excellent energy confinement, even at very low plasma rotation, while operating without edge localized modes (ELMs) and with strong impurity transport via the benign edge harmonic oscillation (EHO). By tailoring the plasma shape to improve the edge stability, the QH-mode operating space has also been extended to densities exceeding 80% of the Greenwald limit, overcoming the long-standing low-density limit of QH-mode operation. In the theory,more » the density range over which the plasma encounters the kink-peeling boundary widens as the plasma cross-section shaping is increased, thus increasing the QH-mode density threshold. Here, the DIII-D results are in excellent agreement with these predictions, and nonlinear MHD analysis of reconstructed QH-mode equilibria shows unstable low n kink-peeling modes growing to a saturated level, consistent with the theoretical picture of the EHO. Furthermore, high density operation in the QH-mode regime has opened a path to a new, previously predicted region of parameter space, named “Super H-mode” because it is characterized by very high pedestals that can be more than a factor of two above the peeling-ballooning stability limit for similar ELMing H-mode discharges at the same density.« less

  19. A stepladder approach to a tokamak fusion power plant

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zohm, H.; Träuble, F.; Biel, W.; Fable, E.; Kemp, R.; Lux, H.; Siccinio, M.; Wenninger, R.

    2017-08-01

    We present an approach to design in a consistent way a stepladder connecting ITER, DEMO and an FPP, starting from an attractive FPP and then locating DEMO such that main similarity parameters for the core scenario are constant. The approach presented suggests how to use ITER such that DEMO can be extrapolated with maximum confidence and a development path for plasma scenarios in ITER follows from our approach, moving from low β N and q typical for the present Q  =  10 scenario to higher values needed for steady state. A numerical example is given, indicative of the feasibility of the approach, and it is backed up by more detailed 1.5-D calculation using the ASTRA code. We note that ideal MHD stability analysis of the DEMO operating point indicates that it is located between the no-wall and the ideal wall β-limit, which may require active stabilization. The DEMO design could also be a pulsed fallback solution should a stationary operation turn out to be impossible.

  20. Pushing Memory Bandwidth Limitations Through Efficient Implementations of Block-Krylov Space Solvers on GPUs

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Clark, M. A.; Strelchenko, Alexei; Vaquero, Alejandro

    Lattice quantum chromodynamics simulations in nuclear physics have benefited from a tremendous number of algorithmic advances such as multigrid and eigenvector deflation. These improve the time to solution but do not alleviate the intrinsic memory-bandwidth constraints of the matrix-vector operation dominating iterative solvers. Batching this operation for multiple vectors and exploiting cache and register blocking can yield a super-linear speed up. Block-Krylov solvers can naturally take advantage of such batched matrix-vector operations, further reducing the iterations to solution by sharing the Krylov space between solves. However, practical implementations typically suffer from the quadratic scaling in the number of vector-vector operations.more » Using the QUDA library, we present an implementation of a block-CG solver on NVIDIA GPUs which reduces the memory-bandwidth complexity of vector-vector operations from quadratic to linear. We present results for the HISQ discretization, showing a 5x speedup compared to highly-optimized independent Krylov solves on NVIDIA's SaturnV cluster.« less

  1. Techniques for Accelerating Iterative Methods for the Solution of Mathematical Problems

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-07-01

    m, we can find a solu ion to the problem by using generalized inverses. Hence, ;= Ih.i = GAi = G - where G is of the form (18). A simple choice for V...have understood why I was not available for many of their activities and not home many of the nights. Their love is forever. I have saved the best for...Xk) Extrapolation applied to terms xP through Xk F Operator on x G Iteration function Ik Identity matrix of rank k Solution of the problem or the limit

  2. The high-βN hybrid scenario for ITER and FNSF steady-state missions

    DOE PAGES

    Turco, Francesca; Petty, Clinton C.; Luce, Timothy C.; ...

    2015-05-15

    New experiments on DIII-D have demonstrated the steady-state potential of the hybrid scenario, with 1 MA of plasma current driven fully non-inductively and βN up to 3.7 sustained for ~3 s (~1.5 current diffusion time, τ R, in DIII-D), providing the basis for an attractive option for steady-state operation in ITER and FNSF. Excellent confinement is achieved (H 98y2~1.6) without performance limiting tearing modes. Furthermore, the hybrid regime overcomes the need for off-axis current drive efficiency, taking advantage of poloidal magnetic flux pumping that is believed to be the result of a saturated 3/2 tearing mode. This allows for efficientmore » current drive close to the axis, without deleterious sawtooth instabilities. In these experiments, the edge surface loop voltage is driven down to zero for >1 τ R when the poloidal β is increased above 1.9 at a plasma current of 1.0 MA and the ECH power is increased to 3.2 MW. Stationary operation of hybrid plasmas with all on-axis current drive is sustained at pressures slightly above the ideal no-wall limit, while the calculated ideal with-wall MHD limit is β N~4-4.5. Off-axis NBI power has been used to broaden the pressure and current profiles in this scenario, seeking to take advantage of higher predicted kink stability limits and lower values of the tearing stability index Δ', as calculated by the DCON and PEST3 codes. Our results are based on measured profiles that predict ideal limits at βN>4.5, 10% higher than the cases with on-axis NBI. A 0-D model, based on the present confinement, βN and shape values of the DIII-D hybrid scenario, shows that these plasmas are consistent with the ITER 9 MA, Q=5 mission and the FNSF 6.7 MA scenario with Q=3.5. With collisionality and edge safety factor values comparable to those envisioned for ITER and FNSF, the high-βN hybrid represents an attractive high performance option for the steady-state missions of these devices.« less

  3. A fast iterative scheme for the linearized Boltzmann equation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Lei; Zhang, Jun; Liu, Haihu; Zhang, Yonghao; Reese, Jason M.

    2017-06-01

    Iterative schemes to find steady-state solutions to the Boltzmann equation are efficient for highly rarefied gas flows, but can be very slow to converge in the near-continuum flow regime. In this paper, a synthetic iterative scheme is developed to speed up the solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation by penalizing the collision operator L into the form L = (L + Nδh) - Nδh, where δ is the gas rarefaction parameter, h is the velocity distribution function, and N is a tuning parameter controlling the convergence rate. The velocity distribution function is first solved by the conventional iterative scheme, then it is corrected such that the macroscopic flow velocity is governed by a diffusion-type equation that is asymptotic-preserving into the Navier-Stokes limit. The efficiency of this new scheme is assessed by calculating the eigenvalue of the iteration, as well as solving for Poiseuille and thermal transpiration flows. We find that the fastest convergence of our synthetic scheme for the linearized Boltzmann equation is achieved when Nδ is close to the average collision frequency. The synthetic iterative scheme is significantly faster than the conventional iterative scheme in both the transition and the near-continuum gas flow regimes. Moreover, due to its asymptotic-preserving properties, the synthetic iterative scheme does not need high spatial resolution in the near-continuum flow regime, which makes it even faster than the conventional iterative scheme. Using this synthetic scheme, with the fast spectral approximation of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator, Poiseuille and thermal transpiration flows between two parallel plates, through channels of circular/rectangular cross sections and various porous media are calculated over the whole range of gas rarefaction. Finally, the flow of a Ne-Ar gas mixture is solved based on the linearized Boltzmann equation with the Lennard-Jones intermolecular potential for the first time, and the difference between these results and those using the hard-sphere potential is discussed.

  4. Solving the multiple-set split equality common fixed-point problem of firmly quasi-nonexpansive operators.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Jing; Zong, Haili

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we propose parallel and cyclic iterative algorithms for solving the multiple-set split equality common fixed-point problem of firmly quasi-nonexpansive operators. We also combine the process of cyclic and parallel iterative methods and propose two mixed iterative algorithms. Our several algorithms do not need any prior information about the operator norms. Under mild assumptions, we prove weak convergence of the proposed iterative sequences in Hilbert spaces. As applications, we obtain several iterative algorithms to solve the multiple-set split equality problem.

  5. ITER-FEAT operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shimomura, Y.; Aymar, R.; Chuyanov, V. A.; Huguet, M.; Matsumoto, H.; Mizoguchi, T.; Murakami, Y.; Polevoi, A. R.; Shimada, M.; ITER Joint Central Team; ITER Home Teams

    2001-03-01

    ITER is planned to be the first fusion experimental reactor in the world operating for research in physics and engineering. The first ten years of operation will be devoted primarily to physics issues at low neutron fluence and the following ten years of operation to engineering testing at higher fluence. ITER can accommodate various plasma configurations and plasma operation modes, such as inductive high Q modes, long pulse hybrid modes and non-inductive steady state modes, with large ranges of plasma current, density, beta and fusion power, and with various heating and current drive methods. This flexibility will provide an advantage for coping with uncertainties in the physics database, in studying burning plasmas, in introducing advanced features and in optimizing the plasma performance for the different programme objectives. Remote sites will be able to participate in the ITER experiment. This concept will provide an advantage not only in operating ITER for 24 hours a day but also in involving the worldwide fusion community and in promoting scientific competition among the ITER Parties.

  6. Investigation of Physical Processes Limiting Plasma Density in DIII--D

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maingi, R.

    1996-11-01

    Understanding the physical processes which limit operating density is crucial in achieving peak performance in confined plasmas. Studies from many of the world's tokamaks have indicated the existence(M. Greenwald, et al., Nucl. Fusion 28) (1988) 2199 of an operational density limit (Greenwald limit, n^GW_max) which is proportional to the plasma current and independent of heating power. Several theories have reproduced the current dependence, but the lack of a heating power dependence in the data has presented an enigma. This limit impacts the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) because the nominal operating density for ITER is 1.5 × n^GW_max. In DIII-D, experiments are being conducted to understand the physical processes which limit operating density in H-mode discharges; these processes include X-point MARFE formation, high core recycling and neutral pressure, resistive MHD stability, and core radiative collapse. These processes affect plasma properties, i.e. edge/scrape-off layer conduction and radiation, edge pressure gradient and plasma current density profile, and core radiation, which in turn restrict the accessible density regime. With divertor pumping and D2 pellet fueling, core neutral pressure is reduced and X-point MARFE formation is effectively eliminated. Injection of the largest-sized pellets does cause transient formation of divertor MARFEs which occasionally migrate to the X-point, but these are rapidly extinguished in pumped discharges in the time between pellets. In contrast to Greenwald et al., it is found that the density relaxation time after pellets is largely independent of the density relative to the Greenwald limit. Fourier analysis of Mirnov oscillations indicates the de-stabilization and growth of rotating, tearing-type modes (m/n= 2/1) when the injected pellets cause large density perturbations, and these modes often reduce energy confinement back to L-mode levels. We are examining the mechanisms for de-stabilization of the mode, the primary ones being neo-classical pressure gradient drivers. Discharges with a gradual density increase are often free of large amplitude tearing modes, allowing access to the highest density regimes in which off-axis beam deposition can lead to core radiative collapse, i.e. a central power balance limit. The highest achieved barne was 1.5 × n^GW_max with τ_E/τ_E^JET-DIII-D >= 0.9. The highest density obtained in L-mode discharges was 3 × n^GW_max. Implications of these results for ITER will be discussed.

  7. Progressing in cable-in-conduit for fusion magnets: from ITER to low cost, high performance DEMO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Uglietti, D.; Sedlak, K.; Wesche, R.; Bruzzone, P.; Muzzi, L.; della Corte, A.

    2018-05-01

    The performance of ITER toroidal field (TF) conductors still have a significant margin for improvement because the effective strain between ‑0.62% and ‑0.95% limits the strands’ critical current between 15% and 45% of the maximum achievable. Prototype Nb3Sn cable-in-conduit conductors have been designed, manufactured and tested in the frame of the EUROfusion DEMO activities. In these conductors the effective strain has shown a clear improvement with respect to the ITER conductors, reaching values between ‑0.55% and ‑0.28%, resulting in a strand critical current which is two to three times higher than in ITER conductors. In terms of the amount of Nb3Sn strand required for the construction of the DEMO TF magnet system, such improvement may lead to a reduction of at least a factor of two with respect to a similar magnet built with ITER type conductors; a further saving of Nb3Sn is possible if graded conductors/windings are employed. In the best case the DEMO TF magnet could require fewer Nb3Sn strands than the ITER one, despite the larger size of DEMO. Moreover high performance conductors could be operated at higher fields than ITER TF conductors, enabling the construction of low cost, compact, high field tokamaks.

  8. Status of US ITER Diagnostics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stratton, B.; Delgado-Aparicio, L.; Hill, K.; Johnson, D.; Pablant, N.; Barnsley, R.; Bertschinger, G.; de Bock, M. F. M.; Reichle, R.; Udintsev, V. S.; Watts, C.; Austin, M.; Phillips, P.; Beiersdorfer, P.; Biewer, T. M.; Hanson, G.; Klepper, C. C.; Carlstrom, T.; van Zeeland, M. A.; Brower, D.; Doyle, E.; Peebles, A.; Ellis, R.; Levinton, F.; Yuh, H.

    2013-10-01

    The US is providing 7 diagnostics to ITER: the Upper Visible/IR cameras, the Low Field Side Reflectometer, the Motional Stark Effect diagnostic, the Electron Cyclotron Emission diagnostic, the Toroidal Interferometer/Polarimeter, the Core Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer, and the Diagnostic Residual Gas Analyzer. The front-end components of these systems must operate with high reliability in conditions of long pulse operation, high neutron and gamma fluxes, very high neutron fluence, significant neutron heating (up to 7 MW/m3) , large radiant and charge exchange heat flux (0.35 MW/m2) , and high electromagnetic loads. Opportunities for repair and maintenance of these components will be limited. These conditions lead to significant challenges for the design of the diagnostics. Space constraints, provision of adequate radiation shielding, and development of repair and maintenance strategies are challenges for diagnostic integration into the port plugs that also affect diagnostic design. The current status of design of the US ITER diagnostics is presented and R&D needs are identified. Supported by DOE contracts DE-AC02-09CH11466 (PPPL) and DE-AC05-00OR22725 (UT-Battelle, LLC).

  9. Seismic Design of ITER Component Cooling Water System-1 Piping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Aditya P.; Jadhav, Mahesh; Sharma, Lalit K.; Gupta, Dinesh K.; Patel, Nirav; Ranjan, Rakesh; Gohil, Guman; Patel, Hiren; Dangi, Jinendra; Kumar, Mohit; Kumar, A. G. A.

    2017-04-01

    The successful performance of ITER machine very much depends upon the effective removal of heat from the in-vessel components and other auxiliary systems during Tokamak operation. This objective will be accomplished by the design of an effective Cooling Water System (CWS). The optimized piping layout design is an important element in CWS design and is one of the major design challenges owing to the factors of large thermal expansion and seismic accelerations; considering safety, accessibility and maintainability aspects. An important sub-system of ITER CWS, Component Cooling Water System-1 (CCWS-1) has very large diameter of pipes up to DN1600 with many intersections to fulfill the process flow requirements of clients for heat removal. Pipe intersection is the weakest link in the layout due to high stress intensification factor. CCWS-1 piping up to secondary confinement isolation valves as well as in-between these isolation valves need to survive a Seismic Level-2 (SL-2) earthquake during the Tokamak operation period to ensure structural stability of the system in the Safe Shutdown Earthquake (SSE) event. This paper presents the design, qualification and optimization of layout of ITER CCWS-1 loop to withstand SSE event combined with sustained and thermal loads as per the load combinations defined by ITER and allowable limits as per ASME B31.3, This paper also highlights the Modal and Response Spectrum Analyses done to find out the natural frequency and system behavior during the seismic event.

  10. Darboux theorems and Wronskian formulas for integrable systems I. Constrained KP flows

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oevel, W.

    1993-05-01

    Generalizations of the classical Darboux theorem are established for pseudo-differential scattering operators of the form L = limit∑i=0N u i∂ i + limitΣi=1m Φ i∂ -1limitΨi†i. Iteration of the Darboux transformations leads to a gauge transformed operator with coefficients given by Wronskian formulas involving a set of eigenfunctions of L. Nonlinear integrable partial differential equations are associated with the scattering operator L which arise as a symmetry reduction of the multicomponent KP hierarchy. With a suitable linear time evolution for the eigenfunctions the Darboux transformation is used to obtain solutions of the integrable equations in terms of Wronskian determinants.

  11. On Green's function retrieval by iterative substitution of the coupled Marchenko equations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van der Neut, Joost; Vasconcelos, Ivan; Wapenaar, Kees

    2015-11-01

    Iterative substitution of the coupled Marchenko equations is a novel methodology to retrieve the Green's functions from a source or receiver array at an acquisition surface to an arbitrary location in an acoustic medium. The methodology requires as input the single-sided reflection response at the acquisition surface and an initial focusing function, being the time-reversed direct wavefield from the acquisition surface to a specified location in the subsurface. We express the iterative scheme that is applied by this methodology explicitly as the successive actions of various linear operators, acting on an initial focusing function. These operators involve multidimensional crosscorrelations with the reflection data and truncations in time. We offer physical interpretations of the multidimensional crosscorrelations by subtracting traveltimes along common ray paths at the stationary points of the underlying integrals. This provides a clear understanding of how individual events are retrieved by the scheme. Our interpretation also exposes some of the scheme's limitations in terms of what can be retrieved in case of a finite recording aperture. Green's function retrieval is only successful if the relevant stationary points are sampled. As a consequence, internal multiples can only be retrieved at a subsurface location with a particular ray parameter if this location is illuminated by the direct wavefield with this specific ray parameter. Several assumptions are required to solve the Marchenko equations. We show that these assumptions are not always satisfied in arbitrary heterogeneous media, which can result in incomplete Green's function retrieval and the emergence of artefacts. Despite these limitations, accurate Green's functions can often be retrieved by the iterative scheme, which is highly relevant for seismic imaging and inversion of internal multiple reflections.

  12. WE-AB-303-09: Rapid Projection Computations for On-Board Digital Tomosynthesis in Radiation Therapy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Iliopoulos, AS; Sun, X; Pitsianis, N

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: To facilitate fast and accurate iterative volumetric image reconstruction from limited-angle on-board projections. Methods: Intrafraction motion hinders the clinical applicability of modern radiotherapy techniques, such as lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The LIVE system may impact clinical practice by recovering volumetric information via Digital Tomosynthesis (DTS), thus entailing low time and radiation dose for image acquisition during treatment. The DTS is estimated as a deformation of prior CT via iterative registration with on-board images; this shifts the challenge to the computational domain, owing largely to repeated projection computations across iterations. We address this issue by composing efficient digitalmore » projection operators from their constituent parts. This allows us to separate the static (projection geometry) and dynamic (volume/image data) parts of projection operations by means of pre-computations, enabling fast on-board processing, while also relaxing constraints on underlying numerical models (e.g. regridding interpolation kernels). Further decoupling the projectors into simpler ones ensures the incurred memory overhead remains low, within the capacity of a single GPU. These operators depend only on the treatment plan and may be reused across iterations and patients. The dynamic processing load is kept to a minimum and maps well to the GPU computational model. Results: We have integrated efficient, pre-computable modules for volumetric ray-casting and FDK-based back-projection with the LIVE processing pipeline. Our results show a 60x acceleration of the DTS computations, compared to the previous version, using a single GPU; presently, reconstruction is attained within a couple of minutes. The present implementation allows for significant flexibility in terms of the numerical and operational projection model; we are investigating the benefit of further optimizations and accurate digital projection sub-kernels. Conclusion: Composable projection operators constitute a versatile research tool which can greatly accelerate iterative registration algorithms and may be conducive to the clinical applicability of LIVE. National Institutes of Health Grant No. R01-CA184173; GPU donation by NVIDIA Corporation.« less

  13. The high-β{sub N} hybrid scenario for ITER and FNSF steady-state missions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Turco, F.; Petty, C. C.; Luce, T. C.

    2015-05-15

    New experiments on DIII-D have demonstrated the steady-state potential of the hybrid scenario, with 1 MA of plasma current driven fully non-inductively and β{sub N} up to 3.7 sustained for ∼3 s (∼1.5 current diffusion time, τ{sub R}, in DIII-D), providing the basis for an attractive option for steady-state operation in ITER and FNSF. Excellent confinement is achieved (H{sub 98y2} ∼ 1.6) without performance limiting tearing modes. The hybrid regime overcomes the need for off-axis current drive efficiency, taking advantage of poloidal magnetic flux pumping that is believed to be the result of a saturated 3/2 tearing mode. This allows for efficient currentmore » drive close to the axis, without deleterious sawtooth instabilities. In these experiments, the edge surface loop voltage is driven down to zero for >1 τ{sub R} when the poloidal β is increased above 1.9 at a plasma current of 1.0 MA and the ECH power is increased to 3.2 MW. Stationary operation of hybrid plasmas with all on-axis current drive is sustained at pressures slightly above the ideal no-wall limit, while the calculated ideal with-wall MHD limit is β{sub N} ∼ 4–4.5. Off-axis Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) power has been used to broaden the pressure and current profiles in this scenario, seeking to take advantage of higher predicted kink stability limits and lower values of the tearing stability index Δ′, as calculated by the DCON and PEST3 codes. Results based on measured profiles predict ideal limits at β{sub N} > 4.5, 10% higher than the cases with on-axis NBI. A 0-D model, based on the present confinement, β{sub N} and shape values of the DIII-D hybrid scenario, shows that these plasmas are consistent with the ITER 9 MA, Q = 5 mission and the FNSF 6.7 MA scenario with Q = 3.5. With collisionality and edge safety factor values comparable to those envisioned for ITER and FNSF, the high-β{sub N} hybrid represents an attractive high performance option for the steady-state missions of these devices.« less

  14. Baseline Architecture of ITER Control System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wallander, A.; Di Maio, F.; Journeaux, J.-Y.; Klotz, W.-D.; Makijarvi, P.; Yonekawa, I.

    2011-08-01

    The control system of ITER consists of thousands of computers processing hundreds of thousands of signals. The control system, being the primary tool for operating the machine, shall integrate, control and coordinate all these computers and signals and allow a limited number of staff to operate the machine from a central location with minimum human intervention. The primary functions of the ITER control system are plant control, supervision and coordination, both during experimental pulses and 24/7 continuous operation. The former can be split in three phases; preparation of the experiment by defining all parameters; executing the experiment including distributed feed-back control and finally collecting, archiving, analyzing and presenting all data produced by the experiment. We define the control system as a set of hardware and software components with well defined characteristics. The architecture addresses the organization of these components and their relationship to each other. We distinguish between physical and functional architecture, where the former defines the physical connections and the latter the data flow between components. In this paper, we identify the ITER control system based on the plant breakdown structure. Then, the control system is partitioned into a workable set of bounded subsystems. This partition considers at the same time the completeness and the integration of the subsystems. The components making up subsystems are identified and defined, a naming convention is introduced and the physical networks defined. Special attention is given to timing and real-time communication for distributed control. Finally we discuss baseline technologies for implementing the proposed architecture based on analysis, market surveys, prototyping and benchmarking carried out during the last year.

  15. FORUM: Effective management of ecological resilience – are we there yet?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Spears, Bryan M.; Ives, Stephen C.; Angeler, David G.; Allen, Craig R.; Birk, Sebastian; Carvalho, Laurence; Cavers, Stephen; Daunt, Francis; Morton, R. Daniel; Pocock, Michael J. O.; Rhodes, Glenn; Thackeray, Stephen J.

    2015-01-01

    Ecological resilience is developing into a credible paradigm for policy development and environmental management for preserving natural capital in a rapidly changing world. However, resilience emerges from complex interactions, limiting the translation of theory into practice.Main limitations include the following: (i) difficulty in quantification and detection of changes in ecological resilience, (ii) a lack of empirical evidence to support preventative or proactive management and (iii) difficulties in managing processes operating across socio-ecological systems that vary in space and time.We highlight recent research with the potential to address these limitations including new and/or improved indicators of resilience and tools to assess scale as a driver of resilience.Synthesis and applications. Effective resilience-based management must be adaptive in nature. To support this, we propose an operational model using resilience-based iterative management actions operating across scales.

  16. The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility towards SPIDER operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Toigo, V.; Dal Bello, S.; Gaio, E.; Luchetta, A.; Pasqualotto, R.; Zaccaria, P.; Bigi, M.; Chitarin, G.; Marcuzzi, D.; Pomaro, N.; Serianni, G.; Agostinetti, P.; Agostini, M.; Antoni, V.; Aprile, D.; Baltador, C.; Barbisan, M.; Battistella, M.; Boldrin, M.; Brombin, M.; Dalla Palma, M.; De Lorenzi, A.; Delogu, R.; De Muri, M.; Fellin, F.; Ferro, A.; Gambetta, G.; Grando, L.; Jain, P.; Maistrello, A.; Manduchi, G.; Marconato, N.; Pavei, M.; Peruzzo, S.; Pilan, N.; Pimazzoni, A.; Piovan, R.; Recchia, M.; Rizzolo, A.; Sartori, E.; Siragusa, M.; Spada, E.; Spagnolo, S.; Spolaore, M.; Taliercio, C.; Valente, M.; Veltri, P.; Zamengo, A.; Zaniol, B.; Zanotto, L.; Zaupa, M.; Boilson, D.; Graceffa, J.; Svensson, L.; Schunke, B.; Decamps, H.; Urbani, M.; Kushwah, M.; Chareyre, J.; Singh, M.; Bonicelli, T.; Agarici, G.; Garbuglia, A.; Masiello, A.; Paolucci, F.; Simon, M.; Bailly-Maitre, L.; Bragulat, E.; Gomez, G.; Gutierrez, D.; Mico, G.; Moreno, J.-F.; Pilard, V.; Chakraborty, A.; Baruah, U.; Rotti, C.; Patel, H.; Nagaraju, M. V.; Singh, N. P.; Patel, A.; Dhola, H.; Raval, B.; Fantz, U.; Fröschle, M.; Heinemann, B.; Kraus, W.; Nocentini, R.; Riedl, R.; Schiesko, L.; Wimmer, C.; Wünderlich, D.; Cavenago, M.; Croci, G.; Gorini, G.; Rebai, M.; Muraro, A.; Tardocchi, M.; Hemsworth, R.

    2017-08-01

    SPIDER is one of two projects of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction in Padova, Italy, at the Consorzio RFX premises. It will have a 100 keV beam source with a full-size prototype of the radiofrequency ion source for the ITER neutral beam injector (NBI) and also, similar to the ITER diagnostic neutral beam, it is designed to operate with a pulse length of up to 3600 s, featuring an ITER-like magnetic filter field configuration (for high extraction of negative ions) and caesium oven (for high production of negative ions) layout as well as a wide set of diagnostics. These features will allow a reproduction of the ion source operation in ITER, which cannot be done in any other existing test facility. SPIDER realization is well advanced and the first operation is expected at the beginning of 2018, with the mission of achieving the ITER heating and diagnostic NBI ion source requirements and of improving its performance in terms of reliability and availability. This paper mainly focuses on the preparation of the first SPIDER operations—integration and testing of SPIDER components, completion and implementation of diagnostics and control and formulation of operation and research plan, based on a staged strategy.

  17. Two-wavelength LIDAR Thomson scattering for ITER core plasma

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nielsen, P.; Gowers, C.; Salzmann, H.

    2017-07-01

    Our proposal for a LIDAR Thomson scattering system to measure Te and ne profiles in the ITER core plasma, is based on experience with the LIDAR system on JET, which is still operational after 30 years. The design uses currently available technology and complies with the measurement requirements given by ITER. In addition, it offers the following advantages over the conventional imaging approach currently being adopted by ITER: 1) No gas fill of the vessel required for absolute calibration. 2) Easier alignment. 3) Measurements over almost the complete plasma diameter. 4) Two mirrors only as front optics. For a given laser wavelength the dynamic range of the Te measurements is mainly limited by the collection optics' transmission roll-off in the blue and the range of spectral sensitivity of the required fast photomultipliers. With the originally proposed Ti:Sapphire laser, measurements of the envisaged maximum temperature of 40 keV are marginally possible. Here we present encouraging simulation results on the use of other laser systems and on the use of two lasers with different wavelength. Alternating two wavelengths was proposed already in 1997 as a method for calibrating the transmission of the collection system. In the present analysis, the two laser pulses are injected simultaneously. We find that the use of Nd:YAG lasers operated at fundamental and second harmonic, respectively, yields excellent results and preserves the spectral recalibration feature.

  18. Progress in extrapolating divertor heat fluxes towards large fusion devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sieglin, B.; Faitsch, M.; Eich, T.; Herrmann, A.; Suttrop, W.; Collaborators, JET; the MST1 Team; the ASDEX Upgrade Team

    2017-12-01

    Heat load to the plasma facing components is one of the major challenges for the development and design of large fusion devices such as ITER. Nowadays fusion experiments can operate with heat load mitigation techniques, e.g. sweeping, impurity seeding, but do not generally require it. For large fusion devices however, heat load mitigation will be essential. This paper presents the current progress of the extrapolation of steady state and transient heat loads towards large fusion devices. For transient heat loads, so-called edge localized modes are considered a serious issue for the lifetime of divertor components. In this paper, the ITER operation at half field (2.65 T) and half current (7.5 MA) will be discussed considering the current material limit for the divertor peak energy fluence of 0.5 {MJ}/{{{m}}}2. Recent studies were successful in describing the observed energy fluence in the JET, MAST and ASDEX Upgrade using the pedestal pressure prior to the ELM crash. Extrapolating this towards ITER results in a more benign heat load compared to previous scalings. In the presence of magnetic perturbation, the axisymmetry is broken and a 2D heat flux pattern is induced on the divertor target, leading to local increase of the heat flux which is a concern for ITER. It is shown that for a moderate divertor broadening S/{λ }{{q}}> 0.5 the toroidal peaking of the heat flux disappears.

  19. Size scaling of negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fantz, U.; Franzen, P.; Kraus, W.; Schiesko, L.; Wimmer, C.; Wünderlich, D.

    2015-04-01

    The RF-driven negative hydrogen ion source (H-, D-) for the international fusion experiment ITER has a width of 0.9 m and a height of 1.9 m and is based on a ⅛ scale prototype source being in operation at the IPP test facilities BATMAN and MANITU for many years. Among the challenges to meet the required parameters in a caesiated source at a source pressure of 0.3 Pa or less is the challenge in size scaling of a factor of eight. As an intermediate step a ½ scale ITER source went into operation at the IPP test facility ELISE with the first plasma in February 2013. The experience and results gained so far at ELISE allowed a size scaling study from the prototype source towards the ITER relevant size at ELISE, in which operational issues, physical aspects and the source performance is addressed, highlighting differences as well as similarities. The most ITER relevant results are: low pressure operation down to 0.2 Pa is possible without problems; the magnetic filter field created by a current in the plasma grid is sufficient to reduce the electron temperature below the target value of 1 eV and to reduce together with the bias applied between the differently shaped bias plate and the plasma grid the amount of co-extracted electrons. An asymmetry of the co-extracted electron currents in the two grid segments is measured, varying strongly with filter field and bias. Contrary to the prototype source, a dedicated plasma drift in vertical direction is not observed. As in the prototype source, the performance in deuterium is limited by the amount of co-extracted electrons in short as well as in long pulse operation. Caesium conditioning is much harder in deuterium than in hydrogen for which fast and reproducible conditioning is achieved. First estimates reveal a caesium consumption comparable to the one in the prototype source despite the large size.

  20. Fast projection/backprojection and incremental methods applied to synchrotron light tomographic reconstruction.

    PubMed

    de Lima, Camila; Salomão Helou, Elias

    2018-01-01

    Iterative methods for tomographic image reconstruction have the computational cost of each iteration dominated by the computation of the (back)projection operator, which take roughly O(N 3 ) floating point operations (flops) for N × N pixels images. Furthermore, classical iterative algorithms may take too many iterations in order to achieve acceptable images, thereby making the use of these techniques unpractical for high-resolution images. Techniques have been developed in the literature in order to reduce the computational cost of the (back)projection operator to O(N 2 logN) flops. Also, incremental algorithms have been devised that reduce by an order of magnitude the number of iterations required to achieve acceptable images. The present paper introduces an incremental algorithm with a cost of O(N 2 logN) flops per iteration and applies it to the reconstruction of very large tomographic images obtained from synchrotron light illuminated data.

  1. Gauss-Seidel Iterative Method as a Real-Time Pile-Up Solver of Scintillation Pulses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Novak, Roman; Vencelj, Matja¿

    2009-12-01

    The pile-up rejection in nuclear spectroscopy has been confronted recently by several pile-up correction schemes that compensate for distortions of the signal and subsequent energy spectra artifacts as the counting rate increases. We study here a real-time capability of the event-by-event correction method, which at the core translates to solving many sets of linear equations. Tight time limits and constrained front-end electronics resources make well-known direct solvers inappropriate. We propose a novel approach based on the Gauss-Seidel iterative method, which turns out to be a stable and cost-efficient solution to improve spectroscopic resolution in the front-end electronics. We show the method convergence properties for a class of matrices that emerge in calorimetric processing of scintillation detector signals and demonstrate the ability of the method to support the relevant resolutions. The sole iteration-based error component can be brought below the sliding window induced errors in a reasonable number of iteration steps, thus allowing real-time operation. An area-efficient hardware implementation is proposed that fully utilizes the method's inherent parallelism.

  2. Scoping studies of shielding to reduce the shutdown dose rates in the ITER ports

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Juárez, R.; Guirao, J.; Pampin, R.; Loughlin, M.; Polunovskiy, E.; Le Tonqueze, Y.; Bertalot, L.; Kolsek, A.; Ogando, F.; Udintsev, V.; Walsh, M.

    2018-07-01

    The planned in situ maintenance tasks in the ITER port interspace are fundamental to ensure the operation of equipment to control, evaluate and optimize the plasma performance during the entire facility lifetime. They are subject to a limit of shutdown dose rates (SDDR) of 100 µSv h‑1 after 106 s of cooling time, which is nowadays a design driver for the port plugs as well as the application of ALARA. Three conceptual shielding proposals outside the ITER ports are studied in this work to support the achievement of this objective. Considered one by one, they offer reductions ranging from 25% to 50%, which are rather significant. This paper shows that, by combining these shields, the SDDR as low as 57Δ µSv h‑1 can be achieved with a local approach considering only radiation from one port (no cross-talk form neighboring ports). The locally evaluated SDDR are well below the limit which is an essential pre-requisite for achieving 100µSv h‑1 in a global analysis including all contributions. Further studies will have to deal with a realistic port plug design and the cross-talks from neighbour ports.

  3. Development of a real-time system for ITER first wall heat load control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anand, Himank; de Vries, Peter; Gribov, Yuri; Pitts, Richard; Snipes, Joseph; Zabeo, Luca

    2017-10-01

    The steady state heat flux on the ITER first wall (FW) panels are limited by the heat removal capacity of the water cooling system. In case of off-normal events (e.g. plasma displacement during H-L transitions), the heat loads are predicted to exceed the design limits (2-4.7 MW/m2). Intense heat loads are predicted on the FW, even well before the burning plasma phase. Thus, a real-time (RT) FW heat load control system is mandatory from early plasma operation of the ITER tokamak. A heat load estimator based on the RT equilibrium reconstruction has been developed for the plasma control system (PCS). A scheme, estimating the energy state for prescribed gaps defined as the distance between the last closed flux surface (LCFS)/separatrix and the FW is presented. The RT energy state is determined by the product of a weighted function of gap distance and the power crossing the plasma boundary. In addition, a heat load estimator assuming a simplified FW geometry and parallel heat transport model in the scrape-off layer (SOL), benchmarked against a full 3-D magnetic field line tracer is also presented.

  4. Heating and current drive requirements towards steady state operation in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, Francesca; Kessel, Charles; Bonoli, Paul; Batchelor, Donald; Harvey, Bob

    2013-10-01

    Steady state scenarios envisaged for ITER aim at optimizing the bootstrap current, while maintaining sufficient confinement and stability. Non-inductive scenarios will need to operate with Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs) to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. Scenarios are established as relaxed flattop states with time-dependent transport simulations with TSC. The E × B flow shear from toroidal plasma rotation is expected to be low in ITER, with a major role in the ITB dynamics being played by magnetic geometry. Combinations of external sources that maintain weakly reversed shear profiles and ρ (qmin >= 0 . 5 are the focus of this work. Simulations indicate that, with a trade-off of the EC equatorial and upper launcher, the formation and sustainment of ITBs could be demonstrated with the baseline configuration. However, with proper constraints from peeling-ballooning theory on the pedestal width and height, the fusion gain and the maximum non-inductive current (6.2MA) are below the target. Upgrades of the heating and current drive system, like the use of Lower Hybrid current drive, could overcome these limitations. With 30MW of coupled LH in the flattop and operating at the Greenwald density, plasmas can sustain ~ 9 MA and achieve Q ~ 4 . Work supported by the US Department of Energy under DE-AC02-CH0911466.

  5. Design Issues of the Pre-Compression Rings of Iter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knaster, J.; Baker, W.; Bettinali, L.; Jong, C.; Mallick, K.; Nardi, C.; Rajainmaki, H.; Rossi, P.; Semeraro, L.

    2010-04-01

    The pre-compression system is the keystone of ITER. A centripetal force of ˜30 MN will be applied at cryogenic conditions on top and bottom of each TF coil. It will prevent the `breathing effect' caused by the bursting forces occurring during plasma operation that would affect the machine design life of 30000 cycles. Different alternatives have been studied throughout the years. There are two major design requirements limiting the engineering possibilities: 1) the limited available space and 2) the need to hamper eddy currents flowing in the structures. Six unidirectionally wound glass-fibre composite rings (˜5 m diameter and ˜300 mm cross section) are the final design choice. The rings will withstand the maximum hoop stresses <500 MPa at room temperature conditions. Although retightening or replacing the pre-compression rings in case of malfunctioning is possible, they have to sustain the load during the entire 20 years of machine operation. The present paper summarizes the pre-compression ring R&D carried out during several years. In particular, we will address the composite choice and mechanical characterization, assessment of creep or stress relaxation phenomena, sub-sized rings testing and the optimal ring fabrication processes that have led to the present final design.

  6. LDPC decoder with a limited-precision FPGA-based floating-point multiplication coprocessor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moberly, Raymond; O'Sullivan, Michael; Waheed, Khurram

    2007-09-01

    Implementing the sum-product algorithm, in an FPGA with an embedded processor, invites us to consider a tradeoff between computational precision and computational speed. The algorithm, known outside of the signal processing community as Pearl's belief propagation, is used for iterative soft-decision decoding of LDPC codes. We determined the feasibility of a coprocessor that will perform product computations. Our FPGA-based coprocessor (design) performs computer algebra with significantly less precision than the standard (e.g. integer, floating-point) operations of general purpose processors. Using synthesis, targeting a 3,168 LUT Xilinx FPGA, we show that key components of a decoder are feasible and that the full single-precision decoder could be constructed using a larger part. Soft-decision decoding by the iterative belief propagation algorithm is impacted both positively and negatively by a reduction in the precision of the computation. Reducing precision reduces the coding gain, but the limited-precision computation can operate faster. A proposed solution offers custom logic to perform computations with less precision, yet uses the floating-point format to interface with the software. Simulation results show the achievable coding gain. Synthesis results help theorize the the full capacity and performance of an FPGA-based coprocessor.

  7. On differential operators generating iterative systems of linear ODEs of maximal symmetry algebra

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ndogmo, J. C.

    2017-06-01

    Although every iterative scalar linear ordinary differential equation is of maximal symmetry algebra, the situation is different and far more complex for systems of linear ordinary differential equations, and an iterative system of linear equations need not be of maximal symmetry algebra. We illustrate these facts by examples and derive families of vector differential operators whose iterations are all linear systems of equations of maximal symmetry algebra. Some consequences of these results are also discussed.

  8. Bearing tester data compilation, analysis and reporting and bearing math modeling, volume 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Marshall, D. D.; Montgomery, E. E.; New, L. S.; Stone, M. A.; Tiller, B. K.

    1984-01-01

    Thermal and mechanical models of high speed angular contact ball bearings operating in LOX and LN2 were developed and verified with limited test data in an effort to further understand the parameters that determine or effect the SSME turbopump bearing operational characteristics and service life. The SHABERTH bearing analysis program which was adapted to evaluate shaft bearing systems in cryogenics is not capable of accommodating varying thermal properties and two phase flow. A bearing model with this capability was developed using the SINDA thermal analyzer. Iteration between the SHABERTH and the SINDA models enable the establishment of preliminary bounds for stable operation in LN2. These limits were established in terms of fluid flow, fluid inlet temperature, and axial load for a shaft speed of 30,000 RPM.

  9. Disruption avoidance and fast ramp-down techniques for the DIII-D experimental scenarios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barr, Jayson; Eidietis, N. W.; Humphreys, D. A.; Sammuli, B.; Luce, T.

    2017-10-01

    Plasma current ramp-down in ITER will continue in H-mode from 15 MA to 10 MA, and will keep a diverted shape until termination. This is in contrast to the limited ramp-down scenarios typically used in DIII-D operations. Additionally, fast emergency ramp-down scenarios for ITER and future reactors are a priority for disruption avoidance. New experiments in DIII-D use the ramp-down phase of a variety of experiments including in the ITER baseline scenario to survey and identify optimized ramp-down scenarios for both scheduled terminations and terminations triggered by off-normal event detection. Systematic scans in current ramp-rate (1-5 MA/s), neutral beam power (including βN feedback) and ramp-down shaping (limited versus continued diverted) have identified fast ramp-down scenarios for Lower Single Null (LSN) and Double Null (DN) plasmas. Scenario-specific methods and their rates of successful termination will be presented and compared relative to a historical data-set of ramp-down programming in the limiter configuration. Locked modes are found to be the most significant challenge to disruption avoidance in diverted ramp-downs. Results for LSN diverted discharges that begin the rampdown with large locked-modes will also be presented. If available, results of similar experiments on EAST will be presented. Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-SC0010685.

  10. Operations mission planner beyond the baseline

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Biefeld, Eric; Cooper, Lynne

    1991-01-01

    The scheduling of Space Station Freedom must satisfy four major requirements. It must ensure efficient housekeeping operations, maximize the collection of science, respond to changes in tasking and available resources, and accommodate the above changes in a manner that minimizes disruption of the ongoing operations of the station. While meeting these requirements the scheduler must cope with the complexity, scope, and flexibility of SSF operations. This requires the scheduler to deal with an astronomical number of possible schedules. The Operations Mission Planner (OMP) is centered around minimally disruptive replanning and the use of heuristics limit search in scheduling. OMP has already shown several artificial intelligence based scheduling techniques such as Interleaved Iterative Refinement and Bottleneck Identification using Process Chronologies.

  11. An overview of NSPCG: A nonsymmetric preconditioned conjugate gradient package

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oppe, Thomas C.; Joubert, Wayne D.; Kincaid, David R.

    1989-05-01

    The most recent research-oriented software package developed as part of the ITPACK Project is called "NSPCG" since it contains many nonsymmetric preconditioned conjugate gradient procedures. It is designed to solve large sparse systems of linear algebraic equations by a variety of different iterative methods. One of the main purposes for the development of the package is to provide a common modular structure for research on iterative methods for nonsymmetric matrices. Another purpose for the development of the package is to investigate the suitability of several iterative methods for vector computers. Since the vectorizability of an iterative method depends greatly on the matrix structure, NSPCG allows great flexibility in the operator representation. The coefficient matrix can be passed in one of several different matrix data storage schemes. These sparse data formats allow matrices with a wide range of structures from highly structured ones such as those with all nonzeros along a relatively small number of diagonals to completely unstructured sparse matrices. Alternatively, the package allows the user to call the accelerators directly with user-supplied routines for performing certain matrix operations. In this case, one can use the data format from an application program and not be required to copy the matrix into one of the package formats. This is particularly advantageous when memory space is limited. Some of the basic preconditioners that are available are point methods such as Jacobi, Incomplete LU Decomposition and Symmetric Successive Overrelaxation as well as block and multicolor preconditioners. The user can select from a large collection of accelerators such as Conjugate Gradient (CG), Chebyshev (SI, for semi-iterative), Generalized Minimal Residual (GMRES), Biconjugate Gradient Squared (BCGS) and many others. The package is modular so that almost any accelerator can be used with almost any preconditioner.

  12. ITER Construction—Plant System Integration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tada, E.; Matsuda, S.

    2009-02-01

    This brief paper introduces how the ITER will be built in the international collaboration. The ITER Organization plays a central role in constructing ITER and leading it into operation. Since most of the ITER components are to be provided in-kind from the member countries, integral project management should be scoped in advance of real work. Those include design, procurement, system assembly, testing, licensing and commissioning of ITER.

  13. Plasma-surface interaction in the Be/W environment: Conclusions drawn from the JET-ILW for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brezinsek, S.; JET-EFDA contributors

    2015-08-01

    The JET ITER-Like Wall experiment (JET-ILW) provides an ideal test bed to investigate plasma-surface interaction (PSI) and plasma operation with the ITER plasma-facing material selection employing beryllium in the main chamber and tungsten in the divertor. The main PSI processes: material erosion and migration, (b) fuel recycling and retention, (c) impurity concentration and radiation have be1en studied and compared between JET-C and JET-ILW. The current physics understanding of these key processes in the JET-ILW revealed that both interpretation of previously obtained carbon results (JET-C) and predictions to ITER need to be revisited. The impact of the first-wall material on the plasma was underestimated. Main observations are: (a) low primary erosion source in H-mode plasmas and reduction of the material migration from the main chamber to the divertor (factor 7) as well as within the divertor from plasma-facing to remote areas (factor 30 - 50). The energetic threshold for beryllium sputtering minimises the primary erosion source and inhibits multi-step re-erosion in the divertor. The physical sputtering yield of tungsten is low as 10-5 and determined by beryllium ions. (b) Reduction of the long-term fuel retention (factor 10 - 20) in JET-ILW with respect to JET-C. The remaining retention is caused by implantation and co-deposition with beryllium and residual impurities. Outgassing has gained importance and impacts on the recycling properties of beryllium and tungsten. (c) The low effective plasma charge (Zeff = 1.2) and low radiation capability of beryllium reveal the bare deuterium plasma physics. Moderate nitrogen seeding, reaching Zeff = 1.6 , restores in particular the confinement and the L-H threshold behaviour. ITER-compatible divertor conditions with stable semi-detachment were obtained owing to a higher density limit with ILW. Overall JET demonstrated successful plasma operation in the Be/W material combination and confirms its advantageous PSI behaviour and gives strong support to the ITER material selection.

  14. Software for MR image overlay guided needle insertions: the clinical translation process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ungi, Tamas; U-Thainual, Paweena; Fritz, Jan; Iordachita, Iulian I.; Flammang, Aaron J.; Carrino, John A.; Fichtinger, Gabor

    2013-03-01

    PURPOSE: Needle guidance software using augmented reality image overlay was translated from the experimental phase to support preclinical and clinical studies. Major functional and structural changes were needed to meet clinical requirements. We present the process applied to fulfill these requirements, and selected features that may be applied in the translational phase of other image-guided surgical navigation systems. METHODS: We used an agile software development process for rapid adaptation to unforeseen clinical requests. The process is based on iterations of operating room test sessions, feedback discussions, and software development sprints. The open-source application framework of 3D Slicer and the NA-MIC kit provided sufficient flexibility and stable software foundations for this work. RESULTS: All requirements were addressed in a process with 19 operating room test iterations. Most features developed in this phase were related to workflow simplification and operator feedback. CONCLUSION: Efficient and affordable modifications were facilitated by an open source application framework and frequent clinical feedback sessions. Results of cadaver experiments show that software requirements were successfully solved after a limited number of operating room tests.

  15. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Paz-Soldan, C.; La Haye, R. J.; Shiraki, D.

    DIII-D plasmas at very low density exhibit onset of n=1 error field (EF) penetration (the `low-density locked mode') not at a critical density or EF, but instead at a critical level of runaway electron (RE) intensity. Raising the density during a discharge does not avoid EF penetration, so long as RE growth proceeds to the critical level. Penetration is preceded by non-thermalization of the electron cyclotron emission, anisotropization of the total pressure, synchrotron emission shape changes, as well as decreases in the loop voltage and bulk thermal electron temperature. The same phenomena occur despite various types of optimal EF correction,more » and in some cases modes are born rotating. Similar phenomena are also found at the low-density limit in JET. These results stand in contrast to the conventional interpretation of the low-density stability limit as being due to residual EFs and demonstrate a new pathway to EF penetration instability due to REs. Existing scaling laws for penetration project to increasing EF sensitivity as bulk temperatures decrease, though other possible mechanisms include classical tearing instability, thermo-resistive instability, and pressure-anisotropy driven instability. Regardless of first-principles mechanism, known scaling laws for Ohmic energy confinement combined with theoretical RE production rates allow rough extrapolation of the RE criticality condition, and thus, the low-density limit to other tokamaks. Furthermore, the extrapolated low-density limit by this pathway decreases with increasing machine size and is considerably below expected operating conditions for ITER. While likely unimportant for ITER, this effect can explain the low-density limit of existing tokamaks operating with small residual EFs.« less

  16. Multi-machine analysis of termination scenarios with comparison to simulations of controlled shutdown of ITER discharges

    DOE PAGES

    de Vries, Peter C.; Luce, Timothy C.; Bae, Young-soon; ...

    2017-11-22

    To improve our understanding of the dynamics and control of ITER terminations, a study has been carried out on data from existing tokamaks. The aim of this joint analysis is to compare the assumptions for ITER terminations with the present experience basis. The study examined the parameter ranges in which present day devices operated during their terminations, as well as the dynamics of these parameters. The analysis of a database, built using a selected set of experimental termination cases, showed that, the H-mode density decays slower than the plasma current ramp-down. The consequential increase in fGW limits the duration ofmore » the H-mode phase or result in disruptions. The lower temperatures after the drop out of H-mode will allow the plasma internal inductance to increase. But vertical stability control remains manageable in ITER at high internal inductance when accompanied by a strong elongation reduction. This will result in ITER terminations remaining longer at low q (q95~3) than most present-day devices during the current ramp-down. A fast power ramp-down leads to a larger change in βp at the H-L transition, but the experimental data showed that these are manageable for the ITER radial position control. The analysis of JET data shows that radiation and impurity levels significantly alter the H-L transition dynamics. Self-consistent calculations of the impurity content and resulting radiation should be taken into account when modelling ITER termination scenarios. Here, the results from this analysis can be used to better prescribe the inputs for the detailed modelling and preparation of ITER termination scenarios.« less

  17. Multi-machine analysis of termination scenarios with comparison to simulations of controlled shutdown of ITER discharges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Vries, P. C.; Luce, T. C.; Bae, Y. S.; Gerhardt, S.; Gong, X.; Gribov, Y.; Humphreys, D.; Kavin, A.; Khayrutdinov, R. R.; Kessel, C.; Kim, S. H.; Loarte, A.; Lukash, V. E.; de la Luna, E.; Nunes, I.; Poli, F.; Qian, J.; Reinke, M.; Sauter, O.; Sips, A. C. C.; Snipes, J. A.; Stober, J.; Treutterer, W.; Teplukhina, A. A.; Voitsekhovitch, I.; Woo, M. H.; Wolfe, S.; Zabeo, L.; the Alcator C-MOD Team; the ASDEX Upgrade Team; the DIII-D Team; the EAST Team; contributors, JET; the KSTAR Team; the NSTX-U Team; the TCV Team; IOS members, ITPA; experts

    2018-02-01

    To improve our understanding of the dynamics and control of ITER terminations, a study has been carried out on data from existing tokamaks. The aim of this joint analysis is to compare the assumptions for ITER terminations with the present experience basis. The study examined the parameter ranges in which present day devices operated during their terminations, as well as the dynamics of these parameters. The analysis of a database, built using a selected set of experimental termination cases, showed that, the H-mode density decays slower than the plasma current ramp-down. The consequential increase in f GW limits the duration of the H-mode phase or result in disruptions. The lower temperatures after the drop out of H-mode will allow the plasma internal inductance to increase. But vertical stability control remains manageable in ITER at high internal inductance when accompanied by a strong elongation reduction. This will result in ITER terminations remaining longer at low q (q 95 ~ 3) than most present-day devices during the current ramp-down. A fast power ramp-down leads to a larger change in β p at the H-L transition, but the experimental data showed that these are manageable for the ITER radial position control. The analysis of JET data shows that radiation and impurity levels significantly alter the H-L transition dynamics. Self-consistent calculations of the impurity content and resulting radiation should be taken into account when modelling ITER termination scenarios. The results from this analysis can be used to better prescribe the inputs for the detailed modelling and preparation of ITER termination scenarios.

  18. Investigation of key parameters for the development of reliable ITER baseline operation scenarios using CORSICA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, S. H.; Casper, T. A.; Snipes, J. A.

    2018-05-01

    ITER will demonstrate the feasibility of burning plasma operation by operating DT plasmas in the ELMy H-mode regime with a high ratio of fusion power gain Q ~ 10. 15 MA ITER baseline operation scenario has been studied using CORSICA, focusing on the entry to burn, flat-top burning plasma operation and exit from burn. The burning plasma operation for about 400 s of the current flat-top was achieved in H-mode within the various engineering constraints imposed by the poloidal field coil and power supply systems. The target fusion gain (Q ~ 10) was achievable in the 15 MA ITER baseline operation with a moderate amount of the total auxiliary heating power (~50 MW). It has been observed that the tungsten (W) concentration needs to be maintained low level (n w/n e up to the order of 1.0  ×  10-5) to avoid the radiative collapse and uncontrolled early termination of the discharge. The dynamic evolution of the density can modify the H-mode access unless the applied auxiliary heating power is significantly higher than the H-mode threshold power. Several qualitative sensitivity studies have been performed to provide guidance for further optimizing the plasma operation and performance. Increasing the density profile peaking factor was quite effective in increasing the alpha particle self-heating power and fusion power multiplication factor. Varying the combination of auxiliary heating power has shown that the fusion power multiplication factor can be reduced along with the increase in the total auxiliary heating power. As the 15 MA ITER baseline operation scenario requires full capacity of the coil and power supply systems, the operation window for H-mode access and shape modification was narrow. The updated ITER baseline operation scenarios developed in this work will become a basis for further optimization studies necessary along with the improvement in understanding the burning plasma physics.

  19. The non-thermal origin of the tokamak low-density stability limit

    DOE PAGES

    Paz-Soldan, C.; La Haye, R. J.; Shiraki, D.; ...

    2016-04-13

    DIII-D plasmas at very low density exhibit onset of n=1 error field (EF) penetration (the `low-density locked mode') not at a critical density or EF, but instead at a critical level of runaway electron (RE) intensity. Raising the density during a discharge does not avoid EF penetration, so long as RE growth proceeds to the critical level. Penetration is preceded by non-thermalization of the electron cyclotron emission, anisotropization of the total pressure, synchrotron emission shape changes, as well as decreases in the loop voltage and bulk thermal electron temperature. The same phenomena occur despite various types of optimal EF correction,more » and in some cases modes are born rotating. Similar phenomena are also found at the low-density limit in JET. These results stand in contrast to the conventional interpretation of the low-density stability limit as being due to residual EFs and demonstrate a new pathway to EF penetration instability due to REs. Existing scaling laws for penetration project to increasing EF sensitivity as bulk temperatures decrease, though other possible mechanisms include classical tearing instability, thermo-resistive instability, and pressure-anisotropy driven instability. Regardless of first-principles mechanism, known scaling laws for Ohmic energy confinement combined with theoretical RE production rates allow rough extrapolation of the RE criticality condition, and thus, the low-density limit to other tokamaks. Furthermore, the extrapolated low-density limit by this pathway decreases with increasing machine size and is considerably below expected operating conditions for ITER. While likely unimportant for ITER, this effect can explain the low-density limit of existing tokamaks operating with small residual EFs.« less

  20. Introducing a new family of short-range potentials and their numerical solutions using the asymptotic iteration method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Assi, I. A.; Sous, A. J.

    2018-05-01

    The goal of this work is to derive a new class of short-range potentials that could have a wide range of physical applications, specially in molecular physics. The tridiagonal representation approach has been developed beyond its limitations to produce new potentials by requiring the representation of the Schrödinger wave operator to be multidiagonal and symmetric. This produces a family of Hulthén potentials that has a specific structure, as mentioned in the introduction. As an example, we have solved the nonrelativistic wave equation for the new four-parameter short-range screening potential numerically using the asymptotic iteration method, where we tabulated the eigenvalues for both s -wave and arbitrary l -wave cases in tables.

  1. Preconditioned conjugate residual methods for the solution of spectral equations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wong, Y. S.; Zang, T. A.; Hussaini, M. Y.

    1986-01-01

    Conjugate residual methods for the solution of spectral equations are described. An inexact finite-difference operator is introduced as a preconditioner in the iterative procedures. Application of these techniques is limited to problems for which the symmetric part of the coefficient matrix is positive definite. Although the spectral equation is a very ill-conditioned and full matrix problem, the computational effort of the present iterative methods for solving such a system is comparable to that for the sparse matrix equations obtained from the application of either finite-difference or finite-element methods to the same problems. Numerical experiments are shown for a self-adjoint elliptic partial differential equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, and comparison with other solution procedures for spectral equations is presented.

  2. A protection system for the JET ITER-like wall based on imaging diagnostics.

    PubMed

    Arnoux, G; Devaux, S; Alves, D; Balboa, I; Balorin, C; Balshaw, N; Beldishevski, M; Carvalho, P; Clever, M; Cramp, S; de Pablos, J-L; de la Cal, E; Falie, D; Garcia-Sanchez, P; Felton, R; Gervaise, V; Goodyear, A; Horton, A; Jachmich, S; Huber, A; Jouve, M; Kinna, D; Kruezi, U; Manzanares, A; Martin, V; McCullen, P; Moncada, V; Obrejan, K; Patel, K; Lomas, P J; Neto, A; Rimini, F; Ruset, C; Schweer, B; Sergienko, G; Sieglin, B; Soleto, A; Stamp, M; Stephen, A; Thomas, P D; Valcárcel, D F; Williams, J; Wilson, J; Zastrow, K-D

    2012-10-01

    The new JET ITER-like wall (made of beryllium and tungsten) is more fragile than the former carbon fiber composite wall and requires active protection to prevent excessive heat loads on the plasma facing components (PFC). Analog CCD cameras operating in the near infrared wavelength are used to measure surface temperature of the PFCs. Region of interest (ROI) analysis is performed in real time and the maximum temperature measured in each ROI is sent to the vessel thermal map. The protection of the ITER-like wall system started in October 2011 and has already successfully led to a safe landing of the plasma when hot spots were observed on the Be main chamber PFCs. Divertor protection is more of a challenge due to dust deposits that often generate false hot spots. In this contribution we describe the camera, data capture and real time processing systems. We discuss the calibration strategy for the temperature measurements with cross validation with thermal IR cameras and bi-color pyrometers. Most importantly, we demonstrate that a protection system based on CCD cameras can work and show examples of hot spot detections that stop the plasma pulse. The limits of such a design and the associated constraints on the operations are also presented.

  3. Performance improvement of robots using a learning control scheme

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Krishna, Ramuhalli; Chiang, Pen-Tai; Yang, Jackson C. S.

    1987-01-01

    Many applications of robots require that the same task be repeated a number of times. In such applications, the errors associated with one cycle are also repeated every cycle of the operation. An off-line learning control scheme is used here to modify the command function which would result in smaller errors in the next operation. The learning scheme is based on a knowledge of the errors and error rates associated with each cycle. Necessary conditions for the iterative scheme to converge to zero errors are derived analytically considering a second order servosystem model. Computer simulations show that the errors are reduced at a faster rate if the error rate is included in the iteration scheme. The results also indicate that the scheme may increase the magnitude of errors if the rate information is not included in the iteration scheme. Modification of the command input using a phase and gain adjustment is also proposed to reduce the errors with one attempt. The scheme is then applied to a computer model of a robot system similar to PUMA 560. Improved performance of the robot is shown by considering various cases of trajectory tracing. The scheme can be successfully used to improve the performance of actual robots within the limitations of the repeatability and noise characteristics of the robot.

  4. A protection system for the JET ITER-like wall based on imaging diagnosticsa)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arnoux, G.; Devaux, S.; Alves, D.; Balboa, I.; Balorin, C.; Balshaw, N.; Beldishevski, M.; Carvalho, P.; Clever, M.; Cramp, S.; de Pablos, J.-L.; de la Cal, E.; Falie, D.; Garcia-Sanchez, P.; Felton, R.; Gervaise, V.; Goodyear, A.; Horton, A.; Jachmich, S.; Huber, A.; Jouve, M.; Kinna, D.; Kruezi, U.; Manzanares, A.; Martin, V.; McCullen, P.; Moncada, V.; Obrejan, K.; Patel, K.; Lomas, P. J.; Neto, A.; Rimini, F.; Ruset, C.; Schweer, B.; Sergienko, G.; Sieglin, B.; Soleto, A.; Stamp, M.; Stephen, A.; Thomas, P. D.; Valcárcel, D. F.; Williams, J.; Wilson, J.; Zastrow, K.-D.; JET-EFDA Contributors

    2012-10-01

    The new JET ITER-like wall (made of beryllium and tungsten) is more fragile than the former carbon fiber composite wall and requires active protection to prevent excessive heat loads on the plasma facing components (PFC). Analog CCD cameras operating in the near infrared wavelength are used to measure surface temperature of the PFCs. Region of interest (ROI) analysis is performed in real time and the maximum temperature measured in each ROI is sent to the vessel thermal map. The protection of the ITER-like wall system started in October 2011 and has already successfully led to a safe landing of the plasma when hot spots were observed on the Be main chamber PFCs. Divertor protection is more of a challenge due to dust deposits that often generate false hot spots. In this contribution we describe the camera, data capture and real time processing systems. We discuss the calibration strategy for the temperature measurements with cross validation with thermal IR cameras and bi-color pyrometers. Most importantly, we demonstrate that a protection system based on CCD cameras can work and show examples of hot spot detections that stop the plasma pulse. The limits of such a design and the associated constraints on the operations are also presented.

  5. Solving Upwind-Biased Discretizations: Defect-Correction Iterations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Diskin, Boris; Thomas, James L.

    1999-01-01

    This paper considers defect-correction solvers for a second order upwind-biased discretization of the 2D convection equation. The following important features are reported: (1) The asymptotic convergence rate is about 0.5 per defect-correction iteration. (2) If the operators involved in defect-correction iterations have different approximation order, then the initial convergence rates may be very slow. The number of iterations required to get into the asymptotic convergence regime might grow on fine grids as a negative power of h. In the case of a second order target operator and a first order driver operator, this number of iterations is roughly proportional to h-1/3. (3) If both the operators have the second approximation order, the defect-correction solver demonstrates the asymptotic convergence rate after three iterations at most. The same three iterations are required to converge algebraic error below the truncation error level. A novel comprehensive half-space Fourier mode analysis (which, by the way, can take into account the influence of discretized outflow boundary conditions as well) for the defect-correction method is developed. This analysis explains many phenomena observed in solving non-elliptic equations and provides a close prediction of the actual solution behavior. It predicts the convergence rate for each iteration and the asymptotic convergence rate. As a result of this analysis, a new very efficient adaptive multigrid algorithm solving the discrete problem to within a given accuracy is proposed. Numerical simulations confirm the accuracy of the analysis and the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The results of the numerical tests are reported.

  6. Armour Materials for the ITER Plasma Facing Components

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barabash, V.; Federici, G.; Matera, R.; Raffray, A. R.; ITER Home Teams,

    The selection of the armour materials for the Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a trade-off between multiple requirements derived from the unique features of a burning fusion plasma environment. The factors that affect the selection come primarily from the requirements of plasma performance (e.g., minimise impurity contamination in the confined plasma), engineering integrity, component lifetime (e.g., withstand thermal stresses, acceptable erosion, etc.) and safety (minimise tritium and radioactive dust inventories). The current selection in ITER is to use beryllium on the first-wall, upper baffle and on the port limiter surfaces, carbon fibre composites near the strike points of the divertor vertical target and tungsten elsewhere in the divertor and lower baffle modules. This paper provides the background for this selection vis-à-vis the operating parameters expected during normal and off-normal conditions. The reasons for the selection of the specific grades of armour materials are also described. The effects of the neutron irradiation on the properties of Be, W and carbon fibre composites at the expected ITER conditions are briefly reviewed. Critical issues are discussed together with the necessary future R&D.

  7. Development of the ITER ICH Transmission Line and Matching System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasmussen, D. A.; Goulding, R. H.; Pesavento, P. V.; Peters, B.; Swain, D. W.; Fredd, E. H.; Hosea, J.; Greenough, N.

    2011-10-01

    The ITER Ion Cyclotron Heating (ICH) System is designed to couple 20 MW of heating power for ion and electron heating. Prototype components for the ITER Ion Cyclotron Heating (ICH) transmission line and matching system are being designed and tested. The ICH transmission lines are pressurized 300 mm diameter coaxial lines with water-cooled aluminum outer conductor and gas-cooled and water-cooled copper inner conductor. Each ICH transmission line is designed to handle 40-55 MHz power at up to 6 MW/line. A total of 8 lines split to 16 antenna inputs on two ICH antennas. Industrial suppliers have designed coaxial transmission line and matching components and prototypes will be manufactured. The prototype components will be qualified on a test stand operating at the full power and pulse length needed for ITER. The matching system must accommodated dynamic changes in the plasma loading due to ELMS and the L to H-mode transition. Passive ELM tolerance will be performed using hybrid couplers and loads, which can absorb the transient reflected power. The system is also designed to compensate for the mutual inductances of the antenna current straps to limit the peak voltages on the antenna array elements.

  8. Experimental Evidence on Iterated Reasoning in Games

    PubMed Central

    Grehl, Sascha; Tutić, Andreas

    2015-01-01

    We present experimental evidence on two forms of iterated reasoning in games, i.e. backward induction and interactive knowledge. Besides reliable estimates of the cognitive skills of the subjects, our design allows us to disentangle two possible explanations for the observed limits in performed iterated reasoning: Restrictions in subjects’ cognitive abilities and their beliefs concerning the rationality of co-players. In comparison to previous literature, our estimates regarding subjects’ skills in iterated reasoning are quite pessimistic. Also, we find that beliefs concerning the rationality of co-players are completely irrelevant in explaining the observed limited amount of iterated reasoning in the dirty faces game. In addition, it is demonstrated that skills in backward induction are a solid predictor for skills in iterated knowledge, which points to some generalized ability of the subjects in iterated reasoning. PMID:26312486

  9. Indian Test Facility (INTF) and its updates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bandyopadhyay, M.; Chakraborty, A.; Rotti, C.; Joshi, J.; Patel, H.; Yadav, A.; Shah, S.; Tyagi, H.; Parmar, D.; Sudhir, Dass; Gahlaut, A.; Bansal, G.; Soni, J.; Pandya, K.; Pandey, R.; Yadav, R.; Nagaraju, M. V.; Mahesh, V.; Pillai, S.; Sharma, D.; Singh, D.; Bhuyan, M.; Mistry, H.; Parmar, K.; Patel, M.; Patel, K.; Prajapati, B.; Shishangiya, H.; Vishnudev, M.; Bhagora, J.

    2017-04-01

    To characterize ITER Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) system with full specification and to support IPR’s negative ion beam based neutral beam injector (NBI) system development program, a R&D facility, named INTF is under commissioning phase. Implementation of a successful DNB at ITER requires several challenges need to be overcome. These issues are related to the negative ion production, its neutralization and corresponding neutral beam transport over the path lengths of ∼ 20.67 m to reach ITER plasma. DNB is a procurement package for INDIA, as an in-kind contribution to ITER. Since ITER is considered as a nuclear facility, minimum diagnostic systems, linked with safe operation of the machine are planned to be incorporated in it and so there is difficulty to characterize DNB after onsite commissioning. Therefore, the delivery of DNB to ITER will be benefited if DNB is operated and characterized prior to onsite commissioning. INTF has been envisaged to be operational with the large size ion source activities in the similar timeline, as with the SPIDER (RFX, Padova) facility. This paper describes some of the development updates of the facility.

  10. Status of the 1 MeV Accelerator Design for ITER NBI

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuriyama, M.; Boilson, D.; Hemsworth, R.; Svensson, L.; Graceffa, J.; Schunke, B.; Decamps, H.; Tanaka, M.; Bonicelli, T.; Masiello, A.; Bigi, M.; Chitarin, G.; Luchetta, A.; Marcuzzi, D.; Pasqualotto, R.; Pomaro, N.; Serianni, G.; Sonato, P.; Toigo, V.; Zaccaria, P.; Kraus, W.; Franzen, P.; Heinemann, B.; Inoue, T.; Watanabe, K.; Kashiwagi, M.; Taniguchi, M.; Tobari, H.; De Esch, H.

    2011-09-01

    The beam source of neutral beam heating/current drive system for ITER is needed to accelerate the negative ion beam of 40A with D- at 1 MeV for 3600 sec. In order to realize the beam source, design and R&D works are being developed in many institutions under the coordination of ITER organization. The development of the key issues of the ion source including source plasma uniformity, suppression of co-extracted electron in D beam operation and also after the long beam duration time of over a few 100 sec, is progressed mainly in IPP with the facilities of BATMAN, MANITU and RADI. In the near future, ELISE, that will be tested the half size of the ITER ion source, will start the operation in 2011, and then SPIDER, which demonstrates negative ion production and extraction with the same size and same structure as the ITER ion source, will start the operation in 2014 as part of the NBTF. The development of the accelerator is progressed mainly in JAEA with the MeV test facility, and also the computer simulation of beam optics also developed in JAEA, CEA and RFX. The full ITER heating and current drive beam performance will be demonstrated in MITICA, which will start operation in 2016 as part of the NBTF.

  11. On the solution of evolution equations based on multigrid and explicit iterative methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhukov, V. T.; Novikova, N. D.; Feodoritova, O. B.

    2015-08-01

    Two schemes for solving initial-boundary value problems for three-dimensional parabolic equations are studied. One is implicit and is solved using the multigrid method, while the other is explicit iterative and is based on optimal properties of the Chebyshev polynomials. In the explicit iterative scheme, the number of iteration steps and the iteration parameters are chosen as based on the approximation and stability conditions, rather than on the optimization of iteration convergence to the solution of the implicit scheme. The features of the multigrid scheme include the implementation of the intergrid transfer operators for the case of discontinuous coefficients in the equation and the adaptation of the smoothing procedure to the spectrum of the difference operators. The results produced by these schemes as applied to model problems with anisotropic discontinuous coefficients are compared.

  12. Progress in preparing scenarios for operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sips, A. C. C.; Giruzzi, G.; Ide, S.; Kessel, C.; Luce, T. C.; Snipes, J. A.; Stober, J. K.

    2015-02-01

    The development of operating scenarios is one of the key issues in the research for ITER which aims to achieve a fusion gain (Q) of ˜10, while producing 500 MW of fusion power for ≥300 s. The ITER Research plan proposes a success oriented schedule starting in hydrogen and helium, to be followed by a nuclear operation phase with a rapid development towards Q ˜ 10 in deuterium/tritium. The Integrated Operation Scenarios Topical Group of the International Tokamak Physics Activity initiates joint activities among worldwide institutions and experiments to prepare ITER operation. Plasma formation studies report robust plasma breakdown in devices with metal walls over a wide range of conditions, while other experiments use an inclined EC launch angle at plasma formation to mimic the conditions in ITER. Simulations of the plasma burn-through predict that at least 4 MW of Electron Cyclotron heating (EC) assist would be required in ITER. For H-modes at q95 ˜ 3, many experiments have demonstrated operation with scaled parameters for the ITER baseline scenario at ne/nGW ˜ 0.85. Most experiments, however, obtain stable discharges at H98(y,2) ˜ 1.0 only for βN = 2.0-2.2. For the rampup in ITER, early X-point formation is recommended, allowing auxiliary heating to reduce the flux consumption. A range of plasma inductance (li(3)) can be obtained from 0.65 to 1.0, with the lowest values obtained in H-mode operation. For the rampdown, the plasma should stay diverted maintaining H-mode together with a reduction of the elongation from 1.85 to 1.4. Simulations show that the proposed rampup and rampdown schemes developed since 2007 are compatible with the present ITER design for the poloidal field coils. At 13-15 MA and densities down to ne/nGW ˜ 0.5, long pulse operation (>1000 s) in ITER is possible at Q ˜ 5, useful to provide neutron fluence for Test Blanket Module assessments. ITER scenario preparation in hydrogen and helium requires high input power (>50 MW). H-mode operation in helium may be possible at input powers above 35 MW at a toroidal field of 2.65 T, for studying H-modes and ELM mitigation. In hydrogen, H-mode operation is expected to be marginal, even at 2.65 T with 60 MW of input power. Simulation code benchmark studies using hybrid and steady state scenario parameters have proved to be a very challenging and lengthy task of testing suites of codes, consisting of tens of sophisticated modules. Nevertheless, the general basis of the modelling appears sound, with substantial consistency among codes developed by different groups. For a hybrid scenario at 12 MA, the code simulations give a range for Q = 6.5-8.3, using 30 MW neutral beam injection and 20 MW ICRH. For non-inductive operation at 7-9 MA, the simulation results show more variation. At high edge pedestal pressure (Tped ˜ 7 keV), the codes predict Q = 3.3-3.8 using 33 MW NB, 20 MW EC, and 20 MW ion cyclotron to demonstrate the feasibility of steady-state operation with the day-1 heating systems in ITER. Simulations using a lower edge pedestal temperature (˜3 keV) but improved core confinement obtain Q = 5-6.5, when ECCD is concentrated at mid-radius and ˜20 MW off-axis current drive (ECCD or LHCD) is added. Several issues remain to be studied, including plasmas with dominant electron heating, mitigation of transient heat loads integrated in scenario demonstrations and (burn) control simulations in ITER scenarios.

  13. Magnet Design Considerations for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhai, Y.; Kessel, C.; El-Guebaly, L.

    2016-06-01

    The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is a nuclear confinement facility that provides a fusion environment with components of the reactor integrated together to bridge the technical gaps of burning plasma and nuclear science between the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the demonstration power plant (DEMO). Compared with ITER, the FNSF is smaller in size but generates much higher magnetic field, i.e., 30 times higher neutron fluence with three orders of magnitude longer plasma operation at higher operating temperatures for structures surrounding the plasma. Input parameters to the magnet design from system code analysis include magnetic field of 7.5more » T at the plasma center with a plasma major radius of 4.8 m and a minor radius of 1.2 m and a peak field of 15.5 T on the toroidal field (TF) coils for the FNSF. Both low-temperature superconductors (LTS) and high-temperature superconductors (HTS) are considered for the FNSF magnet design based on the state-of-the-art fusion magnet technology. The higher magnetic field can be achieved by using the high-performance ternary restacked-rod process Nb3Sn strands for TF magnets. The circular cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) design similar to ITER magnets and a high-aspect-ratio rectangular CICC design are evaluated for FNSF magnets, but low-activation-jacket materials may need to be selected. The conductor design concept and TF coil winding pack composition and dimension based on the horizontal maintenance schemes are discussed. Neutron radiation limits for the LTS and HTS superconductors and electrical insulation materials are also reviewed based on the available materials previously tested. The material radiation limits for FNSF magnets are defined as part of the conceptual design studies for FNSF magnets.« less

  14. Magnet design considerations for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

    DOE PAGES

    Zhai, Yuhu; Kessel, Chuck; El-guebaly, Laila; ...

    2016-02-25

    The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is a nuclear confinement facility to provide a fusion environment with components of the reactor integrated together to bridge the technical gaps of burning plasma and nuclear science between ITER and the demonstration power plant (DEMO). Compared to ITER, the FNSF is smaller in size but generates much higher magnetic field, 30 times higher neutron fluence with 3 orders of magnitude longer plasma operation at higher operating temperatures for structures surrounding the plasma. Input parameters to the magnet design from system code analysis include magnetic field of 7.5 T at the plasma center withmore » plasma major radius of 4.8 m and minor radius of 1.2 m, and a peak field of 15.5 T on the TF coils for FNSF. Both low temperature superconductor (LTS) and high temperature superconductor (HTS) are considered for the FNSF magnet design based on the state-of-the-art fusion magnet technology. The higher magnetic field can be achieved by using the high performance ternary Restack Rod Process (RRP) Nb3Sn strands for toroidal field (TF) magnets. The circular cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) design similar to ITER magnets and a high aspect ratio rectangular CICC design are evaluated for FNSF magnets but low activation jacket materials may need to be selected. The conductor design concept and TF coil winding pack composition and dimension based on the horizontal maintenance schemes are discussed. Neutron radiation limits for the LTS and HTS superconductors and electrical insulation materials are also reviewed based on the available materials previously tested. As a result, the material radiation limits for FNSF magnets are defined as part of the conceptual design studies for FNSF magnets.« less

  15. Using Minimum-Surface Bodies for Iteration Space Partitioning

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frumlin, Michael; VanderWijngaart, Rob F.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    A number of known techniques for improving cache performance in scientific computations involve the reordering of the iteration space. Some of these reorderings can be considered as coverings of the iteration space with the sets having good surface-to-volume ratio. Use of such sets reduces the number of cache misses in computations of local operators having the iteration space as a domain. We study coverings of iteration spaces represented by structured and unstructured grids. For structured grids we introduce a covering based on successive minima tiles of the interference lattice of the grid. We show that the covering has good surface-to-volume ratio and present a computer experiment showing actual reduction of the cache misses achieved by using these tiles. For unstructured grids no cache efficient covering can be guaranteed. We present a triangulation of a 3-dimensional cube such that any local operator on the corresponding grid has significantly larger number of cache misses than a similar operator on a structured grid.

  16. The Physics Basis of ITER Confinement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wagner, F.

    2009-02-01

    ITER will be the first fusion reactor and the 50 year old dream of fusion scientists will become reality. The quality of magnetic confinement will decide about the success of ITER, directly in the form of the confinement time and indirectly because it decides about the plasma parameters and the fluxes, which cross the separatrix and have to be handled externally by technical means. This lecture portrays some of the basic principles which govern plasma confinement, uses dimensionless scaling to set the limits for the predictions for ITER, an approach which also shows the limitations of the predictions, and describes briefly the major characteristics and physics behind the H-mode—the preferred confinement regime of ITER.

  17. SACFIR: SDN-Based Application-Aware Centralized Adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring Routing Protocol for WSNs.

    PubMed

    Aslam, Muhammad; Hu, Xiaopeng; Wang, Fan

    2017-12-13

    Smart reconfiguration of a dynamic networking environment is offered by the central control of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Centralized SDN-based management architectures are capable of retrieving global topology intelligence and decoupling the forwarding plane from the control plane. Routing protocols developed for conventional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) utilize limited iterative reconfiguration methods to optimize environmental reporting. However, the challenging networking scenarios of WSNs involve a performance overhead due to constant periodic iterative reconfigurations. In this paper, we propose the SDN-based Application-aware Centralized adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring (SACFIR) routing protocol with the centralized SDN iterative solver controller to maintain the load-balancing between flow reconfigurations and flow allocation cost. The proposed SACFIR's routing protocol offers a unique iterative path-selection algorithm, which initially computes suitable clustering based on residual resources at the control layer and then implements application-aware threshold-based multi-hop report transmissions on the forwarding plane. The operation of the SACFIR algorithm is centrally supervised by the SDN controller residing at the Base Station (BS). This paper extends SACFIR to SDN-based Application-aware Main-value Centralized adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring (SAMCFIR) to establish both proactive and reactive reporting. The SAMCFIR transmission phase enables sensor nodes to trigger direct transmissions for main-value reports, while in the case of SACFIR, all reports follow computed routes. Our SDN-enabled proposed models adjust the reconfiguration period according to the traffic burden on sensor nodes, which results in heterogeneity awareness, load-balancing and application-specific reconfigurations of WSNs. Extensive experimental simulation-based results show that SACFIR and SAMCFIR yield the maximum scalability, network lifetime and stability period when compared to existing routing protocols.

  18. SACFIR: SDN-Based Application-Aware Centralized Adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring Routing Protocol for WSNs

    PubMed Central

    Hu, Xiaopeng; Wang, Fan

    2017-01-01

    Smart reconfiguration of a dynamic networking environment is offered by the central control of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Centralized SDN-based management architectures are capable of retrieving global topology intelligence and decoupling the forwarding plane from the control plane. Routing protocols developed for conventional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) utilize limited iterative reconfiguration methods to optimize environmental reporting. However, the challenging networking scenarios of WSNs involve a performance overhead due to constant periodic iterative reconfigurations. In this paper, we propose the SDN-based Application-aware Centralized adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring (SACFIR) routing protocol with the centralized SDN iterative solver controller to maintain the load-balancing between flow reconfigurations and flow allocation cost. The proposed SACFIR’s routing protocol offers a unique iterative path-selection algorithm, which initially computes suitable clustering based on residual resources at the control layer and then implements application-aware threshold-based multi-hop report transmissions on the forwarding plane. The operation of the SACFIR algorithm is centrally supervised by the SDN controller residing at the Base Station (BS). This paper extends SACFIR to SDN-based Application-aware Main-value Centralized adaptive Flow Iterative Reconfiguring (SAMCFIR) to establish both proactive and reactive reporting. The SAMCFIR transmission phase enables sensor nodes to trigger direct transmissions for main-value reports, while in the case of SACFIR, all reports follow computed routes. Our SDN-enabled proposed models adjust the reconfiguration period according to the traffic burden on sensor nodes, which results in heterogeneity awareness, load-balancing and application-specific reconfigurations of WSNs. Extensive experimental simulation-based results show that SACFIR and SAMCFIR yield the maximum scalability, network lifetime and stability period when compared to existing routing protocols. PMID:29236031

  19. Experiments on water detritiation and cryogenic distillation at TLK; Impact on ITER fuel cycle subsystems interfaces

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cristescu, I.; Cristescu, I. R.; Doerr, L.

    2008-07-15

    The ITER Isotope Separation System (ISS) and Water Detritiation System (WDS) should be integrated in order to reduce potential chronic tritium emissions from the ISS. This is achieved by routing the top (protium) product from the ISS to a feed point near the bottom end of the WDS Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange (LPCE) column. This provides an additional barrier against ISS emissions and should mitigate the memory effects due to process parameter fluctuations in the ISS. To support the research activities needed to characterize the performances of various components for WDS and ISS processes under various working conditions and configurationsmore » as needed for ITER design, an experimental facility called TRENTA representative of the ITER WDS and ISS protium separation column, has been commissioned and is in operation at TLK The experimental program on TRENTA facility is conducted to provide the necessary design data related to the relevant ITER operating modes. The operation availability and performances of ISS-WDS have impact on ITER fuel cycle subsystems with consequences on the design integration. The preliminary experimental data on TRENTA facility are presented. (authors)« less

  20. Nonlinear Burn Control and Operating Point Optimization in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boyer, Mark; Schuster, Eugenio

    2013-10-01

    Control of the fusion power through regulation of the plasma density and temperature will be essential for achieving and maintaining desired operating points in fusion reactors and burning plasma experiments like ITER. In this work, a volume averaged model for the evolution of the density of energy, deuterium and tritium fuel ions, alpha-particles, and impurity ions is used to synthesize a multi-input multi-output nonlinear feedback controller for stabilizing and modulating the burn condition. Adaptive control techniques are used to account for uncertainty in model parameters, including particle confinement times and recycling rates. The control approach makes use of the different possible methods for altering the fusion power, including adjusting the temperature through auxiliary heating, modulating the density and isotopic mix through fueling, and altering the impurity density through impurity injection. Furthermore, a model-based optimization scheme is proposed to drive the system as close as possible to desired fusion power and temperature references. Constraints are considered in the optimization scheme to ensure that, for example, density and beta limits are avoided, and that optimal operation is achieved even when actuators reach saturation. Supported by the NSF CAREER award program (ECCS-0645086).

  1. Scientific and technical challenges on the road towards fusion electricity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Donné, A. J. H.; Federici, G.; Litaudon, X.; McDonald, D. C.

    2017-10-01

    The goal of the European Fusion Roadmap is to deliver fusion electricity to the grid early in the second half of this century. It breaks the quest for fusion energy into eight missions, and for each of them it describes a research and development programme to address all the open technical gaps in physics and technology and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe. The roadmap covers three periods: the short term, which runs parallel to the European Research Framework Programme Horizon 2020, the medium term and the long term. ITER is the key facility of the roadmap as it is expected to achieve most of the important milestones on the path to fusion power. Thus, the vast majority of present resources are dedicated to ITER and its accompanying experiments. The medium term is focussed on taking ITER into operation and bringing it to full power, as well as on preparing the construction of a demonstration power plant DEMO, which will for the first time demonstrate fusion electricity to the grid around the middle of this century. Building and operating DEMO is the subject of the last roadmap phase: the long term. Clearly, the Fusion Roadmap is tightly connected to the ITER schedule. Three key milestones are the first operation of ITER, the start of the DT operation in ITER and reaching the full performance at which the thermal fusion power is 10 times the power put in to the plasma. The Engineering Design Activity of DEMO needs to start a few years after the first ITER plasma, while the start of the construction phase will be a few years after ITER reaches full performance. In this way ITER can give viable input to the design and development of DEMO. Because the neutron fluence in DEMO will be much higher than in ITER, it is important to develop and validate materials that can handle these very high neutron loads. For the testing of the materials, a dedicated 14 MeV neutron source is needed. This DEMO Oriented Neutron Source (DONES) is therefore an important facility to support the fusion roadmap.

  2. A Novel Iterative Scheme for the Very Fast and Accurate Solution of Non-LTE Radiative Transfer Problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trujillo Bueno, J.; Fabiani Bendicho, P.

    1995-12-01

    Iterative schemes based on Gauss-Seidel (G-S) and optimal successive over-relaxation (SOR) iteration are shown to provide a dramatic increase in the speed with which non-LTE radiation transfer (RT) problems can be solved. The convergence rates of these new RT methods are identical to those of upper triangular nonlocal approximate operator splitting techniques, but the computing time per iteration and the memory requirements are similar to those of a local operator splitting method. In addition to these properties, both methods are particularly suitable for multidimensional geometry, since they neither require the actual construction of nonlocal approximate operators nor the application of any matrix inversion procedure. Compared with the currently used Jacobi technique, which is based on the optimal local approximate operator (see Olson, Auer, & Buchler 1986), the G-S method presented here is faster by a factor 2. It gives excellent smoothing of the high-frequency error components, which makes it the iterative scheme of choice for multigrid radiative transfer. This G-S method can also be suitably combined with standard acceleration techniques to achieve even higher performance. Although the convergence rate of the optimal SOR scheme developed here for solving non-LTE RT problems is much higher than G-S, the computing time per iteration is also minimal, i.e., virtually identical to that of a local operator splitting method. While the conventional optimal local operator scheme provides the converged solution after a total CPU time (measured in arbitrary units) approximately equal to the number n of points per decade of optical depth, the time needed by this new method based on the optimal SOR iterations is only √n/2√2. This method is competitive with those that result from combining the above-mentioned Jacobi and G-S schemes with the best acceleration techniques. Contrary to what happens with the local operator splitting strategy currently in use, these novel methods remain effective even under extreme non-LTE conditions in very fine grids.

  3. Helium experiments on Alcator C-Mod in support of ITER early operations

    DOE PAGES

    Kessel, C. E.; Wolfe, S. M.; Reinke, M. L.; ...

    2018-03-13

    Helium majority experiments on Alcator C-Mod were performed to compare with deuterium discharges, and inform ITER early operations. ELMy H-modes were produced with a special plasma shape at B T = 5.3 T, I P = 0.9 MA, at q 95 ~ 3.8. The He fraction ranged over, n He,L/n L = 0.2–0.4, with n D,L/n L = 0.15–0.26, compared to D plasmas with n D,L/n L = 0.85–0.97. The power to enter the H-mode in He was found to be greater than ~2 times that for D discharges, in the low density region <1.4 × 10 20/m 3. However, it appears to follow the D threshold for higher densities. The stored energies in the He discharges were about 80% of those in D, and about 40% higher net power was required to sustain them compared to D. Global particle confinement times for tungsten ofmore » $$\\tau _{{\\rm W}}^{{\\rm *}}$$ /τ E ~ 4 were obtained with ELMy H-modes in He, however accumulation occurred when the ELMs were irregular and infrequent. The electron temperatures and densities in the pedestal were similar between D and He discharges, and the ΔT e/T e and Δn e/n e values were similar or larger in He than D. The higher net power required to access the H-mode, and sustain it in flattop, for He discharges in C-Mod, imply some limitations for He operation in ITER.« less

  4. Helium experiments on Alcator C-Mod in support of ITER early operations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kessel, C. E.; Wolfe, S. M.; Reinke, M. L.

    Helium majority experiments on Alcator C-Mod were performed to compare with deuterium discharges, and inform ITER early operations. ELMy H-modes were produced with a special plasma shape at B T = 5.3 T, I P = 0.9 MA, at q 95 ~ 3.8. The He fraction ranged over, n He,L/n L = 0.2–0.4, with n D,L/n L = 0.15–0.26, compared to D plasmas with n D,L/n L = 0.85–0.97. The power to enter the H-mode in He was found to be greater than ~2 times that for D discharges, in the low density region <1.4 × 10 20/m 3. However, it appears to follow the D threshold for higher densities. The stored energies in the He discharges were about 80% of those in D, and about 40% higher net power was required to sustain them compared to D. Global particle confinement times for tungsten ofmore » $$\\tau _{{\\rm W}}^{{\\rm *}}$$ /τ E ~ 4 were obtained with ELMy H-modes in He, however accumulation occurred when the ELMs were irregular and infrequent. The electron temperatures and densities in the pedestal were similar between D and He discharges, and the ΔT e/T e and Δn e/n e values were similar or larger in He than D. The higher net power required to access the H-mode, and sustain it in flattop, for He discharges in C-Mod, imply some limitations for He operation in ITER.« less

  5. PRIFIRA: General regularization using prior-conditioning for fast radio interferometric imaging†

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Naghibzadeh, Shahrzad; van der Veen, Alle-Jan

    2018-06-01

    Image formation in radio astronomy is a large-scale inverse problem that is inherently ill-posed. We present a general algorithmic framework based on a Bayesian-inspired regularized maximum likelihood formulation of the radio astronomical imaging problem with a focus on diffuse emission recovery from limited noisy correlation data. The algorithm is dubbed PRIor-conditioned Fast Iterative Radio Astronomy (PRIFIRA) and is based on a direct embodiment of the regularization operator into the system by right preconditioning. The resulting system is then solved using an iterative method based on projections onto Krylov subspaces. We motivate the use of a beamformed image (which includes the classical "dirty image") as an efficient prior-conditioner. Iterative reweighting schemes generalize the algorithmic framework and can account for different regularization operators that encourage sparsity of the solution. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated based on simulated one- and two-dimensional array arrangements as well as actual data from the core stations of the Low Frequency Array radio telescope antenna configuration, and compared to state-of-the-art imaging techniques. We show the generality of the proposed method in terms of regularization schemes while maintaining a competitive reconstruction quality with the current reconstruction techniques. Furthermore, we show that exploiting Krylov subspace methods together with the proper noise-based stopping criteria results in a great improvement in imaging efficiency.

  6. Overview of the JET results in support to ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Litaudon, X.; Abduallev, S.; Abhangi, M.; Abreu, P.; Afzal, M.; Aggarwal, K. M.; Ahlgren, T.; Ahn, J. H.; Aho-Mantila, L.; Aiba, N.; Airila, M.; Albanese, R.; Aldred, V.; Alegre, D.; Alessi, E.; Aleynikov, P.; Alfier, A.; Alkseev, A.; Allinson, M.; Alper, B.; Alves, E.; Ambrosino, G.; Ambrosino, R.; Amicucci, L.; Amosov, V.; Andersson Sundén, E.; Angelone, M.; Anghel, M.; Angioni, C.; Appel, L.; Appelbee, C.; Arena, P.; Ariola, M.; Arnichand, H.; Arshad, S.; Ash, A.; Ashikawa, N.; Aslanyan, V.; Asunta, O.; Auriemma, F.; Austin, Y.; Avotina, L.; Axton, M. D.; Ayres, C.; Bacharis, M.; Baciero, A.; Baião, D.; Bailey, S.; Baker, A.; Balboa, I.; Balden, M.; Balshaw, N.; Bament, R.; Banks, J. W.; Baranov, Y. F.; Barnard, M. A.; Barnes, D.; Barnes, M.; Barnsley, R.; Baron Wiechec, A.; Barrera Orte, L.; Baruzzo, M.; Basiuk, V.; Bassan, M.; Bastow, R.; Batista, A.; Batistoni, P.; Baughan, R.; Bauvir, B.; Baylor, L.; Bazylev, B.; Beal, J.; Beaumont, P. S.; Beckers, M.; Beckett, B.; Becoulet, A.; Bekris, N.; Beldishevski, M.; Bell, K.; Belli, F.; Bellinger, M.; Belonohy, É.; Ben Ayed, N.; Benterman, N. A.; Bergsåker, H.; Bernardo, J.; Bernert, M.; Berry, M.; Bertalot, L.; Besliu, C.; Beurskens, M.; Bieg, B.; Bielecki, J.; Biewer, T.; Bigi, M.; Bílková, P.; Binda, F.; Bisoffi, A.; Bizarro, J. P. S.; Björkas, C.; Blackburn, J.; Blackman, K.; Blackman, T. R.; Blanchard, P.; Blatchford, P.; Bobkov, V.; Boboc, A.; Bodnár, G.; Bogar, O.; Bolshakova, I.; Bolzonella, T.; Bonanomi, N.; Bonelli, F.; Boom, J.; Booth, J.; Borba, D.; Borodin, D.; Borodkina, I.; Botrugno, A.; Bottereau, C.; Boulting, P.; Bourdelle, C.; Bowden, M.; Bower, C.; Bowman, C.; Boyce, T.; Boyd, C.; Boyer, H. J.; Bradshaw, J. M. A.; Braic, V.; Bravanec, R.; Breizman, B.; Bremond, S.; Brennan, P. D.; Breton, S.; Brett, A.; Brezinsek, S.; Bright, M. D. J.; Brix, M.; Broeckx, W.; Brombin, M.; Brosławski, A.; Brown, D. P. D.; Brown, M.; Bruno, E.; Bucalossi, J.; Buch, J.; Buchanan, J.; Buckley, M. A.; Budny, R.; Bufferand, H.; Bulman, M.; Bulmer, N.; Bunting, P.; Buratti, P.; Burckhart, A.; Buscarino, A.; Busse, A.; Butler, N. K.; Bykov, I.; Byrne, J.; Cahyna, P.; Calabrò, G.; Calvo, I.; Camenen, Y.; Camp, P.; Campling, D. C.; Cane, J.; Cannas, B.; Capel, A. J.; Card, P. J.; Cardinali, A.; Carman, P.; Carr, M.; Carralero, D.; Carraro, L.; Carvalho, B. B.; Carvalho, I.; Carvalho, P.; Casson, F. J.; Castaldo, C.; Catarino, N.; Caumont, J.; Causa, F.; Cavazzana, R.; Cave-Ayland, K.; Cavinato, M.; Cecconello, M.; Ceccuzzi, S.; Cecil, E.; Cenedese, A.; Cesario, R.; Challis, C. D.; Chandler, M.; Chandra, D.; Chang, C. S.; Chankin, A.; Chapman, I. T.; Chapman, S. C.; Chernyshova, M.; Chitarin, G.; Ciraolo, G.; Ciric, D.; Citrin, J.; Clairet, F.; Clark, E.; Clark, M.; Clarkson, R.; Clatworthy, D.; Clements, C.; Cleverly, M.; Coad, J. P.; Coates, P. A.; Cobalt, A.; Coccorese, V.; Cocilovo, V.; Coda, S.; Coelho, R.; Coenen, J. W.; Coffey, I.; Colas, L.; Collins, S.; Conka, D.; Conroy, S.; Conway, N.; Coombs, D.; Cooper, D.; Cooper, S. R.; Corradino, C.; Corre, Y.; Corrigan, G.; Cortes, S.; Coster, D.; Couchman, A. S.; Cox, M. P.; Craciunescu, T.; Cramp, S.; Craven, R.; Crisanti, F.; Croci, G.; Croft, D.; Crombé, K.; Crowe, R.; Cruz, N.; Cseh, G.; Cufar, A.; Cullen, A.; Curuia, M.; Czarnecka, A.; Dabirikhah, H.; Dalgliesh, P.; Dalley, S.; Dankowski, J.; Darrow, D.; Davies, O.; Davis, W.; Day, C.; Day, I. E.; De Bock, M.; de Castro, A.; de la Cal, E.; de la Luna, E.; De Masi, G.; de Pablos, J. L.; De Temmerman, G.; De Tommasi, G.; de Vries, P.; Deakin, K.; Deane, J.; Degli Agostini, F.; Dejarnac, R.; Delabie, E.; den Harder, N.; Dendy, R. O.; Denis, J.; Denner, P.; Devaux, S.; Devynck, P.; Di Maio, F.; Di Siena, A.; Di Troia, C.; Dinca, P.; D'Inca, R.; Ding, B.; Dittmar, T.; Doerk, H.; Doerner, R. P.; Donné, T.; Dorling, S. E.; Dormido-Canto, S.; Doswon, S.; Douai, D.; Doyle, P. T.; Drenik, A.; Drewelow, P.; Drews, P.; Duckworth, Ph.; Dumont, R.; Dumortier, P.; Dunai, D.; Dunne, M.; Ďuran, I.; Durodié, F.; Dutta, P.; Duval, B. P.; Dux, R.; Dylst, K.; Dzysiuk, N.; Edappala, P. V.; Edmond, J.; Edwards, A. M.; Edwards, J.; Eich, Th.; Ekedahl, A.; El-Jorf, R.; Elsmore, C. G.; Enachescu, M.; Ericsson, G.; Eriksson, F.; Eriksson, J.; Eriksson, L. G.; Esposito, B.; Esquembri, S.; Esser, H. G.; Esteve, D.; Evans, B.; Evans, G. E.; Evison, G.; Ewart, G. D.; Fagan, D.; Faitsch, M.; Falie, D.; Fanni, A.; Fasoli, A.; Faustin, J. M.; Fawlk, N.; Fazendeiro, L.; Fedorczak, N.; Felton, R. C.; Fenton, K.; Fernades, A.; Fernandes, H.; Ferreira, J.; Fessey, J. A.; Février, O.; Ficker, O.; Field, A.; Fietz, S.; Figueiredo, A.; Figueiredo, J.; Fil, A.; Finburg, P.; Firdaouss, M.; Fischer, U.; Fittill, L.; Fitzgerald, M.; Flammini, D.; Flanagan, J.; Fleming, C.; Flinders, K.; Fonnesu, N.; Fontdecaba, J. M.; Formisano, A.; Forsythe, L.; Fortuna, L.; Fortuna-Zalesna, E.; Fortune, M.; Foster, S.; Franke, T.; Franklin, T.; Frasca, M.; Frassinetti, L.; Freisinger, M.; Fresa, R.; Frigione, D.; Fuchs, V.; Fuller, D.; Futatani, S.; Fyvie, J.; Gál, K.; Galassi, D.; Gałązka, K.; Galdon-Quiroga, J.; Gallagher, J.; Gallart, D.; Galvão, R.; Gao, X.; Gao, Y.; Garcia, J.; Garcia-Carrasco, A.; García-Muñoz, M.; Gardarein, J.-L.; Garzotti, L.; Gaudio, P.; Gauthier, E.; Gear, D. F.; Gee, S. J.; Geiger, B.; Gelfusa, M.; Gerasimov, S.; Gervasini, G.; Gethins, M.; Ghani, Z.; Ghate, M.; Gherendi, M.; Giacalone, J. C.; Giacomelli, L.; Gibson, C. S.; Giegerich, T.; Gil, C.; Gil, L.; Gilligan, S.; Gin, D.; Giovannozzi, E.; Girardo, J. B.; Giroud, C.; Giruzzi, G.; Glöggler, S.; Godwin, J.; Goff, J.; Gohil, P.; Goloborod'ko, V.; Gomes, R.; Gonçalves, B.; Goniche, M.; Goodliffe, M.; Goodyear, A.; Gorini, G.; Gosk, M.; Goulding, R.; Goussarov, A.; Gowland, R.; Graham, B.; Graham, M. E.; Graves, J. P.; Grazier, N.; Grazier, P.; Green, N. R.; Greuner, H.; Grierson, B.; Griph, F. S.; Grisolia, C.; Grist, D.; Groth, M.; Grove, R.; Grundy, C. N.; Grzonka, J.; Guard, D.; Guérard, C.; Guillemaut, C.; Guirlet, R.; Gurl, C.; Utoh, H. H.; Hackett, L. J.; Hacquin, S.; Hagar, A.; Hager, R.; Hakola, A.; Halitovs, M.; Hall, S. J.; Hallworth Cook, S. P.; Hamlyn-Harris, C.; Hammond, K.; Harrington, C.; Harrison, J.; Harting, D.; Hasenbeck, F.; Hatano, Y.; Hatch, D. R.; Haupt, T. D. V.; Hawes, J.; Hawkes, N. C.; Hawkins, J.; Hawkins, P.; Haydon, P. W.; Hayter, N.; Hazel, S.; Heesterman, P. J. L.; Heinola, K.; Hellesen, C.; Hellsten, T.; Helou, W.; Hemming, O. N.; Hender, T. C.; Henderson, M.; Henderson, S. S.; Henriques, R.; Hepple, D.; Hermon, G.; Hertout, P.; Hidalgo, C.; Highcock, E. G.; Hill, M.; Hillairet, J.; Hillesheim, J.; Hillis, D.; Hizanidis, K.; Hjalmarsson, A.; Hobirk, J.; Hodille, E.; Hogben, C. H. A.; Hogeweij, G. M. D.; Hollingsworth, A.; Hollis, S.; Homfray, D. A.; Horáček, J.; Hornung, G.; Horton, A. R.; Horton, L. D.; Horvath, L.; Hotchin, S. P.; Hough, M. R.; Howarth, P. J.; Hubbard, A.; Huber, A.; Huber, V.; Huddleston, T. M.; Hughes, M.; Huijsmans, G. T. A.; Hunter, C. L.; Huynh, P.; Hynes, A. M.; Iglesias, D.; Imazawa, N.; Imbeaux, F.; Imríšek, M.; Incelli, M.; Innocente, P.; Irishkin, M.; Ivanova-Stanik, I.; Jachmich, S.; Jacobsen, A. S.; Jacquet, P.; Jansons, J.; Jardin, A.; Järvinen, A.; Jaulmes, F.; Jednoróg, S.; Jenkins, I.; Jeong, C.; Jepu, I.; Joffrin, E.; Johnson, R.; Johnson, T.; Johnston, Jane; Joita, L.; Jones, G.; Jones, T. T. C.; Hoshino, K. K.; Kallenbach, A.; Kamiya, K.; Kaniewski, J.; Kantor, A.; Kappatou, A.; Karhunen, J.; Karkinsky, D.; Karnowska, I.; Kaufman, M.; Kaveney, G.; Kazakov, Y.; Kazantzidis, V.; Keeling, D. L.; Keenan, T.; Keep, J.; Kempenaars, M.; Kennedy, C.; Kenny, D.; Kent, J.; Kent, O. N.; Khilkevich, E.; Kim, H. T.; Kim, H. S.; Kinch, A.; king, C.; King, D.; King, R. F.; Kinna, D. J.; Kiptily, V.; Kirk, A.; Kirov, K.; Kirschner, A.; Kizane, G.; Klepper, C.; Klix, A.; Knight, P.; Knipe, S. J.; Knott, S.; Kobuchi, T.; Köchl, F.; Kocsis, G.; Kodeli, I.; Kogan, L.; Kogut, D.; Koivuranta, S.; Kominis, Y.; Köppen, M.; Kos, B.; Koskela, T.; Koslowski, H. R.; Koubiti, M.; Kovari, M.; Kowalska-Strzęciwilk, E.; Krasilnikov, A.; Krasilnikov, V.; Krawczyk, N.; Kresina, M.; Krieger, K.; Krivska, A.; Kruezi, U.; Książek, I.; Kukushkin, A.; Kundu, A.; Kurki-Suonio, T.; Kwak, S.; Kwiatkowski, R.; Kwon, O. J.; Laguardia, L.; Lahtinen, A.; Laing, A.; Lam, N.; Lambertz, H. T.; Lane, C.; Lang, P. T.; Lanthaler, S.; Lapins, J.; Lasa, A.; Last, J. R.; Łaszyńska, E.; Lawless, R.; Lawson, A.; Lawson, K. D.; Lazaros, A.; Lazzaro, E.; Leddy, J.; Lee, S.; Lefebvre, X.; Leggate, H. J.; Lehmann, J.; Lehnen, M.; Leichtle, D.; Leichuer, P.; Leipold, F.; Lengar, I.; Lennholm, M.; Lerche, E.; Lescinskis, A.; Lesnoj, S.; Letellier, E.; Leyland, M.; Leysen, W.; Li, L.; Liang, Y.; Likonen, J.; Linke, J.; Linsmeier, Ch.; Lipschultz, B.; Liu, G.; Liu, Y.; Lo Schiavo, V. P.; Loarer, T.; Loarte, A.; Lobel, R. C.; Lomanowski, B.; Lomas, P. J.; Lönnroth, J.; López, J. M.; López-Razola, J.; Lorenzini, R.; Losada, U.; Lovell, J. J.; Loving, A. B.; Lowry, C.; Luce, T.; Lucock, R. M. A.; Lukin, A.; Luna, C.; Lungaroni, M.; Lungu, C. P.; Lungu, M.; Lunniss, A.; Lupelli, I.; Lyssoivan, A.; Macdonald, N.; Macheta, P.; Maczewa, K.; Magesh, B.; Maget, P.; Maggi, C.; Maier, H.; Mailloux, J.; Makkonen, T.; Makwana, R.; Malaquias, A.; Malizia, A.; Manas, P.; Manning, A.; Manso, M. E.; Mantica, P.; Mantsinen, M.; Manzanares, A.; Maquet, Ph.; Marandet, Y.; Marcenko, N.; Marchetto, C.; Marchuk, O.; Marinelli, M.; Marinucci, M.; Markovič, T.; Marocco, D.; Marot, L.; Marren, C. A.; Marshal, R.; Martin, A.; Martin, Y.; Martín de Aguilera, A.; Martínez, F. J.; Martín-Solís, J. R.; Martynova, Y.; Maruyama, S.; Masiello, A.; Maslov, M.; Matejcik, S.; Mattei, M.; Matthews, G. F.; Maviglia, F.; Mayer, M.; Mayoral, M. L.; May-Smith, T.; Mazon, D.; Mazzotta, C.; McAdams, R.; McCarthy, P. J.; McClements, K. G.; McCormack, O.; McCullen, P. A.; McDonald, D.; McIntosh, S.; McKean, R.; McKehon, J.; Meadows, R. C.; Meakins, A.; Medina, F.; Medland, M.; Medley, S.; Meigh, S.; Meigs, A. G.; Meisl, G.; Meitner, S.; Meneses, L.; Menmuir, S.; Mergia, K.; Merrigan, I. R.; Mertens, Ph.; Meshchaninov, S.; Messiaen, A.; Meyer, H.; Mianowski, S.; Michling, R.; Middleton-Gear, D.; Miettunen, J.; Militello, F.; Militello-Asp, E.; Miloshevsky, G.; Mink, F.; Minucci, S.; Miyoshi, Y.; Mlynář, J.; Molina, D.; Monakhov, I.; Moneti, M.; Mooney, R.; Moradi, S.; Mordijck, S.; Moreira, L.; Moreno, R.; Moro, F.; Morris, A. W.; Morris, J.; Moser, L.; Mosher, S.; Moulton, D.; Murari, A.; Muraro, A.; Murphy, S.; Asakura, N. N.; Na, Y. S.; Nabais, F.; Naish, R.; Nakano, T.; Nardon, E.; Naulin, V.; Nave, M. F. F.; Nedzelski, I.; Nemtsev, G.; Nespoli, F.; Neto, A.; Neu, R.; Neverov, V. S.; Newman, M.; Nicholls, K. J.; Nicolas, T.; Nielsen, A. H.; Nielsen, P.; Nilsson, E.; Nishijima, D.; Noble, C.; Nocente, M.; Nodwell, D.; Nordlund, K.; Nordman, H.; Nouailletas, R.; Nunes, I.; Oberkofler, M.; Odupitan, T.; Ogawa, M. T.; O'Gorman, T.; Okabayashi, M.; Olney, R.; Omolayo, O.; O'Mullane, M.; Ongena, J.; Orsitto, F.; Orszagh, J.; Oswuigwe, B. I.; Otin, R.; Owen, A.; Paccagnella, R.; Pace, N.; Pacella, D.; Packer, L. W.; Page, A.; Pajuste, E.; Palazzo, S.; Pamela, S.; Panja, S.; Papp, P.; Paprok, R.; Parail, V.; Park, M.; Parra Diaz, F.; Parsons, M.; Pasqualotto, R.; Patel, A.; Pathak, S.; Paton, D.; Patten, H.; Pau, A.; Pawelec, E.; Soldan, C. Paz; Peackoc, A.; Pearson, I. J.; Pehkonen, S.-P.; Peluso, E.; Penot, C.; Pereira, A.; Pereira, R.; Pereira Puglia, P. P.; Perez von Thun, C.; Peruzzo, S.; Peschanyi, S.; Peterka, M.; Petersson, P.; Petravich, G.; Petre, A.; Petrella, N.; Petržilka, V.; Peysson, Y.; Pfefferlé, D.; Philipps, V.; Pillon, M.; Pintsuk, G.; Piovesan, P.; Pires dos Reis, A.; Piron, L.; Pironti, A.; Pisano, F.; Pitts, R.; Pizzo, F.; Plyusnin, V.; Pomaro, N.; Pompilian, O. G.; Pool, P. J.; Popovichev, S.; Porfiri, M. T.; Porosnicu, C.; Porton, M.; Possnert, G.; Potzel, S.; Powell, T.; Pozzi, J.; Prajapati, V.; Prakash, R.; Prestopino, G.; Price, D.; Price, M.; Price, R.; Prior, P.; Proudfoot, R.; Pucella, G.; Puglia, P.; Puiatti, M. E.; Pulley, D.; Purahoo, K.; Pütterich, Th.; Rachlew, E.; Rack, M.; Ragona, R.; Rainford, M. S. J.; Rakha, A.; Ramogida, G.; Ranjan, S.; Rapson, C. J.; Rasmussen, J. J.; Rathod, K.; Rattá, G.; Ratynskaia, S.; Ravera, G.; Rayner, C.; Rebai, M.; Reece, D.; Reed, A.; Réfy, D.; Regan, B.; Regaña, J.; Reich, M.; Reid, N.; Reimold, F.; Reinhart, M.; Reinke, M.; Reiser, D.; Rendell, D.; Reux, C.; Reyes Cortes, S. D. A.; Reynolds, S.; Riccardo, V.; Richardson, N.; Riddle, K.; Rigamonti, D.; Rimini, F. G.; Risner, J.; Riva, M.; Roach, C.; Robins, R. J.; Robinson, S. A.; Robinson, T.; Robson, D. W.; Roccella, R.; Rodionov, R.; Rodrigues, P.; Rodriguez, J.; Rohde, V.; Romanelli, F.; Romanelli, M.; Romanelli, S.; Romazanov, J.; Rowe, S.; Rubel, M.; Rubinacci, G.; Rubino, G.; Ruchko, L.; Ruiz, M.; Ruset, C.; Rzadkiewicz, J.; Saarelma, S.; Sabot, R.; Safi, E.; Sagar, P.; Saibene, G.; Saint-Laurent, F.; Salewski, M.; Salmi, A.; Salmon, R.; Salzedas, F.; Samaddar, D.; Samm, U.; Sandiford, D.; Santa, P.; Santala, M. I. K.; Santos, B.; Santucci, A.; Sartori, F.; Sartori, R.; Sauter, O.; Scannell, R.; Schlummer, T.; Schmid, K.; Schmidt, V.; Schmuck, S.; Schneider, M.; Schöpf, K.; Schwörer, D.; Scott, S. D.; Sergienko, G.; Sertoli, M.; Shabbir, A.; Sharapov, S. E.; Shaw, A.; Shaw, R.; Sheikh, H.; Shepherd, A.; Shevelev, A.; Shumack, A.; Sias, G.; Sibbald, M.; Sieglin, B.; Silburn, S.; Silva, A.; Silva, C.; Simmons, P. A.; Simpson, J.; Simpson-Hutchinson, J.; Sinha, A.; Sipilä, S. K.; Sips, A. C. C.; Sirén, P.; Sirinelli, A.; Sjöstrand, H.; Skiba, M.; Skilton, R.; Slabkowska, K.; Slade, B.; Smith, N.; Smith, P. G.; Smith, R.; Smith, T. J.; Smithies, M.; Snoj, L.; Soare, S.; Solano, E. R.; Somers, A.; Sommariva, C.; Sonato, P.; Sopplesa, A.; Sousa, J.; Sozzi, C.; Spagnolo, S.; Spelzini, T.; Spineanu, F.; Stables, G.; Stamatelatos, I.; Stamp, M. F.; Staniec, P.; Stankūnas, G.; Stan-Sion, C.; Stead, M. J.; Stefanikova, E.; Stepanov, I.; Stephen, A. V.; Stephen, M.; Stevens, A.; Stevens, B. D.; Strachan, J.; Strand, P.; Strauss, H. R.; Ström, P.; Stubbs, G.; Studholme, W.; Subba, F.; Summers, H. P.; Svensson, J.; Świderski, Ł.; Szabolics, T.; Szawlowski, M.; Szepesi, G.; Suzuki, T. T.; Tál, B.; Tala, T.; Talbot, A. R.; Talebzadeh, S.; Taliercio, C.; Tamain, P.; Tame, C.; Tang, W.; Tardocchi, M.; Taroni, L.; Taylor, D.; Taylor, K. A.; Tegnered, D.; Telesca, G.; Teplova, N.; Terranova, D.; Testa, D.; Tholerus, E.; Thomas, J.; Thomas, J. D.; Thomas, P.; Thompson, A.; Thompson, C.-A.; Thompson, V. K.; Thorne, L.; Thornton, A.; Thrysøe, A. S.; Tigwell, P. A.; Tipton, N.; Tiseanu, I.; Tojo, H.; Tokitani, M.; Tolias, P.; Tomeš, M.; Tonner, P.; Towndrow, M.; Trimble, P.; Tripsky, M.; Tsalas, M.; Tsavalas, P.; Tskhakaya jun, D.; Turner, I.; Turner, M. M.; Turnyanskiy, M.; Tvalashvili, G.; Tyrrell, S. G. J.; Uccello, A.; Ul-Abidin, Z.; Uljanovs, J.; Ulyatt, D.; Urano, H.; Uytdenhouwen, I.; Vadgama, A. P.; Valcarcel, D.; Valentinuzzi, M.; Valisa, M.; Vallejos Olivares, P.; Valovic, M.; Van De Mortel, M.; Van Eester, D.; Van Renterghem, W.; van Rooij, G. J.; Varje, J.; Varoutis, S.; Vartanian, S.; Vasava, K.; Vasilopoulou, T.; Vega, J.; Verdoolaege, G.; Verhoeven, R.; Verona, C.; Verona Rinati, G.; Veshchev, E.; Vianello, N.; Vicente, J.; Viezzer, E.; Villari, S.; Villone, F.; Vincenzi, P.; Vinyar, I.; Viola, B.; Vitins, A.; Vizvary, Z.; Vlad, M.; Voitsekhovitch, I.; Vondráček, P.; Vora, N.; Vu, T.; Pires de Sa, W. W.; Wakeling, B.; Waldon, C. W. F.; Walkden, N.; Walker, M.; Walker, R.; Walsh, M.; Wang, E.; Wang, N.; Warder, S.; Warren, R. J.; Waterhouse, J.; Watkins, N. W.; Watts, C.; Wauters, T.; Weckmann, A.; Weiland, J.; Weisen, H.; Weiszflog, M.; Wellstood, C.; West, A. T.; Wheatley, M. R.; Whetham, S.; Whitehead, A. M.; Whitehead, B. D.; Widdowson, A. M.; Wiesen, S.; Wilkinson, J.; Williams, J.; Williams, M.; Wilson, A. R.; Wilson, D. J.; Wilson, H. R.; Wilson, J.; Wischmeier, M.; Withenshaw, G.; Withycombe, A.; Witts, D. M.; Wood, D.; Wood, R.; Woodley, C.; Wray, S.; Wright, J.; Wright, J. C.; Wu, J.; Wukitch, S.; Wynn, A.; Xu, T.; Yadikin, D.; Yanling, W.; Yao, L.; Yavorskij, V.; Yoo, M. G.; Young, C.; Young, D.; Young, I. D.; Young, R.; Zacks, J.; Zagorski, R.; Zaitsev, F. S.; Zanino, R.; Zarins, A.; Zastrow, K. D.; Zerbini, M.; Zhang, W.; Zhou, Y.; Zilli, E.; Zoita, V.; Zoletnik, S.; Zychor, I.; JET Contributors

    2017-10-01

    The 2014-2016 JET results are reviewed in the light of their significance for optimising the ITER research plan for the active and non-active operation. More than 60 h of plasma operation with ITER first wall materials successfully took place since its installation in 2011. New multi-machine scaling of the type I-ELM divertor energy flux density to ITER is supported by first principle modelling. ITER relevant disruption experiments and first principle modelling are reported with a set of three disruption mitigation valves mimicking the ITER setup. Insights of the L-H power threshold in Deuterium and Hydrogen are given, stressing the importance of the magnetic configurations and the recent measurements of fine-scale structures in the edge radial electric. Dimensionless scans of the core and pedestal confinement provide new information to elucidate the importance of the first wall material on the fusion performance. H-mode plasmas at ITER triangularity (H  =  1 at β N ~ 1.8 and n/n GW ~ 0.6) have been sustained at 2 MA during 5 s. The ITER neutronics codes have been validated on high performance experiments. Prospects for the coming D-T campaign and 14 MeV neutron calibration strategy are reviewed.

  7. Establishing Operational Access: Insights from the Past for the Future

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-06-01

    Combined Bomber Offensive, the Yom Kippur War, and Operation Mole Cricket 19 identifies two tenets that must be incorporated into the next iteration of...Mole Cricket 19 identifies two tenets that must be incorporated into the next iteration of the Joint Operational Access Concept. First, the Joint...They are the Battle of Britain, the Combined Bomber Offensive, the Yom Kippur War, and Operation Mole Cricket 19. These examples were selected

  8. In-Vessel Tritium Retention and Removal in ITER-FEAT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Federici, G.; Brooks, J. N.; Iseli, M.; Wu, C. H.

    Erosion of the divertor and first-wall plasma-facing components, tritium uptake in the re-deposited films, and direct implantation in the armour material surfaces surrounding the plasma, represent crucial physical issues that affect the design of future fusion devices. In this paper we present the derivation, and discuss the results, of current predictions of tritium inventory in ITER-FEAT due to co-deposition and implantation and their attendant uncertainties. The current armour materials proposed for ITER-FEAT are beryllium on the first-wall, carbon-fibre-composites on the divertor plate near the separatrix strike points, to withstand the high thermal loads expected during off-normal events, e.g., disruptions, and tungsten elsewhere in the divertor. Tritium co-deposition with chemically eroded carbon in the divertor, and possibly with some Be eroded from the first-wall, is expected to represent the dominant mechanism of in-vessel tritium retention in ITER-FEAT. This demands efficient in-situ methods of mitigation and retrieval to avoid frequent outages due to the reaching of precautionary operating limits set by safety considerations (e.g., ˜350 g of in-vessel co-deposited tritium) and for fuel economy reasons. Priority areas where further R&D work is required to narrow the remaining uncertainties are also briefly discussed.

  9. Design Features of the Neutral Particle Diagnostic System for the ITER Tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrov, S. Ya.; Afanasyev, V. I.; Melnik, A. D.; Mironov, M. I.; Navolotsky, A. S.; Nesenevich, V. G.; Petrov, M. P.; Chernyshev, F. V.; Kedrov, I. V.; Kuzmin, E. G.; Lyublin, B. V.; Kozlovski, S. S.; Mokeev, A. N.

    2017-12-01

    The control of the deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel isotopic ratio has to ensure the best performance of the ITER thermonuclear fusion reactor. The diagnostic system described in this paper allows the measurement of this ratio analyzing the hydrogen isotope fluxes (performing neutral particle analysis (NPA)). The development and supply of the NPA diagnostics for ITER was delegated to the Russian Federation. The diagnostics is being developed at the Ioffe Institute. The system consists of two analyzers, viz., LENPA (Low Energy Neutral Particle Analyzer) with 10-200 keV energy range and HENPA (High Energy Neutral Particle Analyzer) with 0.1-4.0MeV energy range. Simultaneous operation of both analyzers in different energy ranges enables researchers to measure the DT fuel ratio both in the central burning plasma (thermonuclear burn zone) and at the edge as well. When developing the diagnostic complex, it was necessary to account for the impact of several factors: high levels of neutron and gamma radiation, the direct vacuum connection to the ITER vessel, implying high tritium containment, strict requirements on reliability of all units and mechanisms, and the limited space available for accommodation of the diagnostic hardware at the ITER tokamak. The paper describes the design of the diagnostic complex and the engineering solutions that make it possible to conduct measurements under tokamak reactor conditions. The proposed engineering solutions provide a safe—with respect to thermal and mechanical loads—common vacuum channel for hydrogen isotope atoms to pass to the analyzers; ensure efficient shielding of the analyzers from the ITER stray magnetic field (up to 1 kG); provide the remote control of the NPA diagnostic complex, in particular, connection/disconnection of the NPA vacuum beamline from the ITER vessel; meet the ITER radiation safety requirements; and ensure measurements of the fuel isotopic ratio under high levels of neutron and gamma radiation.

  10. Iterative approach as alternative to S-matrix in modal methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Semenikhin, Igor; Zanuccoli, Mauro

    2014-12-01

    The continuously increasing complexity of opto-electronic devices and the rising demands of simulation accuracy lead to the need of solving very large systems of linear equations making iterative methods promising and attractive from the computational point of view with respect to direct methods. In particular, iterative approach potentially enables the reduction of required computational time to solve Maxwell's equations by Eigenmode Expansion algorithms. Regardless of the particular eigenmodes finding method used, the expansion coefficients are computed as a rule by scattering matrix (S-matrix) approach or similar techniques requiring order of M3 operations. In this work we consider alternatives to the S-matrix technique which are based on pure iterative or mixed direct-iterative approaches. The possibility to diminish the impact of M3 -order calculations to overall time and in some cases even to reduce the number of arithmetic operations to M2 by applying iterative techniques are discussed. Numerical results are illustrated to discuss validity and potentiality of the proposed approaches.

  11. Accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods with application to image reconstruction

    PubMed Central

    Nikazad, T; Davidi, R; Herman, G. T.

    2013-01-01

    We study the convergence of a class of accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods for solving systems of linear equations. We prove convergence to a fixed point of an operator even in the presence of summable perturbations of the iterates, irrespective of the consistency of the linear system. For a consistent system, the limit point is a solution of the system. In the inconsistent case, the symmetric version of our method converges to a weighted least squares solution. Perturbation resilience is utilized to approximate the minimum of a convex functional subject to the equations. A main contribution, as compared to previously published approaches to achieving similar aims, is a more than an order of magnitude speed-up, as demonstrated by applying the methods to problems of image reconstruction from projections. In addition, the accelerated algorithms are illustrated to be better, in a strict sense provided by the method of statistical hypothesis testing, than their unaccelerated versions for the task of detecting small tumors in the brain from X-ray CT projection data. PMID:23440911

  12. Accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods with application to image reconstruction.

    PubMed

    Nikazad, T; Davidi, R; Herman, G T

    2012-03-01

    We study the convergence of a class of accelerated perturbation-resilient block-iterative projection methods for solving systems of linear equations. We prove convergence to a fixed point of an operator even in the presence of summable perturbations of the iterates, irrespective of the consistency of the linear system. For a consistent system, the limit point is a solution of the system. In the inconsistent case, the symmetric version of our method converges to a weighted least squares solution. Perturbation resilience is utilized to approximate the minimum of a convex functional subject to the equations. A main contribution, as compared to previously published approaches to achieving similar aims, is a more than an order of magnitude speed-up, as demonstrated by applying the methods to problems of image reconstruction from projections. In addition, the accelerated algorithms are illustrated to be better, in a strict sense provided by the method of statistical hypothesis testing, than their unaccelerated versions for the task of detecting small tumors in the brain from X-ray CT projection data.

  13. Feynman formulas for semigroups generated by an iterated Laplace operator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buzinov, M. S.

    2017-04-01

    In the present paper, we find representations of a one-parameter semigroup generated by a finite sum of iterated Laplace operators and an additive perturbation (the potential). Such semigroups and the evolution equations corresponding to them find applications in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, and pattern recognition. The representations mentioned above are obtained in the form of Feynman formulas, i.e., in the form of a limit of multiple integrals as the multiplicity tends to infinity. The term "Feynman formula" was proposed by Smolyanov. Smolyanov's approach uses Chernoff's theorems. A simple form of representations thus obtained enables one to use them for numerical modeling the dynamics of the evolution system as a method for the approximation of solutions of equations. The problems considered in this note can be treated using the approach suggested by Remizov (see also the monograph of Smolyanov and Shavgulidze on path integrals). The representations (of semigroups) obtained in this way are more complicated than those given by the Feynman formulas; however, it is possible to bypass some analytical difficulties.

  14. Status of the Negative Ion Based Heating and Diagnostic Neutral Beams for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schunke, B.; Bora, D.; Hemsworth, R.; Tanga, A.

    2009-03-01

    The current baseline of ITER foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beam (HNB's) systems based on negative ion technology, each accelerating to 1 MeV 40 A of D- and capable of delivering 16.5 MW of D0 to the ITER plasma, with a 3rd HNB injector foreseen as an upgrade option [1]. In addition a dedicated Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) accelerating 60 A of H- to 100 keV will inject ≈15 A equivalent of H0 for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy and other diagnostics. Recently the RF driven negative ion source developed by IPP Garching has replaced the filamented ion source as the reference ITER design. The RF source developed at IPP, which is approximately a quarter scale of the source needed for ITER, is expected to have reduced caesium consumption compared to the filamented arc driven ion source. The RF driven source has demonstrated adequate accelerated D- and H- current densities as well as long-pulse operation [2, 3]. It is foreseen that the HNB's and the DNB will use the same negative ion source. Experiments with a half ITER-size ion source are on-going at IPP and the operation of a full-scale ion source will be demonstrated, at full power and pulse length, in the dedicated Ion Source Test Bed (ISTF), which will be part of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), in Padua, Italy. This facility will carry out the necessary R&D for the HNB's for ITER and demonstrate operation of the full-scale HNB beamline. An overview of the current status of the neutral beam (NB) systems and the chosen configuration will be given and the ongoing integration effort into the ITER plant will be highlighted. It will be demonstrated how installation and maintenance logistics have influenced the design, notably the top access scheme facilitating access for maintenance and installation. The impact of the ITER Design Review and recent design change requests (DCRs) will be briefly discussed, including start-up and commissioning issues. The low current hydrogen phase now envisaged for start-up imposed specific requirements for operating the HNB's at full beam power. It has been decided to address the shinethrough issue by installing wall armour protection, which increases the operational space in all scenarios. Other NB related issues identified by the Design Review process will be discussed and the possible changes to the ITER baseline indicated.

  15. Status of the Negative Ion Based Heating and Diagnostic Neutral Beams for ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schunke, B.; Bora, D.; Hemsworth, R.

    2009-03-12

    The current baseline of ITER foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beam (HNB's) systems based on negative ion technology, each accelerating to 1 MeV 40 A of D{sup -} and capable of delivering 16.5 MW of D{sup 0} to the ITER plasma, with a 3rd HNB injector foreseen as an upgrade option. In addition a dedicated Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) accelerating 60 A of H{sup -} to 100 keV will inject {approx_equal}15 A equivalent of H{sup 0} for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy and other diagnostics. Recently the RF driven negative ion source developed by IPP Garching has replaced the filamented ion sourcemore » as the reference ITER design. The RF source developed at IPP, which is approximately a quarter scale of the source needed for ITER, is expected to have reduced caesium consumption compared to the filamented arc driven ion source. The RF driven source has demonstrated adequate accelerated D{sup -} and H{sup -} current densities as well as long-pulse operation. It is foreseen that the HNB's and the DNB will use the same negative ion source. Experiments with a half ITER-size ion source are on-going at IPP and the operation of a full-scale ion source will be demonstrated, at full power and pulse length, in the dedicated Ion Source Test Bed (ISTF), which will be part of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), in Padua, Italy. This facility will carry out the necessary R and D for the HNB's for ITER and demonstrate operation of the full-scale HNB beamline. An overview of the current status of the neutral beam (NB) systems and the chosen configuration will be given and the ongoing integration effort into the ITER plant will be highlighted. It will be demonstrated how installation and maintenance logistics have influenced the design, notably the top access scheme facilitating access for maintenance and installation. The impact of the ITER Design Review and recent design change requests (DCRs) will be briefly discussed, including start-up and commissioning issues. The low current hydrogen phase now envisaged for start-up imposed specific requirements for operating the HNB's at full beam power. It has been decided to address the shinethrough issue by installing wall armour protection, which increases the operational space in all scenarios. Other NB related issues identified by the Design Review process will be discussed and the possible changes to the ITER baseline indicated.« less

  16. Direct Estimation of Structure and Motion from Multiple Frames

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-03-01

    sequential frames in an image sequence. As a consequence, the information that can be extracted from a single optical flow field is limited to a snapshot of...researchers have developed techniques that extract motion and structure inform.4tion without computation of the optical flow. Best known are the "direct...operated iteratively on a sequence of images to recover structure. It required feature extraction and matching. Broida and Chellappa [9] suggested the use of

  17. Characterization of the ITER model negative ion source during long pulse operation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hemsworth, R.S.; Boilson, D.; Crowley, B.

    2006-03-15

    It is foreseen to operate the neutral beam system of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) for pulse lengths extending up to 1 h. The performance of the KAMABOKO III negative ion source, which is a model of the source designed for ITER, is being studied on the MANTIS test bed at Cadarache. This article reports the latest results from the characterization of the ion source, in particular electron energy distribution measurements and the comparison between positive ion and negative ion extraction from the source.

  18. Scientific Hybrid Realtiy Environments (SHyRE): Bringing Field Work into the Laboratory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Miller, M. J.; Graff, T.; Young, K.; Coan, D.; Whelley, P.; Richardson, J.; Knudson, C.; Bleacher, J.; Garry, W. B.; Delgado, F.; hide

    2018-01-01

    The use of analog environments in preparing for future planetary surface exploration is key in ensuring we both understand the processes shaping other planetary surfaces as well as develop the technology, systems, and concepts of operations necessary to operate in these geologic environments. While conducting fieldwork and testing technology in relevant terrestrial field environments is crucial in this development, it is often the case that operational testing requires a time-intensive iterative process that is hampered by the rigorous conditions (e.g. terrain, weather, location, etc.) found in most field environments. Additionally, field deployments can be costly and must be scheduled months in advance, therefore limiting the testing opportunities required to investigate and compare science operational concepts to only once or twice per year.

  19. Overview of the JET results in support to ITER

    DOE PAGES

    Litaudon, X.; Abduallev, S.; Abhangi, M.; ...

    2017-06-15

    Here, the 2014–2016 JET results are reviewed in the light of their significance for optimising the ITER research plan for the active and non-active operation. More than 60 h of plasma operation with ITER first wall materials successfully took place since its installation in 2011. New multi-machine scaling of the type I-ELM divertor energy flux density to ITER is supported by first principle modelling. ITER relevant disruption experiments and first principle modelling are reported with a set of three disruption mitigation valves mimicking the ITER setup. Insights of the L–H power threshold in Deuterium and Hydrogen are given, stressing themore » importance of the magnetic configurations and the recent measurements of fine-scale structures in the edge radial electric. Dimensionless scans of the core and pedestal confinement provide new information to elucidate the importance of the first wall material on the fusion performance. H-mode plasmas at ITER triangularity (H = 1 at β N ~ 1.8 and n/n GW ~ 0.6) have been sustained at 2 MA during 5 s. The ITER neutronics codes have been validated on high performance experiments. Prospects for the coming D–T campaign and 14 MeV neutron calibration strategy are reviewed.« less

  20. Physics and technology in the ion-cyclotron range of frequency on Tore Supra and TITAN test facility: implication for ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Litaudon, X; Bernard, J. M.; Colas, L.

    2013-01-01

    To support the design of an ITER ion-cyclotron range of frequency heating (ICRH) system and to mitigate risks of operation in ITER, CEA has initiated an ambitious Research & Development program accompanied by experiments on Tore Supra or test-bed facility together with a significant modelling effort. The paper summarizes the recent results in the following areas: Comprehensive characterization (experiments and modelling) of a new Faraday screen concept tested on the Tore Supra antenna. A new model is developed for calculating the ICRH sheath rectification at the antenna vicinity. The model is applied to calculate the local heat flux on Toremore » Supra and ITER ICRH antennas. Full-wave modelling of ITER ICRH heating and current drive scenarios with the EVE code. With 20 MW of power, a current of 400 kA could be driven on axis in the DT scenario. Comparison between DT and DT(3He) scenario is given for heating and current drive efficiencies. First operation of CW test-bed facility, TITAN, designed for ITER ICRH components testing and could host up to a quarter of an ITER antenna. R&D of high permittivity materials to improve load of test facilities to better simulate ITER plasma antenna loading conditions.« less

  1. Overview of the JET results in support to ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Litaudon, X.; Abduallev, S.; Abhangi, M.

    Here, the 2014–2016 JET results are reviewed in the light of their significance for optimising the ITER research plan for the active and non-active operation. More than 60 h of plasma operation with ITER first wall materials successfully took place since its installation in 2011. New multi-machine scaling of the type I-ELM divertor energy flux density to ITER is supported by first principle modelling. ITER relevant disruption experiments and first principle modelling are reported with a set of three disruption mitigation valves mimicking the ITER setup. Insights of the L–H power threshold in Deuterium and Hydrogen are given, stressing themore » importance of the magnetic configurations and the recent measurements of fine-scale structures in the edge radial electric. Dimensionless scans of the core and pedestal confinement provide new information to elucidate the importance of the first wall material on the fusion performance. H-mode plasmas at ITER triangularity (H = 1 at β N ~ 1.8 and n/n GW ~ 0.6) have been sustained at 2 MA during 5 s. The ITER neutronics codes have been validated on high performance experiments. Prospects for the coming D–T campaign and 14 MeV neutron calibration strategy are reviewed.« less

  2. Helium experiments on Alcator C-Mod in support of ITER early operations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kessel, C. E.; Wolfe, S. M.; Reinke, M. L.; Hughes, J. W.; Lin, Y.; Wukitch, S. J.; Baek, S. G.; Bonoli, P. T.; Chilenski, M.; Diallo, A.; the Alcator C-Mod Team

    2018-05-01

    Helium majority experiments on Alcator C-Mod were performed to compare with deuterium discharges, and inform ITER early operations. ELMy H-modes were produced with a special plasma shape at B T  =  5.3 T, I P  =  0.9 MA, at q 95 ~ 3.8. The He fraction ranged over, n He,L/n L  =  0.2-0.4, with n D,L/n L  =  0.15-0.26, compared to D plasmas with n D,L/n L  =  0.85-0.97. The power to enter the H-mode in He was found to be greater than ~2 times that for D discharges, in the low density region  <1.4  ×  1020/m3. However, it appears to follow the D threshold for higher densities. The stored energies in the He discharges were about 80% of those in D, and about 40% higher net power was required to sustain them compared to D. Global particle confinement times for tungsten of τ W* /τ E ~ 4 were obtained with ELMy H-modes in He, however accumulation occurred when the ELMs were irregular and infrequent. The electron temperatures and densities in the pedestal were similar between D and He discharges, and the ΔT e/T e and Δn e/n e values were similar or larger in He than D. The higher net power required to access the H-mode, and sustain it in flattop, for He discharges in C-Mod, imply some limitations for He operation in ITER.

  3. First results of the ITER-relevant negative ion beam test facility ELISE (invited).

    PubMed

    Fantz, U; Franzen, P; Heinemann, B; Wünderlich, D

    2014-02-01

    An important step in the European R&D roadmap towards the neutral beam heating systems of ITER is the new test facility ELISE (Extraction from a Large Ion Source Experiment) for large-scale extraction from a half-size ITER RF source. The test facility was constructed in the last years at Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik Garching and is now operational. ELISE is gaining early experience of the performance and operation of large RF-driven negative hydrogen ion sources with plasma illumination of a source area of 1 × 0.9 m(2) and an extraction area of 0.1 m(2) using 640 apertures. First results in volume operation, i.e., without caesium seeding, are presented.

  4. The effect of density fluctuations on electron cyclotron beam broadening and implications for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Snicker, A.; Poli, E.; Maj, O.; Guidi, L.; Köhn, A.; Weber, H.; Conway, G.; Henderson, M.; Saibene, G.

    2018-01-01

    We present state-of-the-art computations of propagation and absorption of electron cyclotron waves, retaining the effects of scattering due to electron density fluctuations. In ITER, injected microwaves are foreseen to suppress neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) by driving current at the q=2 and q=3/2 resonant surfaces. Scattering of the beam can spoil the good localization of the absorption and thus impair NTM control capabilities. A novel tool, the WKBeam code, has been employed here in order to investigate this issue. The code is a Monte Carlo solver for the wave kinetic equation and retains diffraction, full axisymmetric tokamak geometry, determination of the absorption profile and an integral form of the scattering operator which describes the effects of turbulent density fluctuations within the limits of the Born scattering approximation. The approach has been benchmarked against the paraxial WKB code TORBEAM and the full-wave code IPF-FDMC. In particular, the Born approximation is found to be valid for ITER parameters. In this paper, we show that the radiative transport of EC beams due to wave scattering in ITER is diffusive unlike in present experiments, thus causing up to a factor of 2-4 broadening in the absorption profile. However, the broadening depends strongly on the turbulence model assumed for the density fluctuations, which still has large uncertainties.

  5. Operational limits on WEST inertial divertor sector during the early phase experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Firdaouss, M.; Corre, Y.; Languille, P.; Greuner, H.; Autissier, E.; Desgranges, C.; Guilhem, D.; Gunn, J. P.; Lipa, M.; Missirlian, M.; Pascal, J.-Y.; Pocheau, C.; Richou, M.; Tsitrone, E.

    2016-02-01

    The primary goal of the WEST project is to be a test bed to characterize the fatigue and lifetime of ITER-like W divertor components subjected to relevant thermal loads. During the first phase of exploitation (S2 2016), these components (W monoblock plasma facing unit—W-PFU) will be installed in conjunction with graphite components (G-PFU). Since the G-PFU will not be actively cooled, it is necessary to ensure the expected pulse duration allows the W-PFU to reach its steady state without overheating the G-PFU assembly structure or the embedded stainless-steel diagnostics. High heat flux tests were performed at the GLADIS facility to assess the thermal behavior of the G-PFU. Some operational limits based on plasma parameters were determined. It was found that it is possible to operate at an injected power such that the maximal incident heat flux on the lower divertor is 10 MW m-2 for the required pulse length.

  6. Structures for handling high heat fluxes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Watson, R. D.

    1990-12-01

    The divertor is reconized as one of the main performance limiting components for ITER. This paper reviews the critical issues for structures that are designed to withstand heat fluxes > 5 MW/m 2. High velocity, sub-cooled water with twisted tape inserts for enhanced heat transfer provides a critical heat flux limit of 40-60 MW/m 2. Uncertainties in physics and engineering heat flux peaking factors require that the design heat flux not exceed 10 MW/m 2 to maintain an adequate burnout safety margin. Armor tiles and heat sink materials must have a well matched thermal expansion coefficient to minimize stresses. The divertor lifetime from sputtering erosion is highly uncertain. The number of disruptions specified for ITER must be reduced to achieve a credible design. In-situ plasma spray repair with thick metallic coatings may reduce the problems of erosion. Runaway electrons in ITER have the potential to melt actively cooled components in a single event. A water leak is a serious accident because of steam reactions with hot carbon, beryllium, or tungsten that can mobilize large amounts of tritium and radioactive elements. If the plasma does not shutdown immediately, the divertor can melt in 1-10 s after a loss of coolant accident. Very high reliability of carbon tile braze joints will be required to achieve adequate safety and performance goals. Most of these critical issues will be addressed in the near future by operation of the Tore Supra pump limiters and the JET pumped divertor. An accurate understanding of the power flow out of edge of a DT burning plasma is essential to successful design of high heat flux components.

  7. Using multi-date satellite imagery to monitor invasive grass species distribution in post-wildfire landscapes: An iterative, adaptable approach that employs open-source data and software

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Kumar, Sunil; Swallow, Aaron; Luizza, Matthew; Chignell, Steve

    2017-01-01

    Among the most pressing concerns of land managers in post-wildfire landscapes are the establishment and spread of invasive species. Land managers need accurate maps of invasive species cover for targeted management post-disturbance that are easily transferable across space and time. In this study, we sought to develop an iterative, replicable methodology based on limited invasive species occurrence data, freely available remotely sensed data, and open source software to predict the distribution of Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) in a post-wildfire landscape. We developed four species distribution models using eight spectral indices derived from five months of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data in 2014. These months corresponded to both cheatgrass growing period and time of field data collection in the study area. The four models were improved using an iterative approach in which a threshold for cover was established, and all models had high sensitivity values when tested on an independent dataset. We also quantified the area at highest risk for invasion in future seasons given 2014 distribution, topographic covariates, and seed dispersal limitations. These models demonstrate the effectiveness of using derived multi-date spectral indices as proxies for species occurrence on the landscape, the importance of selecting thresholds for invasive species cover to evaluate ecological risk in species distribution models, and the applicability of Landsat 8 OLI and the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling for targeted invasive species management.

  8. Using multi-date satellite imagery to monitor invasive grass species distribution in post-wildfire landscapes: An iterative, adaptable approach that employs open-source data and software

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Kumar, Sunil; Swallow, Aaron; Luizza, Matthew W.; Chignell, Stephen M.

    2017-07-01

    Among the most pressing concerns of land managers in post-wildfire landscapes are the establishment and spread of invasive species. Land managers need accurate maps of invasive species cover for targeted management post-disturbance that are easily transferable across space and time. In this study, we sought to develop an iterative, replicable methodology based on limited invasive species occurrence data, freely available remotely sensed data, and open source software to predict the distribution of Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) in a post-wildfire landscape. We developed four species distribution models using eight spectral indices derived from five months of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data in 2014. These months corresponded to both cheatgrass growing period and time of field data collection in the study area. The four models were improved using an iterative approach in which a threshold for cover was established, and all models had high sensitivity values when tested on an independent dataset. We also quantified the area at highest risk for invasion in future seasons given 2014 distribution, topographic covariates, and seed dispersal limitations. These models demonstrate the effectiveness of using derived multi-date spectral indices as proxies for species occurrence on the landscape, the importance of selecting thresholds for invasive species cover to evaluate ecological risk in species distribution models, and the applicability of Landsat 8 OLI and the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling for targeted invasive species management.

  9. A three dimensional unsteady iterative panel method with vortex particle wakes and boundary layer model for bio-inspired multi-body wings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dhruv, Akash; Blower, Christopher; Wickenheiser, Adam M.

    2015-03-01

    The ability of UAVs to operate in complex and hostile environments makes them useful in military and civil operations concerning surveillance and reconnaissance. However, limitations in size of UAVs and communication delays prohibit their operation close to the ground and in cluttered environments, which increase risks associated with turbulence and wind gusts that cause trajectory deviations and potential loss of the vehicle. In the last decade, scientists and engineers have turned towards bio-inspiration to solve these issues by developing innovative flow control methods that offer better stability, controllability, and maneuverability. This paper presents an aerodynamic load solver for bio-inspired wings that consist of an array of feather-like flaps installed across the upper and lower surfaces in both the chord- and span-wise directions, mimicking the feathers of an avian wing. Each flap has the ability to rotate into both the wing body and the inbound airflow, generating complex flap configurations unobtainable by traditional wings that offer improved aerodynamic stability against gusting flows and turbulence. The solver discussed is an unsteady three-dimensional iterative doublet panel method with vortex particle wakes. This panel method models the wake-body interactions between multiple flaps effectively without the need to define specific wake geometries, thereby eliminating the need to manually model the wake for each configuration. To incorporate viscous flow characteristics, an iterative boundary layer theory is employed, modeling laminar, transitional and turbulent regions over the wing's surfaces, in addition to flow separation and reattachment locations. This technique enables the boundary layer to influence the wake strength and geometry both within the wing and aft of the trailing edge. The results obtained from this solver are validated using experimental data from a low-speed suction wind tunnel operating at Reynolds Number 300,000. This method enables fast and accurate assessment of aerodynamic loads for initial design of complex wing configurations compared to other methods available.

  10. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Santos, Bruno; Carvalho, Paulo F.; Rodrigues, A.P.

    The ATCA standard specifies a mandatory Shelf Manager (ShM) unit which is a key element for the system operation. It includes the Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC) which monitors the system health, retrieves inventory information and controls the Field Replaceable Units (FRUs). These elements enable the intelligent health monitoring, providing high-availability and safety operation, ensuring the correct system operation. For critical systems like ones of tokamak ITER these features are mandatory to support the long pulse operation. The Nominal Device Support (NDS) was designed and developed for the ITER CODAC Core System (CCS), which will be the responsible for plantmore » Instrumentation and Control (I and C), supervising and monitoring on ITER. It generalizes the Enhanced Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) device support interface for Data Acquisition (DAQ) and timing devices. However the support for health management features and ATCA ShM are not yet provided. This paper presents the implementation and test of a NDS for the ATCA ShM, using the ITER Fast Plant System Controller (FPSC) prototype environment. This prototype is fully compatible with the ITER CCS and uses the EPICS Channel Access (CA) protocol as the interface with the Plant Operation Network (PON). The implemented solution running in an EPICS Input / Output Controller (IOC) provides Process Variables (PV) to the PON network with the system information. These PVs can be used for control and monitoring by all CA clients, such as EPICS user interface clients and alarm systems. The results are presented, demonstrating the fully integration and the usability of this solution. (authors)« less

  11. Minimizing Cache Misses Using Minimum-Surface Bodies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frumkin, Michael; VanderWijngaart, Rob; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    A number of known techniques for improving cache performance in scientific computations involve the reordering of the iteration space. Some of these reorderings can be considered as coverings of the iteration space with the sets having good surface-to-volume ratio. Use of such sets reduces the number of cache misses in computations of local operators having the iteration space as a domain. First, we derive lower bounds which any algorithm must suffer while computing a local operator on a grid. Then we explore coverings of iteration spaces represented by structured and unstructured grids which allow us to approach these lower bounds. For structured grids we introduce a covering by successive minima tiles of the interference lattice of the grid. We show that the covering has low surface-to-volume ratio and present a computer experiment showing actual reduction of the cache misses achieved by using these tiles. For planar unstructured grids we show existence of a covering which reduces the number of cache misses to the level of structured grids. On the other hand, we present a triangulation of a 3-dimensional cube such that any local operator on the corresponding grid has significantly larger number of cache misses than a similar operator on a structured grid.

  12. Multi-scale analysis and characterization of the ITER pre-compression rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Foussat, A.; Park, B.; Rajainmaki, H.

    2014-01-01

    The toroidal field (TF) system of ITER Tokamak composed of 18 "D" shaped Toroidal Field (TF) coils during an operating scenario experiences out-of-plane forces caused by the interaction between the 68kA operating TF current and the poloidal magnetic fields. In order to keep the induced static and cyclic stress range in the intercoil shear keys between coils cases within the ITER allowable limits [1], centripetal preload is introduced by means of S2 fiber-glass/epoxy composite pre-compression rings (PCRs). Those PCRs consist in two sets of three rings, each 5 m in diameter and 337 × 288 mm in cross-section, and are installed at the top and bottom regions to apply a total resultant preload of 70 MN per TF coil equivalent to about 400 MPa hoop stress. Recent developments of composites in the aerospace industry have accelerated the use of advanced composites as primary structural materials. The PCRs represent one of the most challenging composite applications of large dimensions and highly stressed structures operating at 4 K over a long term life. Efficient design of those pre-compression composite structures requires a detailed understanding of both the failure behavior of the structure and the fracture behavior of the material. Due to the inherent difficulties to carry out real scale testing campaign, there is a need to develop simulation tools to predict the multiple complex failure mechanisms in pre-compression rings. A framework contract was placed by ITER Organization with SENER Ingenieria y Sistemas SA to develop multi-scale models representative of the composite structure of the Pre-compression rings based on experimental material data. The predictive modeling based on ABAQUS FEM provides the opportunity both to understand better how PCR composites behave in operating conditions and to support the development of materials by the supplier with enhanced performance to withstand the machine design lifetime of 30,000 cycles. The multi-scale stress analysis has revealed a complete picture of the stress levels within the fiber and the matrix regarding the static and fatigue performance of the rings structure including the presence of a delamination defect of critical size. The analysis results of the composite material demonstrate that the rings performance objectives under all loading and strength conditions are met.

  13. Research at ITER towards DEMO: Specific reactor diagnostic studies to be carried out on ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Krasilnikov, A. V.; Kaschuck, Y. A.; Vershkov, V. A.

    2014-08-21

    In ITER diagnostics will operate in the very hard radiation environment of fusion reactor. Extensive technology studies are carried out during development of the ITER diagnostics and procedures of their calibration and remote handling. Results of these studies and practical application of the developed diagnostics on ITER will provide the direct input to DEMO diagnostic development. The list of DEMO measurement requirements and diagnostics will be determined during ITER experiments on the bases of ITER plasma physics results and success of particular diagnostic application in reactor-like ITER plasma. Majority of ITER diagnostic already passed the conceptual design phase and representmore » the state of the art in fusion plasma diagnostic development. The number of related to DEMO results of ITER diagnostic studies such as design and prototype manufacture of: neutron and γ–ray diagnostics, neutral particle analyzers, optical spectroscopy including first mirror protection and cleaning technics, reflectometry, refractometry, tritium retention measurements etc. are discussed.« less

  14. Research at ITER towards DEMO: Specific reactor diagnostic studies to be carried out on ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krasilnikov, A. V.; Kaschuck, Y. A.; Vershkov, V. A.; Petrov, A. A.; Petrov, V. G.; Tugarinov, S. N.

    2014-08-01

    In ITER diagnostics will operate in the very hard radiation environment of fusion reactor. Extensive technology studies are carried out during development of the ITER diagnostics and procedures of their calibration and remote handling. Results of these studies and practical application of the developed diagnostics on ITER will provide the direct input to DEMO diagnostic development. The list of DEMO measurement requirements and diagnostics will be determined during ITER experiments on the bases of ITER plasma physics results and success of particular diagnostic application in reactor-like ITER plasma. Majority of ITER diagnostic already passed the conceptual design phase and represent the state of the art in fusion plasma diagnostic development. The number of related to DEMO results of ITER diagnostic studies such as design and prototype manufacture of: neutron and γ-ray diagnostics, neutral particle analyzers, optical spectroscopy including first mirror protection and cleaning technics, reflectometry, refractometry, tritium retention measurements etc. are discussed.

  15. Assessment of conductor degradation in the ITER CS insert coil and implications for the ITER conductors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mitchell, N.

    2007-01-01

    Nb3Sn cable in conduit-type conductors were expected to provide an efficient way of achieving large conductor currents at high field (up to 13 T) combined with good stability to electromagnetic disturbances due to the extensive helium contact area with the strands. Although ITER model coils successfully reached their design performance (Kato et al 2001 Fusion Eng. Des. 56/57 59-70), initial indications (Mitchell 2003 Fusion Eng. Des. 66-68 971-94) that there were unexplained performance shortfalls have been confirmed. Recent conductor tests (Pasztor et al 2004 IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 14 1527-30) and modelling work (Mitchell 2005 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 18 396-404) suggest that the shortfalls are due to a combination of strand bending and filament fracture under the transverse magnetic loads. Using the new model, the extensive database from the ITER CS insert coil has been reassessed. A parametric fit based on a loss of filament area and n (the exponent of the power-law fit to the electric field) combined with a more rigorous consideration of the conductor field gradient has enabled the coil behaviour to be explained much more consistently than in earlier assessments, now fitting the Nb3Sn strain scaling laws when used with measurements of the conductor operating strain, including conditions when the insert coil current (and hence operating strain) were reversed. The coil superconducting performance also shows a fatigue-type behaviour consistent with recent measurements on conductor samples (Martovetsky et al 2005 IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 15 1367-70). The ITER conductor design has already been modified compared to the CS insert, to increase the margin and provide increased resistance to the degradation, by using a steel jacket to provide thermal pre-compression to reduce tensile strain levels, reducing the void fraction from 36% to 33% and increasing the non-copper material by 25%. Test results are not yet available for the new design and performance predictions at present rely on models with limited verification.

  16. An algebraic iterative reconstruction technique for differential X-ray phase-contrast computed tomography.

    PubMed

    Fu, Jian; Schleede, Simone; Tan, Renbo; Chen, Liyuan; Bech, Martin; Achterhold, Klaus; Gifford, Martin; Loewen, Rod; Ruth, Ronald; Pfeiffer, Franz

    2013-09-01

    Iterative reconstruction has a wide spectrum of proven advantages in the field of conventional X-ray absorption-based computed tomography (CT). In this paper, we report on an algebraic iterative reconstruction technique for grating-based differential phase-contrast CT (DPC-CT). Due to the differential nature of DPC-CT projections, a differential operator and a smoothing operator are added to the iterative reconstruction, compared to the one commonly used for absorption-based CT data. This work comprises a numerical study of the algorithm and its experimental verification using a dataset measured at a two-grating interferometer setup. Since the algorithm is easy to implement and allows for the extension to various regularization possibilities, we expect a significant impact of the method for improving future medical and industrial DPC-CT applications. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  17. A space-time lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel scheme for the time-spectral method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhan, Lei; Xiong, Juntao; Liu, Feng

    2016-05-01

    The time-spectral method (TSM) offers the advantage of increased order of accuracy compared to methods using finite-difference in time for periodic unsteady flow problems. Explicit Runge-Kutta pseudo-time marching and implicit schemes have been developed to solve iteratively the space-time coupled nonlinear equations resulting from TSM. Convergence of the explicit schemes is slow because of the stringent time-step limit. Many implicit methods have been developed for TSM. Their computational efficiency is, however, still limited in practice because of delayed implicit temporal coupling, multiple iterative loops, costly matrix operations, or lack of strong diagonal dominance of the implicit operator matrix. To overcome these shortcomings, an efficient space-time lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel (ST-LU-SGS) implicit scheme with multigrid acceleration is presented. In this scheme, the implicit temporal coupling term is split as one additional dimension of space in the LU-SGS sweeps. To improve numerical stability for periodic flows with high frequency, a modification to the ST-LU-SGS scheme is proposed. Numerical results show that fast convergence is achieved using large or even infinite Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) numbers for unsteady flow problems with moderately high frequency and with the use of moderately high numbers of time intervals. The ST-LU-SGS implicit scheme is also found to work well in calculating periodic flow problems where the frequency is not known a priori and needed to be determined by using a combined Fourier analysis and gradient-based search algorithm.

  18. The ITER project construction status

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Motojima, O.

    2015-10-01

    The pace of the ITER project in St Paul-lez-Durance, France is accelerating rapidly into its peak construction phase. With the completion of the B2 slab in August 2014, which will support about 400 000 metric tons of the tokamak complex structures and components, the construction is advancing on a daily basis. Magnet, vacuum vessel, cryostat, thermal shield, first wall and divertor structures are under construction or in prototype phase in the ITER member states of China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States. Each of these member states has its own domestic agency (DA) to manage their procurements of components for ITER. Plant systems engineering is being transformed to fully integrate the tokamak and its auxiliary systems in preparation for the assembly and operations phase. CODAC, diagnostics, and the three main heating and current drive systems are also progressing, including the construction of the neutral beam test facility building in Padua, Italy. The conceptual design of the Chinese test blanket module system for ITER has been completed and those of the EU are well under way. Significant progress has been made addressing several outstanding physics issues including disruption load characterization, prediction, avoidance, and mitigation, first wall and divertor shaping, edge pedestal and SOL plasma stability, fuelling and plasma behaviour during confinement transients and W impurity transport. Further development of the ITER Research Plan has included a definition of the required plant configuration for 1st plasma and subsequent phases of ITER operation as well as the major plasma commissioning activities and the needs of the accompanying R&D program to ITER construction by the ITER parties.

  19. Conceptual design of data acquisition and control system for two Rf driver based negative ion source for fusion R&D

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soni, Jigensh; Yadav, R. K.; Patel, A.; Gahlaut, A.; Mistry, H.; Parmar, K. G.; Mahesh, V.; Parmar, D.; Prajapati, B.; Singh, M. J.; Bandyopadhyay, M.; Bansal, G.; Pandya, K.; Chakraborty, A.

    2013-02-01

    Twin Source - An Inductively coupled two RF driver based 180 kW, 1 MHz negative ion source experimental setup is initiated at IPR, Gandhinagar, under Indian program, with the objective of understanding the physics and technology of multi-driver coupling. Twin Source [1] (TS) also provides an intermediate platform between operational ROBIN [2] [5] and eight RF drivers based Indian test facility -INTF [3]. A twin source experiment requires a central system to provide control, data acquisition and communication interface, referred as TS-CODAC, for which a software architecture similar to ITER CODAC core system has been decided for implementation. The Core System is a software suite for ITER plant system manufacturers to use as a template for the development of their interface with CODAC. The ITER approach, in terms of technology, has been adopted for the TS-CODAC so as to develop necessary expertise for developing and operating a control system based on the ITER guidelines as similar configuration needs to be implemented for the INTF. This cost effective approach will provide an opportunity to evaluate and learn ITER CODAC technology, documentation, information technology and control system processes, on an operational machine. Conceptual design of the TS-CODAC system has been completed. For complete control of the system, approximately 200 Nos. control signals and 152 acquisition signals are needed. In TS-CODAC, control loop time required is within the range of 5ms - 10 ms, therefore for the control system, PLC (Siemens S-7 400) has been chosen as suggested in the ITER slow controller catalog. For the data acquisition, the maximum sampling interval required is 100 micro second, and therefore National Instruments (NI) PXIe system and NI 6259 digitizer cards have been selected as suggested in the ITER fast controller catalog. This paper will present conceptual design of TS -CODAC system based on ITER CODAC Core software and applicable plant system integration processes.

  20. Unsupervised iterative detection of land mines in highly cluttered environments.

    PubMed

    Batman, Sinan; Goutsias, John

    2003-01-01

    An unsupervised iterative scheme is proposed for land mine detection in heavily cluttered scenes. This scheme is based on iterating hybrid multispectral filters that consist of a decorrelating linear transform coupled with a nonlinear morphological detector. Detections extracted from the first pass are used to improve results in subsequent iterations. The procedure stops after a predetermined number of iterations. The proposed scheme addresses several weaknesses associated with previous adaptations of morphological approaches to land mine detection. Improvement in detection performance, robustness with respect to clutter inhomogeneities, a completely unsupervised operation, and computational efficiency are the main highlights of the method. Experimental results reveal excellent performance.

  1. Parallel heuristics for scalable community detection

    DOE PAGES

    Lu, Hao; Halappanavar, Mahantesh; Kalyanaraman, Ananth

    2015-08-14

    Community detection has become a fundamental operation in numerous graph-theoretic applications. Despite its potential for application, there is only limited support for community detection on large-scale parallel computers, largely owing to the irregular and inherently sequential nature of the underlying heuristics. In this paper, we present parallelization heuristics for fast community detection using the Louvain method as the serial template. The Louvain method is an iterative heuristic for modularity optimization. Originally developed in 2008, the method has become increasingly popular owing to its ability to detect high modularity community partitions in a fast and memory-efficient manner. However, the method ismore » also inherently sequential, thereby limiting its scalability. Here, we observe certain key properties of this method that present challenges for its parallelization, and consequently propose heuristics that are designed to break the sequential barrier. For evaluation purposes, we implemented our heuristics using OpenMP multithreading, and tested them over real world graphs derived from multiple application domains. Compared to the serial Louvain implementation, our parallel implementation is able to produce community outputs with a higher modularity for most of the inputs tested, in comparable number or fewer iterations, while providing real speedups of up to 16x using 32 threads.« less

  2. Development of an efficient multigrid method for the NEM form of the multigroup neutron diffusion equation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Al-Chalabi, Rifat M. Khalil

    1997-09-01

    Development of an improvement to the computational efficiency of the existing nested iterative solution strategy of the Nodal Exapansion Method (NEM) nodal based neutron diffusion code NESTLE is presented. The improvement in the solution strategy is the result of developing a multilevel acceleration scheme that does not suffer from the numerical stalling associated with a number of iterative solution methods. The acceleration scheme is based on the multigrid method, which is specifically adapted for incorporation into the NEM nonlinear iterative strategy. This scheme optimizes the computational interplay between the spatial discretization and the NEM nonlinear iterative solution process through the use of the multigrid method. The combination of the NEM nodal method, calculation of the homogenized, neutron nodal balance coefficients (i.e. restriction operator), efficient underlying smoothing algorithm (power method of NESTLE), and the finer mesh reconstruction algorithm (i.e. prolongation operator), all operating on a sequence of coarser spatial nodes, constitutes the multilevel acceleration scheme employed in this research. Two implementations of the multigrid method into the NESTLE code were examined; the Imbedded NEM Strategy and the Imbedded CMFD Strategy. The main difference in implementation between the two methods is that in the Imbedded NEM Strategy, the NEM solution is required at every MG level. Numerical tests have shown that the Imbedded NEM Strategy suffers from divergence at coarse- grid levels, hence all the results for the different benchmarks presented here were obtained using the Imbedded CMFD Strategy. The novelties in the developed MG method are as follows: the formulation of the restriction and prolongation operators, and the selection of the relaxation method. The restriction operator utilizes a variation of the reactor physics, consistent homogenization technique. The prolongation operator is based upon a variant of the pin power reconstruction methodology. The relaxation method, which is the power method, utilizes a constant coefficient matrix within the NEM non-linear iterative strategy. The choice of the MG nesting within the nested iterative strategy enables the incorporation of other non-linear effects with no additional coding effort. In addition, if an eigenvalue problem is being solved, it remains an eigenvalue problem at all grid levels, simplifying coding implementation. The merit of the developed MG method was tested by incorporating it into the NESTLE iterative solver, and employing it to solve four different benchmark problems. In addition to the base cases, three different sensitivity studies are performed, examining the effects of number of MG levels, homogenized coupling coefficients correction (i.e. restriction operator), and fine-mesh reconstruction algorithm (i.e. prolongation operator). The multilevel acceleration scheme developed in this research provides the foundation for developing adaptive multilevel acceleration methods for steady-state and transient NEM nodal neutron diffusion equations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

  3. A New Newton-Like Iterative Method for Roots of Analytic Functions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Otolorin, Olayiwola

    2005-01-01

    A new Newton-like iterative formula for the solution of non-linear equations is proposed. To derive the formula, the convergence criteria of the one-parameter iteration formula, and also the quasilinearization in the derivation of Newton's formula are reviewed. The result is a new formula which eliminates the limitations of other methods. There is…

  4. Active control for stabilization of neoclassical tearing modesa)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Humphreys, D. A.; Ferron, J. R.; La Haye, R. J.; Luce, T. C.; Petty, C. C.; Prater, R.; Welander, A. S.

    2006-05-01

    This work describes active control algorithms used by DIII-D [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] to stabilize and maintain suppression of 3/2 or 2/1 neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) by application of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) at the rational q surface. The DIII-D NTM control system can determine the correct q-surface/ECCD alignment and stabilize existing modes within 100-500ms of activation, or prevent mode growth with preemptive application of ECCD, in both cases enabling stable operation at normalized beta values above 3.5. Because NTMs can limit performance or cause plasma-terminating disruptions in tokamaks, their stabilization is essential to the high performance operation of ITER [R. Aymar et al., ITER Joint Central Team, ITER Home Teams, Nucl. Fusion 41, 1301 (2001)]. The DIII-D NTM control system has demonstrated many elements of an eventual ITER solution, including general algorithms for robust detection of q-surface/ECCD alignment and for real-time maintenance of alignment following the disappearance of the mode. This latter capability, unique to DIII-D, is based on real-time reconstruction of q-surface geometry by a Grad-Shafranov solver using external magnetics and internal motional Stark effect measurements. Alignment is achieved by varying either the plasma major radius (and the rational q surface) or the toroidal field (and the deposition location). The requirement to achieve and maintain q-surface/ECCD alignment with accuracy on the order of 1cm is routinely met by the DIII-D Plasma Control System and these algorithms. We discuss the integrated plasma control design process used for developing these and other general control algorithms, which includes physics-based modeling and testing of the algorithm implementation against simulations of actuator and plasma responses. This systematic design/test method and modeling environment enabled successful mode suppression by the NTM control system upon first-time use in an experimental discharge.

  5. Uniform convergence of multigrid V-cycle iterations for indefinite and nonsymmetric problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bramble, James H.; Kwak, Do Y.; Pasciak, Joseph E.

    1993-01-01

    In this paper, we present an analysis of a multigrid method for nonsymmetric and/or indefinite elliptic problems. In this multigrid method various types of smoothers may be used. One type of smoother which we consider is defined in terms of an associated symmetric problem and includes point and line, Jacobi, and Gauss-Seidel iterations. We also study smoothers based entirely on the original operator. One is based on the normal form, that is, the product of the operator and its transpose. Other smoothers studied include point and line, Jacobi, and Gauss-Seidel. We show that the uniform estimates for symmetric positive definite problems carry over to these algorithms. More precisely, the multigrid iteration for the nonsymmetric and/or indefinite problem is shown to converge at a uniform rate provided that the coarsest grid in the multilevel iteration is sufficiently fine (but not depending on the number of multigrid levels).

  6. Evaluation of low-frequency operational limit of proposed ITER low-field-side reflectometer waveguide run including miter bends.

    PubMed

    Wang, G; Peebles, W A; Doyle, E J; Crocker, N A; Wannberg, C; Lau, C; Hanson, G R; Doane, J L

    2017-10-01

    The present design concept for the ITER low-field-side reflectometer transmission line (TL) consists of an ∼40 m long, 6.35 cm diameter helically corrugated waveguide (WG) together with ten 90° miter bends. This paper presents an evaluation of the TL performance at low frequencies (33-50 GHz) where the predicted HE 11 mode ohmic and mode conversion losses start to increase significantly. Quasi-optical techniques were used to form a near Gaussian beam to efficiently couple radiation in this frequency range into the WG. It was observed that the output beams from the guide remained linearly polarized with cross-polarization power levels of ∼1.5%-3%. The polarization rotation due to the helical corrugations was in the range ∼1°-3°. The radiated beam power profiles typically show excellent Gaussian propagation characteristics at distances >20 cm from the final exit aperture. The round trip propagation loss was found to be ∼2.5 dB at 50 GHz and ∼6.5 dB at 35 GHz, showing an inverse increase with frequency. This was consistent with updated calculations of miter bend and ohmic losses. At low frequencies (33-50 GHz), the mode purity remained very good at the exit of the waveguide, and the losses are perfectly acceptable for operation in ITER. The primary challenge may come from the future addition of a Gaussian telescope and other filter components within the corrugated guide, which will likely introduce additional perturbations to the beam profile and an increase in mode-conversion loss.

  7. Evaluation of low-frequency operational limit of proposed ITER low-field-side reflectometer waveguide run including miter bends

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Guiding; Peebles, W. A.; Doyle, E. J.

    The present design concept for the ITER low-field-side reflectometer transmission line (TL) consists of an ~40 m long, 6.35 cm diameter helically corrugated waveguide (WG) together with ten 90° miter bends. This paper presents an evaluation of the TL performance at low frequencies (33-50 GHz) where the predicted HE11 mode ohmic and mode conversion losses start to increase significantly. Quasi-optical techniques were used to form a near Gaussian beam to efficiently couple radiation in this frequency range into the WG. We observed that the output beams from the guide remained linearly polarized with cross-polarization power levels of ~1.5%-3%. The polarizationmore » rotation due to the helical corrugations was in the range ~1°-3°. The radiated beam power profiles typically show excellent Gaussian propagation characteristics at distances >20 cm from the final exit aperture. The round trip propagation loss was found to be ~2.5 dB at 50 GHz and ~6.5 dB at 35 GHz, showing an inverse increase with frequency. This was consistent with updated calculations of miter bend and ohmic losses. At low frequencies (33-50 GHz), the mode purity remained very good at the exit of the waveguide, and the losses are perfectly acceptable for operation in ITER. Finally, the primary challenge may come from the future addition of a Gaussian telescope and other filter components within the corrugated guide, which will likely introduce additional perturbations to the beam profile and an increase in mode-conversion loss.« less

  8. Application of an improved maximum correlated kurtosis deconvolution method for fault diagnosis of rolling element bearings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miao, Yonghao; Zhao, Ming; Lin, Jing; Lei, Yaguo

    2017-08-01

    The extraction of periodic impulses, which are the important indicators of rolling bearing faults, from vibration signals is considerably significance for fault diagnosis. Maximum correlated kurtosis deconvolution (MCKD) developed from minimum entropy deconvolution (MED) has been proven as an efficient tool for enhancing the periodic impulses in the diagnosis of rolling element bearings and gearboxes. However, challenges still exist when MCKD is applied to the bearings operating under harsh working conditions. The difficulties mainly come from the rigorous requires for the multi-input parameters and the complicated resampling process. To overcome these limitations, an improved MCKD (IMCKD) is presented in this paper. The new method estimates the iterative period by calculating the autocorrelation of the envelope signal rather than relies on the provided prior period. Moreover, the iterative period will gradually approach to the true fault period through updating the iterative period after every iterative step. Since IMCKD is unaffected by the impulse signals with the high kurtosis value, the new method selects the maximum kurtosis filtered signal as the final choice from all candidates in the assigned iterative counts. Compared with MCKD, IMCKD has three advantages. First, without considering prior period and the choice of the order of shift, IMCKD is more efficient and has higher robustness. Second, the resampling process is not necessary for IMCKD, which is greatly convenient for the subsequent frequency spectrum analysis and envelope spectrum analysis without resetting the sampling rate. Third, IMCKD has a significant performance advantage in diagnosing the bearing compound-fault which expands the application range. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of IMCKD are validated by a number of simulated bearing fault signals and applying to compound faults and single fault diagnosis of a locomotive bearing.

  9. Direct determination of one-dimensional interphase structures using normalized crystal truncation rod analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kawaguchi, Tomoya; Liu, Yihua; Reiter, Anthony

    Here, a one-dimensional non-iterative direct method was employed for normalized crystal truncation rod analysis. The non-iterative approach, utilizing the Kramers–Kronig relation, avoids the ambiguities due to an improper initial model or incomplete convergence in the conventional iterative methods. The validity and limitations of the present method are demonstrated through both numerical simulations and experiments with Pt(111) in a 0.1 M CsF aqueous solution. The present method is compared with conventional iterative phase-retrieval methods.

  10. Direct determination of one-dimensional interphase structures using normalized crystal truncation rod analysis

    DOE PAGES

    Kawaguchi, Tomoya; Liu, Yihua; Reiter, Anthony; ...

    2018-04-20

    Here, a one-dimensional non-iterative direct method was employed for normalized crystal truncation rod analysis. The non-iterative approach, utilizing the Kramers–Kronig relation, avoids the ambiguities due to an improper initial model or incomplete convergence in the conventional iterative methods. The validity and limitations of the present method are demonstrated through both numerical simulations and experiments with Pt(111) in a 0.1 M CsF aqueous solution. The present method is compared with conventional iterative phase-retrieval methods.

  11. Inductive flux usage and its optimization in tokamak operation

    DOE PAGES

    Luce, Timothy C.; Humphreys, David A.; Jackson, Gary L.; ...

    2014-07-30

    The energy flow from the poloidal field coils of a tokamak to the electromagnetic and kinetic stored energy of the plasma are considered in the context of optimizing the operation of ITER. The goal is to optimize the flux usage in order to allow the longest possible burn in ITER at the desired conditions to meet the physics objectives (500 MW fusion power with energy gain of 10). A mathematical formulation of the energy flow is derived and applied to experiments in the DIII-D tokamak that simulate the ITER design shape and relevant normalized current and pressure. The rate ofmore » rise of the plasma current was varied, and the fastest stable current rise is found to be the optimum for flux usage in DIII-D. A method to project the results to ITER is formulated. The constraints of the ITER poloidal field coil set yield an optimum at ramp rates slower than the maximum stable rate for plasmas similar to the DIII-D plasmas. Finally, experiments in present-day tokamaks for further optimization of the current rise and validation of the projections are suggested.« less

  12. Experimental Results of the EU ITER Prototype Gyrotrons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gantenbein, G.; Albajar, F.; Alberti, S.; Avramidis, K.; Bin, W.; Bonicelli, T.; Bruschi, A.; Chelis, J.; Fanale, F.; Legrand, F.; Hermann, V.; Hogge, J.-P.; Illy, S.; Ioannidis, Z. C.; Jin, J.; Jelonnek, J.; Kasparek, W.; Latsas, G. P.; Lechte, C.; Lontano, M.; Pagonakis, I. G.; Rzesnicki, T.; Schlatter, C.; Schmid, M.; Tigelis, I. G.; Thumm, M.; Tran, M. Q.; Vomvoridis, J. L.; Zein, A.; Zisis, A.

    2017-10-01

    The European 1 MW, 170 GHz CW industrial prototype gyrotron for ECRH&CD on ITER was under test at the KIT test facility during 2016. In order to optimize the gyrotron operation, the tube was thoroughly tested in the short-pulse regime, with pulse lengths below 10 ms, for a wide range of operational parameters. The operation was extended to longer pulses with a duration of up to 180 s. In this work we present in detail the achievements and the challenges that were faced during the long-pulse experimental campaign.

  13. Newton's method: A link between continuous and discrete solutions of nonlinear problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thurston, G. A.

    1980-01-01

    Newton's method for nonlinear mechanics problems replaces the governing nonlinear equations by an iterative sequence of linear equations. When the linear equations are linear differential equations, the equations are usually solved by numerical methods. The iterative sequence in Newton's method can exhibit poor convergence properties when the nonlinear problem has multiple solutions for a fixed set of parameters, unless the iterative sequences are aimed at solving for each solution separately. The theory of the linear differential operators is often a better guide for solution strategies in applying Newton's method than the theory of linear algebra associated with the numerical analogs of the differential operators. In fact, the theory for the differential operators can suggest the choice of numerical linear operators. In this paper the method of variation of parameters from the theory of linear ordinary differential equations is examined in detail in the context of Newton's method to demonstrate how it might be used as a guide for numerical solutions.

  14. Suppression of tritium retention in remote areas of ITER by nonperturbative reactive gas injection.

    PubMed

    Tabarés, F L; Ferreira, J A; Ramos, A; van Rooij, G; Westerhout, J; Al, R; Rapp, J; Drenik, A; Mozetic, M

    2010-10-22

    A technique based on reactive gas injection in the afterglow region of the divertor plasma is proposed for the suppression of tritium-carbon codeposits in remote areas of ITER when operated with carbon-based divertor targets. Experiments in a divertor simulator plasma device indicate that a 4  nm/min deposition can be suppressed by addition of 1  Pa·m³ s⁻¹ ammonia flow at 10 cm from the plasma. These results bolster the concept of nonperturbative scavenger injection for tritium inventory control in carbon-based fusion plasma devices, thus paving the way for ITER operation in the active phase under a carbon-dominated, plasma facing component background.

  15. Multi-limit unsymmetrical MLIBD image restoration algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Yang; Cheng, Yiping; Chen, Zai-wang; Bo, Chen

    2012-11-01

    A novel multi-limit unsymmetrical iterative blind deconvolution(MLIBD) algorithm was presented to enhance the performance of adaptive optics image restoration.The algorithm enhances the reliability of iterative blind deconvolution by introducing the bandwidth limit into the frequency domain of point spread(PSF),and adopts the PSF dynamic support region estimation to improve the convergence speed.The unsymmetrical factor is automatically computed to advance its adaptivity.Image deconvolution comparing experiments between Richardson-Lucy IBD and MLIBD were done,and the result indicates that the iteration number is reduced by 22.4% and the peak signal-to-noise ratio is improved by 10.18dB with MLIBD method. The performance of MLIBD algorithm is outstanding in the images restoration the FK5-857 adaptive optics and the double-star adaptive optics.

  16. Reduction of asymmetric wall force in ITER disruptions with fast current quench

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strauss, H.

    2018-02-01

    One of the problems caused by disruptions in tokamaks is the asymmetric electromechanical force produced in conducting structures surrounding the plasma. The asymmetric wall force in ITER asymmetric vertical displacement event (AVDE) disruptions is calculated in nonlinear 3D MHD simulations. It is found that the wall force can vary by almost an order of magnitude, depending on the ratio of the current quench time to the resistive wall magnetic penetration time. In ITER, this ratio is relatively low, resulting in a low asymmetric wall force. In JET, this ratio is relatively high, resulting in a high asymmetric wall force. Previous extrapolations based on JET measurements have greatly overestimated the ITER wall force. It is shown that there are two limiting regimes of AVDEs, and it is explained why the asymmetric wall force is different in the two limits.

  17. Path-oriented early reaction to approaching disruptions in ASDEX Upgrade and TCV in view of the future needs for ITER and DEMO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maraschek, M.; Gude, A.; Igochine, V.; Zohm, H.; Alessi, E.; Bernert, M.; Cianfarani, C.; Coda, S.; Duval, B.; Esposito, B.; Fietz, S.; Fontana, M.; Galperti, C.; Giannone, L.; Goodman, T.; Granucci, G.; Marelli, L.; Novak, S.; Paccagnella, R.; Pautasso, G.; Piovesan, P.; Porte, L.; Potzel, S.; Rapson, C.; Reich, M.; Sauter, O.; Sheikh, U.; Sozzi, C.; Spizzo, G.; Stober, J.; Treutterer, W.; ZancaP; ASDEX Upgrade Team; TCV Team; the EUROfusion MST1 Team

    2018-01-01

    Routine reaction to approaching disruptions in tokamaks is currently largely limited to machine protection by mitigating an ongoing disruption, which remains a basic requirement for ITER and DEMO [1]. Nevertheless, a mitigated disruption still generates stress to the device. Additionally, in future fusion devices, high-performance discharge time itself will be very valuable. Instead of reacting only on generic features, occurring shortly before the disruption, the ultimate goal is to actively avoid approaching disruptions at an early stage, sustain the discharges whenever possible and restrict mitigated disruptions to major failures. Knowledge of the most relevant root causes and the corresponding chain of events leading to disruption, the disruption path, is a prerequisite. For each disruption path, physics-based sensors and adequate actuators must be defined and their limitations considered. Early reaction facilitates the efficiency of the actuators and enhances the probability of a full recovery. Thus, sensors that detect potential disruptions in time are to be identified. Once the entrance into a disruption path is detected, we propose a hierarchy of actions consisting of (I) recovery of the discharge to full performance or at least continuation with a less disruption-prone backup scenario, (II) complete avoidance of disruption to sustain the discharge or at least delay it for a controlled termination and, (III), only as last resort, a disruption mitigation. Based on the understanding of disruption paths, a hierarchical and path-specific handling strategy must be developed. Such schemes, testable in present devices, could serve as guidelines for ITER and DEMO operation. For some disruption paths, experiments have been performed at ASDEX Upgrade and TCV. Disruptions were provoked in TCV by impurity injection into ELMy H-mode discharges and in ASDEX Upgrade by forcing a density limit in H-mode discharges. The new approach proposed in this paper is discussed for these cases. For the H-mode density limit sensors used so far react too late. Thus a plasma-state boundary is proposed, that can serve as an adequate early sensor for avoiding density limit disruptions in H-modes and for recovery to full performance.

  18. EC assisted start-up experiments reproduction in FTU and AUG for simulations of the ITER case

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Granucci, G.; Ricci, D.; Farina, D.

    The breakdown and plasma start-up in ITER are well known issues studied in the last few years in many tokamaks with the aid of calculation based on simplified modeling. The thickness of ITER metallic wall and the voltage limits of the Central Solenoid Power Supply strongly limit the maximum toroidal electric field achievable (0.3 V/m), well below the level used in the present generation of tokamaks. In order to have a safe and robust breakdown, the use of Electron Cyclotron Power to assist plasma formation and current rump up has been foreseen. This has raised attention on plasma formation phasemore » in presence of EC wave, especially in order to predict the required power for a robust breakdown in ITER. Few detailed theory studies have been performed up to nowadays, due to the complexity of the problems. A simplified approach, extended from that proposed in ref[1] has been developed including a impurity multispecies distribution and an EC wave propagation and absorption based on GRAY code. This integrated model (BK0D) has been benchmarked on ohmic and EC assisted experiments on FTU and AUG, finding the key aspects for a good reproduction of data. On the basis of this, the simulation has been devoted to understand the best configuration for ITER case. The dependency of impurity distribution content and neutral gas pressure limits has been considered. As results of the analysis a reasonable amount of power (1 - 2 MW) seems to be enough to extend in a significant way the breakdown and current start up capability of ITER. The work reports the FTU data reproduction and the ITER case simulations.« less

  19. RF Sheath-Enhanced Plasma Surface Interaction Studies using Beryllium Optical Emission Spectroscopy in JET ITER-Like Wall

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Agarici, G.; Klepper, C Christopher; Colas, L.

    A dedicated study on JET-ILW, deploying two types of ICRH antennas and spectroscopic observation spots at two outboard, beryllium limiters, has provided insight on long-range (up to 6m) RFenhanced plasma-surface interactions (RF-PSI) due to near-antenna electric fields. To aid in the interpretation of optical emission measurements of these effects, the antenna near-fields are computed using the TOPICA code, specifically run for the ITER-like antenna (ILA); similar modelling already existed for the standard JET antennas (A2). In the experiment, both antennas were operated in current drive mode, as RF-PSI tends to be higher in this phasing and at similar power (∼0.5more » MW). When sweeping the edge magnetic field pitch angle, peaked RF-PSI effects, in the form of 2-4 fold increase in the local Be source,are consistently measured with the observation spots magnetically connect to regions of TOPICAL-calculated high near-fields, particularly at the near-antenna limiters. It is also found that similar RF-PSI effects are produced by the two types of antenna on similarly distant limiters. Although this mapping of calculated near-fields to enhanced RF-PSI gives only qualitative interpretion of the data, the present dataset is expected to provide a sound experimental basis for emerging RF sheath simulation model validation.« less

  20. Fine‐resolution conservation planning with limited climate‐change information

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Shah, Payal; Mallory, Mindy L.; Ando , Amy W.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.

    2017-01-01

    Climate‐change induced uncertainties in future spatial patterns of conservation‐related outcomes make it difficult to implement standard conservation‐planning paradigms. A recent study translates Markowitz's risk‐diversification strategy from finance to conservation settings, enabling conservation agents to use this diversification strategy for allocating conservation and restoration investments across space to minimize the risk associated with such uncertainty. However, this method is information intensive and requires a large number of forecasts of ecological outcomes associated with possible climate‐change scenarios for carrying out fine‐resolution conservation planning. We developed a technique for iterative, spatial portfolio analysis that can be used to allocate scarce conservation resources across a desired level of subregions in a planning landscape in the absence of a sufficient number of ecological forecasts. We applied our technique to the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America. A lack of sufficient future climate information prevented attainment of the most efficient risk‐return conservation outcomes in the Prairie Pothole Region. The difference in expected conservation returns between conservation planning with limited climate‐change information and full climate‐change information was as large as 30% for the Prairie Pothole Region even when the most efficient iterative approach was used. However, our iterative approach allowed finer resolution portfolio allocation with limited climate‐change forecasts such that the best possible risk‐return combinations were obtained. With our most efficient iterative approach, the expected loss in conservation outcomes owing to limited climate‐change information could be reduced by 17% relative to other iterative approaches.

  1. AIR-MRF: Accelerated iterative reconstruction for magnetic resonance fingerprinting.

    PubMed

    Cline, Christopher C; Chen, Xiao; Mailhe, Boris; Wang, Qiu; Pfeuffer, Josef; Nittka, Mathias; Griswold, Mark A; Speier, Peter; Nadar, Mariappan S

    2017-09-01

    Existing approaches for reconstruction of multiparametric maps with magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) are currently limited by their estimation accuracy and reconstruction time. We aimed to address these issues with a novel combination of iterative reconstruction, fingerprint compression, additional regularization, and accelerated dictionary search methods. The pipeline described here, accelerated iterative reconstruction for magnetic resonance fingerprinting (AIR-MRF), was evaluated with simulations as well as phantom and in vivo scans. We found that the AIR-MRF pipeline provided reduced parameter estimation errors compared to non-iterative and other iterative methods, particularly at shorter sequence lengths. Accelerated dictionary search methods incorporated into the iterative pipeline reduced the reconstruction time at little cost of quality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Investigation of MHD instabilities and control in KSTAR preparing for high beta operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, Y. S.; Sabbagh, S. A.; Bialek, J. M.; Berkery, J. W.; Lee, S. G.; Ko, W. H.; Bak, J. G.; Jeon, Y. M.; Park, J. K.; Kim, J.; Hahn, S. H.; Ahn, J.-W.; Yoon, S. W.; Lee, K. D.; Choi, M. J.; Yun, G. S.; Park, H. K.; You, K.-I.; Bae, Y. S.; Oh, Y. K.; Kim, W.-C.; Kwak, J. G.

    2013-08-01

    Initial H-mode operation of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is expanded to higher normalized beta and lower plasma internal inductance moving towards design target operation. As a key supporting device for ITER, an important goal for KSTAR is to produce physics understanding of MHD instabilities at long pulse with steady-state profiles, at high normalized beta, and over a wide range of plasma rotation profiles. An advance from initial plasma operation is a significant increase in plasma stored energy and normalized beta, with Wtot = 340 kJ, βN = 1.9, which is 75% of the level required to reach the computed ideal n = 1 no-wall stability limit. The internal inductance was lowered to 0.9 at sustained H-mode duration up to 5 s. In ohmically heated plasmas, the plasma current reached 1 MA with prolonged pulse length up to 12 s. Rotating MHD modes are observed in the device with perturbations having tearing rather than ideal parity. Modes with m/n = 3/2 are triggered during the H-mode phase but are relatively weak and do not substantially reduce Wtot. In contrast, 2/1 modes to date only appear when the plasma rotation profiles are lowered after H-L back-transition. Subsequent 2/1 mode locking creates a repetitive collapse of βN by more than 50%. Onset behaviour suggests the 3/2 mode is close to being neoclassically unstable. A correlation between the 2/1 mode amplitude and local rotation shear from an x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer suggests that the rotation shear at the mode rational surface is stabilizing. As a method to access the ITER-relevant low plasma rotation regime, plasma rotation alteration by n = 1, 2 applied fields and associated neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) induced torque is presently investigated. The net rotation profile change measured by a charge exchange recombination diagnostic with proper compensation of plasma boundary movement shows initial evidence of non-resonant rotation damping by the n = 1, 2 applied field configurations. The result addresses perspective on access to low rotation regimes for MHD instability studies applicable to ITER. Computation of active RWM control using the VALEN-3D code examines control performance using midplane locked mode detection sensors. The LM sensors are found to be strongly affected by mode and control coil-induced vessel current, and consequently lead to limited control performance theoretically.

  3. TH-AB-BRA-09: Stability Analysis of a Novel Dose Calculation Algorithm for MRI Guided Radiotherapy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zelyak, O; Fallone, B; Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, AB

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To determine the iterative deterministic solution stability of the Linear Boltzmann Transport Equation (LBTE) in the presence of magnetic fields. Methods: The LBTE with magnetic fields under investigation is derived using a discrete ordinates approach. The stability analysis is performed using analytical and numerical methods. Analytically, the spectral Fourier analysis is used to obtain the convergence rate of the source iteration procedures based on finding the largest eigenvalue of the iterative operator. This eigenvalue is a function of relevant physical parameters, such as magnetic field strength and material properties, and provides essential information about the domain of applicability requiredmore » for clinically optimal parameter selection and maximum speed of convergence. The analytical results are reinforced by numerical simulations performed using the same discrete ordinates method in angle, and a discontinuous finite element spatial approach. Results: The spectral radius for the source iteration technique of the time independent transport equation with isotropic and anisotropic scattering centers inside infinite 3D medium is equal to the ratio of differential and total cross sections. The result is confirmed numerically by solving LBTE and is in full agreement with previously published results. The addition of magnetic field reveals that the convergence becomes dependent on the strength of magnetic field, the energy group discretization, and the order of anisotropic expansion. Conclusion: The source iteration technique for solving the LBTE with magnetic fields with the discrete ordinates method leads to divergent solutions in the limiting cases of small energy discretizations and high magnetic field strengths. Future investigations into non-stationary Krylov subspace techniques as an iterative solver will be performed as this has been shown to produce greater stability than source iteration. Furthermore, a stability analysis of a discontinuous finite element space-angle approach (which has been shown to provide the greatest stability) will also be investigated. Dr. B Gino Fallone is a co-founder and CEO of MagnetTx Oncology Solutions (under discussions to license Alberta bi-planar linac MR for commercialization)« less

  4. An Improved Newton's Method.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mathews, John H.

    1989-01-01

    Describes Newton's method to locate roots of an equation using the Newton-Raphson iteration formula. Develops an adaptive method overcoming limitations of the iteration method. Provides the algorithm and computer program of the adaptive Newton-Raphson method. (YP)

  5. Progress on the application of ELM control schemes to ITER scenarios from the non-active phase to DT operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loarte, A.; Huijsmans, G.; Futatani, S.; Baylor, L. R.; Evans, T. E.; Orlov, D. M.; Schmitz, O.; Becoulet, M.; Cahyna, P.; Gribov, Y.; Kavin, A.; Sashala Naik, A.; Campbell, D. J.; Casper, T.; Daly, E.; Frerichs, H.; Kischner, A.; Laengner, R.; Lisgo, S.; Pitts, R. A.; Saibene, G.; Wingen, A.

    2014-03-01

    Progress in the definition of the requirements for edge localized mode (ELM) control and the application of ELM control methods both for high fusion performance DT operation and non-active low-current operation in ITER is described. Evaluation of the power fluxes for low plasma current H-modes in ITER shows that uncontrolled ELMs will not lead to damage to the tungsten (W) divertor target, unlike for high-current H-modes in which divertor damage by uncontrolled ELMs is expected. Despite the lack of divertor damage at lower currents, ELM control is found to be required in ITER under these conditions to prevent an excessive contamination of the plasma by W, which could eventually lead to an increased disruptivity. Modelling with the non-linear MHD code JOREK of the physics processes determining the flow of energy from the confined plasma onto the plasma-facing components during ELMs at the ITER scale shows that the relative contribution of conductive and convective losses is intrinsically linked to the magnitude of the ELM energy loss. Modelling of the triggering of ELMs by pellet injection for DIII-D and ITER has identified the minimum pellet size required to trigger ELMs and, from this, the required fuel throughput for the application of this technique to ITER is evaluated and shown to be compatible with the installed fuelling and tritium re-processing capabilities in ITER. The evaluation of the capabilities of the ELM control coil system in ITER for ELM suppression is carried out (in the vacuum approximation) and found to have a factor of ˜2 margin in terms of coil current to achieve its design criterion, although such a margin could be substantially reduced when plasma shielding effects are taken into account. The consequences for the spatial distribution of the power fluxes at the divertor of ELM control by three-dimensional (3D) fields are evaluated and found to lead to substantial toroidal asymmetries in zones of the divertor target away from the separatrix. Therefore, specifications for the rotation of the 3D perturbation applied for ELM control in order to avoid excessive localized erosion of the ITER divertor target are derived. It is shown that a rotation frequency in excess of 1 Hz for the whole toroidally asymmetric divertor power flux pattern is required (corresponding to n Hz frequency in the variation of currents in the coils, where n is the toroidal symmetry of the perturbation applied) in order to avoid unacceptable thermal cycling of the divertor target for the highest power fluxes and worst toroidal power flux asymmetries expected. The possible use of the in-vessel vertical stability coils for ELM control as a back-up to the main ELM control systems in ITER is described and the feasibility of its application to control ELMs in low plasma current H-modes, foreseen for initial ITER operation, is evaluated and found to be viable for plasma currents up to 5-10 MA depending on modelling assumptions.

  6. Evaluation of power transfer efficiency for a high power inductively coupled radio-frequency hydrogen ion source

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jain, P.; Recchia, M.; Cavenago, M.; Fantz, U.; Gaio, E.; Kraus, W.; Maistrello, A.; Veltri, P.

    2018-04-01

    Neutral beam injection (NBI) for plasma heating and current drive is necessary for International Thermonuclear Experimental reactor (ITER) tokamak. Due to its various advantages, a radio frequency (RF) driven plasma source type was selected as a reference ion source for the ITER heating NBI. The ITER relevant RF negative ion sources are inductively coupled (IC) devices whose operational working frequency has been chosen to be 1 MHz and are characterized by high RF power density (˜9.4 W cm-3) and low operational pressure (around 0.3 Pa). The RF field is produced by a coil in a cylindrical chamber leading to a plasma generation followed by its expansion inside the chamber. This paper recalls different concepts based on which a methodology is developed to evaluate the efficiency of the RF power transfer to hydrogen plasma. This efficiency is then analyzed as a function of the working frequency and in dependence of other operating source and plasma parameters. The study is applied to a high power IC RF hydrogen ion source which is similar to one simplified driver of the ELISE source (half the size of the ITER NBI source).

  7. Successive Over-Relaxation Technique for High-Performance Blind Image Deconvolution

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-06-08

    deconvolution, space surveillance, Gauss - Seidel iteration 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT SAR 18, NUMBER OF PAGES 5...sensible approximate solutions to the ill-posed nonlinear inverse problem. These solutions are addresses as fixed points of the iteration which consists in...alternating approximations (AA) for the object and for the PSF performed with a prescribed number of inner iterative descents from trivial (zero

  8. Measurement of tokamak error fields using plasma response and its applicability to ITER

    DOE PAGES

    Strait, Edward J.; Buttery, Richard J.; Casper, T. A.; ...

    2014-04-17

    The nonlinear response of a low-beta tokamak plasma to non-axisymmetric fields offers an alternative to direct measurement of the non-axisymmetric part of the vacuum magnetic fields, often termed “error fields”. Possible approaches are discussed for determination of error fields and the required current in non-axisymmetric correction coils, with an emphasis on two relatively new methods: measurement of the torque balance on a saturated magnetic island, and measurement of the braking of plasma rotation in the absence of an island. The former is well suited to ohmically heated discharges, while the latter is more appropriate for discharges with a modest amountmore » of neutral beam heating to drive rotation. Both can potentially provide continuous measurements during a discharge, subject to the limitation of a minimum averaging time. The applicability of these methods to ITER is discussed, and an estimate is made of their uncertainties in light of the specifications of ITER’s diagnostic systems. Furthermore, the use of plasma response-based techniques in normal ITER operational scenarios may allow identification of the error field contributions by individual central solenoid coils, but identification of the individual contributions by the outer poloidal field coils or other sources is less likely to be feasible.« less

  9. Using AORSA to simulate helicon waves in DIIID and ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lau, Cornwall H; Jaeger, E. F.; Berry, Lee Alan

    2014-01-01

    Recent efforts by Vdovin [1] and Prater [2] have shown that helicon waves (fast waves at ~30 ion cyclotron frequency harmonic) may be an attractive option for driving efficient off-axis current drive during non-inductive tokamak operation for DIIID, ITER and DEMO. For DIIID scenarios, the ray tracing code GENRAY has been extensively used to study helicon current drive efficiency and location as a function many plasma parameters. has some limitations on absorption at high cyclotron harmonics, so the full wave code AORSA, which is applicable to arbitrary Larmor radius and can therefore resolve high ion cyclotron harmonics, has been recentlymore » used to validate the GENRAY model. It will be shown that the GENRAY and AORSA driven current drive profiles are comparable for the envisioned high temperature and density advanced scenarios for DIIID, where there is high single pass absorption due to electron Landau damping. AORSA results will be shown for various plasma parameters for DIIID and for ITER. Computational difficulties in achieving these AORSA results will also be discussed. * Work supported by USDOE Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 [1] V. L. Vdovin, Plasma Physics Reports, V.39, No.2, 2013 [2] R. Prater et al, Nucl. Fusion, 52, 083024, 2014« less

  10. Property Changes of Cyanate Ester/epoxy Insulation Systems Caused by AN Iter-Like Double Impregnation and by Reactor Irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prokopec, R.; Humer, K.; Fillunger, H.; Maix, R. K.; Weber, H. W.

    2010-04-01

    Because of the double pancake design of the ITER TF coils the insulation will be applied in several steps. As a consequence, the conductor insulation as well as the pancake insulation will undergo multiple heat cycles in addition to the initial curing cycle. In particular the properties of the organic resin may be influenced, since its heat resistance is limited. Two identical types of sample consisting of wrapped R-glass/Kapton layers and vacuum impregnated with a cyanate ester/epoxy blend were prepared. The build-up of the reinforcement was identical for both insulation systems; however, one system was fabricated in two steps. In the first step only one half of the reinforcing layers was impregnated and cured. Afterwards the remaining layers were wrapped onto the already cured system, before the resulting system was impregnated and cured again. The mechanical properties were characterized prior to and after irradiation to fast neutron fluences of 1 and 2×1022 m-2 (E>0.1 MeV) in tension and interlaminar shear at 77 K. In order to simulate the pulsed operation of ITER, tension-tension fatigue measurements were performed in the load controlled mode. The results do not show any evidence for reduced mechanical strength caused by the additional heat cycle.

  11. Doppler Lidar System Design via Interdisciplinary Design Concept at NASA Langley Research Center - Part II

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Crasner, Aaron I.; Scola,Salvatore; Beyon, Jeffrey Y.; Petway, Larry B.

    2014-01-01

    Optimized designs of the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) instrument for Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) were accomplished via Interdisciplinary Design Concept (IDEC) at NASA Langley Research Center during the summer of 2013. Three branches in the Engineering Directorate and three students were involved in this joint task through the NASA Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS) Program. The Laser Remote Sensing Branch (LRSB), Mechanical Systems Branch (MSB), and Structural and Thermal Systems Branch (STSB) were engaged to achieve optimal designs through iterative and interactive collaborative design processes. A preliminary design iteration was able to reduce the power consumption, mass, and footprint by removing redundant components and replacing inefficient components with more efficient ones. A second design iteration reduced volume and mass by replacing bulky components with excessive performance with smaller components custom-designed for the power system. Thermal modeling software was used to run steady state thermal analyses, which were used to both validate the designs and recommend further changes. Analyses were run on each redesign, as well as the original system. Thermal Desktop was used to run trade studies to account for uncertainty and assumptions about fan performance and boundary conditions. The studies suggested that, even if the assumptions were significantly wrong, the redesigned systems would remain within operating temperature limits.

  12. Solution of the within-group multidimensional discrete ordinates transport equations on massively parallel architectures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zerr, Robert Joseph

    2011-12-01

    The integral transport matrix method (ITMM) has been used as the kernel of new parallel solution methods for the discrete ordinates approximation of the within-group neutron transport equation. The ITMM abandons the repetitive mesh sweeps of the traditional source iterations (SI) scheme in favor of constructing stored operators that account for the direct coupling factors among all the cells and between the cells and boundary surfaces. The main goals of this work were to develop the algorithms that construct these operators and employ them in the solution process, determine the most suitable way to parallelize the entire procedure, and evaluate the behavior and performance of the developed methods for increasing number of processes. This project compares the effectiveness of the ITMM with the SI scheme parallelized with the Koch-Baker-Alcouffe (KBA) method. The primary parallel solution method involves a decomposition of the domain into smaller spatial sub-domains, each with their own transport matrices, and coupled together via interface boundary angular fluxes. Each sub-domain has its own set of ITMM operators and represents an independent transport problem. Multiple iterative parallel solution methods have investigated, including parallel block Jacobi (PBJ), parallel red/black Gauss-Seidel (PGS), and parallel GMRES (PGMRES). The fastest observed parallel solution method, PGS, was used in a weak scaling comparison with the PARTISN code. Compared to the state-of-the-art SI-KBA with diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA), this new method without acceleration/preconditioning is not competitive for any problem parameters considered. The best comparisons occur for problems that are difficult for SI DSA, namely highly scattering and optically thick. SI DSA execution time curves are generally steeper than the PGS ones. However, until further testing is performed it cannot be concluded that SI DSA does not outperform the ITMM with PGS even on several thousand or tens of thousands of processors. The PGS method does outperform SI DSA for the periodic heterogeneous layers (PHL) configuration problems. Although this demonstrates a relative strength/weakness between the two methods, the practicality of these problems is much less, further limiting instances where it would be beneficial to select ITMM over SI DSA. The results strongly indicate a need for a robust, stable, and efficient acceleration method (or preconditioner for PGMRES). The spatial multigrid (SMG) method is currently incomplete in that it does not work for all cases considered and does not effectively improve the convergence rate for all values of scattering ratio c or cell dimension h. Nevertheless, it does display the desired trend for highly scattering, optically thin problems. That is, it tends to lower the rate of growth of number of iterations with increasing number of processes, P, while not increasing the number of additional operations per iteration to the extent that the total execution time of the rapidly converging accelerated iterations exceeds that of the slower unaccelerated iterations. A predictive parallel performance model has been developed for the PBJ method. Timing tests were performed such that trend lines could be fitted to the data for the different components and used to estimate the execution times. Applied to the weak scaling results, the model notably underestimates construction time, but combined with a slight overestimation in iterative solution time, the model predicts total execution time very well for large P. It also does a decent job with the strong scaling results, closely predicting the construction time and time per iteration, especially as P increases. Although not shown to be competitive up to 1,024 processing elements with the current state of the art, the parallelized ITMM exhibits promising scaling trends. Ultimately, compared to the KBA method, the parallelized ITMM may be found to be a very attractive option for transport calculations spatially decomposed over several tens of thousands of processes. Acceleration/preconditioning of the parallelized ITMM once developed will improve the convergence rate and improve its competitiveness. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

  13. Understanding the stability of the low torque ITER Baseline Scenario in DIII-D

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turco, Francesca

    2017-10-01

    Analysis of the evolving current density (J), pedestal and rotation profiles in a database of 200 ITER Baseline Scenario discharges in the DIII-D tokamak sheds light on the cause of the disruptive instability limiting both high and low torque operation of these plasmas. The m =2/n =1 tearing modes, occurring after several pressure-relaxation times, are related to the shape of the current profile in the outer region of the plasma. The q =2 surface is located just inside the current pedestal, near a minimum in J. This well in J deepens at constant betaN and at lower rotation, causing the equilibrium to evolve towards a classically unstable state. Lack of core-edge differential rotation likely biases the marginal point towards instability during the secular trend in J. New results from the 2017 experimental campaign establish the first reproducible, stable operation at T =0 Nm for this scenario. A new ramp-up recipe with delayed heating keeps the discharges stable without the need for ECCD stabilization. The J profile shape in the new shots is consistent with an expansion of the previous ``shallow well'' stable operational space. Realtime Active MHD Spectroscopy (AMS) has been applied to IBS plasmas for the first time, and the plasma response measurements show that the AMS can help sense the approach to instability during the discharges. The AMS data shows the trend towards instability at low rotation, and MARS-K modelling partially reproduces the experimental trend if collisionality and resistivity are included. The modelling results are sensitive to the edge resistivity, and this can indicate that the AMS is measuring the changes in ideal (kink) stability, to which the tearing stability index delta' is correlated. Together these results constitute a crucial step to acquire physical understanding and sensing capability for the MHD stability in the Q =10 ITER scenario. Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-FG02-04ER54761.

  14. Low photon count based digital holography for quadratic phase cryptography.

    PubMed

    Muniraj, Inbarasan; Guo, Changliang; Malallah, Ra'ed; Ryle, James P; Healy, John J; Lee, Byung-Geun; Sheridan, John T

    2017-07-15

    Recently, the vulnerability of the linear canonical transform-based double random phase encryption system to attack has been demonstrated. To alleviate this, we present for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a method for securing a two-dimensional scene using a quadratic phase encoding system operating in the photon-counted imaging (PCI) regime. Position-phase-shifting digital holography is applied to record the photon-limited encrypted complex samples. The reconstruction of the complex wavefront involves four sparse (undersampled) dataset intensity measurements (interferograms) at two different positions. Computer simulations validate that the photon-limited sparse-encrypted data has adequate information to authenticate the original data set. Finally, security analysis, employing iterative phase retrieval attacks, has been performed.

  15. Role of Outgassing of ITER Vacuum Vessel In-Wall Shielding Materials in Leak Detection of ITER Vacuum Vessel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maheshwari, A.; Pathak, H. A.; Mehta, B. K.; Phull, G. S.; Laad, R.; Shaikh, M. S.; George, S.; Joshi, K.; Khan, Z.

    2017-04-01

    ITER Vacuum Vessel is a torus-shaped, double wall structure. The space between the double walls of the VV is filled with In-Wall Shielding Blocks (IWS) and Water. The main purpose of IWS is to provide neutron shielding during ITER plasma operation and to reduce ripple of Toroidal Magnetic Field (TF). Although In-Wall Shield Blocks (IWS) will be submerged in water in between the walls of the ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV), Outgassing Rate (OGR) of IWS materials plays a significant role in leak detection of Vacuum Vessel of ITER. Thermal Outgassing Rate of a material critically depends on the Surface Roughness of material. During leak detection process using RGA equipped Leak detector and tracer gas Helium, there will be a spill over of mass 3 and mass 2 to mass 4 which creates a background reading. Helium background will have contribution of Hydrogen too. So it is necessary to ensure the low OGR of Hydrogen. To achieve an effective leak test it is required to obtain a background below 1 × 10-8 mbar 1 s-1 and hence the maximum Outgassing rate of IWS Materials should comply with the maximum Outgassing rate required for hydrogen i.e. 1 x 10-10 mbar 1 s-1 cm-2 at room temperature. As IWS Materials are special materials developed for ITER project, it is necessary to ensure the compliance of Outgassing rate with the requirement. There is a possibility of diffusing the gasses in material at the time of production. So, to validate the production process of materials as well as manufacturing of final product from this material, three coupons of each IWS material have been manufactured with the same technique which is being used in manufacturing of IWS blocks. Manufacturing records of these coupons have been approved by ITER-IO (International Organization). Outgassing rates of these coupons have been measured at room temperature and found in acceptable limit to obtain the required Helium Background. On the basis of these measurements, test reports have been generated and got approved by IO. This paper will describe the preparation, characteristics and cleaning procedure of samples, description of the system, Outgassing rate Measurement of these samples to ensure the accurate leak detection.

  16. Single-snapshot DOA estimation by using Compressed Sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fortunati, Stefano; Grasso, Raffaele; Gini, Fulvio; Greco, Maria S.; LePage, Kevin

    2014-12-01

    This paper deals with the problem of estimating the directions of arrival (DOA) of multiple source signals from a single observation vector of an array data. In particular, four estimation algorithms based on the theory of compressed sensing (CS), i.e., the classical ℓ 1 minimization (or Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, LASSO), the fast smooth ℓ 0 minimization, and the Sparse Iterative Covariance-Based Estimator, SPICE and the Iterative Adaptive Approach for Amplitude and Phase Estimation, IAA-APES algorithms, are analyzed, and their statistical properties are investigated and compared with the classical Fourier beamformer (FB) in different simulated scenarios. We show that unlike the classical FB, a CS-based beamformer (CSB) has some desirable properties typical of the adaptive algorithms (e.g., Capon and MUSIC) even in the single snapshot case. Particular attention is devoted to the super-resolution property. Theoretical arguments and simulation analysis provide evidence that a CS-based beamformer can achieve resolution beyond the classical Rayleigh limit. Finally, the theoretical findings are validated by processing a real sonar dataset.

  17. A path to stable low-torque plasma operation in ITER with test blanket modules

    DOE PAGES

    Lanctot, Matthew J.; Snipes, J. A.; Reimerdes, H.; ...

    2016-12-12

    New experiments in the low-torque ITER Q = 10 scenario on DIII-D demonstrate that n = 1 magnetic fields from a single row of ex-vessel control coils enable operation at ITER performance metrics in the presence of applied non-axisymmetric magnetic fields from a test blanket module (TBM) mock-up coil. With n = 1 compensation, operation below the ITER-equivalent injected torque is successful at three times the ITER equivalent toroidal magnetic field ripple for a pair of TBMs in one equatorial port, whereas the uncompensated TBM field leads to rotation collapse, loss of H-mode and plasma current disruption. In companion experimentsmore » at high plasma beta, where the n = 1 plasma response is enhanced, uncorrected TBM fields degrade energy confinement and the plasma angular momentum while increasing fast ion losses; however, disruptions are not routinely encountered owing to increased levels of injected neutral beam torque. In this regime, n = 1 field compensation leads to recovery of a dominant fraction of the TBM-induced plasma pressure and rotation degradation, and an 80% reduction in the heat load to the first wall. These results show that the n = 1 plasma response plays a dominant role in determining plasma stability, and that n = 1 field compensation alone not only recovers most of the impact on plasma performance of the TBM, but also protects the first wall from potentially damaging heat flux. Despite these benefits, plasma rotation braking from the TBM fields cannot be fully recovered using standard error field control. Lastly, given the uncertainty in extrapolation of these results to the ITER configuration, it is prudent to design the TBMs with as low a ferromagnetic mass as possible without jeopardizing the TBM mission.« less

  18. A path to stable low-torque plasma operation in ITER with test blanket modules

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lanctot, Matthew J.; Snipes, J. A.; Reimerdes, H.

    New experiments in the low-torque ITER Q = 10 scenario on DIII-D demonstrate that n = 1 magnetic fields from a single row of ex-vessel control coils enable operation at ITER performance metrics in the presence of applied non-axisymmetric magnetic fields from a test blanket module (TBM) mock-up coil. With n = 1 compensation, operation below the ITER-equivalent injected torque is successful at three times the ITER equivalent toroidal magnetic field ripple for a pair of TBMs in one equatorial port, whereas the uncompensated TBM field leads to rotation collapse, loss of H-mode and plasma current disruption. In companion experimentsmore » at high plasma beta, where the n = 1 plasma response is enhanced, uncorrected TBM fields degrade energy confinement and the plasma angular momentum while increasing fast ion losses; however, disruptions are not routinely encountered owing to increased levels of injected neutral beam torque. In this regime, n = 1 field compensation leads to recovery of a dominant fraction of the TBM-induced plasma pressure and rotation degradation, and an 80% reduction in the heat load to the first wall. These results show that the n = 1 plasma response plays a dominant role in determining plasma stability, and that n = 1 field compensation alone not only recovers most of the impact on plasma performance of the TBM, but also protects the first wall from potentially damaging heat flux. Despite these benefits, plasma rotation braking from the TBM fields cannot be fully recovered using standard error field control. Lastly, given the uncertainty in extrapolation of these results to the ITER configuration, it is prudent to design the TBMs with as low a ferromagnetic mass as possible without jeopardizing the TBM mission.« less

  19. Georgia Tech Studies of Sub-Critical Advanced Burner Reactors with a D-T Fusion Tokamak Neutron Source for the Transmutation of Spent Nuclear Fuel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stacey, W. M.

    2009-09-01

    The possibility that a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, based on ITER physics and technology, could be used to drive sub-critical, fast-spectrum nuclear reactors fueled with the transuranics (TRU) in spent nuclear fuel discharged from conventional nuclear reactors has been investigated at Georgia Tech in a series of studies which are summarized in this paper. It is found that sub-critical operation of such fast transmutation reactors is advantageous in allowing longer fuel residence time, hence greater TRU burnup between fuel reprocessing stages, and in allowing higher TRU loading without compromising safety, relative to what could be achieved in a similar critical transmutation reactor. The required plasma and fusion technology operating parameter range of the fusion neutron source is generally within the anticipated operational range of ITER. The implications of these results for fusion development policy, if they hold up under more extensive and detailed analysis, is that a D-T fusion tokamak neutron source for a sub-critical transmutation reactor, built on the basis of the ITER operating experience, could possibly be a logical next step after ITER on the path to fusion electrical power reactors. At the same time, such an application would allow fusion to contribute to meeting the nation's energy needs at an earlier stage by helping to close the fission reactor nuclear fuel cycle.

  20. Systems and methods for optimal power flow on a radial network

    DOEpatents

    Low, Steven H.; Peng, Qiuyu

    2018-04-24

    Node controllers and power distribution networks in accordance with embodiments of the invention enable distributed power control. One embodiment includes a node controller including a distributed power control application; a plurality of node operating parameters describing the operating parameter of a node and a set of at least one node selected from the group consisting of an ancestor node and at least one child node; wherein send node operating parameters to nodes in the set of at least one node; receive operating parameters from the nodes in the set of at least one node; calculate a plurality of updated node operating parameters using an iterative process to determine the updated node operating parameters using the node operating parameters that describe the operating parameters of the node and the set of at least one node, where the iterative process involves evaluation of a closed form solution; and adjust node operating parameters.

  1. Simulation and Analysis of Launch Teams (SALT)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2008-01-01

    A SALT effort was initiated in late 2005 with seed funding from the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Human Factors organization. Its objectives included demonstrating human behavior and performance modeling and simulation technologies for launch team analysis, training, and evaluation. The goal of the research is to improve future NASA operations and training. The project employed an iterative approach, with the first iteration focusing on the last 70 minutes of a nominal-case Space Shuttle countdown, the second iteration focusing on aborts and launch commit criteria violations, the third iteration focusing on Ares I-X communications, and the fourth iteration focusing on Ares I-X Firing Room configurations. SALT applied new commercial off-the-shelf technologies from industry and the Department of Defense in the spaceport domain.

  2. Multi-megawatt, gigajoule plasma operation in Tore Supra

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dumont, R. J.; Goniche, M.; Ekedahl, A.; Saoutic, B.; Artaud, J.-F.; Basiuk, V.; Bourdelle, C.; Corre, Y.; Decker, J.; Elbèze, D.; Giruzzi, G.; Hoang, G.-T.; Imbeaux, F.; Joffrin, E.; Litaudon, X.; Lotte, Ph; Maget, P.; Mazon, D.; Nilsson, E.; The Tore Supra Team

    2014-07-01

    Integrating several important technological elements required for long pulse operation in magnetic fusion devices, the Tore Supra tokamak routinely addresses the physics and technology issues related to this endeavor and, as a result, contributes essential information on critical issues for ITER. During the last experimental campaign, components of the radiofrequency system including an ITER relevant launcher (passive active multijunction (PAM)) and continuous wave/3.7 GHz klystrons, have been extensively qualified, and then used to develop steady state scenarios in which the lower hybrid (LH), ion cyclotron (IC) and electron cyclotron (EC) systems have been combined in fully stationary shots (duration ˜150 s, injected power up to ˜8 MW, injected/extracted energy up to ˜1 GJ). Injection of LH power in the 5.0-6.0 MW range has extended the domain of accessible plasma parameters to higher densities and non-inductive currents. These discharges exhibit steady electron internal transport barriers (ITBs). We report here on various issues relevant to the steady state operation of future devices, ranging from operational aspects and limitations related to the achievement of long pulses in a fully actively cooled fusion device (e.g. overheating due to fast particle losses), to more fundamental plasma physics topics. The latter include a beneficial influence of IC resonance heating on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability in these discharges, which has been studied in detail. Another interesting observation is the appearance of oscillations of the central temperature with typical periods of the order of one to several seconds, caused by a nonlinear interplay between LH deposition, MHD activity and bootstrap current in the presence of an ITB.

  3. Development and Evaluation of an Intuitive Operations Planning Process

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-03-01

    designed to be iterative and also prescribes the way in which iterations should occur. On the other hand, participants’ perceived level of trust and...16 4. DESIGN AND METHOD OF THE EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE INTUITIVE PLANNING PROCESS...20 4.1.3 Design

  4. Engineering aspects of design and integration of ECE diagnostic in ITER

    DOE PAGES

    Udintsev, V. S.; Taylor, G.; Pandya, H. K.B.; ...

    2015-03-12

    ITER ECE diagnostic [1] needs not only to meet measurement requirements, but also to withstand various loads, such as electromagnetic, mechanical, neutronic and thermal, and to be protected from stray ECH radiation at 170 GHz and other millimeter wave emission, like Collective Thomson scattering which is planned to operate at 60 GHz. Same or similar loads will be applied to other millimetre-wave diagnostics [2], located both in-vessel and in-port plugs. These loads must be taken into account throughout the design phases of the ECE and other microwave diagnostics to ensure their structural integrity and maintainability. The integration of microwave diagnosticsmore » with other ITER systems is another challenging activity which is currently ongoing through port integration and in-vessel integration work. Port Integration has to address the maintenance and the safety aspects of diagnostics, too. Engineering solutions which are being developed to support and to operate ITER ECE diagnostic, whilst complying with safety and maintenance requirements, are discussed in this paper.« less

  5. High resolution x-ray CMT: Reconstruction methods

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brown, J.K.

    This paper qualitatively discusses the primary characteristics of methods for reconstructing tomographic images from a set of projections. These reconstruction methods can be categorized as either {open_quotes}analytic{close_quotes} or {open_quotes}iterative{close_quotes} techniques. Analytic algorithms are derived from the formal inversion of equations describing the imaging process, while iterative algorithms incorporate a model of the imaging process and provide a mechanism to iteratively improve image estimates. Analytic reconstruction algorithms are typically computationally more efficient than iterative methods; however, analytic algorithms are available for a relatively limited set of imaging geometries and situations. Thus, the framework of iterative reconstruction methods is better suited formore » high accuracy, tomographic reconstruction codes.« less

  6. Fine-resolution conservation planning with limited climate-change information.

    PubMed

    Shah, Payal; Mallory, Mindy L; Ando, Amy W; Guntenspergen, Glenn R

    2017-04-01

    Climate-change induced uncertainties in future spatial patterns of conservation-related outcomes make it difficult to implement standard conservation-planning paradigms. A recent study translates Markowitz's risk-diversification strategy from finance to conservation settings, enabling conservation agents to use this diversification strategy for allocating conservation and restoration investments across space to minimize the risk associated with such uncertainty. However, this method is information intensive and requires a large number of forecasts of ecological outcomes associated with possible climate-change scenarios for carrying out fine-resolution conservation planning. We developed a technique for iterative, spatial portfolio analysis that can be used to allocate scarce conservation resources across a desired level of subregions in a planning landscape in the absence of a sufficient number of ecological forecasts. We applied our technique to the Prairie Pothole Region in central North America. A lack of sufficient future climate information prevented attainment of the most efficient risk-return conservation outcomes in the Prairie Pothole Region. The difference in expected conservation returns between conservation planning with limited climate-change information and full climate-change information was as large as 30% for the Prairie Pothole Region even when the most efficient iterative approach was used. However, our iterative approach allowed finer resolution portfolio allocation with limited climate-change forecasts such that the best possible risk-return combinations were obtained. With our most efficient iterative approach, the expected loss in conservation outcomes owing to limited climate-change information could be reduced by 17% relative to other iterative approaches. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.

  7. Contribution of Tore Supra in preparation of ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saoutic, B.; Abiteboul, J.; Allegretti, L.; Allfrey, S.; Ané, J. M.; Aniel, T.; Argouarch, A.; Artaud, J. F.; Aumenier, M. H.; Balme, S.; Basiuk, V.; Baulaigue, O.; Bayetti, P.; Bécoulet, A.; Bécoulet, M.; Benkadda, M. S.; Benoit, F.; Berger-by, G.; Bernard, J. M.; Bertrand, B.; Beyer, P.; Bigand, A.; Blum, J.; Boilson, D.; Bonhomme, G.; Bottollier-Curtet, H.; Bouchand, C.; Bouquey, F.; Bourdelle, C.; Bourmaud, S.; Brault, C.; Brémond, S.; Brosset, C.; Bucalossi, J.; Buravand, Y.; Cara, P.; Catherine-Dumont, V.; Casati, A.; Chantant, M.; Chatelier, M.; Chevet, G.; Ciazynski, D.; Ciraolo, G.; Clairet, F.; Coatanea-Gouachet, M.; Colas, L.; Commin, L.; Corbel, E.; Corre, Y.; Courtois, X.; Dachicourt, R.; Dapena Febrer, M.; Davi Joanny, M.; Daviot, R.; De Esch, H.; Decker, J.; Decool, P.; Delaporte, P.; Delchambre, E.; Delmas, E.; Delpech, L.; Desgranges, C.; Devynck, P.; Dittmar, T.; Doceul, L.; Douai, D.; Dougnac, H.; Duchateau, J. L.; Dugué, B.; Dumas, N.; Dumont, R.; Durocher, A.; Duthoit, F. X.; Ekedahl, A.; Elbeze, D.; El Khaldi, M.; Escourbiac, F.; Faisse, F.; Falchetto, G.; Farge, M.; Farjon, J. L.; Faury, M.; Fedorczak, N.; Fenzi-Bonizec, C.; Firdaouss, M.; Frauel, Y.; Garbet, X.; Garcia, J.; Gardarein, J. L.; Gargiulo, L.; Garibaldi, P.; Gauthier, E.; Gaye, O.; Géraud, A.; Geynet, M.; Ghendrih, P.; Giacalone, I.; Gibert, S.; Gil, C.; Giruzzi, G.; Goniche, M.; Grandgirard, V.; Grisolia, C.; Gros, G.; Grosman, A.; Guigon, R.; Guilhem, D.; Guillerminet, B.; Guirlet, R.; Gunn, J.; Gurcan, O.; Hacquin, S.; Hatchressian, J. C.; Hennequin, P.; Hernandez, C.; Hertout, P.; Heuraux, S.; Hillairet, J.; Hoang, G. T.; Honore, C.; Houry, M.; Hutter, T.; Huynh, P.; Huysmans, G.; Imbeaux, F.; Joffrin, E.; Johner, J.; Jourd'Heuil, L.; Katharria, Y. S.; Keller, D.; Kim, S. H.; Kocan, M.; Kubic, M.; Lacroix, B.; Lamaison, V.; Latu, G.; Lausenaz, Y.; Laviron, C.; Leroux, F.; Letellier, L.; Lipa, M.; Litaudon, X.; Loarer, T.; Lotte, P.; Madeleine, S.; Magaud, P.; Maget, P.; Magne, R.; Manenc, L.; Marandet, Y.; Marbach, G.; Maréchal, J. L.; Marfisi, L.; Martin, C.; Martin, G.; Martin, V.; Martinez, A.; Martins, J. P.; Masset, R.; Mazon, D.; Mellet, N.; Mercadier, L.; Merle, A.; Meshcheriakov, D.; Meyer, O.; Million, L.; Missirlian, M.; Mollard, P.; Moncada, V.; Monier-Garbet, P.; Moreau, D.; Moreau, P.; Morini, L.; Nannini, M.; Naiim Habib, M.; Nardon, E.; Nehme, H.; Nguyen, C.; Nicollet, S.; Nouilletas, R.; Ohsako, T.; Ottaviani, M.; Pamela, S.; Parrat, H.; Pastor, P.; Pecquet, A. L.; Pégourié, B.; Peysson, Y.; Porchy, I.; Portafaix, C.; Preynas, M.; Prou, M.; Raharijaona, J. M.; Ravenel, N.; Reux, C.; Reynaud, P.; Richou, M.; Roche, H.; Roubin, P.; Sabot, R.; Saint-Laurent, F.; Salasca, S.; Samaille, F.; Santagiustina, A.; Sarazin, Y.; Semerok, A.; Schlosser, J.; Schneider, M.; Schubert, M.; Schwander, F.; Ségui, J. L.; Selig, G.; Sharma, P.; Signoret, J.; Simonin, A.; Song, S.; Sonnendruker, E.; Sourbier, F.; Spuig, P.; Tamain, P.; Tena, M.; Theis, J. M.; Thouvenin, D.; Torre, A.; Travère, J. M.; Tsitrone, E.; Vallet, J. C.; Van Der Plas, E.; Vatry, A.; Verger, J. M.; Vermare, L.; Villecroze, F.; Villegas, D.; Volpe, R.; Vulliez, K.; Wagrez, J.; Wauters, T.; Zani, L.; Zarzoso, D.; Zou, X. L.

    2011-09-01

    Tore Supra routinely addresses the physics and technology of very long-duration plasma discharges, thus bringing precious information on critical issues of long pulse operation of ITER. A new ITER relevant lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) launcher has allowed coupling to the plasma a power level of 2.7 MW for 78 s, corresponding to a power density close to the design value foreseen for an ITER LHCD system. In accordance with the expectations, long distance (10 cm) power coupling has been obtained. Successive stationary states of the plasma current profile have been controlled in real-time featuring (i) control of sawteeth with varying plasma parameters, (ii) obtaining and sustaining a 'hot core' plasma regime, (iii) recovery from a voluntarily triggered deleterious magnetohydrodynamic regime. The scrape-off layer (SOL) parameters and power deposition have been documented during L-mode ramp-up phase, a crucial point for ITER before the X-point formation. Disruption mitigation studies have been conducted with massive gas injection, evidencing the difference between He and Ar and the possible role of the q = 2 surface in limiting the gas penetration. ICRF assisted wall conditioning in the presence of magnetic field has been investigated, culminating in the demonstration that this conditioning scheme allows one to recover normal operation after disruptions. The effect of the magnetic field ripple on the intrinsic plasma rotation has been studied, showing the competition between turbulent transport processes and ripple toroidal friction. During dedicated dimensionless experiments, the effect of varying the collisionality on turbulence wavenumber spectra has been documented, giving new insight into the turbulence mechanism. Turbulence measurements have also allowed quantitatively comparing experimental results with predictions by 5D gyrokinetic codes: numerical results simultaneously match the magnitude of effective heat diffusivity, rms values of density fluctuations and wavenumber spectra. A clear correlation between electron temperature gradient and impurity transport in the very core of the plasma has been observed, strongly suggesting the existence of a threshold above which transport is dominated by turbulent electron modes. Dynamics of edge turbulent fluctuations has been studied by correlating data from fast imaging cameras and Langmuir probes, yielding a coherent picture of transport processes involved in the SOL. Corrections were made to this article on 6 January 2012. Some of the letters in the text were missing.

  8. Separation of Undersampled Composite Signals Using the Dantzig Selector with Overcomplete Dictionaries

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-06-02

    2011). [22] Li, Q., Micchelli, C., Shen, L., and Xu, Y. A proximity algorithm acelerated by Gauss - Seidel iterations for L1/TV denoising models. Inverse...system of equations and their relationship to the solution of Model (2) and present an algorithm with an iterative approach for finding these solutions...Using the fixed-point characterization above, the (k + 1)th iteration of the prox- imity operator algorithm to find the solution of the Dantzig

  9. Analysis of ITER NbTi and Nb3Sn CICCs experimental minimum quench energy with JackPot, MCM and THEA models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bagni, T.; Duchateau, J. L.; Breschi, M.; Devred, A.; Nijhuis, A.

    2017-09-01

    Cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) for ITER magnets are subjected to fast changing magnetic fields during the plasma-operating scenario. In order to anticipate the limitations of conductors under the foreseen operating conditions, it is essential to have a better understanding of the stability margin of magnets. In the last decade ITER has launched a campaign for characterization of several types of NbTi and Nb3Sn CICCs comprising quench tests with a singular sine wave fast magnetic field pulse and relatively small amplitude. The stability tests, performed in the SULTAN facility, were reproduced and analyzed using two codes: JackPot-AC/DC, an electromagnetic-thermal numerical model for CICCs, developed at the University of Twente (van Lanen and Nijhuis 2010 Cryogenics 50 139-148) and multi-constant-model (MCM) (Turck and Zani 2010 Cryogenics 50 443-9), an analytical model for CICCs coupling losses. The outputs of both codes were combined with thermal, hydraulic and electric analysis of superconducting cables to predict the minimum quench energy (MQE) (Bottura et al 2000 Cryogenics 40 617-26). The experimental AC loss results were used to calibrate the JackPot and MCM models and to reproduce the energy deposited in the cable during an MQE test. The agreement between experiments and models confirm a good comprehension of the various CICCs thermal and electromagnetic phenomena. The differences between the analytical MCM and numerical JackPot approaches are discussed. The results provide a good basis for further investigation of CICC stability under plasma scenario conditions using magnetic field pulses with lower ramp rate and higher amplitude.

  10. Modeling the effect of reflection from metallic walls on spectroscopic measurements.

    PubMed

    Zastrow, K-D; Keatings, S R; Marot, L; O'Mullane, M G; de Temmerman, G

    2008-10-01

    A modification of JET is presently being prepared to bring operational experience with ITER-like first wall (Be) and divertor (W) materials, geometry and plasma parameters. Reflectivity measurements of JET sample tiles have been performed and the data are used within a simplified model of the JET and ITER vessels to predict additional contributions to quantitative spectroscopic measurements. The most general method to characterize reflectivity is the bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF). For extended sources however, such as bremsstrahlung and edge emission of fuel and intrinsic impurities, the results obtained in the modeling are almost as accurate if the total reflectivity with ideal Lambertian angular dependence is used. This is in contrast to the experience in other communities, such as optical design, lighting design, or rendering who deal mostly with pointlike light sources. This result is so far based on a very limited set of measurements and will be reassessed when more detailed BRDF measurements of JET tiles have been made. If it is true it offers the possibility of in situ monitoring of the reflectivity of selected parts of the wall during exposure to plasma operation, while remeasurement of the BRDF is performed during interventions. For a closed vessel structure such as ITER, it is important to consider multiple reflections. This makes it more important to represent the whole of the vessel reasonably accurately in the model, which on the other hand is easier to achieve than for the more complex internal structure of JET. In both cases the dominant contribution is from the first reflection, and a detailed model of the areas intersected by lines of sight of diagnostic interest is required.

  11. Design and FPGA Implementation of a Universal Chaotic Signal Generator Based on the Verilog HDL Fixed-Point Algorithm and State Machine Control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qiu, Mo; Yu, Simin; Wen, Yuqiong; Lü, Jinhu; He, Jianbin; Lin, Zhuosheng

    In this paper, a novel design methodology and its FPGA hardware implementation for a universal chaotic signal generator is proposed via the Verilog HDL fixed-point algorithm and state machine control. According to continuous-time or discrete-time chaotic equations, a Verilog HDL fixed-point algorithm and its corresponding digital system are first designed. In the FPGA hardware platform, each operation step of Verilog HDL fixed-point algorithm is then controlled by a state machine. The generality of this method is that, for any given chaotic equation, it can be decomposed into four basic operation procedures, i.e. nonlinear function calculation, iterative sequence operation, iterative values right shifting and ceiling, and chaotic iterative sequences output, each of which corresponds to only a state via state machine control. Compared with the Verilog HDL floating-point algorithm, the Verilog HDL fixed-point algorithm can save the FPGA hardware resources and improve the operation efficiency. FPGA-based hardware experimental results validate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed approach.

  12. ITER Status and Plans

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greenfield, Charles M.

    2017-10-01

    The US Burning Plasma Organization is pleased to welcome Dr. Bernard Bigot, who will give an update on progress in the ITER Project. Dr. Bigot took over as Director General of the ITER Organization in early 2015 following a distinguished career that included serving as Chairman and CEO of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and as High Commissioner for ITER in France. During his tenure at ITER the project has moved into high gear, with rapid progress evident on the construction site and preparation of a staged schedule and a research plan leading from where we are today through all the way to full DT operation. In an unprecedented international effort, seven partners ``China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States'' have pooled their financial and scientific resources to build the biggest fusion reactor in history. ITER will open the way to the next step: a demonstration fusion power plant. All DPP attendees are welcome to attend this ITER town meeting.

  13. Extending the physics basis of quiescent H-mode toward ITER relevant parameters

    DOE PAGES

    Solomon, W. M.; Burrell, K. H.; Fenstermacher, M. E.; ...

    2015-06-26

    Recent experiments on DIII-D have addressed several long-standing issues needed to establish quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) as a viable operating scenario for ITER. In the past, QH-mode was associated with low density operation, but has now been extended to high normalized densities compatible with operation envisioned for ITER. Through the use of strong shaping, QH-mode plasmas have been maintained at high densities, both absolute (more » $$\\bar{n}$$ e ≈ 7 × 10 19 m ₋3) and normalized Greenwald fraction ($$\\bar{n}$$ e/n G > 0.7). In these plasmas, the pedestal can evolve to very high pressure and edge current as the density is increased. High density QH-mode operation with strong shaping has allowed access to a previously predicted regime of very high pedestal dubbed “Super H-mode”. Calculations of the pedestal height and width from the EPED model are quantitatively consistent with the experimentally observed density evolution. The confirmation of the shape dependence of the maximum density threshold for QH-mode helps validate the underlying theoretical model of peeling- ballooning modes for ELM stability. In general, QH-mode is found to achieve ELM- stable operation while maintaining adequate impurity exhaust, due to the enhanced impurity transport from an edge harmonic oscillation, thought to be a saturated kink- peeling mode driven by rotation shear. In addition, the impurity confinement time is not affected by rotation, even though the energy confinement time and measured E×B shear are observed to increase at low toroidal rotation. Together with demonstrations of high beta, high confinement and low q 95 for many energy confinement times, these results suggest QH-mode as a potentially attractive operating scenario for the ITER Q=10 mission.« less

  14. Parametric study of sensor placement for vision-based relative navigation system of multiple spacecraft

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeong, Junho; Kim, Seungkeun; Suk, Jinyoung

    2017-12-01

    In order to overcome the limited range of GPS-based techniques, vision-based relative navigation methods have recently emerged as alternative approaches for a high Earth orbit (HEO) or deep space missions. Therefore, various vision-based relative navigation systems use for proximity operations between two spacecraft. For the implementation of these systems, a sensor placement problem can occur on the exterior of spacecraft due to its limited space. To deal with the sensor placement, this paper proposes a novel methodology for a vision-based relative navigation based on multiple position sensitive diode (PSD) sensors and multiple infrared beacon modules. For the proposed method, an iterated parametric study is used based on the farthest point optimization (FPO) and a constrained extended Kalman filter (CEKF). Each algorithm is applied to set the location of the sensors and to estimate relative positions and attitudes according to each combination by the PSDs and beacons. After that, scores for the sensor placement are calculated with respect to parameters: the number of the PSDs, number of the beacons, and accuracy of relative estimates. Then, the best scoring candidate is determined for the sensor placement. Moreover, the results of the iterated estimation show that the accuracy improves dramatically, as the number of the PSDs increases from one to three.

  15. Preliminary consideration of CFETR ITER-like case diagnostic system.

    PubMed

    Li, G S; Yang, Y; Wang, Y M; Ming, T F; Han, X; Liu, S C; Wang, E H; Liu, Y K; Yang, W J; Li, G Q; Hu, Q S; Gao, X

    2016-11-01

    Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) is a new superconducting tokamak device being designed in China, which aims at bridging the gap between ITER and DEMO, where DEMO is a tokamak demonstration fusion reactor. Two diagnostic cases, ITER-like case and towards DEMO case, have been considered for CFETR early and later operating phases, respectively. In this paper, some preliminary consideration of ITER-like case will be presented. Based on ITER diagnostic system, three versions of increased complexity and coverage of the ITER-like case diagnostic system have been developed with different goals and functions. Version A aims only machine protection and basic control. Both of version B and version C are mainly for machine protection, basic and advanced control, but version C has an increased level of redundancy necessary for improved measurements capability. The performance of these versions and needed R&D work are outlined.

  16. Preliminary consideration of CFETR ITER-like case diagnostic system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, G. S.; Liu, Y. K.; Gao, X.

    2016-11-15

    Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) is a new superconducting tokamak device being designed in China, which aims at bridging the gap between ITER and DEMO, where DEMO is a tokamak demonstration fusion reactor. Two diagnostic cases, ITER-like case and towards DEMO case, have been considered for CFETR early and later operating phases, respectively. In this paper, some preliminary consideration of ITER-like case will be presented. Based on ITER diagnostic system, three versions of increased complexity and coverage of the ITER-like case diagnostic system have been developed with different goals and functions. Version A aims only machine protection and basicmore » control. Both of version B and version C are mainly for machine protection, basic and advanced control, but version C has an increased level of redundancy necessary for improved measurements capability. The performance of these versions and needed R&D work are outlined.« less

  17. First tritium operation of ITER-prototype VUV spectroscopy on JET

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Coffey, I.H.; Barnsley, R.

    Results from tritium operation of the VUV survey spectrometer on the JET tokamak are presented. The instrument, located outside the biological shield and offset from a direct plasma 1-o-s for maximum radiation protection, was operational during the trace tritium campaign (TTE) at JET. No discernible increase in detector background noise levels were detected for total neutron rates of up to 1x10{sup 17}/s, demonstrating the shielding effectiveness of the configuration. Some tritium retention in the detector microchannel plate was measurable, but has not hampered subsequent operations. As a reference the unshielded detector of a close-coupled XUV instrument was operated during TTEmore » (the spectrometer itself was valved off from the JET vessel). This was exposed to neutron fluxes of {approx}10{sup 9}/cm{sup 2} s, in excess of those predicted for the corresponding instrument on ITER (10{sup 7}-10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2} s). A corresponding increase in the background level equivalent to {approx}5% of the detector dynamic range was measured. This demonstration of the shielding effectiveness of the SPRED configuration during DT operations, coupled with the tolerable noise levels measured in the SOXMOS detector, give confidence in the planned implementation of such instruments in ITER.« less

  18. Efficient solution of the simplified P N equations

    DOE PAGES

    Hamilton, Steven P.; Evans, Thomas M.

    2014-12-23

    We show new solver strategies for the multigroup SPN equations for nuclear reactor analysis. By forming the complete matrix over space, moments, and energy a robust set of solution strategies may be applied. Moreover, power iteration, shifted power iteration, Rayleigh quotient iteration, Arnoldi's method, and a generalized Davidson method, each using algebraic and physics-based multigrid preconditioners, have been compared on C5G7 MOX test problem as well as an operational PWR model. These results show that the most ecient approach is the generalized Davidson method, that is 30-40 times faster than traditional power iteration and 6-10 times faster than Arnoldi's method.

  19. Be ITER-like wall at the JET tokamak under plasma

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tsavalas, P.; Lagoyannis, A.; Mergia, K.; Rubel, M.; Triantou, K.; Harissopulos, S.; Kokkoris, M.; Petersson, P.; Contributors, JET

    2017-12-01

    The JET tokamak is operated with beryllium and tungsten plasma-facing components to prepare for the exploitation of ITER. To determine beryllium erosion and migration in JET a set of markers were installed. Specimens from different beryllium marker tiles of the main wall of the ITER-like wall (ILW) JET tokamak from the first and the second D-D campaign were analyzed with nuclear reaction analysis, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Emphasis was on the determination of carbon plasma impurities deposited on beryllium surfaces. The 12C(d, p0)13C reaction was used to quantify carbon deposition and to determine depth profiles. Carbon quantities on the surface of the Be tiles are low, varying from (0.35 ± 0.07) × 1017 to (11.8 ± 0.6) × 1017 at cm-2 in the deposition depth from 0.4 to 6.7 μm, respectively. In the 0.4-0.5 mm wide grooves of castellation sides the carbon content is found up to (14.3 ± 2.5) × 1017 at cm-2 while it is higher (up to (38 ± 4) × 1017 at cm-2) in wider gaps (0.8 mm) separating tile segments. Oxygen (O), titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) and tungsten (W) were detected in all samples exposed to plasma and the reference one but at lower quantities at the latter. In the central part of the Inner Wall Guard Limiter from the first ILW campaign and in the Outer Poloidal Limiter from the second ILW campaign the Ni interlayer has been completely eroded. XRD shows the formation of BeNi in most specimens.

  20. Iterative Strain-Gage Balance Calibration Data Analysis for Extended Independent Variable Sets

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ulbrich, Norbert Manfred

    2011-01-01

    A new method was developed that makes it possible to use an extended set of independent calibration variables for an iterative analysis of wind tunnel strain gage balance calibration data. The new method permits the application of the iterative analysis method whenever the total number of balance loads and other independent calibration variables is greater than the total number of measured strain gage outputs. Iteration equations used by the iterative analysis method have the limitation that the number of independent and dependent variables must match. The new method circumvents this limitation. It simply adds a missing dependent variable to the original data set by using an additional independent variable also as an additional dependent variable. Then, the desired solution of the regression analysis problem can be obtained that fits each gage output as a function of both the original and additional independent calibration variables. The final regression coefficients can be converted to data reduction matrix coefficients because the missing dependent variables were added to the data set without changing the regression analysis result for each gage output. Therefore, the new method still supports the application of the two load iteration equation choices that the iterative method traditionally uses for the prediction of balance loads during a wind tunnel test. An example is discussed in the paper that illustrates the application of the new method to a realistic simulation of temperature dependent calibration data set of a six component balance.

  1. Quantized Iterative Learning Consensus Tracking of Digital Networks With Limited Information Communication.

    PubMed

    Xiong, Wenjun; Yu, Xinghuo; Chen, Yao; Gao, Jie

    2017-06-01

    This brief investigates the quantized iterative learning problem for digital networks with time-varying topologies. The information is first encoded as symbolic data and then transmitted. After the data are received, a decoder is used by the receiver to get an estimate of the sender's state. Iterative learning quantized communication is considered in the process of encoding and decoding. A sufficient condition is then presented to achieve the consensus tracking problem in a finite interval using the quantized iterative learning controllers. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the usefulness of the developed criterion.

  2. Analysis and improvement of gas turbine blade temperature measurement error

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Shan; Wang, Lixin; Feng, Chi; Daniel, Ketui

    2015-10-01

    Gas turbine blade components are easily damaged; they also operate in harsh high-temperature, high-pressure environments over extended durations. Therefore, ensuring that the blade temperature remains within the design limits is very important. In this study, measurement errors in turbine blade temperatures were analyzed, taking into account detector lens contamination, the reflection of environmental energy from the target surface, the effects of the combustion gas, and the emissivity of the blade surface. In this paper, each of the above sources of measurement error is discussed, and an iterative computing method for calculating blade temperature is proposed.

  3. Fuel inventory and deposition in castellated structures in JET-ILW

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rubel, M.; Petersson, P.; Zhou, Y.; Coad, J. P.; Lungu, C.; Jepu, I.; Porosnicu, C.; Matveev, D.; Kirschner, A.; Brezinsek, S.; Widdowson, A.; Alves, E.; Contributors, JET

    2017-06-01

    Since 2011 the JET tokamak has been operated with a metal ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) including castellated beryllium limiters and lamellae-type bulk tungsten tiles in the divertor. This has allowed for a large scale test of castellated plasma-facing components (PFC). Procedures for sectioning the limiters into single blocks of castellation have been developed. This facilitated morphology studies of morphology of surfaces inside the grooves for limiters after experimental campaigns 2011-2012 and 2013-2014. The deposition in the 0.4-0.5 mm wide grooves of the castellation is ‘shallow’. It reaches 1-2 mm into the 12 mm deep gap. Deuterium concentrations are small (mostly below 1  ×  1018 cm-2). The estimated total amount of deuterium in all the castellated limiters does not exceed the inventory of the plasma-facing surfaces (PFS) of the limiters. There are only traces of Ni, Cr and Fe deposited in the castellation gaps. The same applies to the carbon content. Also low deposition of D, Be and C has been measured on the sides of the bulk tungsten lamellae pieces. Modelling clearly reflects: (a) a sharp decrease in the measured deposition profiles and(b) an increase in deposition with the gap width. Both experimental and modelling data give a strong indication and information to ITER that narrow gaps in the castellated PFC are essential. X-ray diffraction on PFS has clearly shown two distinct composition patterns: Be with an admixture of Be-W intermetallic compounds (e.g. Be22W) in the deposition zone, whilst only pure Be has been detected in the erosion zone. The lack of compound formation in the erosion zone indicates that no distinct changes in the thermo-mechanical properties of the Be PFC might be expected.

  4. Nonlinear BCJR equalizer for suppression of intrachannel nonlinearities in 40 Gb/s optical communications systems.

    PubMed

    Djordjevic, Ivan B; Vasic, Bane

    2006-05-29

    A maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) symbol decoding supplemented with iterative decoding is proposed as an effective mean for suppression of intrachannel nonlinearities. The MAP detector, based on Bahl-Cocke-Jelinek-Raviv algorithm, operates on the channel trellis, a dynamical model of intersymbol interference, and provides soft-decision outputs processed further in an iterative decoder. A dramatic performance improvement is demonstrated. The main reason is that the conventional maximum-likelihood sequence detector based on Viterbi algorithm provides hard-decision outputs only, hence preventing the soft iterative decoding. The proposed scheme operates very well in the presence of strong intrachannel intersymbol interference, when other advanced forward error correction schemes fail, and it is also suitable for 40 Gb/s upgrade over existing 10 Gb/s infrastructure.

  5. PREFACE: Progress in the ITER Physics Basis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikeda, K.

    2007-06-01

    I would firstly like to congratulate all who have contributed to the preparation of the `Progress in the ITER Physics Basis' (PIPB) on its publication and express my deep appreciation of the hard work and commitment of the many scientists involved. With the signing of the ITER Joint Implementing Agreement in November 2006, the ITER Members have now established the framework for construction of the project, and the ITER Organization has begun work at Cadarache. The review of recent progress in the physics basis for burning plasma experiments encompassed by the PIPB will be a valuable resource for the project and, in particular, for the current Design Review. The ITER design has been derived from a physics basis developed through experimental, modelling and theoretical work on the properties of tokamak plasmas and, in particular, on studies of burning plasma physics. The `ITER Physics Basis' (IPB), published in 1999, has been the reference for the projection methodologies for the design of ITER, but the IPB also highlighted several key issues which needed to be resolved to provide a robust basis for ITER operation. In the intervening period scientists of the ITER Participant Teams have addressed these issues intensively. The International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) has provided an excellent forum for scientists involved in these studies, focusing their work on the high priority physics issues for ITER. Significant progress has been made in many of the issues identified in the IPB and this progress is discussed in depth in the PIPB. In this respect, the publication of the PIPB symbolizes the strong interest and enthusiasm of the plasma physics community for the success of the ITER project, which we all recognize as one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century. I wish to emphasize my appreciation of the work of the ITPA Coordinating Committee members, who are listed below. Their support and encouragement for the preparation of the PIPB were fundamental to its completion. I am pleased to witness the extensive collaborations, the excellent working relationships and the free exchange of views that have been developed among scientists working on magnetic fusion, and I would particularly like to acknowledge the importance which they assign to ITER in their research. This close collaboration and the spirit of free discussion will be essential to the success of ITER. Finally, the PIPB identifies issues which remain in the projection of burning plasma performance to the ITER scale and in the control of burning plasmas. Continued R&D is therefore called for to reduce the uncertainties associated with these issues and to ensure the efficient operation and exploitation of ITER. It is important that the international fusion community maintains a high level of collaboration in the future to address these issues and to prepare the physics basis for ITER operation. ITPA Coordination Committee R. Stambaugh (Chair of ITPA CC, General Atomics, USA) D.J. Campbell (Previous Chair of ITPA CC, European Fusion Development Agreement—Close Support Unit, ITER Organization) M. Shimada (Co-Chair of ITPA CC, ITER Organization) R. Aymar (ITER International Team, CERN) V. Chuyanov (ITER Organization) J.H. Han (Korea Basic Science Institute, Korea) Y. Huo (Zengzhou University, China) Y.S. Hwang (Seoul National University, Korea) N. Ivanov (Kurchatov Institute, Russia) Y. Kamada (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Naka, Japan) P.K. Kaw (Institute for Plasma Research, India) S. Konovalov (Kurchatov Institute, Russia) M. Kwon (National Fusion Research Center, Korea) J. Li (Academy of Science, Institute of Plasma Physics, China) S. Mirnov (TRINITI, Russia) Y. Nakamura (National Institute for Fusion Studies, Japan) H. Ninomiya (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Naka, Japan) E. Oktay (Department of Energy, USA) J. Pamela (European Fusion Development Agreement—Close Support Unit) C. Pan (Southwestern Institute of Physics, China) F. Romanelli (Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente, Italy and European Fusion Development Agreement—Close Support Unit) N. Sauthoff (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, USA and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, USA) Y. Saxena (Institute for Plasma Research, India) Y. Shimomura (ITER Organization) R. Singh (Institute for Plasma Research, India) S. Takamura (Nagoya University, Japan) K. Toi (National Institute for Fusion Studies, Japan) M. Wakatani (Kyoto University, Japan (deceased)) H. Zohm (Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany)

  6. Recent Progress on ECH Technology for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sirigiri, Jagadishwar

    2005-10-01

    The Electron Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive (ECH&CD) system for ITER is a critical ITER system that must be available for use on Day 1 of the ITER experimental program. The applications of the system include plasma start-up, plasma heating and suppression of Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs). These applications are accomplished using 27 one megawatt continuous wave gyrotrons: 24 at a frequency of 170 GHz and 3 at a frequency of 120 GHz. There are DC power supplies for the gyrotrons, a transmission line system, one launcher at the equatorial plane and three upper port launchers. The US will play a major role in delivering parts of the ECH&CD system to ITER. The present state-of-the-art includes major advances in all areas of ECH technology. In the US, a major effort is underway to supply gyrotrons of up to 1.5 MW power level at 110 GHz to General Atomics for use in heating the DIII-D tokamak. This presentation will include a brief review of the state-of-the-art, worldwide, in ECH technology. The requirements for the ITER ECH&CD system will then be reviewed. ITER calls for gyrotrons capable of operating from a 50 kV power supply, after potential depression, with a minimum of 50% overall efficiency. This is a very significant challenge and some approaches to meeting this goal will be presented. Recent experimental results at MIT showing improved efficiency of high frequency, 1.5 MW gyrotrons will be described. These results will be incorporated into the planned development of gyrotrons for ITER. The ITER ECH&CD system will also be a challenge to the transmission lines, which must operate at high average power at up to 1000 seconds and with high efficiency. The technology challenges and efforts in the US and other ITER parties to solve these problems will be reviewed. *In collaboration with E. Choi, C. Marchewka, I. Mastovosky, M. A. Shapiro and R. J. Temkin. This work is supported by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences of the U. S. Department of Energy.

  7. Impact of ideal MHD stability limits on high-beta hybrid operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Piovesan, P.; Igochine, V.; Turco, F.; Ryan, D. A.; Cianciosa, M. R.; Liu, Y. Q.; Marrelli, L.; Terranova, D.; Wilcox, R. S.; Wingen, A.; Angioni, C.; Bock, A.; Chrystal, C.; Classen, I.; Dunne, M.; Ferraro, N. M.; Fischer, R.; Gude, A.; Holcomb, C. T.; Lebschy, A.; Luce, T. C.; Maraschek, M.; McDermott, R.; Odstrčil, T.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Reich, M.; Sertoli, M.; Suttrop, W.; Taylor, N. Z.; Weiland, M.; Willensdorfer, M.; The ASDEX Upgrade Team; The DIII-D Team; The EUROfusion MST1 Team

    2017-01-01

    The hybrid scenario is a candidate for stationary high-fusion gain tokamak operation in ITER and DEMO. To obtain such performance, the energy confinement and the normalized pressure {βN} must be maximized, which requires operating near or above ideal MHD no-wall limits. New experimental findings show how these limits can affect hybrid operation. Even if hybrids are mainly limited by tearing modes, proximity to the no-wall limit leads to 3D field amplification that affects plasma profiles, e.g. rotation braking is observed in ASDEX Upgrade throughout the plasma and peaks in the core. As a result, even the small ASDEX Upgrade error fields are amplified and their effects become visible. To quantify such effects, ASDEX Upgrade measured the response to 3D fields applied by 8× 2 non-axisymmetric coils as {βN} approaches the no-wall limit. The full n  =  1 response profile and poloidal structure were measured by a suite of diagnostics and compared with linear MHD simulations, revealing a characteristic feature of hybrids: the n  =  1 response is due to a global, marginally-stable n  =  1 kink characterized by a large m  =  1, n  =  1 core harmonic due to q min being just above 1. A helical core distortion of a few cm forms and affects various core quantities, including plasma rotation, electron and ion temperature, and intrinsic W density. In similar experiments, DIII-D also measured the effect of this helical core on the internal current profile, providing information useful to understanding of the physics of magnetic flux pumping, i.e. anomalous current redistribution by MHD modes that keeps {{q}\\text{min}}>1 . Thanks to flux pumping, a broad current profile is maintained in DIII-D even with large on-axis current drive, enabling fully non-inductive operation at high {βN} up to 3.5-4.

  8. Impact of ideal MHD stability limits on high-beta hybrid operation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Piovesan, Paolo; Igochine, V.; Turco, F.

    Here, the hybrid scenario is a candidate for stationary high-fusion gain tokamak operation in ITER and DEMO. To obtain such performance, the energy confinement and the normalized pressuremore » $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ must be maximized, which requires operating near or above ideal MHD no-wall limits. New experimental findings show how these limits can affect hybrid operation. Even if hybrids are mainly limited by tearing modes, proximity to the no-wall limit leads to 3D field amplification that affects plasma profiles, e.g. rotation braking is observed in ASDEX Upgrade throughout the plasma and peaks in the core. As a result, even the small ASDEX Upgrade error fields are amplified and their effects become visible. To quantify such effects, ASDEX Upgrade measured the response to 3D fields applied by $$8\\times 2$$ non-axisymmetric coils as $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ approaches the no-wall limit. The full n = 1 response profile and poloidal structure were measured by a suite of diagnostics and compared with linear MHD simulations, revealing a characteristic feature of hybrids: the n = 1 response is due to a global, marginally-stable n = 1 kink characterized by a large m = 1, n = 1 core harmonic due to q min being just above 1. A helical core distortion of a few cm forms and affects various core quantities, including plasma rotation, electron and ion temperature, and intrinsic W density. In similar experiments, DIII-D also measured the effect of this helical core on the internal current profile, providing information useful to understanding of the physics of magnetic flux pumping, i.e. anomalous current redistribution by MHD modes that keeps $${{q}_{\\text{min}}}>1$$ . Thanks to flux pumping, a broad current profile is maintained in DIII-D even with large on-axis current drive, enabling fully non-inductive operation at high $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ up to 3.5–4.« less

  9. Impact of ideal MHD stability limits on high-beta hybrid operation

    DOE PAGES

    Piovesan, Paolo; Igochine, V.; Turco, F.; ...

    2016-10-27

    Here, the hybrid scenario is a candidate for stationary high-fusion gain tokamak operation in ITER and DEMO. To obtain such performance, the energy confinement and the normalized pressuremore » $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ must be maximized, which requires operating near or above ideal MHD no-wall limits. New experimental findings show how these limits can affect hybrid operation. Even if hybrids are mainly limited by tearing modes, proximity to the no-wall limit leads to 3D field amplification that affects plasma profiles, e.g. rotation braking is observed in ASDEX Upgrade throughout the plasma and peaks in the core. As a result, even the small ASDEX Upgrade error fields are amplified and their effects become visible. To quantify such effects, ASDEX Upgrade measured the response to 3D fields applied by $$8\\times 2$$ non-axisymmetric coils as $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ approaches the no-wall limit. The full n = 1 response profile and poloidal structure were measured by a suite of diagnostics and compared with linear MHD simulations, revealing a characteristic feature of hybrids: the n = 1 response is due to a global, marginally-stable n = 1 kink characterized by a large m = 1, n = 1 core harmonic due to q min being just above 1. A helical core distortion of a few cm forms and affects various core quantities, including plasma rotation, electron and ion temperature, and intrinsic W density. In similar experiments, DIII-D also measured the effect of this helical core on the internal current profile, providing information useful to understanding of the physics of magnetic flux pumping, i.e. anomalous current redistribution by MHD modes that keeps $${{q}_{\\text{min}}}>1$$ . Thanks to flux pumping, a broad current profile is maintained in DIII-D even with large on-axis current drive, enabling fully non-inductive operation at high $${{\\beta}_{N}}$$ up to 3.5–4.« less

  10. Heating and current drive requirements for ideal MHD stability and ITB sustainment in ITER steady state scenarios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, Francesca

    2012-10-01

    Steady state scenarios envisaged for ITER aim at optimizing the bootstrap current, while maintaining sufficient confinement and stability to provide the necessary fusion yield. Non-inductive scenarios will need to operate with Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs) in order to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. However, the large pressure gradients associated with ITBs in regions of weak or negative magnetic shear can be conducive to ideal MHD instabilities in a wide range of βN, reducing the no-wall limit. Scenarios are established as relaxed flattop states with time-dependent transport simulations with TSC [1]. Fully non-inductive configurations with current in the range of 7-10 MA and various heating mixes (NB, EC, IC and LH) have been studied against variations of the pressure profile peaking and of the Greenwald fraction. It is found that stable equilibria have qmin> 2 and moderate ITBs at 2/3 of the minor radius [2]. The ExB flow shear from toroidal plasma rotation is expected to be low in ITER, with a major role in the ITB dynamics being played by magnetic geometry. Combinations of H&CD sources that maintain reverse or weak magnetic shear profiles throughout the discharge and ρ(qmin)>=0.5 are the focus of this work. The ITER EC upper launcher, designed for NTM control, can provide enough current drive off-axis to sustain moderate ITBs at mid-radius and maintain a non-inductive current of 8-9MA and H98>=1.5 with the day one heating mix. LH heating and current drive is effective in modifying the current profile off-axis, facilitating the formation of stronger ITBs in the rampup phase, their sustainment at larger radii and larger bootstrap fraction. The implications for steady state operation and fusion performance are discussed.[4pt] [1] Jardin S.C. et al, J. Comput. Phys. 66 (1986) 481[0pt] [2] Poli F.M. et al, Nucl. Fusion 52 (2012) 063027.

  11. Finite Volume Element (FVE) discretization and multilevel solution of the axisymmetric heat equation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Litaker, Eric T.

    1994-12-01

    The axisymmetric heat equation, resulting from a point-source of heat applied to a metal block, is solved numerically; both iterative and multilevel solutions are computed in order to compare the two processes. The continuum problem is discretized in two stages: finite differences are used to discretize the time derivatives, resulting is a fully implicit backward time-stepping scheme, and the Finite Volume Element (FVE) method is used to discretize the spatial derivatives. The application of the FVE method to a problem in cylindrical coordinates is new, and results in stencils which are analyzed extensively. Several iteration schemes are considered, including both Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel; a thorough analysis of these schemes is done, using both the spectral radii of the iteration matrices and local mode analysis. Using this discretization, a Gauss-Seidel relaxation scheme is used to solve the heat equation iteratively. A multilevel solution process is then constructed, including the development of intergrid transfer and coarse grid operators. Local mode analysis is performed on the components of the amplification matrix, resulting in the two-level convergence factors for various combinations of the operators. A multilevel solution process is implemented by using multigrid V-cycles; the iterative and multilevel results are compared and discussed in detail. The computational savings resulting from the multilevel process are then discussed.

  12. A Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient-type Iterative Solver for Linear Systems in Thermal Reservoir Simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Betté, Srinivas; Diaz, Julio C.; Jines, William R.; Steihaug, Trond

    1986-11-01

    A preconditioned residual-norm-reducing iterative solver is described. Based on a truncated form of the generalized-conjugate-gradient method for nonsymmetric systems of linear equations, the iterative scheme is very effective for linear systems generated in reservoir simulation of thermal oil recovery processes. As a consequence of employing an adaptive implicit finite-difference scheme to solve the model equations, the number of variables per cell-block varies dynamically over the grid. The data structure allows for 5- and 9-point operators in the areal model, 5-point in the cross-sectional model, and 7- and 11-point operators in the three-dimensional model. Block-diagonal-scaling of the linear system, done prior to iteration, is found to have a significant effect on the rate of convergence. Block-incomplete-LU-decomposition (BILU) and block-symmetric-Gauss-Seidel (BSGS) methods, which result in no fill-in, are used as preconditioning procedures. A full factorization is done on the well terms, and the cells are ordered in a manner which minimizes the fill-in in the well-column due to this factorization. The convergence criterion for the linear (inner) iteration is linked to that of the nonlinear (Newton) iteration, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the computation. The algorithm, with both BILU and BSGS preconditioners, is evaluated in the context of a variety of thermal simulation problems. The solver is robust and can be used with little or no user intervention.

  13. Description of the prototype diagnostic residual gas analyzer for ITER.

    PubMed

    Younkin, T R; Biewer, T M; Klepper, C C; Marcus, C

    2014-11-01

    The diagnostic residual gas analyzer (DRGA) system to be used during ITER tokamak operation is being designed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to measure fuel ratios (deuterium and tritium), fusion ash (helium), and impurities in the plasma. The eventual purpose of this instrument is for machine protection, basic control, and physics on ITER. Prototyping is ongoing to optimize the hardware setup and measurement capabilities. The DRGA prototype is comprised of a vacuum system and measurement technologies that will overlap to meet ITER measurement requirements. Three technologies included in this diagnostic are a quadrupole mass spectrometer, an ion trap mass spectrometer, and an optical penning gauge that are designed to document relative and absolute gas concentrations.

  14. Fast generating Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state via iterative interaction pictures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Bi-Hua; Chen, Ye-Hong; Wu, Qi-Cheng; Song, Jie; Xia, Yan

    2016-10-01

    We delve a little deeper into the construction of shortcuts to adiabatic passage for three-level systems by iterative interaction picture (multiple Schrödinger dynamics). As an application example, we use the deduced iterative based shortcuts to rapidly generate the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state in a three-atom system with the help of quantum Zeno dynamics. Numerical simulation shows the dynamics designed by the iterative picture method is physically feasible and the shortcut scheme performs much better than that using the conventional adiabatic passage techniques. Also, the influences of various decoherence processes are discussed by numerical simulation and the results prove that the scheme is fast and robust against decoherence and operational imperfection.

  15. Optimizing the current ramp-up phase for the hybrid ITER scenario

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hogeweij, G. M. D.; Artaud, J.-F.; Casper, T. A.; Citrin, J.; Imbeaux, F.; Köchl, F.; Litaudon, X.; Voitsekhovitch, I.; the ITM-TF ITER Scenario Modelling Group

    2013-01-01

    The current ramp-up phase for the ITER hybrid scenario is analysed with the CRONOS integrated modelling suite. The simulations presented in this paper show that the heating systems available at ITER allow, within the operational limits, the attainment of a hybrid q profile at the end of the current ramp-up. A reference ramp-up scenario is reached by a combination of NBI, ECCD (UPL) and LHCD. A heating scheme with only NBI and ECCD can also reach the target q profile; however, LHCD can play a crucial role in reducing the flux consumption during the ramp-up phase. The optimum heating scheme depends on the chosen transport model, and on assumptions of parameters like ne peaking, edge Te,i and Zeff. The sensitivity of the current diffusion on parameters that are not easily controlled, shows that development of real-time control is important to reach the target q profile. A first step in that direction has been indicated in this paper. Minimizing resistive flux consumption and optimizing the q profile turn out to be conflicting requirements. A trade-off between these two requirements has to be made. In this paper it is shown that fast current ramp with L-mode current overshoot is at the one extreme, i.e. the optimum q profile at the cost of increased resistive flux consumption, whereas early H-mode transition is at the other extreme.

  16. Harmonics analysis of the ITER poloidal field converter based on a piecewise method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xudong, WANG; Liuwei, XU; Peng, FU; Ji, LI; Yanan, WU

    2017-12-01

    Poloidal field (PF) converters provide controlled DC voltage and current to PF coils. The many harmonics generated by the PF converter flow into the power grid and seriously affect power systems and electric equipment. Due to the complexity of the system, the traditional integral operation in Fourier analysis is complicated and inaccurate. This paper presents a piecewise method to calculate the harmonics of the ITER PF converter. The relationship between the grid input current and the DC output current of the ITER PF converter is deduced. The grid current is decomposed into the sum of some simple functions. By calculating simple function harmonics based on the piecewise method, the harmonics of the PF converter under different operation modes are obtained. In order to examine the validity of the method, a simulation model is established based on Matlab/Simulink and a relevant experiment is implemented in the ITER PF integration test platform. Comparative results are given. The calculated results are found to be consistent with simulation and experiment. The piecewise method is proved correct and valid for calculating the system harmonics.

  17. OVERVIEW OF NEUTRON MEASUREMENTS IN JET FUSION DEVICE.

    PubMed

    Batistoni, P; Villari, R; Obryk, B; Packer, L W; Stamatelatos, I E; Popovichev, S; Colangeli, A; Colling, B; Fonnesu, N; Loreti, S; Klix, A; Klosowski, M; Malik, K; Naish, J; Pillon, M; Vasilopoulou, T; De Felice, P; Pimpinella, M; Quintieri, L

    2017-10-05

    The design and operation of ITER experimental fusion reactor requires the development of neutron measurement techniques and numerical tools to derive the fusion power and the radiation field in the device and in the surrounding areas. Nuclear analyses provide essential input to the conceptual design, optimisation, engineering and safety case in ITER and power plant studies. The required radiation transport calculations are extremely challenging because of the large physical extent of the reactor plant, the complexity of the geometry, and the combination of deep penetration and streaming paths. This article reports the experimental activities which are carried-out at JET to validate the neutronics measurements methods and numerical tools used in ITER and power plant design. A new deuterium-tritium campaign is proposed in 2019 at JET: the unique 14 MeV neutron yields produced will be exploited as much as possible to validate measurement techniques, codes, procedures and data currently used in ITER design thus reducing the related uncertainties and the associated risks in the machine operation. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. Progress on ion cyclotron range of frequencies heating physics and technology in support of the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilson, J. R.; Bonoli, P. T.

    2015-02-01

    Ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating is foreseen as an integral component of the initial ITER operation. The status of ICRF preparations for ITER and supporting research were updated in the 2007 [Gormezano et al., Nucl. Fusion 47, S285 (2007)] report on the ITER physics basis. In this report, we summarize progress made toward the successful application of ICRF power on ITER since that time. Significant advances have been made in support of the technical design by development of new techniques for arc protection, new algorithms for tuning and matching, carrying out experimental tests of more ITER like antennas and demonstration on mockups that the design assumptions are correct. In addition, new applications of the ICRF system, beyond just bulk heating, have been proposed and explored.

  19. ITER Cryoplant Infrastructures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fauve, E.; Monneret, E.; Voigt, T.; Vincent, G.; Forgeas, A.; Simon, M.

    2017-02-01

    The ITER Tokamak requires an average 75 kW of refrigeration power at 4.5 K and 600 kW of refrigeration Power at 80 K to maintain the nominal operation condition of the ITER thermal shields, superconducting magnets and cryopumps. This is produced by the ITER Cryoplant, a complex cluster of refrigeration systems including in particular three identical Liquid Helium Plants and two identical Liquid Nitrogen Plants. Beyond the equipment directly part of the Cryoplant, colossal infrastructures are required. These infrastructures account for a large part of the Cryoplants lay-out, budget and engineering efforts. It is ITER Organization responsibility to ensure that all infrastructures are adequately sized and designed to interface with the Cryoplant. This proceeding presents the overall architecture of the cryoplant. It provides order of magnitude related to the cryoplant building and utilities: electricity, cooling water, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).

  20. Quantum metrology with a transmon qutrit

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shlyakhov, A. R.; Zemlyanov, V. V.; Suslov, M. V.; Lebedev, A. V.; Paraoanu, G. S.; Lesovik, G. B.; Blatter, G.

    2018-02-01

    Making use of coherence and entanglement as metrological quantum resources allows us to improve the measurement precision from the shot-noise or quantum limit to the Heisenberg limit. Quantum metrology then relies on the availability of quantum engineered systems that involve controllable quantum degrees of freedom which are sensitive to the measured quantity. Sensors operating in the qubit mode and exploiting their coherence in a phase-sensitive measurement have been shown to approach the Heisenberg scaling in precision. Here, we show that this result can be further improved by operating the quantum sensor in the qudit mode, i.e., by exploiting d rather than two levels. Specifically, we describe the metrological algorithm for using a superconducting transmon device operating in a qutrit mode as a magnetometer. The algorithm is based on the base-3 semiquantum Fourier transformation and enhances the quantum theoretical performance of the sensor by a factor of 2. Even more, the practical gain of our qutrit implementation is found in a reduction of the number of iteration steps of the quantum Fourier transformation by the factor ln(2 )/ln(3 )≈0.63 compared to the qubit mode. We show that a two-tone capacitively coupled radio-frequency signal is sufficient for implementation of the algorithm.

  1. WE-AB-207A-08: BEST IN PHYSICS (IMAGING): Advanced Scatter Correction and Iterative Reconstruction for Improved Cone-Beam CT Imaging On the TrueBeam Radiotherapy Machine

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, A; Paysan, P; Brehm, M

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To improve CBCT image quality for image-guided radiotherapy by applying advanced reconstruction algorithms to overcome scatter, noise, and artifact limitations Methods: CBCT is used extensively for patient setup in radiotherapy. However, image quality generally falls short of diagnostic CT, limiting soft-tissue based positioning and potential applications such as adaptive radiotherapy. The conventional TrueBeam CBCT reconstructor uses a basic scatter correction and FDK reconstruction, resulting in residual scatter artifacts, suboptimal image noise characteristics, and other artifacts like cone-beam artifacts. We have developed an advanced scatter correction that uses a finite-element solver (AcurosCTS) to model the behavior of photons as theymore » pass (and scatter) through the object. Furthermore, iterative reconstruction is applied to the scatter-corrected projections, enforcing data consistency with statistical weighting and applying an edge-preserving image regularizer to reduce image noise. The combined algorithms have been implemented on a GPU. CBCT projections from clinically operating TrueBeam systems have been used to compare image quality between the conventional and improved reconstruction methods. Planning CT images of the same patients have also been compared. Results: The advanced scatter correction removes shading and inhomogeneity artifacts, reducing the scatter artifact from 99.5 HU to 13.7 HU in a typical pelvis case. Iterative reconstruction provides further benefit by reducing image noise and eliminating streak artifacts, thereby improving soft-tissue visualization. In a clinical head and pelvis CBCT, the noise was reduced by 43% and 48%, respectively, with no change in spatial resolution (assessed visually). Additional benefits include reduction of cone-beam artifacts and reduction of metal artifacts due to intrinsic downweighting of corrupted rays. Conclusion: The combination of an advanced scatter correction with iterative reconstruction substantially improves CBCT image quality. It is anticipated that clinically acceptable reconstruction times will result from a multi-GPU implementation (the algorithms are under active development and not yet commercially available). All authors are employees of and (may) own stock of Varian Medical Systems.« less

  2. Iterative Repair Planning for Spacecraft Operations Using the Aspen System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rabideau, G.; Knight, R.; Chien, S.; Fukunaga, A.; Govindjee, A.

    2000-01-01

    This paper describes the Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment (ASPEN). ASPEN encodes complex spacecraft knowledge of operability constraints, flight rules, spacecraft hardware, science experiments and operations procedures to allow for automated generation of low level spacecraft sequences. Using a technique called iterative repair, ASPEN classifies constraint violations (i.e., conflicts) and attempts to repair each by performing a planning or scheduling operation. It must reason about which conflict to resolve first and what repair method to try for the given conflict. ASPEN is currently being utilized in the development of automated planner/scheduler systems for several spacecraft, including the UFO-1 naval communications satellite and the Citizen Explorer (CX1) satellite, as well as for planetary rover operations and antenna ground systems automation. This paper focuses on the algorithm and search strategies employed by ASPEN to resolve spacecraft operations constraints, as well as the data structures for representing these constraints.

  3. Evaluation of inter-laminar shear strength of GFRP composed of bonded glass/polyimide tapes and cyanate-ester/epoxy blended resin for ITER TF coils

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hemmi, T.; Matsui, K.; Koizumi, N.

    2014-01-27

    The insulation system of the ITER TF coils consists of multi-layer glass/polyimide tapes impregnated a cyanate-ester/epoxy resin. The ITER TF coils are required to withstand an irradiation of 10 MGy from gamma-ray and neutrons since the ITER TF coils is exposed by fast neutron (>0.1 MeV) of 10{sup 22} n/m{sup 2} during the ITER operation. Cyanate-ester/epoxy blended resins and bonded glass/polyimide tapes are developed as insulation materials to realize the required radiation-hardness for the insulation of the ITER TF coils. To evaluate the radiation-hardness of the developed insulation materials, the inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of glass-fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) fabricatedmore » using developed insulation materials is measured as one of most important mechanical properties before/after the irradiation in a fission reactor of JRR-3M. As a result, it is demonstrated that the GFRPs using the developed insulation materials have a sufficient performance to apply for the ITER TF coil insulation.« less

  4. Process control strategy for ITER central solenoid operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maekawa, R.; Takami, S.; Iwamoto, A.; Chang, H.-S.; Forgeas, A.; Chalifour, M.

    2016-12-01

    ITER Central Solenoid (CS) pulse operation induces significant flow disturbance in the forced-flow Supercritical Helium (SHe) cooling circuit, which could impact primarily on the operation of cold circulator (SHe centrifugal pump) in Auxiliary Cold Box (ACB). Numerical studies using Venecia®, SUPERMAGNET and 4C have identified reverse flow at the CS module inlet due to the substantial thermal energy deposition at the inner-most winding. To assess the reliable operation of ACB-CS (dedicated ACB for CS), the process analyses have been conducted with a dynamic process simulation model developed by Cryogenic Process REal-time SimulaTor (C-PREST). As implementing process control of hydrodynamic instability, several strategies have been applied to evaluate their feasibility. The paper discusses control strategy to protect the centrifugal type cold circulator/compressor operations and its impact on the CS cooling.

  5. Overview of ASDEX Upgrade results

    DOE PAGES

    Aguiam, D.

    2017-06-28

    Here, the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) programme is directed towards physics input to critical elements of the ITER design and the preparation of ITER operation, as well as addressing physics issues for a future DEMO design. Since 2015, AUG is equipped with a new pair of 3-strap ICRF antennas, which were designed for a reduction of tungsten release during ICRF operation. As predicted, a factor two reduction on the ICRF-induced W plasma content could be achieved by the reduction of the sheath voltage at the antenna limiters via the compensation of the image currents of the central and side straps in the antenna frame. There are two main operational scenario lines in AUG. Experiments with low collisionality, which comprise current drive, ELM mitigation/suppression and fast ion physics, are mainly done with freshly boronized walls to reduce the tungsten influx at these high edge temperature conditions. Full ELM suppression and non-inductive operation up to a plasma current ofmore » $${{I}_{\\text{p}}}=0.8$$ MA could be obtained at low plasma density. Plasma exhaust is studied under conditions of high neutral divertor pressure and separatrix electron density, where a fresh boronization is not required. Substantial progress could be achieved for the understanding of the confinement degradation by strong D puffing and the improvement with nitrogen or carbon seeding. Inward/outward shifts of the electron density profile relative to the temperature profile effect the edge stability via the pressure profile changes and lead to improved/decreased pedestal performance. Seeding and D gas puffing are found to effect the core fueling via changes in a region of high density on the high field side (HFSHD).« less

  6. Twenty Years of Research on the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greenwald, Martin

    2013-10-01

    Alcator C-Mod is a compact, high-field tokamak, whose unique design and operating parameters have produced a wealth of new and important results since its start in 1993, contributing data that extended tests of critical physical models into new parameter ranges and into new regimes. Using only RF for heating and current drive with innovative launching structures, C-Mod operates routinely at very high power densities. Research highlights include direct experimental observation of ICRF mode-conversion, ICRF flow drive, demonstration of Lower-Hybrid current drive at ITER-like densities and fields and, using a set of powerful new diagnostics, extensive validation of advanced RF codes. C-Mod spearheaded the development of the vertical-target divertor and has always operated with high-Z metal plasma facing components--an approach adopted for ITER. C-Mod has made ground-breaking discoveries in divertor physics and plasma-material interactions at reactor-like power and particle fluxes and elucidated the critical role of cross-field transport in divertor operation, edge flows and the tokamak density limit. C-Mod developed the I-mode and EDA H-mode regimes which have high performance without large ELMs and with pedestal transport self-regulated by short-wavelength electromagnetic waves. C-Mod has carried out pioneering studies of intrinsic rotation and found that self-generated flow shear can be strong enough to significantly modify transport. C-Mod made the first quantitative link between pedestal temperature and H-mode performance, showing that the observed self-similar temperature profiles were consistent with critical-gradient-length theories and followed up with quantitative tests of nonlinear gyrokinetic models. Disruption studies on C-Mod provided the first observation of non-axisymmetric halo currents and non-axisymmetric radiation in mitigated disruptions. Work supported by U.S. DoE

  7. A path to stable low-torque plasma operation in ITER with test blanket modules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lanctot, M. J.; Snipes, J. A.; Reimerdes, H.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Logan, N.; Hanson, J. M.; Buttery, R. J.; deGrassie, J. S.; Garofalo, A. M.; Gray, T. K.; Grierson, B. A.; King, J. D.; Kramer, G. J.; La Haye, R. J.; Pace, D. C.; Park, J.-K.; Salmi, A.; Shiraki, D.; Strait, E. J.; Solomon, W. M.; Tala, T.; Van Zeeland, M. A.

    2017-03-01

    New experiments in the low-torque ITER Q  =  10 scenario on DIII-D demonstrate that n  =  1 magnetic fields from a single row of ex-vessel control coils enable operation at ITER performance metrics in the presence of applied non-axisymmetric magnetic fields from a test blanket module (TBM) mock-up coil. With n  =  1 compensation, operation below the ITER-equivalent injected torque is successful at three times the ITER equivalent toroidal magnetic field ripple for a pair of TBMs in one equatorial port, whereas the uncompensated TBM field leads to rotation collapse, loss of H-mode and plasma current disruption. In companion experiments at high plasma beta, where the n  =  1 plasma response is enhanced, uncorrected TBM fields degrade energy confinement and the plasma angular momentum while increasing fast ion losses; however, disruptions are not routinely encountered owing to increased levels of injected neutral beam torque. In this regime, n  =  1 field compensation leads to recovery of a dominant fraction of the TBM-induced plasma pressure and rotation degradation, and an 80% reduction in the heat load to the first wall. These results show that the n  =  1 plasma response plays a dominant role in determining plasma stability, and that n  =  1 field compensation alone not only recovers most of the impact on plasma performance of the TBM, but also protects the first wall from potentially damaging heat flux. Despite these benefits, plasma rotation braking from the TBM fields cannot be fully recovered using standard error field control. Given the uncertainty in extrapolation of these results to the ITER configuration, it is prudent to design the TBMs with as low a ferromagnetic mass as possible without jeopardizing the TBM mission.

  8. The PRIMA Test Facility: SPIDER and MITICA test-beds for ITER neutral beam injectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Toigo, V.; Piovan, R.; Dal Bello, S.; Gaio, E.; Luchetta, A.; Pasqualotto, R.; Zaccaria, P.; Bigi, M.; Chitarin, G.; Marcuzzi, D.; Pomaro, N.; Serianni, G.; Agostinetti, P.; Agostini, M.; Antoni, V.; Aprile, D.; Baltador, C.; Barbisan, M.; Battistella, M.; Boldrin, M.; Brombin, M.; Dalla Palma, M.; De Lorenzi, A.; Delogu, R.; De Muri, M.; Fellin, F.; Ferro, A.; Fiorentin, A.; Gambetta, G.; Gnesotto, F.; Grando, L.; Jain, P.; Maistrello, A.; Manduchi, G.; Marconato, N.; Moresco, M.; Ocello, E.; Pavei, M.; Peruzzo, S.; Pilan, N.; Pimazzoni, A.; Recchia, M.; Rizzolo, A.; Rostagni, G.; Sartori, E.; Siragusa, M.; Sonato, P.; Sottocornola, A.; Spada, E.; Spagnolo, S.; Spolaore, M.; Taliercio, C.; Valente, M.; Veltri, P.; Zamengo, A.; Zaniol, B.; Zanotto, L.; Zaupa, M.; Boilson, D.; Graceffa, J.; Svensson, L.; Schunke, B.; Decamps, H.; Urbani, M.; Kushwah, M.; Chareyre, J.; Singh, M.; Bonicelli, T.; Agarici, G.; Garbuglia, A.; Masiello, A.; Paolucci, F.; Simon, M.; Bailly-Maitre, L.; Bragulat, E.; Gomez, G.; Gutierrez, D.; Mico, G.; Moreno, J.-F.; Pilard, V.; Kashiwagi, M.; Hanada, M.; Tobari, H.; Watanabe, K.; Maejima, T.; Kojima, A.; Umeda, N.; Yamanaka, H.; Chakraborty, A.; Baruah, U.; Rotti, C.; Patel, H.; Nagaraju, M. V.; Singh, N. P.; Patel, A.; Dhola, H.; Raval, B.; Fantz, U.; Heinemann, B.; Kraus, W.; Hanke, S.; Hauer, V.; Ochoa, S.; Blatchford, P.; Chuilon, B.; Xue, Y.; De Esch, H. P. L.; Hemsworth, R.; Croci, G.; Gorini, G.; Rebai, M.; Muraro, A.; Tardocchi, M.; Cavenago, M.; D'Arienzo, M.; Sandri, S.; Tonti, A.

    2017-08-01

    The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), called PRIMA (Padova Research on ITER Megavolt Accelerator), is hosted in Padova, Italy and includes two experiments: MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the ITER heating neutral beam injector, and SPIDER, the full-size radio frequency negative-ions source. The NBTF realization and the exploitation of SPIDER and MITICA have been recognized as necessary to make the future operation of the ITER heating neutral beam injectors efficient and reliable, fundamental to the achievement of thermonuclear-relevant plasma parameters in ITER. This paper reports on design and R&D carried out to construct PRIMA, SPIDER and MITICA, and highlights the huge progress made in just a few years, from the signature of the agreement for the NBTF realization in 2011, up to now—when the buildings and relevant infrastructures have been completed, SPIDER is entering the integrated commissioning phase and the procurements of several MITICA components are at a well advanced stage.

  9. Minimizing inner product data dependencies in conjugate gradient iteration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vanrosendale, J.

    1983-01-01

    The amount of concurrency available in conjugate gradient iteration is limited by the summations required in the inner product computations. The inner product of two vectors of length N requires time c log(N), if N or more processors are available. This paper describes an algebraic restructuring of the conjugate gradient algorithm which minimizes data dependencies due to inner product calculations. After an initial start up, the new algorithm can perform a conjugate gradient iteration in time c*log(log(N)).

  10. Programmable Iterative Optical Image And Data Processing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jackson, Deborah J.

    1995-01-01

    Proposed method of iterative optical image and data processing overcomes limitations imposed by loss of optical power after repeated passes through many optical elements - especially, beam splitters. Involves selective, timed combination of optical wavefront phase conjugation and amplification to regenerate images in real time to compensate for losses in optical iteration loops; timing such that amplification turned on to regenerate desired image, then turned off so as not to regenerate other, undesired images or spurious light propagating through loops from unwanted reflections.

  11. A law of the iterated logarithm for Grenander’s estimator

    PubMed Central

    Dümbgen, Lutz; Wellner, Jon A.; Wolff, Malcolm

    2016-01-01

    In this note we prove the following law of the iterated logarithm for the Grenander estimator of a monotone decreasing density: If f(t0) > 0, f′(t0) < 0, and f′ is continuous in a neighborhood of t0, then lim supn→∞(n2log logn)1/3(fn^(t0)−f(t0))=|f(t0)f′(t0)/2|1/32Malmost surely where M≡supg∈GTg=(3/4)1/3andTg≡argmaxu{g(u)−u2};here G is the two-sided Strassen limit set on R. The proof relies on laws of the iterated logarithm for local empirical processes, Groeneboom’s switching relation, and properties of Strassen’s limit set analogous to distributional properties of Brownian motion. PMID:28042197

  12. Improvement of tritium accountancy technology for ITER fuel cycle safety enhancement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'hira, S.; Hayashi, T.; Nakamura, H.; Kobayashi, K.; Tadokoro, T.; Nakamura, H.; Itoh, T.; Yamanishi, T.; Kawamura, Y.; Iwai, Y.; Arita, T.; Maruyama, T.; Kakuta, T.; Konishi, S.; Enoeda, M.; Yamada, M.; Suzuki, T.; Nishi, M.; Nagashima, T.; Ohta, M.

    2000-03-01

    In order to improve the safe handling and control of tritium for the ITER fuel cycle, effective in situ tritium accounting methods have been developed at the Tritium Process Laboratory in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute under one of the ITER-EDA R&D tasks. The remote and multilocation analysis of process gases by an application of laser Raman spectroscopy developed and tested could provide a measurement of hydrogen isotope gases with a detection limit of 0.3 kPa analytical periods of 120 s. An in situ tritium inventory measurement by application of a `self-assaying' storage bed with 25 g tritium capacity could provide a measurement with the required detection limit of less than 1% and a design proof of a bed with 100 g tritium capacity.

  13. Performance Analysis of Iterative Channel Estimation and Multiuser Detection in Multipath DS-CDMA Channels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Husheng; Betz, Sharon M.; Poor, H. Vincent

    2007-05-01

    This paper examines the performance of decision feedback based iterative channel estimation and multiuser detection in channel coded aperiodic DS-CDMA systems operating over multipath fading channels. First, explicit expressions describing the performance of channel estimation and parallel interference cancellation based multiuser detection are developed. These results are then combined to characterize the evolution of the performance of a system that iterates among channel estimation, multiuser detection and channel decoding. Sufficient conditions for convergence of this system to a unique fixed point are developed.

  14. Initial results for a 170 GHz high power ITER waveguide component test stand

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bigelow, Timothy; Barker, Alan; Dukes, Carl; Killough, Stephen; Kaufman, Michael; White, John; Bell, Gary; Hanson, Greg; Rasmussen, Dave

    2014-10-01

    A high power microwave test stand is being setup at ORNL to enable prototype testing of 170 GHz cw waveguide components being developed for the ITER ECH system. The ITER ECH system will utilize 63.5 mm diameter evacuated corrugated waveguide and will have 24 >150 m long runs. A 170 GHz 1 MW class gyrotron is being developed by Communications and Power Industries and is nearing completion. A HVDC power supply, water-cooling and control system has been partially tested in preparation for arrival of the gyrotron. The power supply and water-cooling system are being designed to operate for >3600 second pulses to simulate the operating conditions planned for the ITER ECH system. The gyrotron Gaussian beam output has a single mirror for focusing into a 63.5 mm corrugated waveguide in the vertical plane. The output beam and mirror are enclosed in an evacuated duct with absorber for stray radiation. Beam alignment with the waveguide is a critical task so a combination of mirror tilt adjustments and a bellows for offsets will be provided. Analysis of thermal patterns on thin witness plates will provide gyrotron mode purity and waveguide coupling efficiency data. Pre-prototype waveguide components and two dummy loads are available for initial operational testing of the gyrotron. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Dept. of Energy under Contract DE-AC-05-00OR22725.

  15. Operating Characteristics in DIII-D ELM-Suppressed RMP H-modes with ITER Similar Shapes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Evans, T E; Fenstermacher, M E; Jakubowski, M

    2008-10-13

    Fast energy transients, incident on the DIII-D divertors due to Type-I edge localized modes (ELMs), are eliminated using small dc currents in a simple set of non-axisymmetric coils that produce edge resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP). In ITER similar shaped (ISS) plasmas, with electron pedestal collisionalities matched to those expected in ITER a sharp resonant window in the safety factor at the 95 percent normalized poloidal flux surface is observed for ELM suppression at q{sub 95}=3.57 with a minimum width {delta}q{sub 95} of {+-}0.05. The size of this resonant window has been increased by a factor of 4 in ISS plasmasmore » by increasing the magnitude of the current in an n=3 coil set along with the current in a separate n=1 coil set. The resonant ELM-suppression window is highly reproducible for a given plasma shape, coil configuration and coil current but can vary with other operating conditions such as {beta}{sub N}. Isolated resonant windows have also been found at other q95 values when using different RMP coil configurations. For example, when the I-coil is operated in an n=3 up-down asymmetric configuration rather than an up-down symmetric configuration a resonant window is found near q{sub 95}=7.4. A Fourier analysis of the applied vacuum magnetic field demonstrates a statistical correlation between the Chirikov island overlap parameter and ELM suppression. These results have been used as a guide for RMP coil design studies in various ITER operating scenarios.« less

  16. Acceleration of linear stationary iterative processes in multiprocessor computers. II

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Romm, Ya.E.

    1982-05-01

    For pt.I, see Kibernetika, vol.18, no.1, p.47 (1982). For pt.I, see Cybernetics, vol.18, no.1, p.54 (1982). Considers a reduced system of linear algebraic equations x=ax+b, where a=(a/sub ij/) is a real n*n matrix; b is a real vector with common euclidean norm >>>. It is supposed that the existence and uniqueness of solution det (0-a) not equal to e is given, where e is a unit matrix. The linear iterative process converging to x x/sup (k+1)/=fx/sup (k)/, k=0, 1, 2, ..., where the operator f translates r/sup n/ into r/sup n/. In considering implementation of the iterative process (ip) inmore » a multiprocessor system, it is assumed that the number of processors is constant, and are various values of the latter investigated; it is assumed in addition, that the processors perform elementary binary arithmetic operations of addition and multiestimates only include the time of execution of arithmetic operations. With any paralleling of individual iteration, the execution time of the ip is proportional to the number of sequential steps k+1. The author sets the task of reducing the number of sequential steps in the ip so as to execute it in a time proportional to a value smaller than k+1. He also sets the goal of formulating a method of accelerated bit serial-parallel execution of each successive step of the ip, with, in the modification sought, a reduced number of steps in a time comparable to the operation time of logical elements. 6 references.« less

  17. Iterative Region-of-Interest Reconstruction from Limited Data Using Prior Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vogelgesang, Jonas; Schorr, Christian

    2017-12-01

    In practice, computed tomography and computed laminography applications suffer from incomplete data. In particular, when inspecting large objects with extremely different diameters in longitudinal and transversal directions or when high resolution reconstructions are desired, the physical conditions of the scanning system lead to restricted data and truncated projections, also known as the interior or region-of-interest (ROI) problem. To recover the searched-for density function of the inspected object, we derive a semi-discrete model of the ROI problem that inherently allows the incorporation of geometrical prior information in an abstract Hilbert space setting for bounded linear operators. Assuming that the attenuation inside the object is approximately constant, as for fibre reinforced plastics parts or homogeneous objects where one is interested in locating defects like cracks or porosities, we apply the semi-discrete Landweber-Kaczmarz method to recover the inner structure of the object inside the ROI from the measured data resulting in a semi-discrete iteration method. Finally, numerical experiments for three-dimensional tomographic applications with both an inherent restricted source and ROI problem are provided to verify the proposed method for the ROI reconstruction.

  18. Iterative color-multiplexed, electro-optical processor.

    PubMed

    Psaltis, D; Casasent, D; Carlotto, M

    1979-11-01

    A noncoherent optical vector-matrix multiplier using a linear LED source array and a linear P-I-N photodiode detector array has been combined with a 1-D adder in a feedback loop. The resultant iterative optical processor and its use in solving simultaneous linear equations are described. Operation on complex data is provided by a novel color-multiplexing system.

  19. Development of steady-state scenarios compatible with ITER-like wall conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Litaudon, X.; Arnoux, G.; Beurskens, M.; Brezinsek, S.; Challis, C. D.; Crisanti, F.; DeVries, P. C.; Giroud, C.; Pitts, R. A.; Rimini, F. G.; Andrew, Y.; Ariola, M.; Baranov, Yu F.; Brix, M.; Buratti, P.; Cesario, R.; Corre, Y.; DeLa Luna, E.; Fundamenski, W.; Giovannozzi, E.; Gryaznevich, M. P.; Hawkes, N. C.; Hobirk, J.; Huber, A.; Jachmich, S.; Joffrin, E.; Koslowski, H. R.; Liang, Y.; Loarer, Th; Lomas, P.; Luce, T.; Mailloux, J.; Matthews, G. F.; Mazon, D.; McCormick, K.; Moreau, D.; Pericoli, V.; Philipps, V.; Rachlew, E.; Reyes-Cortes, S. D. A.; Saibene, G.; Sharapov, S. E.; Voitsekovitch, I.; Zabeo, L.; Zimmermann, O.; Zastrow, K. D.; JET-EFDA Contributors, the

    2007-12-01

    A key issue for steady-state tokamak operation is to determine the edge conditions that are compatible both with good core confinement and with the power handling and plasma exhaust capabilities of the plasma facing components (PFCs) and divertor systems. A quantitative response to this open question will provide a robust scientific basis for reliable extrapolation of present regimes to an ITER compatible steady-state scenario. In this context, the JET programme addressing steady-state operation is focused on the development of non-inductive, high confinement plasmas with the constraints imposed by the PFCs. A new beryllium main chamber wall and tungsten divertor together with an upgrade of the heating/fuelling capability are currently in preparation at JET. Operation at higher power with this ITER-like wall will impose new constraints on non-inductive scenarios. Recent experiments have focused on the preparation for this new phase of JET operation. In this paper, progress in the development of advanced tokamak (AT) scenarios at JET is reviewed keeping this long-term objective in mind. The approach has consisted of addressing various critical issues separately during the 2006-2007 campaigns with a view to full scenario integration when the JET upgrades are complete. Regimes with internal transport barriers (ITBs) have been developed at q95 ~ 5 and high triangularity, δ (relevant to the ITER steady-state demonstration) by applying more than 30 MW of additional heating power reaching βN ~ 2 at Bo ~ 3.1 T. Operating at higher δ has allowed the edge pedestal and core densities to be increased pushing the ion temperature closer to that of the electrons. Although not yet fully integrated into a performance enhancing ITB scenario, Neon seeding has been successfully explored to increase the radiated power fraction (up to 60%), providing significant reduction of target tile power fluxes (and hence temperatures) and mitigation of edge localized mode (ELM) activity. At reduced toroidal magnetic field strength, high βN regimes have been achieved and q-profile optimization investigated for use in steady-state scenarios. Values of βN above the 'no-wall magnetohydrodynamic limit' (βN ~ 3.0) have been sustained for a resistive current diffusion time in high-δ configurations (at 1.2 MA/1.8 T). In this scenario, ELM activity has been mitigated by applying magnetic perturbations using error field correction coils to provide ergodization of the magnetic field at the plasma edge. In a highly shaped, quasi-double null X-point configuration, ITBs have been generated on the ion heat transport channel and combined with 'grassy' ELMs with ~30 MW of applied heating power (at 1.2 MA/2.7 T, q95 ~ 7). Advanced algorithms and system identification procedures have been developed with a view to developing simultaneously temperature and q-profile control in real-time. These techniques have so far been applied to the control of the q-profile evolution in JET AT scenarios.

  20. Total systems design analysis of high performance structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Verderaime, V.

    1993-01-01

    Designer-control parameters were identified at interdiscipline interfaces to optimize structural systems performance and downstream development and operations with reliability and least life-cycle cost. Interface tasks and iterations are tracked through a matrix of performance disciplines integration versus manufacturing, verification, and operations interactions for a total system design analysis. Performance integration tasks include shapes, sizes, environments, and materials. Integrity integrating tasks are reliability and recurring structural costs. Significant interface designer control parameters were noted as shapes, dimensions, probability range factors, and cost. Structural failure concept is presented, and first-order reliability and deterministic methods, benefits, and limitations are discussed. A deterministic reliability technique combining benefits of both is proposed for static structures which is also timely and economically verifiable. Though launch vehicle environments were primarily considered, the system design process is applicable to any surface system using its own unique filed environments.

  1. Modeling and Optimization of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles System Architecture Alternatives

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Weiping; He, Lei

    2014-01-01

    Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems have already been used in civilian activities, although very limitedly. Confronted different types of tasks, multi UAVs usually need to be coordinated. This can be extracted as a multi UAVs system architecture problem. Based on the general system architecture problem, a specific description of the multi UAVs system architecture problem is presented. Then the corresponding optimization problem and an efficient genetic algorithm with a refined crossover operator (GA-RX) is proposed to accomplish the architecting process iteratively in the rest of this paper. The availability and effectiveness of overall method is validated using 2 simulations based on 2 different scenarios. PMID:25140328

  2. Performance and capacity analysis of Poisson photon-counting based Iter-PIC OCDMA systems.

    PubMed

    Li, Lingbin; Zhou, Xiaolin; Zhang, Rong; Zhang, Dingchen; Hanzo, Lajos

    2013-11-04

    In this paper, an iterative parallel interference cancellation (Iter-PIC) technique is developed for optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) systems relying on shot-noise limited Poisson photon-counting reception. The novel semi-analytical tool of extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts is used for analysing both the bit error rate (BER) performance as well as the channel capacity of these systems and the results are verified by Monte Carlo simulations. The proposed Iter-PIC OCDMA system is capable of achieving two orders of magnitude BER improvements and a 0.1 nats of capacity improvement over the conventional chip-level OCDMA systems at a coding rate of 1/10.

  3. DIII-D accomplishments and plans in support of fusion next steps

    DOE PAGES

    Buttery, R. J; Eidietis, N.; Holcomb, C.; ...

    2013-06-01

    DIII-D is using its flexibility and diagnostics to address the critical science required to enable next step fusion devices. We have adapted operating scenarios for ITER to low torque and are now being optimized for transport. Three ELM mitigation scenarios have been developed to near-ITER parameters. New control techniques are managing the most challenging plasma instabilities. Disruption mitigation tools show promising dissipation strategies for runaway electrons and heat load. An off axis neutral beam upgrade has enabled sustainment of high βN capable steady state regimes. Divertor research is identifying the challenge, physics and candidate solutions for handling the hot plasmamore » exhaust with notable progress in heat flux reduction using the snowflake configuration. Our work is helping optimize design choices and prepare the scientific tools for operation in ITER, and resolve key elements of the plasma configuration and divertor solution for an FNSF.« less

  4. Assessment of possible failure modes and non-destructive examination of the ITER pre-compression rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knaster, J.; Evans, D.; Rajainmaki, H.

    2012-06-01

    The pre-compression rings (PCRs) for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) represent one of the largest and most highly stressed composite structures ever designed for long term operation at 4K. Three rings, each 5m in diameter and 337 × 288 mm in cross-section, will be installed at the top and bottom of the eighteen "D" shaped Toroidal Field (TF) coils to apply a total centripetal load of 70 MN per TF coil. The interaction of the 68 kA conductor current circulating in the coil (for a total of 9.1MA) with the required magnetic field to confine the plasma during operation will result in Lorentz forces that build in-plane and out-of-plane loads. The PCRs are essential to keep the stresses below the acceptable level for the ITER magnets structural materials.

  5. Visual display aid for orbital maneuvering - Design considerations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grunwald, Arthur J.; Ellis, Stephen R.

    1993-01-01

    This paper describes the development of an interactive proximity operations planning system that allows on-site planning of fuel-efficient multiburn maneuvers in a potential multispacecraft environment. Although this display system most directly assists planning by providing visual feedback to aid visualization of the trajectories and constraints, its most significant features include: (1) the use of an 'inverse dynamics' algorithm that removes control nonlinearities facing the operator, and (2) a trajectory planning technique that separates, through a 'geometric spreadsheet', the normally coupled complex problems of planning orbital maneuvers and allows solution by an iterative sequence of simple independent actions. The visual feedback of trajectory shapes and operational constraints, provided by user-transparent and continuously active background computations, allows the operator to make fast, iterative design changes that rapidly converge to fuel-efficient solutions. The planning tool provides an example of operator-assisted optimization of nonlinear cost functions.

  6. Rater variables associated with ITER ratings.

    PubMed

    Paget, Michael; Wu, Caren; McIlwrick, Joann; Woloschuk, Wayne; Wright, Bruce; McLaughlin, Kevin

    2013-10-01

    Advocates of holistic assessment consider the ITER a more authentic way to assess performance. But this assessment format is subjective and, therefore, susceptible to rater bias. Here our objective was to study the association between rater variables and ITER ratings. In this observational study our participants were clerks at the University of Calgary and preceptors who completed online ITERs between February 2008 and July 2009. Our outcome variable was global rating on the ITER (rated 1-5), and we used a generalized estimating equation model to identify variables associated with this rating. Students were rated "above expected level" or "outstanding" on 66.4 % of 1050 online ITERs completed during the study period. Two rater variables attenuated ITER ratings: the log transformed time taken to complete the ITER [β = -0.06, 95 % confidence interval (-0.10, -0.02), p = 0.002], and the number of ITERs that a preceptor completed over the time period of the study [β = -0.008 (-0.02, -0.001), p = 0.02]. In this study we found evidence of leniency bias that resulted in two thirds of students being rated above expected level of performance. This leniency bias appeared to be attenuated by delay in ITER completion, and was also blunted in preceptors who rated more students. As all biases threaten the internal validity of the assessment process, further research is needed to confirm these and other sources of rater bias in ITER ratings, and to explore ways of limiting their impact.

  7. Development of the prototype pneumatic transfer system for ITER neutron activation system.

    PubMed

    Cheon, M S; Seon, C R; Pak, S; Lee, H G; Bertalot, L

    2012-10-01

    The neutron activation system (NAS) measures neutron fluence at the first wall and the total neutron flux from the ITER plasma, providing evaluation of the fusion power for all operational phases. The pneumatic transfer system (PTS) is one of the key components of the NAS for the proper operation of the system, playing a role of transferring encapsulated samples between the capsule loading machine, irradiation stations, counting stations, and disposal bin. For the validation and the optimization of the design, a prototype of the PTS was developed and capsule transfer tests were performed with the developed system.

  8. Pollution Reduction Technology Program for Small Jet Aircraft Engines, Phase 2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bruce, T. W.; Davis, F. G.; Kuhn, T. E.; Mongia, H. C.

    1978-01-01

    A series of iterative combustor pressure rig tests were conducted on two combustor concepts applied to the AiResearch TFE731-2 turbofan engine combustion system for the purpose of optimizing combustor performance and operating characteristics consistant with low emissions. The two concepts were an axial air-assisted airblast fuel injection configuration with variable-geometry air swirlers and a staged premix/prevaporization configuration. The iterative rig testing and modification sequence on both concepts was intended to provide operational compatibility with the engine and determine one concept for further evaluation in a TFE731-2 engine.

  9. Calculating massive 3-loop graphs for operator matrix elements by the method of hyperlogarithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ablinger, Jakob; Blümlein, Johannes; Raab, Clemens; Schneider, Carsten; Wißbrock, Fabian

    2014-08-01

    We calculate convergent 3-loop Feynman diagrams containing a single massive loop equipped with twist τ=2 local operator insertions corresponding to spin N. They contribute to the massive operator matrix elements in QCD describing the massive Wilson coefficients for deep-inelastic scattering at large virtualities. Diagrams of this kind can be computed using an extended version of the method of hyperlogarithms, originally being designed for massless Feynman diagrams without operators. The method is applied to Benz- and V-type graphs, belonging to the genuine 3-loop topologies. In case of the V-type graphs with five massive propagators, new types of nested sums and iterated integrals emerge. The sums are given in terms of finite binomially and inverse binomially weighted generalized cyclotomic sums, while the 1-dimensionally iterated integrals are based on a set of ∼30 square-root valued letters. We also derive the asymptotic representations of the nested sums and present the solution for N∈C. Integrals with a power-like divergence in N-space ∝aN,a∈R,a>1, for large values of N emerge. They still possess a representation in x-space, which is given in terms of root-valued iterated integrals in the present case. The method of hyperlogarithms is also used to calculate higher moments for crossed box graphs with different operator insertions.

  10. A subtraction scheme for computing QCD jet cross sections at NNLO: integrating the iterated singly-unresolved subtraction terms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolzoni, Paolo; Somogyi, Gábor; Trócsányi, Zoltán

    2011-01-01

    We perform the integration of all iterated singly-unresolved subtraction terms, as defined in ref. [1], over the two-particle factorized phase space. We also sum over the unresolved parton flavours. The final result can be written as a convolution (in colour space) of the Born cross section and an insertion operator. We spell out the insertion operator in terms of 24 basic integrals that are defined explicitly. We compute the coefficients of the Laurent expansion of these integrals in two different ways, with the method of Mellin-Barnes representations and sector decomposition. Finally, we present the Laurent-expansion of the full insertion operator for the specific examples of electron-positron annihilation into two and three jets.

  11. Conjugate gradient coupled with multigrid for an indefinite problem

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gozani, J.; Nachshon, A.; Turkel, E.

    1984-01-01

    An iterative algorithm for the Helmholtz equation is presented. This scheme was based on the preconditioned conjugate gradient method for the normal equations. The preconditioning is one cycle of a multigrid method for the discrete Laplacian. The smoothing algorithm is red-black Gauss-Seidel and is constructed so it is a symmetric operator. The total number of iterations needed by the algorithm is independent of h. By varying the number of grids, the number of iterations depends only weakly on k when k(3)h(2) is constant. Comparisons with a SSOR preconditioner are presented.

  12. Efficiency trade-offs of steady-state methods using FEM and FDM. [iterative solutions for nonlinear flow equations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gartling, D. K.; Roache, P. J.

    1978-01-01

    The efficiency characteristics of finite element and finite difference approximations for the steady-state solution of the Navier-Stokes equations are examined. The finite element method discussed is a standard Galerkin formulation of the incompressible, steady-state Navier-Stokes equations. The finite difference formulation uses simple centered differences that are O(delta x-squared). Operation counts indicate that a rapidly converging Newton-Raphson-Kantorovitch iteration scheme is generally preferable over a Picard method. A split NOS Picard iterative algorithm for the finite difference method was most efficient.

  13. Refractive and relativistic effects on ITER low field side reflectometer design.

    PubMed

    Wang, G; Rhodes, T L; Peebles, W A; Harvey, R W; Budny, R V

    2010-10-01

    The ITER low field side reflectometer faces some unique design challenges, among which are included the effect of relativistic electron temperatures and refraction of probing waves. This paper utilizes GENRAY, a 3D ray tracing code, to investigate these effects. Using a simulated ITER operating scenario, characteristics of the reflected millimeter waves after return to the launch plane are quantified as a function of a range of design parameters, including antenna height, antenna diameter, and antenna radial position. Results for edge/SOL measurement with both O- and X-mode polarizations using proposed antennas are reported.

  14. Development of two color laser diagnostics for the ITER poloidal polarimeter.

    PubMed

    Kawahata, K; Akiyama, T; Tanaka, K; Nakayama, K; Okajima, S

    2010-10-01

    Two color laser diagnostics using terahertz laser sources are under development for a high performance operation of the Large Helical Device and for future fusion devices such as ITER. So far, we have achieved high power laser oscillation lines simultaneously oscillating at 57.2 and 47.7 μm by using a twin optically pumped CH(3)OD laser, and confirmed the original function, compensation of mechanical vibration, of the two color laser interferometer. In this article, application of the two color laser diagnostics to the ITER poloidal polarimeter and recent hardware developments will be described.

  15. Couple of the Variational Iteration Method and Fractional-Order Legendre Functions Method for Fractional Differential Equations

    PubMed Central

    Song, Junqiang; Leng, Hongze; Lu, Fengshun

    2014-01-01

    We present a new numerical method to get the approximate solutions of fractional differential equations. A new operational matrix of integration for fractional-order Legendre functions (FLFs) is first derived. Then a modified variational iteration formula which can avoid “noise terms” is constructed. Finally a numerical method based on variational iteration method (VIM) and FLFs is developed for fractional differential equations (FDEs). Block-pulse functions (BPFs) are used to calculate the FLFs coefficient matrices of the nonlinear terms. Five examples are discussed to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the technique. PMID:24511303

  16. The optimal algorithm for Multi-source RS image fusion.

    PubMed

    Fu, Wei; Huang, Shui-Guang; Li, Zeng-Shun; Shen, Hao; Li, Jun-Shuai; Wang, Peng-Yuan

    2016-01-01

    In order to solve the issue which the fusion rules cannot be self-adaptively adjusted by using available fusion methods according to the subsequent processing requirements of Remote Sensing (RS) image, this paper puts forward GSDA (genetic-iterative self-organizing data analysis algorithm) by integrating the merit of genetic arithmetic together with the advantage of iterative self-organizing data analysis algorithm for multi-source RS image fusion. The proposed algorithm considers the wavelet transform of the translation invariance as the model operator, also regards the contrast pyramid conversion as the observed operator. The algorithm then designs the objective function by taking use of the weighted sum of evaluation indices, and optimizes the objective function by employing GSDA so as to get a higher resolution of RS image. As discussed above, the bullet points of the text are summarized as follows.•The contribution proposes the iterative self-organizing data analysis algorithm for multi-source RS image fusion.•This article presents GSDA algorithm for the self-adaptively adjustment of the fusion rules.•This text comes up with the model operator and the observed operator as the fusion scheme of RS image based on GSDA. The proposed algorithm opens up a novel algorithmic pathway for multi-source RS image fusion by means of GSDA.

  17. Design, performance, and grounding aspects of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ion cyclotron range of frequencies antenna

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Durodié, F., E-mail: frederic.durodie@rma.ac.be; Dumortier, P.; Vrancken, M.

    2014-06-15

    ITER's Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF) system [Lamalle et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 88, 517–520 (2013)] comprises two antenna launchers designed by CYCLE (a consortium of European associations listed in the author affiliations above) on behalf of ITER Organisation (IO), each inserted as a Port Plug (PP) into one of ITER's Vacuum Vessel (VV) ports. Each launcher is an array of 4 toroidal by 6 poloidal RF current straps specified to couple up to 20 MW in total to the plasma in the frequency range of 40 to 55 MHz but limited to a maximum system voltage of 45 kV andmore » limits on RF electric fields depending on their location and direction with respect to, respectively, the torus vacuum and the toroidal magnetic field. A crucial aspect of coupling ICRF power to plasmas is the knowledge of the plasma density profiles in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) and the location of the RF current straps with respect to the SOL. The launcher layout and details were optimized and its performance estimated for a worst case SOL provided by the IO. The paper summarizes the estimated performance obtained within the operational parameter space specified by IO. Aspects of the RF grounding of the whole antenna PP to the VV port and the effect of the voids between the PP and the Blanket Shielding Modules (BSM) surrounding the antenna front are discussed. These blanket modules, whose dimensions are of the order of the ICRF wavelengths, together with the clearance gaps between them will constitute a corrugated structure which will interact with the electromagnetic waves launched by ICRF antennas. The conditions in which the grooves constituted by the clearance gaps between the blanket modules can become resonant are studied. Simple analytical models and numerical simulations show that mushroom type structures (with larger gaps at the back than at the front) can bring down the resonance frequencies, which could lead to large voltages in the gaps between the blanket modules and perturb the RF properties of the antenna if they are in the ICRF operating range. The effect on the wave propagation along the wall structure, which is acting as a spatially periodic (toroidally and poloidally) corrugated structure, and hence constitutes a slow wave structure modifying the wall boundary condition, is examined.« less

  18. A Kronecker product splitting preconditioner for two-dimensional space-fractional diffusion equations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Hao; Lv, Wen; Zhang, Tongtong

    2018-05-01

    We study preconditioned iterative methods for the linear system arising in the numerical discretization of a two-dimensional space-fractional diffusion equation. Our approach is based on a formulation of the discrete problem that is shown to be the sum of two Kronecker products. By making use of an alternating Kronecker product splitting iteration technique we establish a class of fixed-point iteration methods. Theoretical analysis shows that the new method converges to the unique solution of the linear system. Moreover, the optimal choice of the involved iteration parameters and the corresponding asymptotic convergence rate are computed exactly when the eigenvalues of the system matrix are all real. The basic iteration is accelerated by a Krylov subspace method like GMRES. The corresponding preconditioner is in a form of a Kronecker product structure and requires at each iteration the solution of a set of discrete one-dimensional fractional diffusion equations. We use structure preserving approximations to the discrete one-dimensional fractional diffusion operators in the action of the preconditioning matrix. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

  19. On the safety of ITER accelerators.

    PubMed

    Li, Ge

    2013-01-01

    Three 1 MV/40A accelerators in heating neutral beams (HNB) are on track to be implemented in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER may produce 500 MWt of power by 2026 and may serve as a green energy roadmap for the world. They will generate -1 MV 1 h long-pulse ion beams to be neutralised for plasma heating. Due to frequently occurring vacuum sparking in the accelerators, the snubbers are used to limit the fault arc current to improve ITER safety. However, recent analyses of its reference design have raised concerns. General nonlinear transformer theory is developed for the snubber to unify the former snubbers' different design models with a clear mechanism. Satisfactory agreement between theory and tests indicates that scaling up to a 1 MV voltage may be possible. These results confirm the nonlinear process behind transformer theory and map out a reliable snubber design for a safer ITER.

  20. On the safety of ITER accelerators

    PubMed Central

    Li, Ge

    2013-01-01

    Three 1 MV/40A accelerators in heating neutral beams (HNB) are on track to be implemented in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER may produce 500 MWt of power by 2026 and may serve as a green energy roadmap for the world. They will generate −1 MV 1 h long-pulse ion beams to be neutralised for plasma heating. Due to frequently occurring vacuum sparking in the accelerators, the snubbers are used to limit the fault arc current to improve ITER safety. However, recent analyses of its reference design have raised concerns. General nonlinear transformer theory is developed for the snubber to unify the former snubbers' different design models with a clear mechanism. Satisfactory agreement between theory and tests indicates that scaling up to a 1 MV voltage may be possible. These results confirm the nonlinear process behind transformer theory and map out a reliable snubber design for a safer ITER. PMID:24008267

  1. Single-agent parallel window search

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Powley, Curt; Korf, Richard E.

    1991-01-01

    Parallel window search is applied to single-agent problems by having different processes simultaneously perform iterations of Iterative-Deepening-A(asterisk) (IDA-asterisk) on the same problem but with different cost thresholds. This approach is limited by the time to perform the goal iteration. To overcome this disadvantage, the authors consider node ordering. They discuss how global node ordering by minimum h among nodes with equal f = g + h values can reduce the time complexity of serial IDA-asterisk by reducing the time to perform the iterations prior to the goal iteration. Finally, the two ideas of parallel window search and node ordering are combined to eliminate the weaknesses of each approach while retaining the strengths. The resulting approach, called simply parallel window search, can be used to find a near-optimal solution quickly, improve the solution until it is optimal, and then finally guarantee optimality, depending on the amount of time available.

  2. Fourier mode analysis of slab-geometry transport iterations in spatially periodic media

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Larsen, E; Zika, M

    1999-04-01

    We describe a Fourier analysis of the diffusion-synthetic acceleration (DSA) and transport-synthetic acceleration (TSA) iteration schemes for a spatially periodic, but otherwise arbitrarily heterogeneous, medium. Both DSA and TSA converge more slowly in a heterogeneous medium than in a homogeneous medium composed of the volume-averaged scattering ratio. In the limit of a homogeneous medium, our heterogeneous analysis contains eigenvalues of multiplicity two at ''resonant'' wave numbers. In the presence of material heterogeneities, error modes corresponding to these resonant wave numbers are ''excited'' more than other error modes. For DSA and TSA, the iteration spectral radius may occur at these resonantmore » wave numbers, in which case the material heterogeneities most strongly affect iterative performance.« less

  3. Interior tomography from differential phase contrast data via Hilbert transform based on spline functions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Qingsong; Cong, Wenxiang; Wang, Ge

    2016-10-01

    X-ray phase contrast imaging is an important mode due to its sensitivity to subtle features of soft biological tissues. Grating-based differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging is one of the most promising phase imaging techniques because it works with a normal x-ray tube of a large focal spot at a high flux rate. However, a main obstacle before this paradigm shift is the fabrication of large-area gratings of a small period and a high aspect ratio. Imaging large objects with a size-limited grating results in data truncation which is a new type of the interior problem. While the interior problem was solved for conventional x-ray CT through analytic extension, compressed sensing and iterative reconstruction, the difficulty for interior reconstruction from DPC data lies in that the implementation of the system matrix requires the differential operation on the detector array, which is often inaccurate and unstable in the case of noisy data. Here, we propose an iterative method based on spline functions. The differential data are first back-projected to the image space. Then, a system matrix is calculated whose components are the Hilbert transforms of the spline bases. The system matrix takes the whole image as an input and outputs the back-projected interior data. Prior information normally assumed for compressed sensing is enforced to iteratively solve this inverse problem. Our results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can successfully reconstruct an interior region of interest (ROI) from the differential phase data through the ROI.

  4. Towards Current Profile Control in ITER: Potential Approaches and Research Needs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schuster, E.; Barton, J. E.; Wehner, W. P.

    2014-10-01

    Many challenging plasma control problems still need to be addressed in order for the ITER Plasma Control System (PCS) to be able to successfully achieve the ITER project goals. For instance, setting up a suitable toroidal current density profile is key for one possible advanced scenario characterized by noninductive sustainment of the plasma current and steady-state operation. The nonlinearity and high dimensionality exhibited by the plasma demand a model-based current-profile control synthesis procedure that can accommodate this complexity through embedding the known physics within the design. The development of a model capturing the dynamics of the plasma relevant for control design enables not only the design of feedback controllers for regulation or tracking but also the design of optimal feedforward controllers for a systematic model-based approach to scenario planning, the design of state estimators for a reliable real-time reconstruction of the plasma internal profiles based on limited and noisy diagnostics, and the development of a fast predictive simulation code for closed-loop performance evaluation before implementation. Progress towards control-oriented modeling of the current profile evolution and associated control design has been reported following both data-driven and first-principles-driven approaches. An overview of these two approaches will be provided, as well as a discussion on research needs associated with each one of the model applications described above. Supported by the US Department of Energy under DE-SC0001334 and DE-SC0010661.

  5. Acceleration of GPU-based Krylov solvers via data transfer reduction

    DOE PAGES

    Anzt, Hartwig; Tomov, Stanimire; Luszczek, Piotr; ...

    2015-04-08

    Krylov subspace iterative solvers are often the method of choice when solving large sparse linear systems. At the same time, hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units continue to offer significant floating point performance gains for matrix and vector computations through easy-to-use libraries of computational kernels. However, as these libraries are usually composed of a well optimized but limited set of linear algebra operations, applications that use them often fail to reduce certain data communications, and hence fail to leverage the full potential of the accelerator. In this study, we target the acceleration of Krylov subspace iterative methods for graphicsmore » processing units, and in particular the Biconjugate Gradient Stabilized solver that significant improvement can be achieved by reformulating the method to reduce data-communications through application-specific kernels instead of using the generic BLAS kernels, e.g. as provided by NVIDIA’s cuBLAS library, and by designing a graphics processing unit specific sparse matrix-vector product kernel that is able to more efficiently use the graphics processing unit’s computing power. Furthermore, we derive a model estimating the performance improvement, and use experimental data to validate the expected runtime savings. Finally, considering that the derived implementation achieves significantly higher performance, we assert that similar optimizations addressing algorithm structure, as well as sparse matrix-vector, are crucial for the subsequent development of high-performance graphics processing units accelerated Krylov subspace iterative methods.« less

  6. Performance analysis of Rogowski coils and the measurement of the total toroidal current in the ITER machine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quercia, A.; Albanese, R.; Fresa, R.; Minucci, S.; Arshad, S.; Vayakis, G.

    2017-12-01

    The paper carries out a comprehensive study of the performances of Rogowski coils. It describes methodologies that were developed in order to assess the capabilities of the Continuous External Rogowski (CER), which measures the total toroidal current in the ITER machine. Even though the paper mainly considers the CER, the contents are general and relevant to any Rogowski sensor. The CER consists of two concentric helical coils which are wound along a complex closed path. Modelling and computational activities were performed to quantify the measurement errors, taking detailed account of the ITER environment. The geometrical complexity of the sensor is accurately accounted for and the standard model which provides the classical expression to compute the flux linkage of Rogowski sensors is quantitatively validated. Then, in order to take into account the non-ideality of the winding, a generalized expression, formally analogue to the classical one, is presented. Models to determine the worst case and the statistical measurement accuracies are hence provided. The following sources of error are considered: effect of the joints, disturbances due to external sources of field (the currents flowing in the poloidal field coils and the ferromagnetic inserts of ITER), deviations from ideal geometry, toroidal field variations, calibration, noise and integration drift. The proposed methods are applied to the measurement error of the CER, in particular in its high and low operating ranges, as prescribed by the ITER system design description documents, and during transients, which highlight the large time constant related to the shielding of the vacuum vessel. The analyses presented in the paper show that the design of the CER diagnostic is capable of achieving the requisite performance as needed for the operation of the ITER machine.

  7. Nested Krylov methods and preserving the orthogonality

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Desturler, Eric; Fokkema, Diederik R.

    1993-01-01

    Recently the GMRESR inner-outer iteraction scheme for the solution of linear systems of equations was proposed by Van der Vorst and Vuik. Similar methods have been proposed by Axelsson and Vassilevski and Saad (FGMRES). The outer iteration is GCR, which minimizes the residual over a given set of direction vectors. The inner iteration is GMRES, which at each step computes a new direction vector by approximately solving the residual equation. However, the optimality of the approximation over the space of outer search directions is ignored in the inner GMRES iteration. This leads to suboptimal corrections to the solution in the outer iteration, as components of the outer iteration directions may reenter in the inner iteration process. Therefore we propose to preserve the orthogonality relations of GCR in the inner GMRES iteration. This gives optimal corrections; however, it involves working with a singular, non-symmetric operator. We will discuss some important properties, and we will show by experiments that, in terms of matrix vector products, this modification (almost) always leads to better convergence. However, because we do more orthogonalizations, it does not always give an improved performance in CPU-time. Furthermore, we will discuss efficient implementations as well as the truncation possibilities of the outer GCR process. The experimental results indicate that for such methods it is advantageous to preserve the orthogonality in the inner iteration. Of course we can also use iteration schemes other than GMRES as the inner method; methods with short recurrences like GICGSTAB are of interest.

  8. Thomson scattering for core plasma on DEMO

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mukhin, E. E.; Kurskiev, G. S.; Tolstyakov, S. Yu.

    2014-08-21

    This paper describes the challenges of Thomson scattering implementation for core plasma on DEMO and evaluates the capability to measure extremely high electron temperature range 0.5-40keV. A number of solutions to be developed for ITER diagnostics are suggested in consideration of their realization for DEMO. New approaches suggested for DEMO may also be of interest to ITER and currently operating magnetic confinement devices.

  9. Fusion energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1990-09-01

    The main purpose of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is to develop an experimental fusion reactor through the united efforts of many technologically advanced countries. The ITER terms of reference, issued jointly by the European Community, Japan, the USSR, and the United States, call for an integrated international design activity and constitute the basis of current activities. Joint work on ITER is carried out under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the terms of quadripartite agreement reached between the European Community, Japan, the USSR, and the United States. The site for joint technical work sessions is at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics. Garching, Federal Republic of Germany. The ITER activities have two phases: a definition phase performed in 1988 and the present design phase (1989 to 1990). During the definition phase, a set of ITER technical characteristics and supporting research and development (R and D) activities were developed and reported. The present conceptual design phase of ITER lasts until the end of 1990. The objectives of this phase are to develop the design of ITER, perform a safety and environmental analysis, develop site requirements, define future R and D needs, and estimate cost, manpower, and schedule for construction and operation. A final report will be submitted at the end of 1990. This paper summarizes progress in the ITER program during the 1989 design phase.

  10. Improved Real-Time Scan Matching Using Corner Features

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohamed, H. A.; Moussa, A. M.; Elhabiby, M. M.; El-Sheimy, N.; Sesay, Abu B.

    2016-06-01

    The automation of unmanned vehicle operation has gained a lot of research attention, in the last few years, because of its numerous applications. The vehicle localization is more challenging in indoor environments where absolute positioning measurements (e.g. GPS) are typically unavailable. Laser range finders are among the most widely used sensors that help the unmanned vehicles to localize themselves in indoor environments. Typically, automatic real-time matching of the successive scans is performed either explicitly or implicitly by any localization approach that utilizes laser range finders. Many accustomed approaches such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP), Iterative Matching Range Point (IMRP), Iterative Dual Correspondence (IDC), and Polar Scan Matching (PSM) handles the scan matching problem in an iterative fashion which significantly affects the time consumption. Furthermore, the solution convergence is not guaranteed especially in cases of sharp maneuvers or fast movement. This paper proposes an automated real-time scan matching algorithm where the matching process is initialized using the detected corners. This initialization step aims to increase the convergence probability and to limit the number of iterations needed to reach convergence. The corner detection is preceded by line extraction from the laser scans. To evaluate the probability of line availability in indoor environments, various data sets, offered by different research groups, have been tested and the mean numbers of extracted lines per scan for these data sets are ranging from 4.10 to 8.86 lines of more than 7 points. The set of all intersections between extracted lines are detected as corners regardless of the physical intersection of these line segments in the scan. To account for the uncertainties of the detected corners, the covariance of the corners is estimated using the extracted lines variances. The detected corners are used to estimate the transformation parameters between the successive scan using least squares. These estimated transformation parameters are used to calculate an adjusted initialization for scan matching process. The presented method can be employed solely to match the successive scans and also can be used to aid other accustomed iterative methods to achieve more effective and faster converge. The performance and time consumption of the proposed approach is compared with ICP algorithm alone without initialization in different scenarios such as static period, fast straight movement, and sharp manoeuvers.

  11. Time-dependent modeling of dust injection in semi-detached ITER divertor plasma

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smirnov, Roman; Krasheninnikov, Sergei

    2017-10-01

    At present, it is generally understood that dust related issues will play important role in operation of the next step fusion devices, i.e. ITER, and in the development of future fusion reactors. Recent progress in research on dust in magnetic fusion devises has outlined several topics of particular concern: a) degradation of fusion plasma performance; b) impairment of in-vessel diagnostic instruments; and c) safety issues related to dust reactivity and tritium retention. In addition, observed dust events in fusion edge plasmas are highly irregular and require consideration of temporal evolution of both the dust and the fusion plasma. In order to address the dust-related fusion performance issues, we have coupled the dust transport code DUSTT and the edge plasma transport code UEDGE in time-dependent manner, allowing modeling of transient dust-induced phenomena in fusion edge plasmas. Using the coupled codes we simulate burst-like injection of tungsten dust into ITER divertor plasma in semi-detached regime, which is considered as preferable ITER divertor operational mode based on the plasma and heat load control restrictions. Analysis of transport of the dust and the dust-produced impurities, and of dynamics of the ITER divertor and edge plasma in response to the dust injection will be presented. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, under Award Number DE-FG02-06ER54852.

  12. Directed evolution of a synthetic phylogeny of programmable Trp repressors.

    PubMed

    Ellefson, Jared W; Ledbetter, Michael P; Ellington, Andrew D

    2018-04-01

    As synthetic regulatory programs expand in sophistication, an ever increasing number of biological components with predictable phenotypes is required. Regulators are often 'part mined' from a diverse, but uncharacterized, array of genomic sequences, often leading to idiosyncratic behavior. Here, we generate an entire synthetic phylogeny from the canonical allosteric transcription factor TrpR. Iterative rounds of positive and negative compartmentalized partnered replication (CPR) led to the exponential amplification of variants that responded with high affinity and specificity to halogenated tryptophan analogs and novel operator sites. Fourteen repressor variants were evolved with unique regulatory profiles across five operators and three ligands. The logic of individual repressors can be modularly programmed by creating heterodimeric fusions, resulting in single proteins that display logic functions, such as 'NAND'. Despite the evolutionarily limited regulatory role of TrpR, vast functional spaces exist around this highly conserved protein scaffold and can be harnessed to create synthetic regulatory programs.

  13. Breadboard RL10-2B low-thrust operating mode (second iteration) test report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kanic, Paul G.; Kaldor, Raymond B.; Watkins, Pia M.

    1988-01-01

    Cryogenic rocket engines requiring a cooling process to thermally condition the engine to operating temperature can be made more efficient if cooling propellants can be burned. Tank head idle and pumped idle modes can be used to burn propellants employed for cooling, thereby providing useful thrust. Such idle modes required the use of a heat exchanger to vaporize oxygen prior to injection into the combustion chamber. During December 1988, Pratt and Whitney conducted a series of engine hot firing demonstrating the operation of two new, previously untested oxidizer heat exchanger designs. The program was a second iteration of previous low thrust testing conducted in 1984, during which a first-generation heat exchanger design was used. Although operation was demonstrated at tank head idle and pumped idle, the engine experienced instability when propellants could not be supplied to the heat exchanger at design conditions.

  14. Frequency-multiplexed and pipelined iterative optical systolic array processors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Casasent, D.; Jackson, J.; Neuman, C.

    1983-01-01

    Optical matrix processors using acoustooptic transducers are described, with emphasis on new systolic array architectures using frequency multiplexing in addition to space and time multiplexing. A Kalman filtering application is considered in a case study from which the operations required on such a system can be defined. This also serves as a new and powerful application for iterative optical processors. The importance of pipelining the data flow and the ordering of the operations performed in a specific application of such a system are also noted. Several examples of how to effectively achieve this are included. A new technique for handling bipolar data on such architectures is also described.

  15. Deuterium results at the negative ion source test facility ELISE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kraus, W.; Wünderlich, D.; Fantz, U.; Heinemann, B.; Bonomo, F.; Riedl, R.

    2018-05-01

    The ITER neutral beam system will be equipped with large radio frequency (RF) driven negative ion sources, with a cross section of 0.9 m × 1.9 m, which have to deliver extracted D- ion beams of 57 A at 1 MeV for 1 h. On the extraction from a large ion source experiment test facility, a source of half of this size is being operational since 2013. The goal of this experiment is to demonstrate a high operational reliability and to achieve the extracted current densities and beam properties required for ITER. Technical improvements of the source design and the RF system were necessary to provide reliable operation in steady state with an RF power of up to 300 kW. While in short pulses the required D- current density has almost been reached, the performance in long pulses is determined in particular in Deuterium by inhomogeneous and unstable currents of co-extracted electrons. By application of refined caesium evaporation and distribution procedures, and reduction and symmetrization of the electron currents, considerable progress has been made and up to 190 A/m2 D-, corresponding to 66% of the value required for ITER, have been extracted for 45 min.

  16. Overview of the preliminary design of the ITER plasma control system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Snipes, J. A.; Albanese, R.; Ambrosino, G.

    An overview of the Preliminary Design of the ITER Plasma Control System (PCS) is described here, which focusses on the needs for 1st plasma and early plasma operation in hydrogen/helium (H/He) up to a plasma current of 15 MA with moderate auxiliary heating power in low confinement mode (L-mode). Candidate control schemes for basic magnetic control, including divertor operation and kinetic control of the electron density with gas puffing and pellet injection, were developed. Commissioning of the auxiliary heating systems is included as well as support functions for stray field topology and real-time plasma boundary reconstruction. Initial exception handling schemesmore » for faults of essential plant systems and for disruption protection were developed. The PCS architecture was also developed to be capable of handling basic control for early commissioning and the advanced control functions that will be needed for future high performance operation. A plasma control simulator is also being developed to test and validate control schemes. To handle the complexity of the ITER PCS, a systems engineering approach has been adopted with the development of a plasma control database to keep track of all control requirements.« less

  17. Overview of the preliminary design of the ITER plasma control system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Snipes, J. A.; Albanese, R.; Ambrosino, G.; Ambrosino, R.; Amoskov, V.; Blanken, T. C.; Bremond, S.; Cinque, M.; de Tommasi, G.; de Vries, P. C.; Eidietis, N.; Felici, F.; Felton, R.; Ferron, J.; Formisano, A.; Gribov, Y.; Hosokawa, M.; Hyatt, A.; Humphreys, D.; Jackson, G.; Kavin, A.; Khayrutdinov, R.; Kim, D.; Kim, S. H.; Konovalov, S.; Lamzin, E.; Lehnen, M.; Lukash, V.; Lomas, P.; Mattei, M.; Mineev, A.; Moreau, P.; Neu, G.; Nouailletas, R.; Pautasso, G.; Pironti, A.; Rapson, C.; Raupp, G.; Ravensbergen, T.; Rimini, F.; Schneider, M.; Travere, J.-M.; Treutterer, W.; Villone, F.; Walker, M.; Welander, A.; Winter, A.; Zabeo, L.

    2017-12-01

    An overview of the preliminary design of the ITER plasma control system (PCS) is described here, which focusses on the needs for 1st plasma and early plasma operation in hydrogen/helium (H/He) up to a plasma current of 15 MA with moderate auxiliary heating power in low confinement mode (L-mode). Candidate control schemes for basic magnetic control, including divertor operation and kinetic control of the electron density with gas puffing and pellet injection, were developed. Commissioning of the auxiliary heating systems is included as well as support functions for stray field topology and real-time plasma boundary reconstruction. Initial exception handling schemes for faults of essential plant systems and for disruption protection were developed. The PCS architecture was also developed to be capable of handling basic control for early commissioning and the advanced control functions that will be needed for future high performance operation. A plasma control simulator is also being developed to test and validate control schemes. To handle the complexity of the ITER PCS, a systems engineering approach has been adopted with the development of a plasma control database to keep track of all control requirements.

  18. Overview of the preliminary design of the ITER plasma control system

    DOE PAGES

    Snipes, J. A.; Albanese, R.; Ambrosino, G.; ...

    2017-09-11

    An overview of the Preliminary Design of the ITER Plasma Control System (PCS) is described here, which focusses on the needs for 1st plasma and early plasma operation in hydrogen/helium (H/He) up to a plasma current of 15 MA with moderate auxiliary heating power in low confinement mode (L-mode). Candidate control schemes for basic magnetic control, including divertor operation and kinetic control of the electron density with gas puffing and pellet injection, were developed. Commissioning of the auxiliary heating systems is included as well as support functions for stray field topology and real-time plasma boundary reconstruction. Initial exception handling schemesmore » for faults of essential plant systems and for disruption protection were developed. The PCS architecture was also developed to be capable of handling basic control for early commissioning and the advanced control functions that will be needed for future high performance operation. A plasma control simulator is also being developed to test and validate control schemes. To handle the complexity of the ITER PCS, a systems engineering approach has been adopted with the development of a plasma control database to keep track of all control requirements.« less

  19. Design and optimization of Artificial Neural Networks for the modelling of superconducting magnets operation in tokamak fusion reactors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Froio, A.; Bonifetto, R.; Carli, S.

    In superconducting tokamaks, the cryoplant provides the helium needed to cool different clients, among which by far the most important one is the superconducting magnet system. The evaluation of the transient heat load from the magnets to the cryoplant is fundamental for the design of the latter and the assessment of suitable strategies to smooth the heat load pulses, induced by the intrinsically pulsed plasma scenarios characteristic of today's tokamaks, is crucial for both suitable sizing and stable operation of the cryoplant. For that evaluation, accurate but expensive system-level models, as implemented in e.g. the validated state-of-the-art 4C code, weremore » developed in the past, including both the magnets and the respective external cryogenic cooling circuits. Here we show how these models can be successfully substituted with cheaper ones, where the magnets are described by suitably trained Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for the evaluation of the heat load to the cryoplant. First, two simplified thermal-hydraulic models for an ITER Toroidal Field (TF) magnet and for the ITER Central Solenoid (CS) are developed, based on ANNs, and a detailed analysis of the chosen networks' topology and parameters is presented and discussed. The ANNs are then inserted into the 4C model of the ITER TF and CS cooling circuits, which also includes active controls to achieve a smoothing of the variation of the heat load to the cryoplant. The training of the ANNs is achieved using the results of full 4C simulations (including detailed models of the magnets) for conventional sigmoid-like waveforms of the drivers and the predictive capabilities of the ANN-based models in the case of actual ITER operating scenarios are demonstrated by comparison with the results of full 4C runs, both with and without active smoothing, in terms of both accuracy and computational time. Exploiting the low computational effort requested by the ANN-based models, a demonstrative optimization study has been finally carried out, with the aim of choosing among different smoothing strategies for the standard ITER plasma operation.« less

  20. An accelerated lambda iteration method for multilevel radiative transfer. I - Non-overlapping lines with background continuum

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rybicki, G. B.; Hummer, D. G.

    1991-01-01

    A method is presented for solving multilevel transfer problems when nonoverlapping lines and background continuum are present and active continuum transfer is absent. An approximate lambda operator is employed to derive linear, 'preconditioned', statistical-equilibrium equations. A method is described for finding the diagonal elements of the 'true' numerical lambda operator, and therefore for obtaining the coefficients of the equations. Iterations of the preconditioned equations, in conjunction with the transfer equation's formal solution, are used to solve linear equations. Some multilevel problems are considered, including an eleven-level neutral helium atom. Diagonal and tridiagonal approximate lambda operators are utilized in the problems to examine the convergence properties of the method, and it is found to be effective for the line transfer problems.

  1. Discrete Fourier Transform Analysis in a Complex Vector Space

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dean, Bruce H.

    2009-01-01

    Alternative computational strategies for the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) have been developed using analysis of geometric manifolds. This approach provides a general framework for performing DFT calculations, and suggests a more efficient implementation of the DFT for applications using iterative transform methods, particularly phase retrieval. The DFT can thus be implemented using fewer operations when compared to the usual DFT counterpart. The software decreases the run time of the DFT in certain applications such as phase retrieval that iteratively call the DFT function. The algorithm exploits a special computational approach based on analysis of the DFT as a transformation in a complex vector space. As such, this approach has the potential to realize a DFT computation that approaches N operations versus Nlog(N) operations for the equivalent Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) calculation.

  2. Choosing order of operations to accelerate strip structure analysis in parameter range

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuksenko, S. P.; Akhunov, R. R.; Gazizov, T. R.

    2018-05-01

    The paper considers the issue of using iteration methods in solving the sequence of linear algebraic systems obtained in quasistatic analysis of strip structures with the method of moments. Using the analysis of 4 strip structures, the authors have proved that additional acceleration (up to 2.21 times) of the iterative process can be obtained during the process of solving linear systems repeatedly by means of choosing a proper order of operations and a preconditioner. The obtained results can be used to accelerate the process of computer-aided design of various strip structures. The choice of the order of operations to accelerate the process is quite simple, universal and could be used not only for strip structure analysis but also for a wide range of computational problems.

  3. Transport synthetic acceleration with opposing reflecting boundary conditions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zika, M.R.; Adams, M.L.

    2000-02-01

    The transport synthetic acceleration (TSA) scheme is extended to problems with opposing reflecting boundary conditions. This synthetic method employs a simplified transport operator as its low-order approximation. A procedure is developed that allows the use of the conjugate gradient (CG) method to solve the resulting low-order system of equations. Several well-known transport iteration algorithms are cast in a linear algebraic form to show their equivalence to standard iterative techniques. Source iteration in the presence of opposing reflecting boundary conditions is shown to be equivalent to a (poorly) preconditioned stationary Richardson iteration, with the preconditioner defined by the method of iteratingmore » on the incident fluxes on the reflecting boundaries. The TSA method (and any synthetic method) amounts to a further preconditioning of the Richardson iteration. The presence of opposing reflecting boundary conditions requires special consideration when developing a procedure to realize the CG method for the proposed system of equations. The CG iteration may be applied only to symmetric positive definite matrices; this condition requires the algebraic elimination of the boundary angular corrections from the low-order equations. As a consequence of this elimination, evaluating the action of the resulting matrix on an arbitrary vector involves two transport sweeps and a transmission iteration. Results of applying the acceleration scheme to a simple test problem are presented.« less

  4. Performance assessment of the antenna setup for the ITER plasma position reflectometry in-vessel systems.

    PubMed

    Varela, P; Belo, J H; Quental, P B

    2016-11-01

    The design of the in-vessel antennas for the ITER plasma position reflectometry diagnostic is very challenging due to the need to cope both with the space restrictions inside the vacuum vessel and with the high mechanical and thermal loads during ITER operation. Here, we present the work carried out to assess and optimise the design of the antenna. We show that the blanket modules surrounding the antenna strongly modify its characteristics and need to be considered from the early phases of the design. We also show that it is possible to optimise the antenna performance, within the design restrictions.

  5. Power Radiated from ITER and CIT by Impurities

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Cummings, J.; Cohen, S. A.; Hulse, R.; Post, D. E.; Redi, M. H.; Perkins, J.

    1990-07-01

    The MIST code has been used to model impurity radiation from the edge and core plasmas in ITER and CIT. A broad range of parameters have been varied, including Z{sub eff}, impurity species, impurity transport coefficients, and plasma temperature and density profiles, especially at the edge. For a set of these parameters representative of the baseline ITER ignition scenario, it is seen that impurity radiation, which is produced in roughly equal amounts by the edge and core regions, can make a major improvement in divertor operation without compromising core energy confinement. Scalings of impurity radiation with atomic number and machine size are also discussed.

  6. Avoidance of tearing mode locking with electro-magnetic torque introduced by feedback-based mode rotation control in DIII-D and RFX-mod

    DOE PAGES

    Okabayashi, M.; Zanca, P.; Strait, E. J.; ...

    2016-11-25

    Disruptions caused by tearing modes (TMs) are considered to be one of the most critical roadblocks to achieving reliable, steady-state operation of tokamak fusion reactors. We have demonstrated a promising scheme to avoid mode locking by utilizing the electro-magnetic (EM) torque produced with 3D coils that are available in many tokamaks. In this scheme, the EM torque is delivered to the modes by a toroidal phase shift between the externally applied field and the excited TM fields, compensating for the mode momentum loss through the interaction with the resistive wall and uncorrected error fields. Fine control of torque balance ismore » provided by a feedback scheme. We have explored this approach in two widely different devices and plasma conditions: DIII-D and RFX-mod operated in tokamak mode. In DIII-D, the plasma target was high β N in a non-circular divertor tokamak. We define β N as β N = β/(I p /aB t) (%Tm/MA), where β, I p, a, B t are the total stored plasma pressure normalized by the magnetic pressure, plasma current, plasma minor radius and toroidal magnetic field at the plasma center, respectively. The RFX-mod plasma was ohmically-heated with ultra-low safety factor in a circular limiter discharge with active feedback coils outside the thick resistive shell. The DIII-D and RFX-mod experiments showed remarkable consistency with theoretical predictions of torque balance. The application to ignition-oriented devices such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would expand the horizon of its operational regime. Finally, the internal 3D coil set currently under consideration for edge localized mode suppression in ITER would be well suited for this purpose.« less

  7. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Okabayashi, M.; Zanca, P.; Strait, E. J.

    Disruptions caused by tearing modes (TMs) are considered to be one of the most critical roadblocks to achieving reliable, steady-state operation of tokamak fusion reactors. We have demonstrated a promising scheme to avoid mode locking by utilizing the electro-magnetic (EM) torque produced with 3D coils that are available in many tokamaks. In this scheme, the EM torque is delivered to the modes by a toroidal phase shift between the externally applied field and the excited TM fields, compensating for the mode momentum loss through the interaction with the resistive wall and uncorrected error fields. Fine control of torque balance ismore » provided by a feedback scheme. We have explored this approach in two widely different devices and plasma conditions: DIII-D and RFX-mod operated in tokamak mode. In DIII-D, the plasma target was high β N in a non-circular divertor tokamak. We define β N as β N = β/(I p /aB t) (%Tm/MA), where β, I p, a, B t are the total stored plasma pressure normalized by the magnetic pressure, plasma current, plasma minor radius and toroidal magnetic field at the plasma center, respectively. The RFX-mod plasma was ohmically-heated with ultra-low safety factor in a circular limiter discharge with active feedback coils outside the thick resistive shell. The DIII-D and RFX-mod experiments showed remarkable consistency with theoretical predictions of torque balance. The application to ignition-oriented devices such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would expand the horizon of its operational regime. Finally, the internal 3D coil set currently under consideration for edge localized mode suppression in ITER would be well suited for this purpose.« less

  8. Avoidance of tearing mode locking with electro-magnetic torque introduced by feedback-based mode rotation control in DIII-D and RFX-mod

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okabayashi, M.; Zanca, P.; Strait, E. J.; Garofalo, A. M.; Hanson, J. M.; In, Y.; La Haye, R. J.; Marrelli, L.; Martin, P.; Paccagnella, R.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Piovesan, P.; Piron, C.; Piron, L.; Shiraki, D.; Volpe, F. A.; DIII-D, The; RFX-mod Teams

    2017-01-01

    Disruptions caused by tearing modes (TMs) are considered to be one of the most critical roadblocks to achieving reliable, steady-state operation of tokamak fusion reactors. Here we have demonstrated a promising scheme to avoid mode locking by utilizing the electro-magnetic (EM) torque produced with 3D coils that are available in many tokamaks. In this scheme, the EM torque is delivered to the modes by a toroidal phase shift between the externally applied field and the excited TM fields, compensating for the mode momentum loss through the interaction with the resistive wall and uncorrected error fields. Fine control of torque balance is provided by a feedback scheme. We have explored this approach in two widely different devices and plasma conditions: DIII-D and RFX-mod operated in tokamak mode. In DIII-D, the plasma target was high β N in a non-circular divertor tokamak. Here β N is defined as β N  =  β/(I p /aB t) (%Tm/MA), where β, I p, a, B t are the total stored plasma pressure normalized by the magnetic pressure, plasma current, plasma minor radius and toroidal magnetic field at the plasma center, respectively. The RFX-mod plasma was ohmically-heated with ultra-low safety factor in a circular limiter discharge with active feedback coils outside the thick resistive shell. The DIII-D and RFX-mod experiments showed remarkable consistency with theoretical predictions of torque balance. The application to ignition-oriented devices such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would expand the horizon of its operational regime. The internal 3D coil set currently under consideration for edge localized mode suppression in ITER would be well suited for this purpose.

  9. Method and apparatus for determining and utilizing a time-expanded decision network

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    de Weck, Olivier (Inventor); Silver, Matthew (Inventor)

    2012-01-01

    A method, apparatus and computer program for determining and utilizing a time-expanded decision network is presented. A set of potential system configurations is defined. Next, switching costs are quantified to create a "static network" that captures the difficulty of switching among these configurations. A time-expanded decision network is provided by expanding the static network in time, including chance and decision nodes. Minimum cost paths through the network are evaluated under plausible operating scenarios. The set of initial design configurations are iteratively modified to exploit high-leverage switches and the process is repeated to convergence. Time-expanded decision networks are applicable, but not limited to, the design of systems, products, services and contracts.

  10. The assessment of function: How is it measured? A clinical perspective

    PubMed Central

    Reiman, Michael P; Manske, Robert C

    2011-01-01

    Testing for outcome or performance can take many forms; including multiple iterations of self-reported measures of function (an assessment of the individual’s perceived dysfunction) and/or clinical special tests (which are primarily assessments of impairments). Typically absent within these testing mechanisms is whether or not one can perform a specific task associated with function. The paper will operationally define function, discuss the construct of function within the disablement model, will overview the multi-dimensional nature of ‘function’ as a concept, will examine the current evidence for functional testing methods, and will propose a functional testing continuum. Limitations of functional performance testing will be discussed including recommendations for future research. PMID:22547919

  11. Data System Implications Derived from User Application Requirements for Satellite Data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Neiers, J.

    1979-01-01

    An investigation of the data system needs as driven by users of space acquired Earth observation data is documented. Two major categories of users, operational and research, are identified. Limiting data acquisition alleviates some of the delays in processing thus improving timeliness of the delivered product. Trade offs occur between timeliness and data distribution costs, and between data storage and reprocessing. The complexity of the data system requirements to apply space data to users' needs is such that no single analysis suffices to design and implement the optimum system. A series of iterations is required with analyses of the salient problems in a general way, followed by a limited implementation of benefit to some users with a continual upgrade in system capacity, functions, and applications served. The resulting most important requirement for the data system is flexibility to accommodate changing requirements as the system is implemented.

  12. Compact steady-state and high-flux Falcon ion source for tests of plasma-facing materials

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Girka, O.; Bizyukov, I.; Sereda, K.

    2012-08-15

    This paper describes the design and operation of the Falcon ion source. It is based on conventional design of anode layer thrusters. This ion source is a versatile, compact, affordable, and highly functional in the research field of the fusion materials. The reversed magnetic field configuration of the source allows precise focusing of the ion beam into small spot of Almost-Equal-To 3 mm and also provides the limited capabilities for impurity mass-separation. As the result, the source generates steady-state ion beam, which irradiates surface with high heat (0.3 - 21 MW m{sup -2}) and particle fluxes (4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 21}-more » 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 23} m{sup -2}s{sup -1}), which approaches the upper limit for the flux range expected in ITER.« less

  13. Performance of ITER as a burning plasma experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shimada, M.; Mukhovatov, V.; Federici, G.; Gribov, Y.; Kukushkin, A.; Murakami, Y.; Polevoi, A.; Pustovitov, V.; Sengoku, S.; Sugihara, M.

    2004-02-01

    Recent performance analysis has improved confidence in achieving Q (= fusion power/auxiliary heating power)geq 10 in inductive operation in ITER. Performance analysis based on empirical scalings shows the feasibility of achieving Q geq 10 in inductive operation, particularly with improved modelling of helium exhaust. Analysis has also indicated the possibility that ITER can potentially demonstrate Q ~ 50, enabling studies of self-heated plasmas. Theory-based core modelling indicates the need for a high pedestal temperature (3.2-5.3 keV) to achieve Q geq 10, which is in the range of projections with presently available pedestal scalings. Pellet injection from the high-field side would be useful in enhancing Q and reducing edge localized mode (ELM) heat load in high plasma current operation. If the ELM heat load is not acceptable, it could be made tolerable by further tilting the target plate. Steady state operation scenarios at Q = 5 have been developed with modest requirements on confinement improvement and beta (HH98(y,2) geq 1.3 and bgrN geq 2.6). Stabilization of the resistive wall modes (RWMs), required in such regimes, is feasible with the present saddle coils and power supplies with double-wall structures taken into account. Recent analysis shows a potential of high power steady state operation with a fusion power of 0.7 GW at Q ~ 8. Achievement of the required bgrN ~ 3.6 by RWM stabilization is a possibility. Further analysis is also needed on reduction of the divertor target heat load.

  14. ITER Disruption Mitigation System Design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasmussen, David; Lyttle, M. S.; Baylor, L. R.; Carmichael, J. R.; Caughman, J. B. O.; Combs, S. K.; Ericson, N. M.; Bull-Ezell, N. D.; Fehling, D. T.; Fisher, P. W.; Foust, C. R.; Ha, T.; Meitner, S. J.; Nycz, A.; Shoulders, J. M.; Smith, S. F.; Warmack, R. J.; Coburn, J. D.; Gebhart, T. E.; Fisher, J. T.; Reed, J. R.; Younkin, T. R.

    2015-11-01

    The disruption mitigation system for ITER is under design and will require injection of up to 10 kPa-m3 of deuterium, helium, neon, or argon material for thermal mitigation and up to 100 kPa-m3 of material for suppression of runaway electrons. A hybrid unit compatible with the ITER nuclear, thermal and magnetic field environment is being developed. The unit incorporates a fast gas valve for massive gas injection (MGI) and a shattered pellet injector (SPI) to inject a massive spray of small particles, and can be operated as an SPI with a frozen pellet or an MGI without a pellet. Three ITER upper port locations will have three SPI/MGI units with a common delivery tube. One equatorial port location has space for sixteen similar SPI/MGI units. Supported by US DOE under DE-AC05-00OR22725.

  15. Solution of an eigenvalue problem for the Laplace operator on a spherical surface. M.S. Thesis - Maryland Univ.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walden, H.

    1974-01-01

    Methods for obtaining approximate solutions for the fundamental eigenvalue of the Laplace-Beltrami operator (also referred to as the membrane eigenvalue problem for the vibration equation) on the unit spherical surface are developed. Two specific types of spherical surface domains are considered: (1) the interior of a spherical triangle, i.e., the region bounded by arcs of three great circles, and (2) the exterior of a great circle arc extending for less than pi radians on the sphere (a spherical surface with a slit). In both cases, zero boundary conditions are imposed. In order to solve the resulting second-order elliptic partial differential equations in two independent variables, a finite difference approximation is derived. The symmetric (generally five-point) finite difference equations that develop are written in matrix form and then solved by the iterative method of point successive overrelaxation. Upon convergence of this iterative method, the fundamental eigenvalue is approximated by iteration utilizing the power method as applied to the finite Rayleigh quotient.

  16. Modelling of steady state erosion of CFC actively water-cooled mock-up for the ITER divertor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ogorodnikova, O. V.

    2008-04-01

    Calculations of the physical and chemical erosion of CFC (carbon fibre composite) monoblocks as outer vertical target of the ITER divertor during normal operation regimes have been done. Off-normal events and ELM's are not considered here. For a set of components under thermal and particles loads at glancing incident angle, variations in the material properties and/or assembly of defects could result in different erosion of actively-cooled components and, thus, in temperature instabilities. Operation regimes where the temperature instability takes place are investigated. It is shown that the temperature and erosion instabilities, probably, are not a critical point for the present design of ITER vertical target if a realistic variation of material properties is assumed, namely, the difference in the thermal conductivities of the neighbouring monoblocks is 20% and the maximum allowable size of a defect between CFC armour and cooling tube is +/-90° in circumferential direction from the apex.

  17. Fast and Epsilon-Optimal Discretized Pursuit Learning Automata.

    PubMed

    Zhang, JunQi; Wang, Cheng; Zhou, MengChu

    2015-10-01

    Learning automata (LA) are powerful tools for reinforcement learning. A discretized pursuit LA is the most popular one among them. During an iteration its operation consists of three basic phases: 1) selecting the next action; 2) finding the optimal estimated action; and 3) updating the state probability. However, when the number of actions is large, the learning becomes extremely slow because there are too many updates to be made at each iteration. The increased updates are mostly from phases 1 and 3. A new fast discretized pursuit LA with assured ε -optimality is proposed to perform both phases 1 and 3 with the computational complexity independent of the number of actions. Apart from its low computational complexity, it achieves faster convergence speed than the classical one when operating in stationary environments. This paper can promote the applications of LA toward the large-scale-action oriented area that requires efficient reinforcement learning tools with assured ε -optimality, fast convergence speed, and low computational complexity for each iteration.

  18. An Automated Baseline Correction Method Based on Iterative Morphological Operations.

    PubMed

    Chen, Yunliang; Dai, Liankui

    2018-05-01

    Raman spectra usually suffer from baseline drift caused by fluorescence or other reasons. Therefore, baseline correction is a necessary and crucial step that must be performed before subsequent processing and analysis of Raman spectra. An automated baseline correction method based on iterative morphological operations is proposed in this work. The method can adaptively determine the structuring element first and then gradually remove the spectral peaks during iteration to get an estimated baseline. Experiments on simulated data and real-world Raman data show that the proposed method is accurate, fast, and flexible for handling different kinds of baselines in various practical situations. The comparison of the proposed method with some state-of-the-art baseline correction methods demonstrates its advantages over the existing methods in terms of accuracy, adaptability, and flexibility. Although only Raman spectra are investigated in this paper, the proposed method is hopefully to be used for the baseline correction of other analytical instrumental signals, such as IR spectra and chromatograms.

  19. AC loss, interstrand resistance and mechanical properties of prototype EU DEMO TF conductors up to 30 000 load cycles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yagotintsev, K.; Nijhuis, A.

    2018-07-01

    Two prototype Nb3Sn cable-in-conduit conductors conductors were designed and manufactured for the toroidal field (TF) magnet system of the envisaged European DEMO fusion reactor. The AC loss, contact resistance and mechanical properties of two sample conductors were tested in the Twente Cryogenic Cable Press under cyclic load up to 30 000 cycles. Though both conductors were designed to operate at 82 kA in a background magnetic field of 13.6 T, they reflect different approaches with respect to the magnet winding pack assembly. The first approach is based on react and wind technology while the second is the more common wind and react technology. Each conductor was tested first for AC loss in virgin condition without handling. The impact of Lorentz load during magnet operation was simulated using the cable press. In the press each conductor specimen was subjected to transverse cyclic load up to 30 000 cycles in liquid helium bath at 4.2 K. Here a summary of results for AC loss, contact resistance, conductor deformation, mechanical heat production and conductor stiffness evolution during cycling of the load is presented. Both conductors showed similar mechanical behaviour but quite different AC loss. In comparison with previously tested ITER TF conductors, both DEMO TF conductors possess very low contact resistance resulting in high coupling loss. At the same time, load cycling has limited impact on properties of DEMO TF conductors in comparison with ITER TF conductors.

  20. MeProRisk - a Joint Venture for Minimizing Risk in Geothermal Reservoir Development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clauser, C.; Marquart, G.

    2009-12-01

    Exploration and development of geothermal reservoirs for the generation of electric energy involves high engineering and economic risks due to the need for 3-D geophysical surface surveys and deep boreholes. The MeProRisk project provides a strategy guideline for reducing these risks by combining cross-disciplinary information from different specialists: Scientists from three German universities and two private companies contribute with new methods in seismic modeling and interpretation, numerical reservoir simulation, estimation of petrophysical parameters, and 3-D visualization. The approach chosen in MeProRisk consists in considering prospecting and developing of geothermal reservoirs as an iterative process. A first conceptual model for fluid flow and heat transport simulation can be developed based on limited available initial information on geology and rock properties. In the next step, additional data is incorporated which is based on (a) new seismic interpretation methods designed for delineating fracture systems, (b) statistical studies on large numbers of rock samples for estimating reliable rock parameters, (c) in situ estimates of the hydraulic conductivity tensor. This results in a continuous refinement of the reservoir model where inverse modelling of fluid flow and heat transport allows infering the uncertainty and resolution of the model at each iteration step. This finally yields a calibrated reservoir model which may be used to direct further exploration by optimizing additional borehole locations, estimate the uncertainty of key operational and economic parameters, and optimize the long-term operation of a geothermal resrvoir.

  1. EC power management and NTM control in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, Francesca; Fredrickson, E.; Henderson, M.; Bertelli, N.; Farina, D.; Figini, L.; Nowak, S.; Poli, E.; Sauter, O.

    2016-10-01

    The suppression of Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs) is an essential requirement for the achievement of the demonstration baseline in ITER. The Electron Cyclotron upper launcher is specifically designed to provide highly localized heating and current drive for NTM stabilization. In order to assess the power management for shared applications, we have performed time-dependent simulations for ITER scenarios covering operation from half to full field. The free-boundary TRANSP simulations evolve the magnetic equilibrium and the pressure profiles in response to the heating and current drive sources and are interfaced with a GRE for the evolution of size and frequency of the magnetic islands. Combined with a feedback control of the EC power and the steering angle, these simulations are used to model the plasma response to NTM control, accounting for the misalignment of the EC deposition with the resonant surfaces, uncertainties in the magnetic equilibrium reconstruction and in the magnetic island detection threshold. Simulations indicate that the threshold for detection of the island should not exceed 2-3cm, that pre-emptive control is a preferable option, and that for safe operation the power needed for NTM control should be reserved, rather than shared with other applications. Work supported by ITER under IO/RFQ/13/9550/JTR and by DOE under DE-AC02-09CH11466.

  2. Boundary plasma heat flux width measurements for poloidal magnetic fields above 1 Tesla in the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brunner, Dan; Labombard, Brian; Kuang, Adam; Terry, Jim; Alcator C-Mod Team

    2017-10-01

    The boundary heat flux width, along with the total power flowing into the boundary, sets the power exhaust challenge for tokamaks. A multi-machine boundary heat flux width database found that the heat flux width in H-modes scaled inversely with poloidal magnetic field (Bp) and was independent of machine size. The maximum Bp in the database was 0.8 T, whereas the ITER 15 MA, Q =10 scenario will be 1.2 T. New measurements of the boundary heat flux width in Alcator C-Mod extend the international database to plasmas with Bp up to 1.3 T. C-Mod was the only experiment able to operate at ITER-level Bp. These new measurements are from over 300 plasma shots in L-, I-, and EDA H-modes spanning essentially the whole operating space in C-Mod. We find that the inverse-Bp dependence of the heat flux width in H-modes continues to ITER-level Bp, further reinforcing the empirical projection of 500 μm heat flux width for ITER. We find 50% scatter around the inverse-Bp scaling and are searching for the `hidden variables' causing this scatter. Supported by USDoE award DE-FC02-99ER54512.

  3. Evaluation of the Fretting Resistance of the High Voltage Insulation on the ITER Magnet Feeder Busbars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clayton, N.; Crouchen, M.; Evans, D.; Gung, C.-Y.; Su, M.; Devred, A.; Piccin, R.

    2017-12-01

    The high voltage (HV) insulation on the ITER magnet feeder superconducting busbars and current leads will be prepared from S-glass fabric, pre-impregnated with an epoxy resin, which is interleaved with polyimide film and wrapped onto the components and cured during feeder manufacture. The insulation architecture consists of nine half-lapped layers of glass/Kapton, which is then enveloped in a ground-screen, and two further half-lapped layers of glass pre-preg for mechanical protection. The integrity of the HV insulation is critical in order to inhibit electrical arcs within the feeders. The insulation over the entire length of the HV components (bus bar, current leads and joints) must provide a level of voltage isolation of 30 kV. In operation, the insulation on ITER busbars will be subjected to high mechanical loads, arising from Lorentz forces, and in addition will be subjected to fretting erosion against stainless steel clamps, as the pulsed nature of some magnets results in longitudinal movement of the busbar. This work was aimed at assessing the wear on, and the changes in, the electrical properties of the insulation when subjected to typical ITER operating conditions. High voltage tests demonstrated that the electrical isolation of the insulation was intact after the fretting test.

  4. Iterative Methods for the Non-LTE Transfer of Polarized Radiation: Resonance Line Polarization in One-dimensional Atmospheres

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trujillo Bueno, Javier; Manso Sainz, Rafael

    1999-05-01

    This paper shows how to generalize to non-LTE polarization transfer some operator splitting methods that were originally developed for solving unpolarized transfer problems. These are the Jacobi-based accelerated Λ-iteration (ALI) method of Olson, Auer, & Buchler and the iterative schemes based on Gauss-Seidel and successive overrelaxation (SOR) iteration of Trujillo Bueno and Fabiani Bendicho. The theoretical framework chosen for the formulation of polarization transfer problems is the quantum electrodynamics (QED) theory of Landi Degl'Innocenti, which specifies the excitation state of the atoms in terms of the irreducible tensor components of the atomic density matrix. This first paper establishes the grounds of our numerical approach to non-LTE polarization transfer by concentrating on the standard case of scattering line polarization in a gas of two-level atoms, including the Hanle effect due to a weak microturbulent and isotropic magnetic field. We begin demonstrating that the well-known Λ-iteration method leads to the self-consistent solution of this type of problem if one initializes using the ``exact'' solution corresponding to the unpolarized case. We show then how the above-mentioned splitting methods can be easily derived from this simple Λ-iteration scheme. We show that our SOR method is 10 times faster than the Jacobi-based ALI method, while our implementation of the Gauss-Seidel method is 4 times faster. These iterative schemes lead to the self-consistent solution independently of the chosen initialization. The convergence rate of these iterative methods is very high; they do not require either the construction or the inversion of any matrix, and the computing time per iteration is similar to that of the Λ-iteration method.

  5. ITER Baseline Scenario with ECCD Applied to Neoclassical Tearing Modes in DIII-D

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Welander, A. G.; La Haye, R. J.; Lohr, J. M.; Humphreys, D. A.; Prater, R.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Kolemen, E.; Turco, F.; Olofsson, E.

    2015-11-01

    The neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) is a magnetic island that can occur on flux surfaces where the safety factor q is a rational number. Both m/n=3/2 and 2/1 NTM's degrade confinement, and the 2/1 mode often locks to the wall and disrupts the plasma. An NTM can be suppressed by depositing electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) on the q-surface by injecting microwave beams into the plasma from gyrotrons. Recent DIII-D experiments have studied the application of ECCD/ECRH in the ITER Baseline Scenario. The power required from the gyrotrons can be significant enough to impact the fusion gain, Q in ITER. However, if gyrotron power could be minimized or turned off in ITER when not needed, this impact would be small. In fact, tearing-stable operation at low torque has been achieved previously in DIII-D without EC power. A vision for NTM control in ITER will be described together with results obtained from simulations and experiments in DIII-D under ITER like conditions. Work supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-AC02-09CH11466, DE-FG02-04ER54761.

  6. Iterative updating of model error for Bayesian inversion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calvetti, Daniela; Dunlop, Matthew; Somersalo, Erkki; Stuart, Andrew

    2018-02-01

    In computational inverse problems, it is common that a detailed and accurate forward model is approximated by a computationally less challenging substitute. The model reduction may be necessary to meet constraints in computing time when optimization algorithms are used to find a single estimate, or to speed up Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) calculations in the Bayesian framework. The use of an approximate model introduces a discrepancy, or modeling error, that may have a detrimental effect on the solution of the ill-posed inverse problem, or it may severely distort the estimate of the posterior distribution. In the Bayesian paradigm, the modeling error can be considered as a random variable, and by using an estimate of the probability distribution of the unknown, one may estimate the probability distribution of the modeling error and incorporate it into the inversion. We introduce an algorithm which iterates this idea to update the distribution of the model error, leading to a sequence of posterior distributions that are demonstrated empirically to capture the underlying truth with increasing accuracy. Since the algorithm is not based on rejections, it requires only limited full model evaluations. We show analytically that, in the linear Gaussian case, the algorithm converges geometrically fast with respect to the number of iterations when the data is finite dimensional. For more general models, we introduce particle approximations of the iteratively generated sequence of distributions; we also prove that each element of the sequence converges in the large particle limit under a simplifying assumption. We show numerically that, as in the linear case, rapid convergence occurs with respect to the number of iterations. Additionally, we show through computed examples that point estimates obtained from this iterative algorithm are superior to those obtained by neglecting the model error.

  7. Scalar flux modeling in turbulent flames using iterative deconvolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nikolaou, Z. M.; Cant, R. S.; Vervisch, L.

    2018-04-01

    In the context of large eddy simulations, deconvolution is an attractive alternative for modeling the unclosed terms appearing in the filtered governing equations. Such methods have been used in a number of studies for non-reacting and incompressible flows; however, their application in reacting flows is limited in comparison. Deconvolution methods originate from clearly defined operations, and in theory they can be used in order to model any unclosed term in the filtered equations including the scalar flux. In this study, an iterative deconvolution algorithm is used in order to provide a closure for the scalar flux term in a turbulent premixed flame by explicitly filtering the deconvoluted fields. The assessment of the method is conducted a priori using a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation database of a turbulent freely propagating premixed flame in a canonical configuration. In contrast to most classical a priori studies, the assessment is more stringent as it is performed on a much coarser mesh which is constructed using the filtered fields as obtained from the direct simulations. For the conditions tested in this study, deconvolution is found to provide good estimates both of the scalar flux and of its divergence.

  8. A study of the effects of strong magnetic fields on the image resolution of PET scanners

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burdette, Don J.

    Very high resolution images can be achieved in small animal PET systems utilizing solid state silicon pad detectors. In such systems using detectors with sub-millimeter intrinsic resolutions, the range of the positron is the largest contribution to the image blur. The size of the positron range effect depends on the initial positron energy and hence the radioactive tracer used. For higher energy positron emitters, such as 68Ga and 94mTc, the variation of the annihilation point dominates the spatial resolution. In this study two techniques are investigated to improve the image resolution of PET scanners limited by the range of the positron. One, the positron range can be reduced by embedding the PET field of view in a strong magnetic field. We have developed a silicon pad detector based PET instrument that can operate in strong magnetic fields with an image resolution of 0.7 mm FWHM to study this effect. Two, iterative reconstruction methods can be used to statistically correct for the range of the positron. Both strong magnetic fields and iterative reconstruction algorithms that statistically account for the positron range distribution are investigated in this work.

  9. Plasma core power exhaust in ELMy H-Mode in JET with ITER-Like Wall

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guillemaut, C.; Metzger, C.; Appel, L.; Drewelow, P.; Horvath, L.; Matthews, G. F.; Szepesi, G.; Solano, E. R.; contributors, JET

    2018-07-01

    The mitigation of target heat load in future steady state fusion devices will require dissipation of a significant amount of power through radiation. Plasma operations relying on ELMy H-modes could be problematic since ELMs may transport substantial amounts of power to the target without significant dissipation. Therefore, estimation of the average ELM power exhaust from the plasma core is crucial to evaluate the potential limitation on the power dissipation in ELMy H-mode regime. A series of more than 50 Type-I ELMy H-mode discharges in JET with ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW) with a wide range of conditions has been used here to compare the average ELM power to the average input power. The effect of input power, ELM frequency, plasma current, confinement and radiation on ELM power exhaust has been studied and reported in this paper. Good agreement has been found here with previous studies made in carbon machines. This work suggests that it should not be possible to dissipate more than 70%–80% of the input power in Type-I ELMy H-modes in JET-ILW which is consistent with the maximum radiative fraction found experimentally.

  10. Ion-source modeling and improved performance of the CAMS high-intensity Cs-sputter ion source

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brown, T. A.; Roberts, M. L.; Southon, J. R.

    2000-10-01

    The interior of the high-intensity Cs-sputter source used in routine operations at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) has been computer modeled using the program NEDLab, with the aim of improving negative ion output. Space charge effects on ion trajectories within the source were modeled through a successive iteration process involving the calculation of ion trajectories through Poisson-equation-determined electric fields, followed by calculation of modified electric fields incorporating the charge distribution from the previously calculated ion trajectories. The program has several additional features that are useful in ion source modeling: (1) averaging of space charge distributions over successive iterations to suppress instabilities, (2) Child's Law modeling of space charge limited ion emission from surfaces, and (3) emission of particular ion groups with a thermal energy distribution and at randomized angles. The results of the modeling effort indicated that significant modification of the interior geometry of the source would double Cs + ion production from our spherical ionizer and produce a significant increase in negative ion output from the source. The results of the implementation of the new geometry were found to be consistent with the model results.

  11. On some Aitken-like acceleration of the Schwarz method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garbey, M.; Tromeur-Dervout, D.

    2002-12-01

    In this paper we present a family of domain decomposition based on Aitken-like acceleration of the Schwarz method seen as an iterative procedure with a linear rate of convergence. We first present the so-called Aitken-Schwarz procedure for linear differential operators. The solver can be a direct solver when applied to the Helmholtz problem with five-point finite difference scheme on regular grids. We then introduce the Steffensen-Schwarz variant which is an iterative domain decomposition solver that can be applied to linear and nonlinear problems. We show that these solvers have reasonable numerical efficiency compared to classical fast solvers for the Poisson problem or multigrids for more general linear and nonlinear elliptic problems. However, the salient feature of our method is that our algorithm has high tolerance to slow network in the context of distributed parallel computing and is attractive, generally speaking, to use with computer architecture for which performance is limited by the memory bandwidth rather than the flop performance of the CPU. This is nowadays the case for most parallel. computer using the RISC processor architecture. We will illustrate this highly desirable property of our algorithm with large-scale computing experiments.

  12. Drift effects on the tokamak power scrape-off width

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meier, E. T.; Goldston, R. J.; Kaveeva, E. G.; Mordijck, S.; Rozhansky, V. A.; Senichenkov, I. Yu.; Voskoboynikov, S. P.

    2015-11-01

    Recent experimental analysis suggests that the scrape-off layer (SOL) heat flux width (λq) for ITER will be near 1 mm, sharply narrowing the planned operating window. In this work, motivated by the heuristic drift (HD) model, which predicts the observed inverse plasma current scaling, SOLPS-ITER is used to explore drift effects on λq. Modeling focuses on an H-mode DIII-D discharge. In initial results, target recycling is set to 90%, resulting in sheath-limited SOL conditions. SOL particle diffusivity (DSOL) is varied from 0.1 to 1 m2/s. When drifts are included, λq is insensitive to DSOL, consistent with the HD model, with λq near 3 mm; in no-drift cases, λq varies from 2 to 5 mm. Drift effects depress near-separatrix potential, generating a channel of strong electron heat convection that is insensitive to DSOL. Sensitivities to thermal diffusivities, plasma current, toroidal magnetic field, and device size are also assessed. These initial results will be discussed in detail, and progress toward modeling experimentally relevant high-recycling conditions will be reported. Supported by U.S. DOE Contract DE-SC0010434.

  13. Integrated tokamak modeling: when physics informs engineering and research planning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, Francesca

    2017-10-01

    Simulations that integrate virtually all the relevant engineering and physics aspects of a real tokamak experiment are a power tool for experimental interpretation, model validation and planning for both present and future devices. This tutorial will guide through the building blocks of an ``integrated'' tokamak simulation, such as magnetic flux diffusion, thermal, momentum and particle transport, external heating and current drive sources, wall particle sources and sinks. Emphasis is given to the connection and interplay between external actuators and plasma response, between the slow time scales of the current diffusion and the fast time scales of transport, and how reduced and high-fidelity models can contribute to simulate a whole device. To illustrate the potential and limitations of integrated tokamak modeling for discharge prediction, a helium plasma scenario for the ITER pre-nuclear phase is taken as an example. This scenario presents challenges because it requires core-edge integration and advanced models for interaction between waves and fast-ions, which are subject to a limited experimental database for validation and guidance. Starting from a scenario obtained by re-scaling parameters from the demonstration inductive ``ITER baseline'', it is shown how self-consistent simulations that encompass both core and edge plasma regions, as well as high-fidelity heating and current drive source models are needed to set constraints on the density, magnetic field and heating scheme. This tutorial aims at demonstrating how integrated modeling, when used with adequate level of criticism, can not only support design of operational scenarios, but also help to asses the limitations and gaps in the available models, thus indicating where improved modeling tools are required and how present experiments can help their validation and inform research planning. Work supported by DOE under DE-AC02-09CH1146.

  14. Exploiting Multi-Step Sample Trajectories for Approximate Value Iteration

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-09-01

    WORK UNIT NUMBER IH 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) AFRL/ RISC 525 Brooks Road, Rome NY 13441-4505 Binghamton University...S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Air Force Research Laboratory/Information Directorate Rome Research Site/ RISC 525 Brooks Road Rome NY 13441-4505 10. SPONSOR...iteration methods for reinforcement learning (RL) generalize experience from limited samples across large state-action spaces. The function approximators

  15. Review of particle-in-cell modeling for the extraction region of large negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wünderlich, D.; Mochalskyy, S.; Montellano, I. M.; Revel, A.

    2018-05-01

    Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are used since the early 1960s for calculating self-consistently the motion of charged particles in plasmas, taking into account external electric and magnetic fields as well as the fields created by the particles itself. Due to the used very small time steps (in the order of the inverse plasma frequency) and mesh size, the computational requirements can be very high and they drastically increase with increasing plasma density and size of the calculation domain. Thus, usually small computational domains and/or reduced dimensionality are used. In the last years, the available central processing unit (CPU) power strongly increased. Together with a massive parallelization of the codes, it is now possible to describe in 3D the extraction of charged particles from a plasma, using calculation domains with an edge length of several centimeters, consisting of one extraction aperture, the plasma in direct vicinity of the aperture, and a part of the extraction system. Large negative hydrogen or deuterium ion sources are essential parts of the neutral beam injection (NBI) system in future fusion devices like the international fusion experiment ITER and the demonstration reactor (DEMO). For ITER NBI RF driven sources with a source area of 0.9 × 1.9 m2 and 1280 extraction apertures will be used. The extraction of negative ions is accompanied by the co-extraction of electrons which are deflected onto an electron dump. Typically, the maximum negative extracted ion current is limited by the amount and the temporal instability of the co-extracted electrons, especially for operation in deuterium. Different PIC codes are available for the extraction region of large driven negative ion sources for fusion. Additionally, some effort is ongoing in developing codes that describe in a simplified manner (coarser mesh or reduced dimensionality) the plasma of the whole ion source. The presentation first gives a brief overview of the current status of the ion source development for ITER NBI and of the PIC method. Different PIC codes for the extraction region are introduced as well as the coupling to codes describing the whole source (PIC codes or fluid codes). Presented and discussed are different physical and numerical aspects of applying PIC codes to negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion as well as selected code results. The main focus of future calculations will be the meniscus formation and identifying measures for reducing the co-extracted electrons, in particular for deuterium operation. The recent results of the 3D PIC code ONIX (calculation domain: one extraction aperture and its vicinity) for the ITER prototype source (1/8 size of the ITER NBI source) are presented.

  16. Design advances of the Core Plasma Thomson Scattering diagnostic for ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scannell, R.; Maslov, M.; Naylor, G.; O'Gorman, T.; Kempenaars, M.; Carr, M.; Bilkova, P.; Bohm, P.; Giudicotti, L.; Pasqualotto, R.; Bassan, M.; Vayakis, G.; Walsh, M.; Huxford, R.

    2017-11-01

    The Core Plasma Thomson Scattering (CPTS) diagnostic on ITER performs measurements of the electron temperature and density profiles which are critical to the understanding of the ITER plasma. The diagnostic must satisfy the ITER project requirements, which translate to requirements on performance as well as reliability, safety and engineering. The implications are particularly challenging for beam dump lifetime, the need for continuous active alignment of the diagnostic during operation, allowable neutron flux in the interspace and the protection of the first mirror from plasma deposition. The CPTS design has been evolving over a number of years. One recent improvement is that the collection optics have been modified to include freeform surfaces. These freeform surfaces introduce extra complexity to the manufacturing but provide greater flexibility in the design. The greater flexibility introduced allows for example to lower neutron throughput or use fewer surfaces while improving optical performance. Performance assessment has shown that scattering from a 1064 nm laser will be sufficient to meet the measurement requirements, at least for the system at the start of operations. Optical transmission at λ < 600 nm is expected to degrade over the ITER lifetime due to fibre darkening and deposition on the first mirror. For this reason, it is proposed that the diagnostic should additionally include measurements of TS 'depolarised light' and a 1319 nm laser system. These additional techniques have different spectral and polarisation dependencies compared to scattering from a 1064 nm laser and hence provide greater robustness into the inferred measurements of Te and ne in the core.

  17. Synchronized fusion development considering physics, materials and heat transfer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wong, C. P. C.; Liu, Y.; Duan, X. R.; Xu, M.; Li, Q.; Feng, K. M.; Zheng, G. Y.; Li, Z. X.; Wang, X. Y.; Li, B.; Zhang, G. S.

    2017-12-01

    Significant achievements have been made in the last 60 years in the development of fusion energy with the tokamak configuration. Based on the accumulated knowledge, the world is embarking on the construction and operation of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) with a production of 500 MWf fusion power and the demonstration of physics Q  =  10. ITER will demonstrate D-T burn physics for a duration of a few hundred seconds to prepare for the next long-burn or steady state nuclear testing tokamak operating at much higher neutron fluence. With the evolution into a steady state nuclear device, such as the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), it is necessary to examine the boundary conditions imposed by the combined development of tokamak physics, fusion materials and fusion technology for a reactor. The development of ferritic steel alloys as the structural material suitable for use at high neutron fluence leads to the use of helium as the most likely reactor coolant. This points to the fundamental technology limitation on the removal of chamber wall maximum heat flux at around 1 MW m-2 and an average heat flux of 0.1 MW m-2 for the next test reactor. Future reactor performance will then depend on the control of spatial and temporal edge heat flux peaking in order to increase the average heat flux to the chamber wall. With these severe material and technological limitations, system studies were used to scope out a few robust steady state synchronized fusion reactor (SFR) designs. As an example, a low fusion power design at 131.6 MWf, which can satisfy steady state design requirements, would have a major radius of 5.5 m and minor radius of 1.6 m. Such a design with even more advanced structural materials like W f/W composite could allow higher performance and provide a net electrical production of 62 MWe. These can be incorporated into the CFETR program.

  18. A sparse matrix algorithm on the Boolean vector machine

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wagner, Robert A.; Patrick, Merrell L.

    1988-01-01

    VLSI technology is being used to implement a prototype Boolean Vector Machine (BVM), which is a large network of very small processors with equally small memories that operate in SIMD mode; these use bit-serial arithmetic, and communicate via cube-connected cycles network. The BVM's bit-serial arithmetic and the small memories of individual processors are noted to compromise the system's effectiveness in large numerical problem applications. Attention is presently given to the implementation of a basic matrix-vector iteration algorithm for space matrices of the BVM, in order to generate over 1 billion useful floating-point operations/sec for this iteration algorithm. The algorithm is expressed in a novel language designated 'BVM'.

  19. Domain decomposition methods in computational fluid dynamics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gropp, William D.; Keyes, David E.

    1991-01-01

    The divide-and-conquer paradigm of iterative domain decomposition, or substructuring, has become a practical tool in computational fluid dynamic applications because of its flexibility in accommodating adaptive refinement through locally uniform (or quasi-uniform) grids, its ability to exploit multiple discretizations of the operator equations, and the modular pathway it provides towards parallelism. These features are illustrated on the classic model problem of flow over a backstep using Newton's method as the nonlinear iteration. Multiple discretizations (second-order in the operator and first-order in the preconditioner) and locally uniform mesh refinement pay dividends separately, and they can be combined synergistically. Sample performance results are included from an Intel iPSC/860 hypercube implementation.

  20. Final case for a stainless steel diagnostic first wall on ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pitts, R. A.; Bazylev, B.; Linke, J.; Landman, I.; Lehnen, M.; Loesser, D.; Loewenhoff, Th.; Merola, M.; Roccella, R.; Saibene, G.; Smith, M.; Udintsev, V. S.

    2015-08-01

    In 2010 the ITER Organization (IO) proposed to eliminate the beryllium armour on the plasma-facing surface of the diagnostic port plugs and instead to use bare stainless steel (SS), simplifying the design and providing significant cost reduction. Transport simulations at the IO confirmed that charge-exchange sputtering of the SS surfaces would not affect burning plasma operation through core impurity contamination, but a second key issue is the potential melt damage/material loss inflicted by the intense photon radiation flashes expected at the thermal quench of disruptions mitigated by massive gas injection. This paper addresses this second issue through a combination of ITER relevant experimental heat load tests and qualitative theoretical arguments of melt layer stability. It demonstrates that SS can be employed as material for the port plug plasma-facing surface and this has now been adopted into the ITER baseline.

  1. Status of the ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating and Current Drive System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Darbos, Caroline; Albajar, Ferran; Bonicelli, Tullio; Carannante, Giuseppe; Cavinato, Mario; Cismondi, Fabio; Denisov, Grigory; Farina, Daniela; Gagliardi, Mario; Gandini, Franco; Gassmann, Thibault; Goodman, Timothy; Hanson, Gregory; Henderson, Mark A.; Kajiwara, Ken; McElhaney, Karen; Nousiainen, Risto; Oda, Yasuhisa; Omori, Toshimichi; Oustinov, Alexander; Parmar, Darshankumar; Popov, Vladimir L.; Purohit, Dharmesh; Rao, Shambhu Laxmikanth; Rasmussen, David; Rathod, Vipal; Ronden, Dennis M. S.; Saibene, Gabriella; Sakamoto, Keishi; Sartori, Filippo; Scherer, Theo; Singh, Narinder Pal; Strauß, Dirk; Takahashi, Koji

    2016-01-01

    The electron cyclotron (EC) heating and current drive (H&CD) system developed for the ITER is made of 12 sets of high-voltage power supplies feeding 24 gyrotrons connected through 24 transmission lines (TL), to five launchers, four located in upper ports and one at the equatorial level. Nearly all procurements are in-kind, following general ITER philosophy, and will come from Europe, India, Japan, Russia and the USA. The full system is designed to couple to the plasma 20 MW among the 24 MW generated power, at the frequency of 170 GHz, for various physics applications such as plasma start-up, central H&CD and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity control. The design takes present day technology and extends toward high-power continuous operation, which represents a large step forward as compared to the present state of the art. The ITER EC system will be a stepping stone to future EC systems for DEMO and beyond.

  2. Image preprocessing for improving computational efficiency in implementation of restoration and superresolution algorithms.

    PubMed

    Sundareshan, Malur K; Bhattacharjee, Supratik; Inampudi, Radhika; Pang, Ho-Yuen

    2002-12-10

    Computational complexity is a major impediment to the real-time implementation of image restoration and superresolution algorithms in many applications. Although powerful restoration algorithms have been developed within the past few years utilizing sophisticated mathematical machinery (based on statistical optimization and convex set theory), these algorithms are typically iterative in nature and require a sufficient number of iterations to be executed to achieve the desired resolution improvement that may be needed to meaningfully perform postprocessing image exploitation tasks in practice. Additionally, recent technological breakthroughs have facilitated novel sensor designs (focal plane arrays, for instance) that make it possible to capture megapixel imagery data at video frame rates. A major challenge in the processing of these large-format images is to complete the execution of the image processing steps within the frame capture times and to keep up with the output rate of the sensor so that all data captured by the sensor can be efficiently utilized. Consequently, development of novel methods that facilitate real-time implementation of image restoration and superresolution algorithms is of significant practical interest and is the primary focus of this study. The key to designing computationally efficient processing schemes lies in strategically introducing appropriate preprocessing steps together with the superresolution iterations to tailor optimized overall processing sequences for imagery data of specific formats. For substantiating this assertion, three distinct methods for tailoring a preprocessing filter and integrating it with the superresolution processing steps are outlined. These methods consist of a region-of-interest extraction scheme, a background-detail separation procedure, and a scene-derived information extraction step for implementing a set-theoretic restoration of the image that is less demanding in computation compared with the superresolution iterations. A quantitative evaluation of the performance of these algorithms for restoring and superresolving various imagery data captured by diffraction-limited sensing operations are also presented.

  3. A multiresolution approach to iterative reconstruction algorithms in X-ray computed tomography.

    PubMed

    De Witte, Yoni; Vlassenbroeck, Jelle; Van Hoorebeke, Luc

    2010-09-01

    In computed tomography, the application of iterative reconstruction methods in practical situations is impeded by their high computational demands. Especially in high resolution X-ray computed tomography, where reconstruction volumes contain a high number of volume elements (several giga voxels), this computational burden prevents their actual breakthrough. Besides the large amount of calculations, iterative algorithms require the entire volume to be kept in memory during reconstruction, which quickly becomes cumbersome for large data sets. To overcome this obstacle, we present a novel multiresolution reconstruction, which greatly reduces the required amount of memory without significantly affecting the reconstructed image quality. It is shown that, combined with an efficient implementation on a graphical processing unit, the multiresolution approach enables the application of iterative algorithms in the reconstruction of large volumes at an acceptable speed using only limited resources.

  4. Forward marching procedure for separated boundary-layer flows

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carter, J. E.; Wornom, S. F.

    1975-01-01

    A forward-marching procedure for separated boundary-layer flows which permits the rapid and accurate solution of flows of limited extent is presented. The streamwise convection of vorticity in the reversed flow region is neglected, and this approximation is incorporated into a previously developed (Carter, 1974) inverse boundary-layer procedure. The equations are solved by the Crank-Nicolson finite-difference scheme in which column iteration is carried out at each streamwise station. Instabilities encountered in the column iterations are removed by introducing timelike terms in the finite-difference equations. This provides both unconditional diagonal dominance and a column iterative scheme, found to be stable using the von Neumann stability analysis.

  5. Extending SIESTA capabilities: removing field-periodic and stellarator symmetric limitations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cook, C. R.; Hirshman, S. P.; Sanchez, R.; Anderson, D. T.

    2011-10-01

    SIESTA is a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium code capable of resolving magnetic islands in toroidal plasma confinement devices. Currently SIESTA assumes that plasma perturbations, and thus also magnetic islands, are field-periodic. This limitation is being removed from the code by allowing the displacement toroidal mode number to not be restricted to multiples of the number of field periods. Extending SIESTA in this manner will allow larger, lower-order resonant islands to form in devices such as CTH. An example of a non-field-periodic perturbation in CTH will be demonstrated. Currently the code also operates in a stellarator-symmetric fashion in which an ``up-down'' symmetry is present at some toroidal angle. Nearly all of the current tokamaks (and ITER in the future) operate with a divertor and as such do not possess stellarator symmetry. Removal of this symmetry restriction requires including both sine and cosine terms in the Fourier expansion for the geometry of the device and the fields contained within. The current status of this extension of the code will be discussed, along with the method of implementation. U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.

  6. Status of the ITER Cryodistribution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chang, H.-S.; Vaghela, H.; Patel, P.; Rizzato, A.; Cursan, M.; Henry, D.; Forgeas, A.; Grillot, D.; Sarkar, B.; Muralidhara, S.; Das, J.; Shukla, V.; Adler, E.

    2017-12-01

    Since the conceptual design of the ITER Cryodistribution many modifications have been applied due to both system optimization and improved knowledge of the clients’ requirements. Process optimizations in the Cryoplant resulted in component simplifications whereas increased heat load in some of the superconducting magnet systems required more complicated process configuration but also the removal of a cold box was possible due to component arrangement standardization. Another cold box, planned for redundancy, has been removed due to the Tokamak in-Cryostat piping layout modification. In this proceeding we will summarize the present design status and component configuration of the ITER Cryodistribution with all changes implemented which aim at process optimization and simplification as well as operational reliability, stability and flexibility.

  7. Formation and sustainment of internal transport barriers in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor with the baseline heating mixa)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poli, Francesca M.; Kessel, Charles E.

    2013-05-01

    Plasmas with internal transport barriers (ITBs) are a potential and attractive route to steady-state operation in ITER. These plasmas exhibit radially localized regions of improved confinement with steep pressure gradients in the plasma core, which drive large bootstrap current and generate hollow current profiles and negative magnetic shear. This work examines the formation and sustainment of ITBs in ITER with electron cyclotron heating and current drive. The time-dependent transport simulations indicate that, with a trade-off of the power delivered to the equatorial and to the upper launcher, the sustainment of steady-state ITBs can be demonstrated in ITER with the baseline heating configuration.

  8. A 2D systems approach to iterative learning control for discrete linear processes with zero Markov parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hladowski, Lukasz; Galkowski, Krzysztof; Cai, Zhonglun; Rogers, Eric; Freeman, Chris T.; Lewin, Paul L.

    2011-07-01

    In this article a new approach to iterative learning control for the practically relevant case of deterministic discrete linear plants with uniform rank greater than unity is developed. The analysis is undertaken in a 2D systems setting that, by using a strong form of stability for linear repetitive processes, allows simultaneous consideration of both trial-to-trial error convergence and along the trial performance, resulting in design algorithms that can be computed using linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, the control laws are experimentally verified on a gantry robot that replicates a pick and place operation commonly found in a number of applications to which iterative learning control is applicable.

  9. Simple iterative construction of the optimized effective potential for orbital functionals, including exact exchange.

    PubMed

    Kümmel, Stephan; Perdew, John P

    2003-01-31

    For exchange-correlation functionals that depend explicitly on the Kohn-Sham orbitals, the potential V(xcsigma)(r) must be obtained as the solution of the optimized effective potential (OEP) integral equation. This is very demanding and has limited the use of orbital functionals. We demonstrate that instead the OEP can be obtained iteratively by solving the partial differential equations for the orbital shifts that exactify the Krieger-Li-Iafrate approximation. Unoccupied orbitals do not need to be calculated. Accuracy and efficiency of the method are shown for atoms and clusters using the exact-exchange energy. Counterintuitive asymptotic limits of the exact OEP are presented.

  10. Small Modifications of Curvilinear Coordinates and Successive Approximations Applied in Geopotential Determination

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holota, P.; Nesvadba, O.

    2016-12-01

    The mathematical apparatus currently applied for geopotential determination is undoubtedly quite developed. This concerns numerical methods as well as methods based on classical analysis, equally as classical and weak solution concepts. Nevertheless, the nature of the real surface of the Earth has its specific features and is still rather complex. The aim of this paper is to consider these limits and to seek a balance between the performance of an apparatus developed for the surface of the Earth smoothed (or simplified) up to a certain degree and an iteration procedure used to bridge the difference between the real and smoothed topography. The approach is applied for the solution of the linear gravimetric boundary value problem in geopotential determination. Similarly as in other branches of engineering and mathematical physics a transformation of coordinates is used that offers a possibility to solve an alternative between the boundary complexity and the complexity of the coefficients of the partial differential equation governing the solution. As examples the use of modified spherical and also modified ellipsoidal coordinates for the transformation of the solution domain is discussed. However, the complexity of the boundary is then reflected in the structure of Laplace's operator. This effect is taken into account by means of successive approximations. The structure of the respective iteration steps is derived and analyzed. On the level of individual iteration steps the attention is paid to the representation of the solution in terms of function bases or in terms of Green's functions. The convergence of the procedure and the efficiency of its use for geopotential determination is discussed.

  11. Impact and mitigation of disruptions with the ITER-like wall in JET

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lehnen, M.; Arnoux, G.; Brezinsek, S.; Flanagan, J.; Gerasimov, S. N.; Hartmann, N.; Hender, T. C.; Huber, A.; Jachmich, S.; Kiptily, V.; Kruezi, U.; Matthews, G. F.; Morris, J.; Plyusnin, V. V.; Reux, C.; Riccardo, V.; Sieglin, B.; de Vries, P. C.; EFDA Contributors, JET

    2013-09-01

    Disruptions are a critical issue for ITER because of the high thermal and magnetic energies that are released on short timescales, which results in extreme forces and heat loads. The choice of material of the plasma-facing components (PFCs) can have significant impact on the loads that arise during a disruption. With the ITER-like wall (ILW) in JET made of beryllium in the main chamber and tungsten in the divertor, the main finding is a low fraction of radiation. This has dropped significantly with the ILW from 50-100% of the total energy being dissipated during disruptions in CFC wall plasmas, to less than 50% on average and down to just 10% for vertical displacement events (VDEs). All other changes in disruption properties and loads are consequences of this low radiation: long current quenches (CQs), high vessel forces caused by halo currents and toroidal current asymmetries as well as severe heat loads. Temperatures close to the melting limit have been locally observed on upper first wall structures during deliberate VDE and even at plasma currents as low as 1.5 MA and thermal energy of about 1.5 MJ only. A high radiation fraction can be regained by massive injection of a mixture of 10% Ar with 90% D2. This accelerates the CQ thus reducing the halo current and sideways impulse. The temperature of PFCs stays below 400 °C. MGI is now a mandatory tool to mitigate disruptions in closed-loop operation for currents at and above 2.5 MA in JET.

  12. Predictions of toroidal rotation and torque sources arising in non-axisymmetric perturbed magnetic fields in tokamaks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Honda, M.; Satake, S.; Suzuki, Y.; Shinohara, K.; Yoshida, M.; Narita, E.; Nakata, M.; Aiba, N.; Shiraishi, J.; Hayashi, N.; Matsunaga, G.; Matsuyama, A.; Ide, S.

    2017-11-01

    Capabilities of the integrated framework consisting of TOPICS, OFMC, VMEC and FORTEC-3D, have been extended to calculate toroidal rotation in fully non-axisymmetric perturbed magnetic fields for demonstrating operation scenarios in actual tokamak geometry and conditions. The toroidally localized perturbed fields due to the test blanket modules and the tangential neutral beam ports in ITER augment the neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) substantially, while do not significantly influence losses of beam ions and alpha particles in an ITER L-mode discharge. The NTV takes up a large portion of total torque in ITER and fairly decelerates toroidal rotation, but the change in toroidal rotation may have limited effectiveness against turbulent heat transport. The error field correction coils installed in JT-60SA can externally apply the perturbed fields, which may alter the NTV and the resultant toroidal rotation profiles. However, the non-resonant n=18 components of the magnetic fields arising from the toroidal field ripple mainly contribute to the NTV, regardless of the presence of the applied field by the coil current of 10 kA , where n is the toroidal mode number. The theoretical model of the intrinsic torque due to the fluctuation-induced residual stress is calibrated by the JT-60U data. For five JT-60U discharges, the sign of the calibration factor conformed to the gyrokinetic linear stability analysis and a range of the amplitude thereof was revealed. This semi-empirical approach opens up access to an attempt on predicting toroidal rotation in H-mode plasmas.

  13. Managing and Communicating Operational Workflow: Designing and Implementing an Electronic Outpatient Whiteboard.

    PubMed

    Steitz, Bryan D; Weinberg, Stuart T; Danciu, Ioana; Unertl, Kim M

    2016-01-01

    Healthcare team members in emergency department contexts have used electronic whiteboard solutions to help manage operational workflow for many years. Ambulatory clinic settings have highly complex operational workflow, but are still limited in electronic assistance to communicate and coordinate work activities. To describe and discuss the design, implementation, use, and ongoing evolution of a coordination and collaboration tool supporting ambulatory clinic operational workflow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). The outpatient whiteboard tool was initially designed to support healthcare work related to an electronic chemotherapy order-entry application. After a highly successful initial implementation in an oncology context, a high demand emerged across the organization for the outpatient whiteboard implementation. Over the past 10 years, developers have followed an iterative user-centered design process to evolve the tool. The electronic outpatient whiteboard system supports 194 separate whiteboards and is accessed by over 2800 distinct users on a typical day. Clinics can configure their whiteboards to support unique workflow elements. Since initial release, features such as immunization clinical decision support have been integrated into the system, based on requests from end users. The success of the electronic outpatient whiteboard demonstrates the usefulness of an operational workflow tool within the ambulatory clinic setting. Operational workflow tools can play a significant role in supporting coordination, collaboration, and teamwork in ambulatory healthcare settings.

  14. Low-temperature tensile strength of the ITER-TF model coil insulation system after reactor irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bittner-Rohrhofer, K.; Humer, K.; Weber, H. W.

    The windings of the superconducting magnet coils for the ITER-FEAT fusion device are affected by high mechanical stresses at cryogenic temperatures and by a radiation environment, which impose certain constraints especially on the insulating materials. A glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) laminate, which consists of Kapton/R-glass-fiber reinforcement tapes, vacuum-impregnated in a DGEBA epoxy system, was used for the European toroidal field model coil turn insulation of ITER. In order to assess its mechanical properties under the actual operating conditions of ITER-FEAT, cryogenic (77 K) static tensile tests and tension-tension fatigue measurements were done before and after irradiation to a fast neutron fluence of 1×10 22 m -2 ( E>0.1 MeV), i.e. the ITER-FEAT design fluence level. We find that the mechanical strength and the fracture behavior of this GFRP are strongly influenced by the winding direction of the tape and by the radiation induced delamination process. In addition, the composite swells by 3%, forming bubbles inside the laminate, and loses weight (1.4%) at the design fluence.

  15. Multiphysics Engineering Analysis for an Integrated Design of ITER Diagnostic First Wall and Diagnostic Shield Module Design

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhai, Y.; Loesser, G.; Smith, M.

    ITER diagnostic first walls (DFWs) and diagnostic shield modules (DSMs) inside the port plugs (PPs) are designed to protect diagnostic instrument and components from a harsh plasma environment and provide structural support while allowing for diagnostic access to the plasma. The design of DFWs and DSMs are driven by 1) plasma radiation and nuclear heating during normal operation 2) electromagnetic loads during plasma events and associate component structural responses. A multi-physics engineering analysis protocol for the design has been established at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and it was used for the design of ITER DFWs and DSMs. The analyses weremore » performed to address challenging design issues based on resultant stresses and deflections of the DFW-DSM-PP assembly for the main load cases. ITER Structural Design Criteria for In-Vessel Components (SDC-IC) required for design by analysis and three major issues driving the mechanical design of ITER DFWs are discussed. The general guidelines for the DSM design have been established as a result of design parametric studies.« less

  16. Achieving algorithmic resilience for temporal integration through spectral deferred corrections

    DOE PAGES

    Grout, Ray; Kolla, Hemanth; Minion, Michael; ...

    2017-05-08

    Spectral deferred corrections (SDC) is an iterative approach for constructing higher-order-accurate numerical approximations of ordinary differential equations. SDC starts with an initial approximation of the solution defined at a set of Gaussian or spectral collocation nodes over a time interval and uses an iterative application of lower-order time discretizations applied to a correction equation to improve the solution at these nodes. Each deferred correction sweep increases the formal order of accuracy of the method up to the limit inherent in the accuracy defined by the collocation points. In this paper, we demonstrate that SDC is well suited to recovering frommore » soft (transient) hardware faults in the data. A strategy where extra correction iterations are used to recover from soft errors and provide algorithmic resilience is proposed. Specifically, in this approach the iteration is continued until the residual (a measure of the error in the approximation) is small relative to the residual of the first correction iteration and changes slowly between successive iterations. Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy for both canonical test problems and a comprehensive situation involving a mature scientific application code that solves the reacting Navier-Stokes equations for combustion research.« less

  17. Achieving algorithmic resilience for temporal integration through spectral deferred corrections

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Grout, Ray; Kolla, Hemanth; Minion, Michael

    2017-05-08

    Spectral deferred corrections (SDC) is an iterative approach for constructing higher- order accurate numerical approximations of ordinary differential equations. SDC starts with an initial approximation of the solution defined at a set of Gaussian or spectral collocation nodes over a time interval and uses an iterative application of lower-order time discretizations applied to a correction equation to improve the solution at these nodes. Each deferred correction sweep increases the formal order of accuracy of the method up to the limit inherent in the accuracy defined by the collocation points. In this paper, we demonstrate that SDC is well suited tomore » recovering from soft (transient) hardware faults in the data. A strategy where extra correction iterations are used to recover from soft errors and provide algorithmic resilience is proposed. Specifically, in this approach the iteration is continued until the residual (a measure of the error in the approximation) is small relative to the residual on the first correction iteration and changes slowly between successive iterations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy for both canonical test problems and a comprehen- sive situation involving a mature scientific application code that solves the reacting Navier-Stokes equations for combustion research.« less

  18. Achieving algorithmic resilience for temporal integration through spectral deferred corrections

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Grout, Ray; Kolla, Hemanth; Minion, Michael

    2017-05-08

    Spectral deferred corrections (SDC) is an iterative approach for constructing higher-order-accurate numerical approximations of ordinary differential equations. SDC starts with an initial approximation of the solution defined at a set of Gaussian or spectral collocation nodes over a time interval and uses an iterative application of lower-order time discretizations applied to a correction equation to improve the solution at these nodes. Each deferred correction sweep increases the formal order of accuracy of the method up to the limit inherent in the accuracy defined by the collocation points. In this paper, we demonstrate that SDC is well suited to recovering frommore » soft (transient) hardware faults in the data. A strategy where extra correction iterations are used to recover from soft errors and provide algorithmic resilience is proposed. Specifically, in this approach the iteration is continued until the residual (a measure of the error in the approximation) is small relative to the residual of the first correction iteration and changes slowly between successive iterations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy for both canonical test problems and a comprehensive situation involving a mature scientific application code that solves the reacting Navier-Stokes equations for combustion research.« less

  19. Robust determination of the chemical potential in the pole expansion and selected inversion method for solving Kohn-Sham density functional theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jia, Weile; Lin, Lin

    2017-10-01

    Fermi operator expansion (FOE) methods are powerful alternatives to diagonalization type methods for solving Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KSDFT). One example is the pole expansion and selected inversion (PEXSI) method, which approximates the Fermi operator by rational matrix functions and reduces the computational complexity to at most quadratic scaling for solving KSDFT. Unlike diagonalization type methods, the chemical potential often cannot be directly read off from the result of a single step of evaluation of the Fermi operator. Hence multiple evaluations are needed to be sequentially performed to compute the chemical potential to ensure the correct number of electrons within a given tolerance. This hinders the performance of FOE methods in practice. In this paper, we develop an efficient and robust strategy to determine the chemical potential in the context of the PEXSI method. The main idea of the new method is not to find the exact chemical potential at each self-consistent-field (SCF) iteration but to dynamically and rigorously update the upper and lower bounds for the true chemical potential, so that the chemical potential reaches its convergence along the SCF iteration. Instead of evaluating the Fermi operator for multiple times sequentially, our method uses a two-level strategy that evaluates the Fermi operators in parallel. In the regime of full parallelization, the wall clock time of each SCF iteration is always close to the time for one single evaluation of the Fermi operator, even when the initial guess is far away from the converged solution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method using examples with metallic and insulating characters, as well as results from ab initio molecular dynamics.

  20. Robust determination of the chemical potential in the pole expansion and selected inversion method for solving Kohn-Sham density functional theory.

    PubMed

    Jia, Weile; Lin, Lin

    2017-10-14

    Fermi operator expansion (FOE) methods are powerful alternatives to diagonalization type methods for solving Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KSDFT). One example is the pole expansion and selected inversion (PEXSI) method, which approximates the Fermi operator by rational matrix functions and reduces the computational complexity to at most quadratic scaling for solving KSDFT. Unlike diagonalization type methods, the chemical potential often cannot be directly read off from the result of a single step of evaluation of the Fermi operator. Hence multiple evaluations are needed to be sequentially performed to compute the chemical potential to ensure the correct number of electrons within a given tolerance. This hinders the performance of FOE methods in practice. In this paper, we develop an efficient and robust strategy to determine the chemical potential in the context of the PEXSI method. The main idea of the new method is not to find the exact chemical potential at each self-consistent-field (SCF) iteration but to dynamically and rigorously update the upper and lower bounds for the true chemical potential, so that the chemical potential reaches its convergence along the SCF iteration. Instead of evaluating the Fermi operator for multiple times sequentially, our method uses a two-level strategy that evaluates the Fermi operators in parallel. In the regime of full parallelization, the wall clock time of each SCF iteration is always close to the time for one single evaluation of the Fermi operator, even when the initial guess is far away from the converged solution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method using examples with metallic and insulating characters, as well as results from ab initio molecular dynamics.

  1. Multigrid methods in structural mechanics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Raju, I. S.; Bigelow, C. A.; Taasan, S.; Hussaini, M. Y.

    1986-01-01

    Although the application of multigrid methods to the equations of elasticity has been suggested, few such applications have been reported in the literature. In the present work, multigrid techniques are applied to the finite element analysis of a simply supported Bernoulli-Euler beam, and various aspects of the multigrid algorithm are studied and explained in detail. In this study, six grid levels were used to model half the beam. With linear prolongation and sequential ordering, the multigrid algorithm yielded results which were of machine accuracy with work equivalent to 200 standard Gauss-Seidel iterations on the fine grid. Also with linear prolongation and sequential ordering, the V(1,n) cycle with n greater than 2 yielded better convergence rates than the V(n,1) cycle. The restriction and prolongation operators were derived based on energy principles. Conserving energy during the inter-grid transfers required that the prolongation operator be the transpose of the restriction operator, and led to improved convergence rates. With energy-conserving prolongation and sequential ordering, the multigrid algorithm yielded results of machine accuracy with a work equivalent to 45 Gauss-Seidel iterations on the fine grid. The red-black ordering of relaxations yielded solutions of machine accuracy in a single V(1,1) cycle, which required work equivalent to about 4 iterations on the finest grid level.

  2. ITER's Tokamak Cooling Water System and the the Use of ASME Codes to Comply with French Regulations of Nuclear Pressure Equipment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Berry, Jan; Ferrada, Juan J; Curd, Warren

    During inductive plasma operation of ITER, fusion power will reach 500 MW with an energy multiplication factor of 10. The heat will be transferred by the Tokamak Cooling Water System (TCWS) to the environment using the secondary cooling system. Plasma operations are inherently safe even under the most severe postulated accident condition a large, in-vessel break that results in a loss-of-coolant accident. A functioning cooling water system is not required to ensure safe shutdown. Even though ITER is inherently safe, TCWS equipment (e.g., heat exchangers, piping, pressurizers) are classified as safety important components. This is because the water is predictedmore » to contain low-levels of radionuclides (e.g., activated corrosion products, tritium) with activity levels high enough to require the design of components to be in accordance with French regulations for nuclear pressure equipment, i.e., the French Order dated 12 December 2005 (ESPN). ESPN has extended the practical application of the methodology established by the Pressure Equipment Directive (97/23/EC) to nuclear pressure equipment, under French Decree 99-1046 dated 13 December 1999, and Order dated 21 December 1999 (ESP). ASME codes and supplementary analyses (e.g., Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) will be used to demonstrate that the TCWS equipment meets these essential safety requirements. TCWS is being designed to provide not only cooling, with a capacity of approximately 1 GW energy removal, but also elevated temperature baking of first-wall/blanket, vacuum vessel, and divertor. Additional TCWS functions include chemical control of water, draining and drying for maintenance, and facilitation of leak detection/localization. The TCWS interfaces with the majority of ITER systems, including the secondary cooling system. U.S. ITER is responsible for design, engineering, and procurement of the TCWS with industry support from an Engineering Services Organization (ESO) (AREVA Federal Services, with support from Northrop Grumman, and OneCIS). ITER International Organization (ITER-IO) is responsible for design oversight and equipment installation in Cadarache, France. TCWS equipment will be fabricated using ASME design codes with quality assurance and oversight by an Agreed Notified Body (approved by the French regulator) that will ensure regulatory compliance. This paper describes the TCWS design and how U.S. ITER and fabricators will use ASME codes to comply with EU Directives and French Orders and Decrees.« less

  3. An iterative procedure for obtaining maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters for a mixture of normal distributions, Addendum

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Peters, B. C., Jr.; Walker, H. F.

    1975-01-01

    New results and insights concerning a previously published iterative procedure for obtaining maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters for a mixture of normal distributions were discussed. It was shown that the procedure converges locally to the consistent maximum likelihood estimate as long as a specified parameter is bounded between two limits. Bound values were given to yield optimal local convergence.

  4. Improving Drive Files for Vehicle Road Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cherng, John G.; Goktan, Ali; French, Mark; Gu, Yi; Jacob, Anil

    2001-09-01

    Shaker tables are commonly used in laboratories for automotive vehicle component testing to study durability and acoustics performance. An example is development testing of car seats. However, it is difficult to repeat the measured road data perfectly with the response of a shaker table as there are basic differences in dynamic characteristics between a flexible vehicle and substantially rigid shaker table. In addition, there are performance limits in the shaker table drive systems that can limit correlation. In practice, an optimal drive signal for the actuators is created iteratively. During each iteration, the error between the road data and the response data is minimised by an optimising algorithm which is generally a part of the feed back loop of the shake table controller. This study presents a systematic investigation to the errors in time and frequency domains as well as joint time-frequency domain and an evaluation of different digital signal processing techniques that have been used in previous work. In addition, we present an innovative approach that integrates the dynamic characteristics of car seats and the human body into the error-minimising iteration process. We found that the iteration process can be shortened and the error reduced by using a weighting function created by normalising the frequency response function of the car seat. Two road data test sets were used in the study.

  5. Optimization of image quality and acquisition time for lab-based X-ray microtomography using an iterative reconstruction algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Qingyang; Andrew, Matthew; Thompson, William; Blunt, Martin J.; Bijeljic, Branko

    2018-05-01

    Non-invasive laboratory-based X-ray microtomography has been widely applied in many industrial and research disciplines. However, the main barrier to the use of laboratory systems compared to a synchrotron beamline is its much longer image acquisition time (hours per scan compared to seconds to minutes at a synchrotron), which results in limited application for dynamic in situ processes. Therefore, the majority of existing laboratory X-ray microtomography is limited to static imaging; relatively fast imaging (tens of minutes per scan) can only be achieved by sacrificing imaging quality, e.g. reducing exposure time or number of projections. To alleviate this barrier, we introduce an optimized implementation of a well-known iterative reconstruction algorithm that allows users to reconstruct tomographic images with reasonable image quality, but requires lower X-ray signal counts and fewer projections than conventional methods. Quantitative analysis and comparison between the iterative and the conventional filtered back-projection reconstruction algorithm was performed using a sandstone rock sample with and without liquid phases in the pore space. Overall, by implementing the iterative reconstruction algorithm, the required image acquisition time for samples such as this, with sparse object structure, can be reduced by a factor of up to 4 without measurable loss of sharpness or signal to noise ratio.

  6. Learning Efficient Sparse and Low Rank Models.

    PubMed

    Sprechmann, P; Bronstein, A M; Sapiro, G

    2015-09-01

    Parsimony, including sparsity and low rank, has been shown to successfully model data in numerous machine learning and signal processing tasks. Traditionally, such modeling approaches rely on an iterative algorithm that minimizes an objective function with parsimony-promoting terms. The inherently sequential structure and data-dependent complexity and latency of iterative optimization constitute a major limitation in many applications requiring real-time performance or involving large-scale data. Another limitation encountered by these modeling techniques is the difficulty of their inclusion in discriminative learning scenarios. In this work, we propose to move the emphasis from the model to the pursuit algorithm, and develop a process-centric view of parsimonious modeling, in which a learned deterministic fixed-complexity pursuit process is used in lieu of iterative optimization. We show a principled way to construct learnable pursuit process architectures for structured sparse and robust low rank models, derived from the iteration of proximal descent algorithms. These architectures learn to approximate the exact parsimonious representation at a fraction of the complexity of the standard optimization methods. We also show that appropriate training regimes allow to naturally extend parsimonious models to discriminative settings. State-of-the-art results are demonstrated on several challenging problems in image and audio processing with several orders of magnitude speed-up compared to the exact optimization algorithms.

  7. Richardson-Lucy/maximum likelihood image restoration algorithm for fluorescence microscopy: further testing.

    PubMed

    Holmes, T J; Liu, Y H

    1989-11-15

    A maximum likelihood based iterative algorithm adapted from nuclear medicine imaging for noncoherent optical imaging was presented in a previous publication with some initial computer-simulation testing. This algorithm is identical in form to that previously derived in a different way by W. H. Richardson "Bayesian-Based Iterative Method of Image Restoration," J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62, 55-59 (1972) and L. B. Lucy "An Iterative Technique for the Rectification of Observed Distributions," Astron. J. 79, 745-765 (1974). Foreseen applications include superresolution and 3-D fluorescence microscopy. This paper presents further simulation testing of this algorithm and a preliminary experiment with a defocused camera. The simulations show quantified resolution improvement as a function of iteration number, and they show qualitatively the trend in limitations on restored resolution when noise is present in the data. Also shown are results of a simulation in restoring missing-cone information for 3-D imaging. Conclusions are in support of the feasibility of using these methods with real systems, while computational cost and timing estimates indicate that it should be realistic to implement these methods. Itis suggested in the Appendix that future extensions to the maximum likelihood based derivation of this algorithm will address some of the limitations that are experienced with the nonextended form of the algorithm presented here.

  8. Cold Test and Performance Evaluation of Prototype Cryoline-X

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shah, N.; Choukekar, K.; Kapoor, H.; Muralidhara, S.; Garg, A.; Kumar, U.; Jadon, M.; Dash, B.; Bhattachrya, R.; Badgujar, S.; Billot, V.; Bravais, P.; Cadeau, P.

    2017-12-01

    The multi-process pipe vacuum jacketed cryolines for the ITER project are probably world’s most complex cryolines in terms of layout, load cases, quality, safety and regulatory requirements. As a risk mitigation plan, design, manufacturing and testing of prototype cryoline (PTCL) was planned before the approval of final design of ITER cryolines. The 29 meter long PTCL consist of 6 process pipes encased by thermal shield inside Outer Vacuum Jacket of DN 600 size and carries cold helium at 4.5 K and 80 K. The global heat load limit was defined as 1.2 W/m at 4.5 K and 4.5 W/m at 80 K. The PTCL-X (PTCL for Group-X cryolines) was specified in detail by ITER-India and designed as well as manufactured by Air Liquide. PTCL-X was installed and tested at cryogenic temperature at ITER-India Cryogenic Laboratory in 2016. The heat load at 4.5 K and 80 K, estimated using enthalpy difference method, was found to be approximately 0.8 W/m at 4.5 K, 4.2 W/m at 80 K, which is well within the defined limits. Thermal shield temperature profile was also found to be satisfactory. Paper summarizes the cold test results of PTCL-X

  9. Methodology to evaluate the performance of simulation models for alternative compiler and operating system configurations

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Simulation modelers increasingly require greater flexibility for model implementation on diverse operating systems, and they demand high computational speed for efficient iterative simulations. Additionally, model users may differ in preference for proprietary versus open-source software environment...

  10. Stability analysis of a deterministic dose calculation for MRI-guided radiotherapy.

    PubMed

    Zelyak, O; Fallone, B G; St-Aubin, J

    2017-12-14

    Modern effort in radiotherapy to address the challenges of tumor localization and motion has led to the development of MRI guided radiotherapy technologies. Accurate dose calculations must properly account for the effects of the MRI magnetic fields. Previous work has investigated the accuracy of a deterministic linear Boltzmann transport equation (LBTE) solver that includes magnetic field, but not the stability of the iterative solution method. In this work, we perform a stability analysis of this deterministic algorithm including an investigation of the convergence rate dependencies on the magnetic field, material density, energy, and anisotropy expansion. The iterative convergence rate of the continuous and discretized LBTE including magnetic fields is determined by analyzing the spectral radius using Fourier analysis for the stationary source iteration (SI) scheme. The spectral radius is calculated when the magnetic field is included (1) as a part of the iteration source, and (2) inside the streaming-collision operator. The non-stationary Krylov subspace solver GMRES is also investigated as a potential method to accelerate the iterative convergence, and an angular parallel computing methodology is investigated as a method to enhance the efficiency of the calculation. SI is found to be unstable when the magnetic field is part of the iteration source, but unconditionally stable when the magnetic field is included in the streaming-collision operator. The discretized LBTE with magnetic fields using a space-angle upwind stabilized discontinuous finite element method (DFEM) was also found to be unconditionally stable, but the spectral radius rapidly reaches unity for very low-density media and increasing magnetic field strengths indicating arbitrarily slow convergence rates. However, GMRES is shown to significantly accelerate the DFEM convergence rate showing only a weak dependence on the magnetic field. In addition, the use of an angular parallel computing strategy is shown to potentially increase the efficiency of the dose calculation.

  11. Stability analysis of a deterministic dose calculation for MRI-guided radiotherapy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zelyak, O.; Fallone, B. G.; St-Aubin, J.

    2018-01-01

    Modern effort in radiotherapy to address the challenges of tumor localization and motion has led to the development of MRI guided radiotherapy technologies. Accurate dose calculations must properly account for the effects of the MRI magnetic fields. Previous work has investigated the accuracy of a deterministic linear Boltzmann transport equation (LBTE) solver that includes magnetic field, but not the stability of the iterative solution method. In this work, we perform a stability analysis of this deterministic algorithm including an investigation of the convergence rate dependencies on the magnetic field, material density, energy, and anisotropy expansion. The iterative convergence rate of the continuous and discretized LBTE including magnetic fields is determined by analyzing the spectral radius using Fourier analysis for the stationary source iteration (SI) scheme. The spectral radius is calculated when the magnetic field is included (1) as a part of the iteration source, and (2) inside the streaming-collision operator. The non-stationary Krylov subspace solver GMRES is also investigated as a potential method to accelerate the iterative convergence, and an angular parallel computing methodology is investigated as a method to enhance the efficiency of the calculation. SI is found to be unstable when the magnetic field is part of the iteration source, but unconditionally stable when the magnetic field is included in the streaming-collision operator. The discretized LBTE with magnetic fields using a space-angle upwind stabilized discontinuous finite element method (DFEM) was also found to be unconditionally stable, but the spectral radius rapidly reaches unity for very low-density media and increasing magnetic field strengths indicating arbitrarily slow convergence rates. However, GMRES is shown to significantly accelerate the DFEM convergence rate showing only a weak dependence on the magnetic field. In addition, the use of an angular parallel computing strategy is shown to potentially increase the efficiency of the dose calculation.

  12. Corrigendum to "Stability analysis of a deterministic dose calculation for MRI-guided radiotherapy".

    PubMed

    Zelyak, Oleksandr; Fallone, B Gino; St-Aubin, Joel

    2018-03-12

    Modern effort in radiotherapy to address the challenges of tumor localization and motion has led to the development of MRI guided radiotherapy technologies. Accurate dose calculations must properly account for the effects of the MRI magnetic fields. Previous work has investigated the accuracy of a deterministic linear Boltzmann transport equation (LBTE) solver that includes magnetic field, but not the stability of the iterative solution method. In this work, we perform a stability analysis of this deterministic algorithm including an investigation of the convergence rate dependencies on the magnetic field, material density, energy, and anisotropy expansion. The iterative convergence rate of the continuous and discretized LBTE including magnetic fields is determined by analyzing the spectral radius using Fourier analysis for the stationary source iteration (SI) scheme. The spectral radius is calculated when the magnetic field is included (1) as a part of the iteration source, and (2) inside the streaming-collision operator. The non-stationary Krylov subspace solver GMRES is also investigated as a potential method to accelerate the iterative convergence, and an angular parallel computing methodology is investigated as a method to enhance the efficiency of the calculation. SI is found to be unstable when the magnetic field is part of the iteration source, but unconditionally stable when the magnetic field is included in the streaming-collision operator. The discretized LBTE with magnetic fields using a space-angle upwind stabilized discontinuous finite element method (DFEM) was also found to be unconditionally stable, but the spectral radius rapidly reaches unity for very low density media and increasing magnetic field strengths indicating arbitrarily slow convergence rates. However, GMRES is shown to significantly accelerate the DFEM convergence rate showing only a weak dependence on the magnetic field. In addition, the use of an angular parallel computing strategy is shown to potentially increase the efficiency of the dose calculation. © 2018 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

  13. Pivotal issues on relativistic electrons in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boozer, Allen H.

    2018-03-01

    The transfer of the plasma current from thermal to relativistic electrons is a threat to ITER achieving its mission. This danger is significantly greater in the nuclear than in the non-nuclear phase of ITER operations. Two issues are pivotal. The first is the extent and duration of magnetic surface breaking in conjunction with the thermal quenches. The second is the exponential sensitivity of the current transfer to three quantities: (1) the poloidal flux change required to e-fold the number of relativistic electrons, (2) the time τa after the beginning of the thermal quench before the accelerating electric field exceeds the Connor-Hastie field for runaway, and (3) the duration of the period τ_op in which magnetic surfaces remain open. Adequate knowledge does not exist to devise a reliable strategy for the protection of ITER. Uncertainties are sufficiently large that a transfer of neither a negligible nor the full plasma current to relativistic electrons can be ruled out during the non-nuclear phase of ITER. Tritium decay can provide a sufficiently strong seed for a dangerous relativistic-electron current even if τa and τ_op are sufficiently long to avoid relativistic electrons during non-nuclear operations. The breakup of magnetic surfaces that is associated with thermal quenches occurs on a time scale associated with fast magnetic reconnection, which means reconnection at an Alfvénic rather than a resistive rate. Alfvénic reconnection is well beyond the capabilities of existing computational tools for tokamaks, but its effects can be studied using its property of conserving magnetic helicity. Although the dangers to ITER from relativistic electrons have been known for twenty years, the critical issues have not been defined with sufficient precision to formulate an effective research program. Studies are particularly needed on plasma behavior in existing tokamaks during thermal quenches, behavior which could be clarified using methods developed here.

  14. User interface issues in supporting human-computer integrated scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cooper, Lynne P.; Biefeld, Eric W.

    1991-01-01

    Explored here is the user interface problems encountered with the Operations Missions Planner (OMP) project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). OMP uses a unique iterative approach to planning that places additional requirements on the user interface, particularly to support system development and maintenance. These requirements are necessary to support the concepts of heuristically controlled search, in-progress assessment, and iterative refinement of the schedule. The techniques used to address the OMP interface needs are given.

  15. JWST Wavefront Sensing and Control: Operations Plans, Demonstrations, and Status

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perrin, Marshall; Acton, D. Scott; Lajoie, Charles-Philippe; Knight, J. Scott; Myers, Carey; Stark, Chris; JWST Wavefront Sensing & Control Team

    2018-01-01

    After JWST launches and unfolds in space, its telescope optics will be aligned through a complex series of wavefront sensing and control (WFSC) steps to achieve diffraction-limited performance. This iterative process will comprise about half of the observatory commissioning time (~ 3 out of 6 months). We summarize the JWST WFSC process, schedule, and expectations for achieved performance, and discuss our team’s activities to prepare for an effective & efficient telescope commissioning. During the recently-completed OTIS cryo test at NASA JSC, WFSC demonstrations showed the flight-like operation of the entire JWST active optics and WFSC system from end to end, including all hardware and software components. In parallel, the same test data were processed through the JWST Mission Operations Center at STScI to demonstrate the readiness of ground system components there (such as the flight operations system, data pipelines, archives, etc). Moreover, using the Astronomer’s Proposal Tool (APT), the entire telescope commissioning program has been implemented, reviewed, and is ready for execution. Between now and launch our teams will continue preparations for JWST commissioning, including further rehearsals and testing, to ensure a successful alignment of JWST’s telescope optics.

  16. Real-time control of divertor detachment in H-mode with impurity seeding using Langmuir probe feedback in JET-ITER-like wall

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guillemaut, C.; Lennholm, M.; Harrison, J.; Carvalho, I.; Valcarcel, D.; Felton, R.; Griph, S.; Hogben, C.; Lucock, R.; Matthews, G. F.; Perez Von Thun, C.; Pitts, R. A.; Wiesen, S.; contributors, JET

    2017-04-01

    Burning plasmas with 500 MW of fusion power on ITER will rely on partially detached divertor operation to keep target heat loads at manageable levels. Such divertor regimes will be maintained by a real-time control system using the seeding of radiative impurities like nitrogen (N), neon or argon as actuator and one or more diagnostic signals as sensors. Recently, real-time control of divertor detachment has been successfully achieved in Type I ELMy H-mode JET-ITER-like wall discharges by using saturation current (I sat) measurements from divertor Langmuir probes as feedback signals to control the level of N seeding. The degree of divertor detachment is calculated in real-time by comparing the outer target peak I sat measurements to the peak I sat value at the roll-over in order to control the opening of the N injection valve. Real-time control of detachment has been achieved in both fixed and swept strike point experiments. The system has been progressively improved and can now automatically drive the divertor conditions from attached through high recycling and roll-over down to a user-defined level of detachment. Such a demonstration is a successful proof of principle in the context of future operation on ITER which will be extensively equipped with divertor target probes.

  17. Rotating and binary relativistic stars with magnetic field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Markakis, Charalampos

    We develop a geometrical treatment of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics for perfectly conducting fluids in Einstein--Maxwell--Euler spacetimes. The theory is applied to describe a neutron star that is rotating or is orbiting a black hole or another neutron star. Under the hypotheses of stationarity and axisymmetry, we obtain the equations governing magnetohydrodynamic equilibria of rotating neutron stars with poloidal, toroidal or mixed magnetic fields. Under the hypothesis of an approximate helical symmetry, we obtain the first law of thermodynamics governing magnetized equilibria of double neutron star or black hole - neutron star systems in close circular orbits. The first law is written as a relation between the change in the asymptotic Noether charge deltaQ and the changes in the area and electric charge of black holes, and in the vorticity, baryon rest mass, entropy, charge and magnetic flux of the magnetofluid. In an attempt to provide a better theoretical understanding of the methods used to construct models of isolated rotating stars and corotating or irrotational binaries and their unexplained convergence properties, we analytically examine the behavior of different iterative schemes near a static solution. We find the spectrum of the linearized iteration operator and show for self-consistent field methods that iterative instability corresponds to unstable modes of this operator. On the other hand, we show that the success of iteratively stable methods is due to (quasi-)nilpotency of this operator. Finally, we examine the integrability of motion of test particles in a stationary axisymmetric gravitational field. We use a direct approach to seek nontrivial constants of motion polynomial in the momenta---in addition to energy and angular momentum about the symmetry axis. We establish the existence and uniqueness of quadratic constants and the nonexistence of quartic constants for stationary axisymmetric Newtonian potentials with equatorial symmetry and elucidate their relativistic analogues.

  18. Iterative deblending of simultaneous-source data using a coherency-pass shaping operator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zu, Shaohuan; Zhou, Hui; Mao, Weijian; Zhang, Dong; Li, Chao; Pan, Xiao; Chen, Yangkang

    2017-10-01

    Simultaneous-source acquisition helps greatly boost an economic saving, while it brings an unprecedented challenge of removing the crosstalk interference in the recorded seismic data. In this paper, we propose a novel iterative method to separate the simultaneous source data based on a coherency-pass shaping operator. The coherency-pass filter is used to constrain the model, that is, the unblended data to be estimated, in the shaping regularization framework. In the simultaneous source survey, the incoherent interference from adjacent shots greatly increases the rank of the frequency domain Hankel matrix that is formed from the blended record. Thus, the method based on rank reduction is capable of separating the blended record to some extent. However, the shortcoming is that it may cause residual noise when there is strong blending interference. We propose to cascade the rank reduction and thresholding operators to deal with this issue. In the initial iterations, we adopt a small rank to severely separate the blended interference and a large thresholding value as strong constraints to remove the residual noise in the time domain. In the later iterations, since more and more events have been recovered, we weaken the constraint by increasing the rank and shrinking the threshold to recover weak events and to guarantee the convergence. In this way, the combined rank reduction and thresholding strategy acts as a coherency-pass filter, which only passes the coherent high-amplitude component after rank reduction instead of passing both signal and noise in traditional rank reduction based approaches. Two synthetic examples are tested to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. In addition, the application on two field data sets (common receiver gathers and stacked profiles) further validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  19. Optimization and validation of accelerated golden-angle radial sparse MRI reconstruction with self-calibrating GRAPPA operator gridding.

    PubMed

    Benkert, Thomas; Tian, Ye; Huang, Chenchan; DiBella, Edward V R; Chandarana, Hersh; Feng, Li

    2018-07-01

    Golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP) MRI reconstruction requires gridding and regridding to transform data between radial and Cartesian k-space. These operations are repeatedly performed in each iteration, which makes the reconstruction computationally demanding. This work aimed to accelerate GRASP reconstruction using self-calibrating GRAPPA operator gridding (GROG) and to validate its performance in clinical imaging. GROG is an alternative gridding approach based on parallel imaging, in which k-space data acquired on a non-Cartesian grid are shifted onto a Cartesian k-space grid using information from multicoil arrays. For iterative non-Cartesian image reconstruction, GROG is performed only once as a preprocessing step. Therefore, the subsequent iterative reconstruction can be performed directly in Cartesian space, which significantly reduces computational burden. Here, a framework combining GROG with GRASP (GROG-GRASP) is first optimized and then compared with standard GRASP reconstruction in 22 prostate patients. GROG-GRASP achieved approximately 4.2-fold reduction in reconstruction time compared with GRASP (∼333 min versus ∼78 min) while maintaining image quality (structural similarity index ≈ 0.97 and root mean square error ≈ 0.007). Visual image quality assessment by two experienced radiologists did not show significant differences between the two reconstruction schemes. With a graphics processing unit implementation, image reconstruction time can be further reduced to approximately 14 min. The GRASP reconstruction can be substantially accelerated using GROG. This framework is promising toward broader clinical application of GRASP and other iterative non-Cartesian reconstruction methods. Magn Reson Med 80:286-293, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  20. Plasma production and preliminary results from the ADITYA Upgrade tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    R, L. TANNA; J, GHOSH; Harshita, RAJ; Rohit, KUMAR; Suman, AICH; Vaibhav, RANJAN; K, A. JADEJA; K, M. PATEL; S, B. BHATT; K, SATHYANARAYANA; P, K. CHATTOPADHYAY; M, N. MAKWANA; K, S. SHAH; C, N. GUPTA; V, K. PANCHAL; Praveenlal, EDAPPALA; Bharat, ARAMBHADIYA; Minsha, SHAH; Vismay, RAULJI; M, B. CHOWDHURI; S, BANERJEE; R, MANCHANDA; D, RAJU; P, K. ATREY; Umesh, NAGORA; J, RAVAL; Y, S. JOISA; K, TAHILIANI; S, K. JHA; M, V. GOPALKRISHANA

    2018-07-01

    The Ohmically heated circular limiter tokamak ADITYA (R 0 = 75 cm, a = 25 cm) has been upgraded to a tokamak named the ADITYA Upgrade (ADITYA-U) with an open divertor configuration with divertor plates. The main goal of ADITYA-U is to carry out dedicated experiments relevant for bigger fusion machines including ITER, such as the generation and control of runaway electrons, disruption prediction, and mitigation studies, along with an improvement in confinement with shaped plasma. The ADITYA tokamak was dismantled and the assembly of ADITYA-U was completed in March 2016. Integration of subsystems like data acquisition and remote operation along with plasma production and preliminary plasma characterization of ADITYA-U plasmas are presented in this paper.

  1. Understanding and predicting the dynamics of tokamak discharges during startup and rampdown

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jackson, G. L.; Politzer, P. A.; Humphreys, D. A.

    Understanding the dynamics of plasma startup and termination is important for present tokamaks and for predictive modeling of future burning plasma devices such as ITER. We report on experiments in the DIII-D tokamak that explore the plasma startup and rampdown phases and on the benchmarking of transport models. Key issues have been examined such as plasma initiation and burnthrough with limited inductive voltage and achieving flattop and maximum burn within the technical limits of coil systems and their actuators while maintaining the desired q profile. Successful rampdown requires scenarios consistent with technical limits, including controlled H-L transitions, while avoiding verticalmore » instabilities, additional Ohmic transformer flux consumption, and density limit disruptions. Discharges were typically initiated with an inductive electric field typical of ITER, 0.3 V/m, most with second harmonic electron cyclotron assist. A fast framing camera was used during breakdown and burnthrough of low Z impurity charge states to study the formation physics. An improved 'large aperture' ITER startup scenario was developed, and aperture reduction in rampdown was found to be essential to avoid instabilities. Current evolution using neoclassical conductivity in the CORSICA code agrees with rampup experiments, but the prediction of the temperature and internal inductance evolution using the Coppi-Tang model for electron energy transport is not yet accurate enough to allow extrapolation to future devices.« less

  2. Beam ion acceleration by ICRH in JET discharges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Budny, R. V.; Gorelenkova, M.; Bertelli, N.; JET Collaboration

    2015-11-01

    The ion Monte-Carlo orbit integrator NUBEAM, used in TRANSP has been enhanced to include an ``RF-kick'' operator to simulate the interaction of RF fields and fast ions. The RF quasi-linear operator (localized in space) uses a second R-Z orbit integrator. We apply this to analysis of recent JET discharges using ICRH with the ITER-like first wall. An example of results for a high performance Hybrid discharge for which standard TRANSP analysis simulated the DD neutron emission rate below measurements, re-analysis using the RF-kick operator results in increased beam parallel and perpendicular energy densities (~=40% and 15% respectively), and increased beam-thermal neutron emission (~= 35%), making the total rate closer to the measurement. Checks of the numerics, comparisons with measurements, and ITER implications will be presented. Supported in part by the US DoE contract DE-AC02-09CH11466 and by EUROfusion No 633053.

  3. To Demonstrate an Integrated Solution for Plasma-Material Interfaces Compatible with an Optimized Core Plasma

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goldston, Robert; Brooks, Jeffrey; Hubbard, Amanda; Leonard, Anthony; Lipschultz, Bruce; Maingi, Rajesh; Ulrickson, Michael; Whyte, Dennis

    2009-11-01

    The plasma facing components in a Demo reactor will face much more extreme boundary plasma conditions and operating requirements than any present or planned experiment. These include 1) Power density a factor of four or more greater than in ITER, 2) Continuous operation resulting in annual energy and particle throughput 100-200 times larger than ITER, 3) Elevated surface operating temperature for efficient electricity production, 4) Tritium fuel cycle control for safety and breeding requirements, and 5) Steady state plasma confinement and control. Consistent with ReNeW Thrust 12, design options are being explored for a new moderate-scale facility to assess core-edge interaction issues and solutions. Key desired features include high power density, sufficient pulse length and duty cycle, elevated wall temperature, steady-state control of an optimized core plasma, and flexibility in changing boundary components as well as access for comprehensive measurements.

  4. High density operation for reactor-relevant power exhaust

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wischmeier, M.; ASDEX Upgrade Team; Jet Efda Contributors

    2015-08-01

    With increasing size of a tokamak device and associated fusion power gain an increasing power flux density towards the divertor needs to be handled. A solution for handling this power flux is crucial for a safe and economic operation. Using purely geometric arguments in an ITER-like divertor this power flux can be reduced by approximately a factor 100. Based on a conservative extrapolation of current technology for an integrated engineering approach to remove power deposited on plasma facing components a further reduction of the power flux density via volumetric processes in the plasma by up to a factor of 50 is required. Our current ability to interpret existing power exhaust scenarios using numerical transport codes is analyzed and an operational scenario as a potential solution for ITER like divertors under high density and highly radiating reactor-relevant conditions is presented. Alternative concepts for risk mitigation as well as strategies for moving forward are outlined.

  5. Solving ill-posed inverse problems using iterative deep neural networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adler, Jonas; Öktem, Ozan

    2017-12-01

    We propose a partially learned approach for the solution of ill-posed inverse problems with not necessarily linear forward operators. The method builds on ideas from classical regularisation theory and recent advances in deep learning to perform learning while making use of prior information about the inverse problem encoded in the forward operator, noise model and a regularising functional. The method results in a gradient-like iterative scheme, where the ‘gradient’ component is learned using a convolutional network that includes the gradients of the data discrepancy and regulariser as input in each iteration. We present results of such a partially learned gradient scheme on a non-linear tomographic inversion problem with simulated data from both the Sheep-Logan phantom as well as a head CT. The outcome is compared against filtered backprojection and total variation reconstruction and the proposed method provides a 5.4 dB PSNR improvement over the total variation reconstruction while being significantly faster, giving reconstructions of 512 × 512 pixel images in about 0.4 s using a single graphics processing unit (GPU).

  6. Finite element analysis of heat load of tungsten relevant to ITER conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zinovev, A.; Terentyev, D.; Delannay, L.

    2017-12-01

    A computational procedure is proposed in order to predict the initiation of intergranular cracks in tungsten with ITER specification microstructure (i.e. characterised by elongated micrometre-sized grains). Damage is caused by a cyclic heat load, which emerges from plasma instabilities during operation of thermonuclear devices. First, a macroscopic thermo-mechanical simulation is performed in order to obtain temperature- and strain field in the material. The strain path is recorded at a selected point of interest of the macroscopic specimen, and is then applied at the microscopic level to a finite element mesh of a polycrystal. In the microscopic simulation, the stress state at the grain boundaries serves as the marker of cracking initiation. The simulated heat load cycle is a representative of edge-localized modes, which are anticipated during normal operations of ITER. Normal stresses at the grain boundary interfaces were shown to strongly depend on the direction of grain orientation with respect to the heat flux direction and to attain higher values if the flux is perpendicular to the elongated grains, where it apparently promotes crack initiation.

  7. Graph processing platforms at scale: practices and experiences

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lim, Seung-Hwan; Lee, Sangkeun; Brown, Tyler C

    2015-01-01

    Graph analysis unveils hidden associations of data in many phenomena and artifacts, such as road network, social networks, genomic information, and scientific collaboration. Unfortunately, a wide diversity in the characteristics of graphs and graph operations make it challenging to find a right combination of tools and implementation of algorithms to discover desired knowledge from the target data set. This study presents an extensive empirical study of three representative graph processing platforms: Pegasus, GraphX, and Urika. Each system represents a combination of options in data model, processing paradigm, and infrastructure. We benchmarked each platform using three popular graph operations, degree distribution,more » connected components, and PageRank over a variety of real-world graphs. Our experiments show that each graph processing platform shows different strength, depending the type of graph operations. While Urika performs the best in non-iterative operations like degree distribution, GraphX outputforms iterative operations like connected components and PageRank. In addition, we discuss challenges to optimize the performance of each platform over large scale real world graphs.« less

  8. Performance evaluation approach for the supercritical helium cold circulators of ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vaghela, H.; Sarkar, B.; Bhattacharya, R.

    2014-01-29

    The ITER project design foresees Supercritical Helium (SHe) forced flow cooling for the main cryogenic components, namely, the superconducting (SC) magnets and cryopumps (CP). Therefore, cold circulators have been selected to provide the required SHe mass flow rate to cope with specific operating conditions and technical requirements. Considering the availability impacts of such machines, it has been decided to perform evaluation tests of the cold circulators at operating conditions prior to the series production in order to minimize the project technical risks. A proposal has been conceptualized, evaluated and simulated to perform representative tests of the full scale SHe coldmore » circulators. The objectives of the performance tests include the validation of normal operating condition, transient and off-design operating modes as well as the efficiency measurement. A suitable process and instrumentation diagram of the test valve box (TVB) has been developed to implement the tests at the required thermodynamic conditions. The conceptual engineering design of the TVB has been developed along with the required thermal analysis for the normal operating conditions to support the performance evaluation of the SHe cold circulator.« less

  9. Margin and sensitivity methods for security analysis of electric power systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greene, Scott L.

    Reliable operation of large scale electric power networks requires that system voltages and currents stay within design limits. Operation beyond those limits can lead to equipment failures and blackouts. Security margins measure the amount by which system loads or power transfers can change before a security violation, such as an overloaded transmission line, is encountered. This thesis shows how to efficiently compute security margins defined by limiting events and instabilities, and the sensitivity of those margins with respect to assumptions, system parameters, operating policy, and transactions. Security margins to voltage collapse blackouts, oscillatory instability, generator limits, voltage constraints and line overloads are considered. The usefulness of computing the sensitivities of these margins with respect to interarea transfers, loading parameters, generator dispatch, transmission line parameters, and VAR support is established for networks as large as 1500 buses. The sensitivity formulas presented apply to a range of power system models. Conventional sensitivity formulas such as line distribution factors, outage distribution factors, participation factors and penalty factors are shown to be special cases of the general sensitivity formulas derived in this thesis. The sensitivity formulas readily accommodate sparse matrix techniques. Margin sensitivity methods are shown to work effectively for avoiding voltage collapse blackouts caused by either saddle node bifurcation of equilibria or immediate instability due to generator reactive power limits. Extremely fast contingency analysis for voltage collapse can be implemented with margin sensitivity based rankings. Interarea transfer can be limited by voltage limits, line limits, or voltage stability. The sensitivity formulas presented in this thesis apply to security margins defined by any limit criteria. A method to compute transfer margins by directly locating intermediate events reduces the total number of loadflow iterations required by each margin computation and provides sensitivity information at minimal additional cost. Estimates of the effect of simultaneous transfers on the transfer margins agree well with the exact computations for a network model derived from a portion of the U.S grid. The accuracy of the estimates over a useful range of conditions and the ease of obtaining the estimates suggest that the sensitivity computations will be of practical value.

  10. A superlinear interior points algorithm for engineering design optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Herskovits, J.; Asquier, J.

    1990-01-01

    We present a quasi-Newton interior points algorithm for nonlinear constrained optimization. It is based on a general approach consisting of the iterative solution in the primal and dual spaces of the equalities in Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions. This is done in such a way to have primal and dual feasibility at each iteration, which ensures satisfaction of those optimality conditions at the limit points. This approach is very strong and efficient, since at each iteration it only requires the solution of two linear systems with the same matrix, instead of quadratic programming subproblems. It is also particularly appropriate for engineering design optimization inasmuch at each iteration a feasible design is obtained. The present algorithm uses a quasi-Newton approximation of the second derivative of the Lagrangian function in order to have superlinear asymptotic convergence. We discuss theoretical aspects of the algorithm and its computer implementation.

  11. Aerodynamic optimization by simultaneously updating flow variables and design parameters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rizk, M. H.

    1990-01-01

    The application of conventional optimization schemes to aerodynamic design problems leads to inner-outer iterative procedures that are very costly. An alternative approach is presented based on the idea of updating the flow variable iterative solutions and the design parameter iterative solutions simultaneously. Two schemes based on this idea are applied to problems of correcting wind tunnel wall interference and optimizing advanced propeller designs. The first of these schemes is applicable to a limited class of two-design-parameter problems with an equality constraint. It requires the computation of a single flow solution. The second scheme is suitable for application to general aerodynamic problems. It requires the computation of several flow solutions in parallel. In both schemes, the design parameters are updated as the iterative flow solutions evolve. Computations are performed to test the schemes' efficiency, accuracy, and sensitivity to variations in the computational parameters.

  12. Multidisciplinary systems optimization by linear decomposition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sobieski, J.

    1984-01-01

    In a typical design process major decisions are made sequentially. An illustrated example is given for an aircraft design in which the aerodynamic shape is usually decided first, then the airframe is sized for strength and so forth. An analogous sequence could be laid out for any other major industrial product, for instance, a ship. The loops in the discipline boxes symbolize iterative design improvements carried out within the confines of a single engineering discipline, or subsystem. The loops spanning several boxes depict multidisciplinary design improvement iterations. Omitted for graphical simplicity is parallelism of the disciplinary subtasks. The parallelism is important in order to develop a broad workfront necessary to shorten the design time. If all the intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary iterations were carried out to convergence, the process could yield a numerically optimal design. However, it usually stops short of that because of time and money limitations. This is especially true for the interdisciplinary iterations.

  13. Limited data tomographic image reconstruction via dual formulation of total variation minimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jang, Kwang Eun; Sung, Younghun; Lee, Kangeui; Lee, Jongha; Cho, Seungryong

    2011-03-01

    The X-ray mammography is the primary imaging modality for breast cancer screening. For the dense breast, however, the mammogram is usually difficult to read due to tissue overlap problem caused by the superposition of normal tissues. The digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) that measures several low dose projections over a limited angle range may be an alternative modality for breast imaging, since it allows the visualization of the cross-sectional information of breast. The DBT, however, may suffer from the aliasing artifact and the severe noise corruption. To overcome these problems, a total variation (TV) regularized statistical reconstruction algorithm is presented. Inspired by the dual formulation of TV minimization in denoising and deblurring problems, we derived a gradient-type algorithm based on statistical model of X-ray tomography. The objective function is comprised of a data fidelity term derived from the statistical model and a TV regularization term. The gradient of the objective function can be easily calculated using simple operations in terms of auxiliary variables. After a descending step, the data fidelity term is renewed in each iteration. Since the proposed algorithm can be implemented without sophisticated operations such as matrix inverse, it provides an efficient way to include the TV regularization in the statistical reconstruction method, which results in a fast and robust estimation for low dose projections over the limited angle range. Initial tests with an experimental DBT system confirmed our finding.

  14. Remote experimental site concept development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Casper, Thomas A.; Meyer, William; Butner, David

    1995-01-01

    Scientific research is now often conducted on large and expensive experiments that utilize collaborative efforts on a national or international scale to explore physics and engineering issues. This is particularly true for the current US magnetic fusion energy program where collaboration on existing facilities has increased in importance and will form the basis for future efforts. As fusion energy research approaches reactor conditions, the trend is towards fewer large and expensive experimental facilities, leaving many major institutions without local experiments. Since the expertise of various groups is a valuable resource, it is important to integrate these teams into an overall scientific program. To sustain continued involvement in experiments, scientists are now often required to travel frequently, or to move their families, to the new large facilities. This problem is common to many other different fields of scientific research. The next-generation tokamaks, such as the Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) or the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), will operate in steady-state or long pulse mode and produce fluxes of fusion reaction products sufficient to activate the surrounding structures. As a direct consequence, remote operation requiring robotics and video monitoring will become necessary, with only brief and limited access to the vessel area allowed. Even the on-site control room, data acquisition facilities, and work areas will be remotely located from the experiment, isolated by large biological barriers, and connected with fiber-optics. Current planning for the ITER experiment includes a network of control room facilities to be located in the countries of the four major international partners; USA, Russian Federation, Japan, and the European Community.

  15. Interaction of the electron density fluctuations with electron cyclotron waves from the equatorial launcher in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Snicker, A.; Poli, E.; Maj, O.; Guidi, L.; Köhn, A.; Weber, H.; Conway, G. D.; Henderson, M.; Saibene, G.

    2018-01-01

    We present a numerical investigation of electron cyclotron beams interacting with electron density fluctuations in the ITER 15 MA H-mode scenario. In particular, here we study how the beam from the equatorial launcher, which shall be utilized to influence the sawtooth instability, is affected by the fluctuations. Moreover, we present the theory and first estimates of the power that is scattered from the injected O-mode to a secondary X-mode in the presence of the fluctuations. It is shown that for ITER parameters the scattered power stays within acceptable limits and broadening of the equatorial beams is less than those from the upper launcher.

  16. Development of a mirror-based endoscope for divertor spectroscopy on JET with the new ITER-like wall (invited).

    PubMed

    Huber, A; Brezinsek, S; Mertens, Ph; Schweer, B; Sergienko, G; Terra, A; Arnoux, G; Balshaw, N; Clever, M; Edlingdon, T; Egner, S; Farthing, J; Hartl, M; Horton, L; Kampf, D; Klammer, J; Lambertz, H T; Matthews, G F; Morlock, C; Murari, A; Reindl, M; Riccardo, V; Samm, U; Sanders, S; Stamp, M; Williams, J; Zastrow, K D; Zauner, C

    2012-10-01

    A new endoscope with optimised divertor view has been developed in order to survey and monitor the emission of specific impurities such as tungsten and the remaining carbon as well as beryllium in the tungsten divertor of JET after the implementation of the ITER-like wall in 2011. The endoscope is a prototype for testing an ITER relevant design concept based on reflective optics only. It may be subject to high neutron fluxes as expected in ITER. The operating wavelength range, from 390 nm to 2500 nm, allows the measurements of the emission of all expected impurities (W I, Be II, C I, C II, C III) with high optical transmittance (≥ 30% in the designed wavelength range) as well as high spatial resolution that is ≤ 2 mm at the object plane and ≤ 3 mm for the full depth of field (± 0.7 m). The new optical design includes options for in situ calibration of the endoscope transmittance during the experimental campaign, which allows the continuous tracing of possible transmittance degradation with time due to impurity deposition and erosion by fast neutral particles. In parallel to the new optical design, a new type of possibly ITER relevant shutter system based on pneumatic techniques has been developed and integrated into the endoscope head. The endoscope is equipped with four digital CCD cameras, each combined with two filter wheels for narrow band interference and neutral density filters. Additionally, two protection cameras in the λ > 0.95 μm range have been integrated in the optical design for the real time wall protection during the plasma operation of JET.

  17. Development of a mirror-based endoscope for divertor spectroscopy on JET with the new ITER-like wall (invited)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Huber, A.; Brezinsek, S.; Mertens, Ph.

    2012-10-15

    A new endoscope with optimised divertor view has been developed in order to survey and monitor the emission of specific impurities such as tungsten and the remaining carbon as well as beryllium in the tungsten divertor of JET after the implementation of the ITER-like wall in 2011. The endoscope is a prototype for testing an ITER relevant design concept based on reflective optics only. It may be subject to high neutron fluxes as expected in ITER. The operating wavelength range, from 390 nm to 2500 nm, allows the measurements of the emission of all expected impurities (W I, Be II,more » C I, C II, C III) with high optical transmittance ({>=}30% in the designed wavelength range) as well as high spatial resolution that is {<=}2 mm at the object plane and {<=}3 mm for the full depth of field ({+-}0.7 m). The new optical design includes options for in situ calibration of the endoscope transmittance during the experimental campaign, which allows the continuous tracing of possible transmittance degradation with time due to impurity deposition and erosion by fast neutral particles. In parallel to the new optical design, a new type of possibly ITER relevant shutter system based on pneumatic techniques has been developed and integrated into the endoscope head. The endoscope is equipped with four digital CCD cameras, each combined with two filter wheels for narrow band interference and neutral density filters. Additionally, two protection cameras in the {lambda} > 0.95 {mu}m range have been integrated in the optical design for the real time wall protection during the plasma operation of JET.« less

  18. Modelling of edge localised modes and edge localised mode control [Modelling of ELMs and ELM control

    DOE PAGES

    Huijsmans, G. T. A.; Chang, C. S.; Ferraro, N.; ...

    2015-02-07

    Edge Localised Modes (ELMs) in ITER Q = 10 H-mode plasmas are likely to lead to large transient heat loads to the divertor. In order to avoid an ELM induced reduction of the divertor lifetime, the large ELM energy losses need to be controlled. In ITER, ELM control is foreseen using magnetic field perturbations created by in-vessel coils and the injection of small D2 pellets. ITER plasmas are characterised by low collisionality at a high density (high fraction of the Greenwald density limit). These parameters cannot simultaneously be achieved in current experiments. Thus, the extrapolation of the ELM properties andmore » the requirements for ELM control in ITER relies on the development of validated physics models and numerical simulations. Here, we describe the modelling of ELMs and ELM control methods in ITER. The aim of this paper is not a complete review on the subject of ELM and ELM control modelling but rather to describe the current status and discuss open issues.« less

  19. Arc detection for the ICRF system on ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D'Inca, R.

    2011-12-01

    The ICRF system for ITER is designed to respect the high voltage breakdown limits. However arcs can still statistically happen and must be quickly detected and suppressed by shutting the RF power down. For the conception of a reliable and efficient detector, the analysis of the mechanism of arcs is necessary to find their unique signature. Numerous systems have been conceived to address the issues of arc detection. VSWR-based detectors, RF noise detectors, sound detectors, optical detectors, S-matrix based detectors. Until now, none of them has succeeded in demonstrating the fulfillment of all requirements and the studies for ITER now follow three directions: improvement of the existing concepts to fix their flaws, development of new theoretically fully compliant detectors (like the GUIDAR) and combination of several detectors to benefit from the advantages of each of them. Together with the physical and engineering challenges, the development of an arc detection system for ITER raises methodological concerns to extrapolate the results from basic experiments and present machines to the ITER scale ICRF system and to conduct a relevant risk analysis.

  20. In-vacuum sensors for the beamline components of the ITER neutral beam test facility.

    PubMed

    Dalla Palma, M; Pasqualotto, R; Sartori, E; Spagnolo, S; Spolaore, M; Veltri, P

    2016-11-01

    Embedded sensors have been designed for installation on the components of the MITICA beamline, the prototype ITER neutral beam injector (Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement), to derive characteristics of the particle beam and to monitor the component conditions during operation for protection and thermal control. Along the beamline, the components interacting with the particle beam are the neutralizer, the residual ion dump, and the calorimeter. The design and the positioning of sensors on each component have been developed considering the expected beam-surface interaction including non-ideal and off-normal conditions. The arrangement of the following instrumentation is presented: thermal sensors, strain gages, electrostatic probes including secondary emission detectors, grounding shunt for electrical currents, and accelerometers.

  1. Multidirectional hybrid algorithm for the split common fixed point problem and application to the split common null point problem.

    PubMed

    Li, Xia; Guo, Meifang; Su, Yongfu

    2016-01-01

    In this article, a new multidirectional monotone hybrid iteration algorithm for finding a solution to the split common fixed point problem is presented for two countable families of quasi-nonexpansive mappings in Banach spaces. Strong convergence theorems are proved. The application of the result is to consider the split common null point problem of maximal monotone operators in Banach spaces. Strong convergence theorems for finding a solution of the split common null point problem are derived. This iteration algorithm can accelerate the convergence speed of iterative sequence. The results of this paper improve and extend the recent results of Takahashi and Yao (Fixed Point Theory Appl 2015:87, 2015) and many others .

  2. Fast iterative censoring CFAR algorithm for ship detection from SAR images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Dandan; Yue, Hui; Zhang, Yuan; Gao, Pengcheng

    2017-11-01

    Ship detection is one of the essential techniques for ship recognition from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. This paper presents a fast iterative detection procedure to eliminate the influence of target returns on the estimation of local sea clutter distributions for constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detectors. A fast block detector is first employed to extract potential target sub-images; and then, an iterative censoring CFAR algorithm is used to detect ship candidates from each target blocks adaptively and efficiently, where parallel detection is available, and statistical parameters of G0 distribution fitting local sea clutter well can be quickly estimated based on an integral image operator. Experimental results of TerraSAR-X images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

  3. A Symmetric Positive Definite Formulation for Monolithic Fluid Structure Interaction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-08-09

    more likely to converge than simply iterating the partitioned approach to convergence in a simple Gauss - Seidel manner. Our approach allows the use of...conditions in a second step. These approaches can also be iterated within a given time step for increased stability, noting that in the limit if one... converges one obtains a monolithic (albeit expensive) approach. Other approaches construct strongly coupled systems and then solve them in one of several

  4. Models of Intracavity Frequency Doubled Lasers

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-01-01

    Intermittency; Intermittency Theory; Entropies and Dimension with Intermittency; Resonances, Frobenius - Perron Operators and Power Spectra; and Scaling and...to finding a measure is to approximate the Frobenius - Perron operator, whose domain is the set of measures on M (see, e.g., Li, 1976). An invariant...measure of the system is a fixed point of the Frobenius - Perron operator, and an iterative method using this operator can be shown to converge to an

  5. Powerloads on the front end components and the duct of the heating and diagnostic neutral beam lines at ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singh, M. J.; Boilson, D.; Hemsworth, R. S.

    2015-04-08

    The heating and current drive beam lines (HNB) at ITER are expected to deliver ∼16.7 MW power per beam line for H beams at 870 keV and D beams at 1 MeV during the H-He and the DD/DT phases of ITER operation respectively. On the other hand the diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) line shall deliver ∼2 MW power for H beams at 100 keV during both the phases. The path lengths over which the beams from the HNB and DNB beam lines need to be transported are 25.6 m and 20.7 m respectively. The transport of the beams over these path lengths resultsmore » in beam losses, mainly by the direct interception of the beam with the beam line components and reionisation. The lost power is deposited on the surfaces of the various components of the beam line. In order to ensure the survival of these components over the operational life time of ITER, it is important to determine to the best possible extent the operational power loads and power densities on the various surfaces which are impacted by the beam in one way or the other during its transport. The main factors contributing to these are the divergence of the beamlets and the halo fraction in the beam, the beam aiming, the horizontal and vertical misalignment of the beam, and the gas profile along the beam path, which determines the re-ionisation loss, and the re-ionisation cross sections. The estimations have been made using a combination of the modified version of the Monte Carlo Gas Flow code (MCGF) and the BTR code. The MCGF is used to determine the gas profile in the beam line and takes into account the active gas feed into the ion source and neutraliser, the HNB-DNB cross over, the gas entering the beamline from the ITER machine, the additional gas atoms generated in the beam line due to impacting ions and the pumping speed of the cryopumps. The BTR code has been used to obtain the power loads and the power densities on the various surfaces of the front end components and the duct modules for different scenarios of ITER operation. The gas profile and the magnetic field distribution for each scenario has been considered in these evaluations. The worst case power loads and power densities for each surface have been used to study their thermo-mechanical behaviour and manufacturing feasibility. The details of these calculations and results obtained are presented and discussed.« less

  6. Organizing Compression of Hyperspectral Imagery to Allow Efficient Parallel Decompression

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Klimesh, Matthew A.; Kiely, Aaron B.

    2014-01-01

    family of schemes has been devised for organizing the output of an algorithm for predictive data compression of hyperspectral imagery so as to allow efficient parallelization in both the compressor and decompressor. In these schemes, the compressor performs a number of iterations, during each of which a portion of the data is compressed via parallel threads operating on independent portions of the data. The general idea is that for each iteration it is predetermined how much compressed data will be produced from each thread.

  7. Iterative spectral methods and spectral solutions to compressible flows

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hussaini, M. Y.; Zang, T. A.

    1982-01-01

    A spectral multigrid scheme is described which can solve pseudospectral discretizations of self-adjoint elliptic problems in O(N log N) operations. An iterative technique for efficiently implementing semi-implicit time-stepping for pseudospectral discretizations of Navier-Stokes equations is discussed. This approach can handle variable coefficient terms in an effective manner. Pseudospectral solutions of compressible flow problems are presented. These include one dimensional problems and two dimensional Euler solutions. Results are given both for shock-capturing approaches and for shock-fitting ones.

  8. Integrated modelling of steady-state scenarios and heating and current drive mixes for ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Murakami, Masanori; Park, Jin Myung; Giruzzi, G.

    2011-01-01

    Recent progress on ITER steady-state (SS) scenario modelling by the ITPA-IOS group is reviewed. Code-to-code benchmarks as the IOS group's common activities for the two SS scenarios (weak shear scenario and internal transport barrier scenario) are discussed in terms of transport, kinetic profiles, and heating and current drive (CD) sources using various transport codes. Weak magnetic shear scenarios integrate the plasma core and edge by combining a theory-based transport model (GLF23) with scaled experimental boundary profiles. The edge profiles (at normalized radius rho = 0.8-1.0) are adopted from an edge-localized mode-averaged analysis of a DIII-D ITER demonstration discharge. A fullymore » noninductive SS scenario is achieved with fusion gain Q = 4.3, noninductive fraction f(NI) = 100%, bootstrap current fraction f(BS) = 63% and normalized beta beta(N) = 2.7 at plasma current I(p) = 8MA and toroidal field B(T) = 5.3 T using ITER day-1 heating and CD capability. Substantial uncertainties come from outside the radius of setting the boundary conditions (rho = 0.8). The present simulation assumed that beta(N)(rho) at the top of the pedestal (rho = 0.91) is about 25% above the peeling-ballooning threshold. ITER will have a challenge to achieve the boundary, considering different operating conditions (T(e)/T(i) approximate to 1 and density peaking). Overall, the experimentally scaled edge is an optimistic side of the prediction. A number of SS scenarios with different heating and CD mixes in a wide range of conditions were explored by exploiting the weak-shear steady-state solution procedure with the GLF23 transport model and the scaled experimental edge. The results are also presented in the operation space for DT neutron power versus stationary burn pulse duration with assumed poloidal flux availability at the beginning of stationary burn, indicating that the long pulse operation goal (3000s) at I(p) = 9 MA is possible. Source calculations in these simulations have been revised for electron cyclotron current drive including parallel momentum conservation effects and for neutral beam current drive with finite orbit and magnetic pitch effects.« less

  9. Data Integration Tool: From Permafrost Data Translation Research Tool to A Robust Research Application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilcox, H.; Schaefer, K. M.; Jafarov, E. E.; Strawhacker, C.; Pulsifer, P. L.; Thurmes, N.

    2016-12-01

    The United States National Science Foundation funded PermaData project led by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) with a team from the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) aimed to improve permafrost data access and discovery. We developed a Data Integration Tool (DIT) to significantly speed up the time of manual processing needed to translate inconsistent, scattered historical permafrost data into files ready to ingest directly into the GTN-P. We leverage this data to support science research and policy decisions. DIT is a workflow manager that divides data preparation and analysis into a series of steps or operations called widgets. Each widget does a specific operation, such as read, multiply by a constant, sort, plot, and write data. DIT allows the user to select and order the widgets as desired to meet their specific needs. Originally it was written to capture a scientist's personal, iterative, data manipulation and quality control process of visually and programmatically iterating through inconsistent input data, examining it to find problems, adding operations to address the problems, and rerunning until the data could be translated into the GTN-P standard format. Iterative development of this tool led to a Fortran/Python hybrid then, with consideration of users, licensing, version control, packaging, and workflow, to a publically available, robust, usable application. Transitioning to Python allowed the use of open source frameworks for the workflow core and integration with a javascript graphical workflow interface. DIT is targeted to automatically handle 90% of the data processing for field scientists, modelers, and non-discipline scientists. It is available as an open source tool in GitHub packaged for a subset of Mac, Windows, and UNIX systems as a desktop application with a graphical workflow manager. DIT was used to completely translate one dataset (133 sites) that was successfully added to GTN-P, nearly translate three datasets (270 sites), and is scheduled to translate 10 more datasets ( 1000 sites) from the legacy inactive site data holdings of the Frozen Ground Data Center (FGDC). Iterative development has provided the permafrost and wider scientific community with an extendable tool designed specifically for the iterative process of translating unruly data.

  10. Development and benchmarking of TASSER(iter) for the iterative improvement of protein structure predictions.

    PubMed

    Lee, Seung Yup; Skolnick, Jeffrey

    2007-07-01

    To improve the accuracy of TASSER models especially in the limit where threading provided template alignments are of poor quality, we have developed the TASSER(iter) algorithm which uses the templates and contact restraints from TASSER generated models for iterative structure refinement. We apply TASSER(iter) to a large benchmark set of 2,773 nonhomologous single domain proteins that are < or = 200 in length and that cover the PDB at the level of 35% pairwise sequence identity. Overall, TASSER(iter) models have a smaller global average RMSD of 5.48 A compared to 5.81 A RMSD of the original TASSER models. Classifying the targets by the level of prediction difficulty (where Easy targets have a good template with a corresponding good threading alignment, Medium targets have a good template but a poor alignment, and Hard targets have an incorrectly identified template), TASSER(iter) (TASSER) models have an average RMSD of 4.15 A (4.35 A) for the Easy set and 9.05 A (9.52 A) for the Hard set. The largest reduction of average RMSD is for the Medium set where the TASSER(iter) models have an average global RMSD of 5.67 A compared to 6.72 A of the TASSER models. Seventy percent of the Medium set TASSER(iter) models have a smaller RMSD than the TASSER models, while 63% of the Easy and 60% of the Hard TASSER models are improved by TASSER(iter). For the foldable cases, where the targets have a RMSD to the native <6.5 A, TASSER(iter) shows obvious improvement over TASSER models: For the Medium set, it improves the success rate from 57.0 to 67.2%, followed by the Hard targets where the success rate improves from 32.0 to 34.8%, with the smallest improvement in the Easy targets from 82.6 to 84.0%. These results suggest that TASSER(iter) can provide more reliable predictions for targets of Medium difficulty, a range that had resisted improvement in the quality of protein structure predictions. 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  11. Iterative Neighbour-Information Gathering for Ranking Nodes in Complex Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Shuang; Wang, Pei; Lü, Jinhu

    2017-01-01

    Designing node influence ranking algorithms can provide insights into network dynamics, functions and structures. Increasingly evidences reveal that node’s spreading ability largely depends on its neighbours. We introduce an iterative neighbourinformation gathering (Ing) process with three parameters, including a transformation matrix, a priori information and an iteration time. The Ing process iteratively combines priori information from neighbours via the transformation matrix, and iteratively assigns an Ing score to each node to evaluate its influence. The algorithm appropriates for any types of networks, and includes some traditional centralities as special cases, such as degree, semi-local, LeaderRank. The Ing process converges in strongly connected networks with speed relying on the first two largest eigenvalues of the transformation matrix. Interestingly, the eigenvector centrality corresponds to a limit case of the algorithm. By comparing with eight renowned centralities, simulations of susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model on real-world networks reveal that the Ing can offer more exact rankings, even without a priori information. We also observe that an optimal iteration time is always in existence to realize best characterizing of node influence. The proposed algorithms bridge the gaps among some existing measures, and may have potential applications in infectious disease control, designing of optimal information spreading strategies.

  12. Adaptive matching of the iota ring linear optics for space charge compensation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Romanov, A.; Bruhwiler, D. L.; Cook, N.

    Many present and future accelerators must operate with high intensity beams when distortions induced by space charge forces are among major limiting factors. Betatron tune depression of above approximately 0.1 per cell leads to significant distortions of linear optics. Many aspects of machine operation depend on proper relations between lattice functions and phase advances, and can be i proved with proper treatment of space charge effects. We implement an adaptive algorithm for linear lattice re matching with full account of space charge in the linear approximation for the case of Fermilab’s IOTA ring. The method is based on a searchmore » for initial second moments that give closed solution and, at the same predefined set of goals for emittances, beta functions, dispersions and phase advances at and between points of interest. Iterative singular value decomposition based technique is used to search for optimum by varying wide array of model parameters« less

  13. The Mobile Laboratory for Radio-Frequency Interference Monitoring at the Sardinia Radio Telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolli, Pietro; Gaudiomonte, Francesco; Ambrosini, Roberto; Bortolotti, Claudio; Roma, Mauro; Barberi, Carlo; Piccoli, Fabrizio

    2013-10-01

    In this paper, a quite unique mobile laboratory for monitoring radio-frequency interference with a radio-astronomical observatory is described. The unit is fully operational at the new Sardinia Radio Telescope, a 64-m antenna now in the commissioning phase in Italy. The mobile laboratory is mainly used to identify the source of interference with the radio astronomy service using iterative triangulations in the azimuth directions. Both the design and realization of this prototype were handled with outstanding care to limit the emission of self-interference as much as possible. The laboratory was equipped with excellent microwave instruments in terms of sensitivity, frequency coverage, dynamic range, and various demodulation and signal-analysis facilities. The unit can be quickly switched to different RF and power-supply configurations, while offering operators a safe and efficient workplace, even in adverse meteorological and driving conditions. In the past months, the mobile laboratory has proven to be successful in detecting and identifying many radio interferers. Two examples of measurement campaigns are described.

  14. The density matrix renormalization group algorithm on kilo-processor architectures: Implementation and trade-offs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nemes, Csaba; Barcza, Gergely; Nagy, Zoltán; Legeza, Örs; Szolgay, Péter

    2014-06-01

    In the numerical analysis of strongly correlated quantum lattice models one of the leading algorithms developed to balance the size of the effective Hilbert space and the accuracy of the simulation is the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm, in which the run-time is dominated by the iterative diagonalization of the Hamilton operator. As the most time-dominant step of the diagonalization can be expressed as a list of dense matrix operations, the DMRG is an appealing candidate to fully utilize the computing power residing in novel kilo-processor architectures. In the paper a smart hybrid CPU-GPU implementation is presented, which exploits the power of both CPU and GPU and tolerates problems exceeding the GPU memory size. Furthermore, a new CUDA kernel has been designed for asymmetric matrix-vector multiplication to accelerate the rest of the diagonalization. Besides the evaluation of the GPU implementation, the practical limits of an FPGA implementation are also discussed.

  15. Modeling of Steady-state Scenarios for the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility, Advanced Tokamak Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garofalo, A. M.; Chan, V. S.; Prater, R.; Smith, S. P.; St. John, H. E.; Meneghini, O.

    2013-10-01

    A Fusion National Science Facility (FNSF) would complement ITER in addressing the community identified science and technology gaps to a commercially attractive DEMO, including breeding tritium and completing the fuel cycle, qualifying nuclear materials for high fluence, developing suitable materials for the plasma-boundary interface, and demonstrating power extraction. Steady-state plasma operation is highly desirable to address the requirements for fusion nuclear technology testing [1]. The Advanced Tokamak (AT) is a strong candidate for an FNSF as a consequence of its mature physics base, capability to address the key issues with a more compact device, and the direct relevance to an attractive target power plant. Key features of AT are fully noninductive current drive, strong plasma cross section shaping, internal profiles consistent with high bootstrap fraction, and operation at high beta, typically above the free boundary limit, βN > 3 . Work supported by GA IR&D funding, DE-FC02-04ER54698, and DE-FG02-95ER43309.

  16. RELAP5 Model of the First Wall/Blanket Primary Heat Transfer System

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Popov, Emilian L; Yoder Jr, Graydon L; Kim, Seokho H

    2010-06-01

    ITER inductive power operation is modeled and simulated using a system level computer code to evaluate the behavior of the Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) and predict parameter operational ranges. The control algorithm strategy and derivation are summarized in this report as well. A major feature of ITER is pulsed operation. The plasma does not burn continuously, but the power is pulsed with large periods of zero power between pulses. This feature requires active temperature control to maintain a constant blanket inlet temperature and requires accommodation of coolant thermal expansion during the pulse. In view of the transient nature ofmore » the power (plasma) operation state a transient system thermal-hydraulics code was selected: RELAP5. The code has a well-documented history for nuclear reactor transient analyses, it has been benchmarked against numerous experiments, and a large user database of commonly accepted modeling practices exists. The process of heat deposition and transfer in the blanket modules is multi-dimensional and cannot be accurately captured by a one-dimensional code such as RELAP5. To resolve this, a separate CFD calculation of blanket thermal power evolution was performed using the 3-D SC/Tetra thermofluid code. A 1D-3D co-simulation more realistically models FW/blanket internal time-dependent thermal inertia while eliminating uncertainties in the time constant assumed in a 1-D system code. Blanket water outlet temperature and heat release histories for any given ITER pulse operation scenario are calculated. These results provide the basis for developing time dependent power forcing functions which are used as input in the RELAP5 calculations.« less

  17. System matrix computation vs storage on GPU: A comparative study in cone beam CT.

    PubMed

    Matenine, Dmitri; Côté, Geoffroi; Mascolo-Fortin, Julia; Goussard, Yves; Després, Philippe

    2018-02-01

    Iterative reconstruction algorithms in computed tomography (CT) require a fast method for computing the intersection distances between the trajectories of photons and the object, also called ray tracing or system matrix computation. This work focused on the thin-ray model is aimed at comparing different system matrix handling strategies using graphical processing units (GPUs). In this work, the system matrix is modeled by thin rays intersecting a regular grid of box-shaped voxels, known to be an accurate representation of the forward projection operator in CT. However, an uncompressed system matrix exceeds the random access memory (RAM) capacities of typical computers by one order of magnitude or more. Considering the RAM limitations of GPU hardware, several system matrix handling methods were compared: full storage of a compressed system matrix, on-the-fly computation of its coefficients, and partial storage of the system matrix with partial on-the-fly computation. These methods were tested on geometries mimicking a cone beam CT (CBCT) acquisition of a human head. Execution times of three routines of interest were compared: forward projection, backprojection, and ordered-subsets convex (OSC) iteration. A fully stored system matrix yielded the shortest backprojection and OSC iteration times, with a 1.52× acceleration for OSC when compared to the on-the-fly approach. Nevertheless, the maximum problem size was bound by the available GPU RAM and geometrical symmetries. On-the-fly coefficient computation did not require symmetries and was shown to be the fastest for forward projection. It also offered reasonable execution times of about 176.4 ms per view per OSC iteration for a detector of 512 × 448 pixels and a volume of 384 3 voxels, using commodity GPU hardware. Partial system matrix storage has shown a performance similar to the on-the-fly approach, while still relying on symmetries. Partial system matrix storage was shown to yield the lowest relative performance. On-the-fly ray tracing was shown to be the most flexible method, yielding reasonable execution times. A fully stored system matrix allowed for the lowest backprojection and OSC iteration times and may be of interest for certain performance-oriented applications. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

  18. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bourham, Mohamed A.; Gilligan, John G.

    Safety considerations in large future fusion reactors like ITER are important before licensing the reactor. Several scenarios are considered hazardous, which include safety of plasma-facing components during hard disruptions, high heat fluxes and thermal stresses during normal operation, accidental energy release, and aerosol formation and transport. Disruption events, in large tokamaks like ITER, are expected to produce local heat fluxes on plasma-facing components, which may exceed 100 GW/m{sup 2} over a period of about 0.1 ms. As a result, the surface temperature dramatically increases, which results in surface melting and vaporization, and produces thermal stresses and surface erosion. Plasma-facing componentsmore » safety issues extends to cover a wide range of possible scenarios, including disruption severity and the impact of plasma-facing components on disruption parameters, accidental energy release and short/long term LOCA's, and formation of airborne particles by convective current transport during a LOVA (water/air ingress disruption) accident scenario. Study, and evaluation of, disruption-induced aerosol generation and mobilization is essential to characterize database on particulate formation and distribution for large future fusion tokamak reactor like ITER. In order to provide database relevant to ITER, the SIRENS electrothermal plasma facility at NCSU has been modified to closely simulate heat fluxes expected in ITER.« less

  19. Overview of the JET results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romanelli, F.; JET Contributors,

    2015-10-01

    Since the installation of an ITER-like wall, the JET programme has focused on the consolidation of ITER design choices and the preparation for ITER operation, with a specific emphasis given to the bulk tungsten melt experiment, which has been crucial for the final decision on the material choice for the day-one tungsten divertor in ITER. Integrated scenarios have been progressed with the re-establishment of long-pulse, high-confinement H-modes by optimizing the magnetic configuration and the use of ICRH to avoid tungsten impurity accumulation. Stationary discharges with detached divertor conditions and small edge localized modes have been demonstrated by nitrogen seeding. The differences in confinement and pedestal behaviour before and after the ITER-like wall installation have been better characterized towards the development of high fusion yield scenarios in DT. Post-mortem analyses of the plasma-facing components have confirmed the previously reported low fuel retention obtained by gas balance and shown that the pattern of deposition within the divertor has changed significantly with respect to the JET carbon wall campaigns due to the absence of thermally activated chemical erosion of beryllium in contrast to carbon. Transport to remote areas is almost absent and two orders of magnitude less material is found in the divertor.

  20. Mixed Material Plasma-Surface Interactions in ITER: Recent Results from the PISCES Group

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tynan, George R.; Baldwin, Matthew; Doerner, Russell

    This paper summarizes recent PISCES studies focused on the effects associated with mixed species plasmas that are similar in composition to what one might expect in ITER. Formation of nanometer scale whiskerlike features occurs in W surfaces exposed to pure He and mixed D/He plasmas and appears to be associated with the formation of He nanometer-scaled bubbles in the W surface. Studies of Be-W alloy formation in Be-seeded D plasmas suggest that this process may be important in ITER all metal wall operational scenarios. Studies also suggest that BeD formation via chemical sputtering of Be walls may be an importantmore » first wall erosion mechanism. D retention in ITER mixed materials has also been studied. The D release behavior from beryllium co-deposits does not appear to be a diffusion dominated process, but instead is consistent with thermal release from a number of variable trapping energy sites. As a result, the amount of tritium remaining in codeposits in ITER after baking will be determined by the maximum temperature achieved, rather than by the duration of the baking cycle.« less

  1. Modeling and Simulation of the ITER First Wall/Blanket Primary Heat Transfer System

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ying, Alice; Popov, Emilian L

    2011-01-01

    ITER inductive power operation is modeled and simulated using a thermal-hydraulics system code (RELAP5) integrated with a 3-D CFD (SC-Tetra) code. The Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) functions are predicted together with the main parameters operational ranges. The control algorithm strategy and derivation are summarized as well. The First Wall and Blanket modules are the primary components of PHTS, used to remove the major part of the thermal heat from the plasma. The modules represent a set of flow channels in solid metal structure that serve to absorb the radiation heat and nuclear heating from the fusion reactions and tomore » provide shield for the vacuum vessel. The blanket modules are water cooled. The cooling is forced convective with constant blanket inlet temperature and mass flow rate. Three independent water loops supply coolant to the three blanket sectors. The main equipment of each loop consists of a pump, a steam pressurizer and a heat exchanger. A major feature of ITER is the pulsed operation. The plasma does not burn continuously, but on intervals with large periods of no power between them. This specific feature causes design challenges to accommodate the thermal expansion of the coolant during the pulse period and requires active temperature control to maintain a constant blanket inlet temperature.« less

  2. ITER Port Interspace Pressure Calculations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Carbajo, Juan J; Van Hove, Walter A

    The ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV) is equipped with 54 access ports. Each of these ports has an opening in the bioshield that communicates with a dedicated port cell. During Tokamak operation, the bioshield opening must be closed with a concrete plug to shield the radiation coming from the plasma. This port plug separates the port cell into a Port Interspace (between VV closure lid and Port Plug) on the inner side and the Port Cell on the outer side. This paper presents calculations of pressures and temperatures in the ITER (Ref. 1) Port Interspace after a double-ended guillotine break (DEGB)more » of a pipe of the Tokamak Cooling Water System (TCWS) with high temperature water. It is assumed that this DEGB occurs during the worst possible conditions, which are during water baking operation, with water at a temperature of 523 K (250 C) and at a pressure of 4.4 MPa. These conditions are more severe than during normal Tokamak operation, with the water at 398 K (125 C) and 2 MPa. Two computer codes are employed in these calculations: RELAP5-3D Version 4.2.1 (Ref. 2) to calculate the blowdown releases from the pipe break, and MELCOR, Version 1.8.6 (Ref. 3) to calculate the pressures and temperatures in the Port Interspace. A sensitivity study has been performed to optimize some flow areas.« less

  3. On Heat Loading, Novel Divertors, and Fusion Reactors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kotschenreuther, Mike

    2006-10-01

    A new magnetic divertor geometry has been proposed to solve reactor heat exhaust problems, which are far more severe for a reactor than for ITER. Using reactor-compatible coils to generate an extra X-point downstream from the main X-point, the new X-divertor (XD) is shown to greatly expand magnetic flux at the divertor plates. As a result, the heat is distributed over a larger area and the line length is greatly increased. The heat-flux limitations of a standard divertor (SD) force a high core radiation fraction (fRad) in most reactor designs that necessarily have a several times higher ratio of heating power to radius (P/R) than ITER. It is argued that such high values of fRad will probably have serious deleterious consequences on the core confinement and stability of a burning plasma. Operation with internal transport barriers (ITBs) does not appear to overcome this problem. By reducing the core fRad within an acceptable range, the X-divertor is shown to substantially lower the core confinement requirement for a fusion reactor. As a bonus, the XD also enables the use of liquid metals by reducing the MHD drag. A possible series of experiments for an efficient and attractive path to practical fusion power is suggested.

  4. Development of acoustic model-based iterative reconstruction technique for thick-concrete imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Almansouri, Hani; Clayton, Dwight; Kisner, Roger; Polsky, Yarom; Bouman, Charles; Santos-Villalobos, Hector

    2016-02-01

    Ultrasound signals have been used extensively for non-destructive evaluation (NDE). However, typical reconstruction techniques, such as the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT), are limited to quasi-homogenous thin media. New ultrasonic systems and reconstruction algorithms are in need for one-sided NDE of non-homogenous thick objects. An application example space is imaging of reinforced concrete structures for commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). These structures provide important foundation, support, shielding, and containment functions. Identification and management of aging and degradation of concrete structures is fundamental to the proposed long-term operation of NPPs. Another example is geothermal and oil/gas production wells. These multi-layered structures are composed of steel, cement, and several types of soil and rocks. Ultrasound systems with greater penetration range and image quality will allow for better monitoring of the well's health and prediction of high-pressure hydraulic fracturing of the rock. These application challenges need to be addressed with an integrated imaging approach, where the application, hardware, and reconstruction software are highly integrated and optimized. Therefore, we are developing an ultrasonic system with Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) as the image reconstruction backbone. As the first implementation of MBIR for ultrasonic signals, this paper document the first implementation of the algorithm and show reconstruction results for synthetically generated data.1

  5. Experimental demonstration of iterative post-equalization algorithm for 37.5-Gbaud PM-16QAM quad-carrier Terabit superchannel.

    PubMed

    Jia, Zhensheng; Chien, Hung-Chang; Cai, Yi; Yu, Jianjun; Zhang, Chengliang; Li, Junjie; Ma, Yiran; Shang, Dongdong; Zhang, Qi; Shi, Sheping; Wang, Huitao

    2015-02-09

    We experimentally demonstrate a quad-carrier 1-Tb/s solution with 37.5-GBaud PM-16QAM signal over 37.5-GHz optical grid at 6.7 b/s/Hz net spectral efficiency. Digital Nyquist pulse shaping at the transmitter and post-equalization at the receiver are employed to mitigate the impairments of joint inter-symbol-interference (ISI) and inter-channel-interference (ICI) symbol degradation. The post-equalization algorithms consist of one sample/symbol based decision-directed least mean square (DD-LMS) adaptive filter, digital post filter and maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE), and a positive iterative process among them. By combining these algorithms, the improvement as much as 4-dB OSNR (0.1nm) at SD-FEC limit (Q(2) = 6.25 corresponding to BER = 2.0e-2) is obtained when compared to no such post-equalization process, and transmission over 820-km EDFA-only standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) link is achieved for two 1.2-Tb/s signals with the averaged Q(2) factor larger than 6.5 dB for all sub-channels. Additionally, 50-GBaud 16QAM operating at 1.28 samples/symbol in a DAC is also investigated and successful transmission over 410-km SSMF link is achieved at 62.5-GHz optical grid.

  6. High-bandwidth and flexible tracking control for precision motion with application to a piezo nanopositioner.

    PubMed

    Feng, Zhao; Ling, Jie; Ming, Min; Xiao, Xiao-Hui

    2017-08-01

    For precision motion, high-bandwidth and flexible tracking are the two important issues for significant performance improvement. Iterative learning control (ILC) is an effective feedforward control method only for systems that operate strictly repetitively. Although projection ILC can track varying references, the performance is still limited by the fixed-bandwidth Q-filter, especially for triangular waves tracking commonly used in a piezo nanopositioner. In this paper, a wavelet transform-based linear time-varying (LTV) Q-filter design for projection ILC is proposed to compensate high-frequency errors and improve the ability to tracking varying references simultaneously. The LVT Q-filter is designed based on the modulus maximum of wavelet detail coefficients calculated by wavelet transform to determine the high-frequency locations of each iteration with the advantages of avoiding cross-terms and segmenting manually. The proposed approach was verified on a piezo nanopositioner. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can locate the high-frequency regions accurately and achieve the best performance under varying references compared with traditional frequency-domain and projection ILC with a fixed-bandwidth Q-filter, which validates that through implementing the LTV filter on projection ILC, high-bandwidth and flexible tracking can be achieved simultaneously by the proposed approach.

  7. Increasing feasibility of the field-programmable gate array implementation of an iterative image registration using a kernel-warping algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nguyen, An Hung; Guillemette, Thomas; Lambert, Andrew J.; Pickering, Mark R.; Garratt, Matthew A.

    2017-09-01

    Image registration is a fundamental image processing technique. It is used to spatially align two or more images that have been captured at different times, from different sensors, or from different viewpoints. There have been many algorithms proposed for this task. The most common of these being the well-known Lucas-Kanade (LK) and Horn-Schunck approaches. However, the main limitation of these approaches is the computational complexity required to implement the large number of iterations necessary for successful alignment of the images. Previously, a multi-pass image interpolation algorithm (MP-I2A) was developed to considerably reduce the number of iterations required for successful registration compared with the LK algorithm. This paper develops a kernel-warping algorithm (KWA), a modified version of the MP-I2A, which requires fewer iterations to successfully register two images and less memory space for the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation than the MP-I2A. These reductions increase feasibility of the implementation of the proposed algorithm on FPGAs with very limited memory space and other hardware resources. A two-FPGA system rather than single FPGA system is successfully developed to implement the KWA in order to compensate insufficiency of hardware resources supported by one FPGA, and increase parallel processing ability and scalability of the system.

  8. Quantification of Chemical Erosion in the DIII-D Divertor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McLean, Adam

    2009-11-01

    Chemical erosion (CE) yield at the graphite divertor target in DIII-D was measured to be substantially lower in cold near-detached plasma conditions compared to well-attached ones, with major implications for ITER. Current estimates of tritium retention by co-deposition with hydrocarbons (HCs) in ITER place potentially severe restrictions on operation. However, calculations done to date have been based on excessively conservative assumptions, due to limited understanding of cold divertor plasmas (1-5eV) which bridge energy thresholds for complex atomic and molecular processes not present in attached conditions. Hydrocarbon injection through a unique porous graphite plate which realistically simulates secondary reactions of HCs with a graphite surface has been used to measure CE in-situ. For the first time in a divertor, measurements were made at extrinsic CH4 injection rates comparable to the expected intrinsic CE rate of C, with the resulting spectroscopic emissions separated from those of the intrinsic sources. Under cold plasma conditions the contribution of CE-produced C relative to total C sources in the divertor declined dramatically from ˜50% to <15%. Photon efficiencies for products from the breakup of injected CH4 were greater than previous measurements at higher puff rates, indicating the importance of minimizing perturbation to the local plasma. At 350K, the measured CE yield near the outer strike point was ˜2.6% in attachment dropping to only ˜0.5% in cold plasma; results are consistent with some theoretical predications and lab studies. Under full detachment, near total extinction of the CD band occurred, consistent with suppression of net C erosion. These findings have potentially major impact on projected target lifetime and tritium retention in future reactors, and for the PFC choice in ITER.

  9. Least-squares reverse time migration in elastic media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ren, Zhiming; Liu, Yang; Sen, Mrinal K.

    2017-02-01

    Elastic reverse time migration (RTM) can yield accurate subsurface information (e.g. PP and PS reflectivity) by imaging the multicomponent seismic data. However, the existing RTM methods are still insufficient to provide satisfactory results because of the finite recording aperture, limited bandwidth and imperfect illumination. Besides, the P- and S-wave separation and the polarity reversal correction are indispensable in conventional elastic RTM. Here, we propose an iterative elastic least-squares RTM (LSRTM) method, in which the imaging accuracy is improved gradually with iteration. We first use the Born approximation to formulate the elastic de-migration operator, and employ the Lagrange multiplier method to derive the adjoint equations and gradients with respect to reflectivity. Then, an efficient inversion workflow (only four forward computations needed in each iteration) is introduced to update the reflectivity. Synthetic and field data examples reveal that the proposed LSRTM method can obtain higher-quality images than the conventional elastic RTM. We also analyse the influence of model parametrizations and misfit functions in elastic LSRTM. We observe that Lamé parameters, velocity and impedance parametrizations have similar and plausible migration results when the structures of different models are correlated. For an uncorrelated subsurface model, velocity and impedance parametrizations produce fewer artefacts caused by parameter crosstalk than the Lamé coefficient parametrization. Correlation- and convolution-type misfit functions are effective when amplitude errors are involved and the source wavelet is unknown, respectively. Finally, we discuss the dependence of elastic LSRTM on migration velocities and its antinoise ability. Imaging results determine that the new elastic LSRTM method performs well as long as the low-frequency components of migration velocities are correct. The quality of images of elastic LSRTM degrades with increasing noise.

  10. Varying-energy CT imaging method based on EM-TV

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Ping; Han, Yan

    2016-11-01

    For complicated structural components with wide x-ray attenuation ranges, conventional fixed-energy computed tomography (CT) imaging cannot obtain all the structural information. This limitation results in a shortage of CT information because the effective thickness of the components along the direction of x-ray penetration exceeds the limit of the dynamic range of the x-ray imaging system. To address this problem, a varying-energy x-ray CT imaging method is proposed. In this new method, the tube voltage is adjusted several times with the fixed lesser interval. Next, the fusion of grey consistency and logarithm demodulation are applied to obtain full and lower noise projection with a high dynamic range (HDR). In addition, for the noise suppression problem of the analytical method, EM-TV (expectation maximization-total Jvariation) iteration reconstruction is used. In the process of iteration, the reconstruction result obtained at one x-ray energy is used as the initial condition of the next iteration. An accompanying experiment demonstrates that this EM-TV reconstruction can also extend the dynamic range of x-ray imaging systems and provide a higher reconstruction quality relative to the fusion reconstruction method.

  11. A numerical scheme to solve unstable boundary value problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kalnay-Rivas, E.

    1977-01-01

    The considered scheme makes it possible to determine an unstable steady state solution in cases in which, because of lack of symmetry, such a solution cannot be obtained analytically, and other time integration or relaxation schemes, because of instability, fail to converge. The iterative solution of a single complex equation is discussed and a nonlinear system of equations is considered. Described applications of the scheme are related to a steady state solution with shear instability, an unstable nonlinear Ekman boundary layer, and the steady state solution of a baroclinic atmosphere with asymmetric forcing. The scheme makes use of forward and backward time integrations of the original spatial differential operators and of an approximation of the adjoint operators. Only two computations of the time derivative per iteration are required.

  12. A suite of diagnostics to validate and optimize the prototype ITER neutral beam injector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pasqualotto, R.; Agostini, M.; Barbisan, M.; Brombin, M.; Cavazzana, R.; Croci, G.; Dalla Palma, M.; Delogu, R. S.; De Muri, M.; Muraro, A.; Peruzzo, S.; Pimazzoni, A.; Pomaro, N.; Rebai, M.; Rizzolo, A.; Sartori, E.; Serianni, G.; Spagnolo, S.; Spolaore, M.; Tardocchi, M.; Zaniol, B.; Zaupa, M.

    2017-10-01

    The ITER project requires additional heating provided by two neutral beam injectors using 40 A negative deuterium ions accelerated at 1 MV. As the beam requirements have never been experimentally met, a test facility is under construction at Consorzio RFX, which hosts two experiments: SPIDER, full-size 100 kV ion source prototype, and MITICA, 1 MeV full-size ITER injector prototype. Since diagnostics in ITER injectors will be mainly limited to thermocouples, due to neutron and gamma radiation and to limited access, it is crucial to thoroughly investigate and characterize in more accessible experiments the key parameters of source plasma and beam, using several complementary diagnostics assisted by modelling. In SPIDER and MITICA the ion source parameters will be measured by optical emission spectroscopy, electrostatic probes, cavity ring down spectroscopy for H^- density and laser absorption spectroscopy for cesium density. Measurements over multiple lines-of-sight will provide the spatial distribution of the parameters over the source extension. The beam profile uniformity and its divergence are studied with beam emission spectroscopy, complemented by visible tomography and neutron imaging, which are novel techniques, while an instrumented calorimeter based on custom unidirectional carbon fiber composite tiles observed by infrared cameras will measure the beam footprint on short pulses with the highest spatial resolution. All heated components will be monitored with thermocouples: as these will likely be the only measurements available in ITER injectors, their capabilities will be investigated by comparison with other techniques. SPIDER and MITICA diagnostics are described in the present paper with a focus on their rationale, key solutions and most original and effective implementations.

  13. In-vacuum sensors for the beamline components of the ITER neutral beam test facility

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dalla Palma, M., E-mail: mauro.dallapalma@igi.cnr.it; Pasqualotto, R.; Spagnolo, S.

    2016-11-15

    Embedded sensors have been designed for installation on the components of the MITICA beamline, the prototype ITER neutral beam injector (Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement), to derive characteristics of the particle beam and to monitor the component conditions during operation for protection and thermal control. Along the beamline, the components interacting with the particle beam are the neutralizer, the residual ion dump, and the calorimeter. The design and the positioning of sensors on each component have been developed considering the expected beam-surface interaction including non-ideal and off-normal conditions. The arrangement of the following instrumentation is presented: thermal sensors, strainmore » gages, electrostatic probes including secondary emission detectors, grounding shunt for electrical currents, and accelerometers.« less

  14. Managing and Communicating Operational Workflow

    PubMed Central

    Weinberg, Stuart T.; Danciu, Ioana; Unertl, Kim M.

    2016-01-01

    Summary Background Healthcare team members in emergency department contexts have used electronic whiteboard solutions to help manage operational workflow for many years. Ambulatory clinic settings have highly complex operational workflow, but are still limited in electronic assistance to communicate and coordinate work activities. Objective To describe and discuss the design, implementation, use, and ongoing evolution of a coordination and collaboration tool supporting ambulatory clinic operational workflow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Methods The outpatient whiteboard tool was initially designed to support healthcare work related to an electronic chemotherapy order-entry application. After a highly successful initial implementation in an oncology context, a high demand emerged across the organization for the outpatient whiteboard implementation. Over the past 10 years, developers have followed an iterative user-centered design process to evolve the tool. Results The electronic outpatient whiteboard system supports 194 separate whiteboards and is accessed by over 2800 distinct users on a typical day. Clinics can configure their whiteboards to support unique workflow elements. Since initial release, features such as immunization clinical decision support have been integrated into the system, based on requests from end users. Conclusions The success of the electronic outpatient whiteboard demonstrates the usefulness of an operational workflow tool within the ambulatory clinic setting. Operational workflow tools can play a significant role in supporting coordination, collaboration, and teamwork in ambulatory healthcare settings. PMID:27081407

  15. A numerical formulation and algorithm for limit and shakedown analysis of large-scale elastoplastic structures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Heng; Liu, Yinghua; Chen, Haofeng

    2018-05-01

    In this paper, a novel direct method called the stress compensation method (SCM) is proposed for limit and shakedown analysis of large-scale elastoplastic structures. Without needing to solve the specific mathematical programming problem, the SCM is a two-level iterative procedure based on a sequence of linear elastic finite element solutions where the global stiffness matrix is decomposed only once. In the inner loop, the static admissible residual stress field for shakedown analysis is constructed. In the outer loop, a series of decreasing load multipliers are updated to approach to the shakedown limit multiplier by using an efficient and robust iteration control technique, where the static shakedown theorem is adopted. Three numerical examples up to about 140,000 finite element nodes confirm the applicability and efficiency of this method for two-dimensional and three-dimensional elastoplastic structures, with detailed discussions on the convergence and the accuracy of the proposed algorithm.

  16. Preliminary safety analysis of the Baita Bihor radioactive waste repository, Romania

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Little, Richard; Bond, Alex; Watson, Sarah

    2007-07-01

    A project funded under the European Commission's Phare Programme 2002 has undertaken an in-depth analysis of the operational and post-closure safety of the Baita Bihor repository. The repository has accepted low- and some intermediate-level radioactive waste from industry, medical establishments and research activities since 1985 and the current estimate is that disposals might continue for around another 20 to 35 years. The analysis of the operational and post-closure safety of the Baita Bihor repository was carried out in two iterations, with the second iteration resulting in reduced uncertainties, largely as a result taking into account new information on the hydrologymore » and hydrogeology of the area, collected as part of the project. Impacts were evaluated for the maximum potential inventory that might be available for disposal to Baita Bihor for a number of operational and postclosure scenarios and associated conceptual models. The results showed that calculated impacts were below the relevant regulatory criteria. In light of the assessment, a number of recommendations relating to repository operation, optimisation of repository engineering and waste disposals, and environmental monitoring were made. (authors)« less

  17. Iterated Gate Teleportation and Blind Quantum Computation.

    PubMed

    Pérez-Delgado, Carlos A; Fitzsimons, Joseph F

    2015-06-05

    Blind quantum computation allows a user to delegate a computation to an untrusted server while keeping the computation hidden. A number of recent works have sought to establish bounds on the communication requirements necessary to implement blind computation, and a bound based on the no-programming theorem of Nielsen and Chuang has emerged as a natural limiting factor. Here we show that this constraint only holds in limited scenarios, and show how to overcome it using a novel method of iterated gate teleportations. This technique enables drastic reductions in the communication required for distributed quantum protocols, extending beyond the blind computation setting. Applied to blind quantum computation, this technique offers significant efficiency improvements, and in some scenarios offers an exponential reduction in communication requirements.

  18. AFEII Analog Front End Board Design Specifications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Rubinov, Paul; /Fermilab

    2005-04-01

    This document describes the design of the 2nd iteration of the Analog Front End Board (AFEII), which has the function of receiving charge signals from the Central Fiber Tracker (CFT) and providing digital hit pattern and charge amplitude information from those charge signals. This second iteration is intended to address limitations of the current AFE (referred to as AFEI in this document). These limitations become increasingly deleterious to the performance of the Central Fiber Tracker as instantaneous luminosity increases. The limitations are inherent in the design of the key front end chips on the AFEI board (the SVXIIe and themore » SIFT) and the architecture of the board itself. The key limitations of the AFEI are: (1) SVX saturation; (2) Discriminator to analog readout cross talk; (3) Tick to tick pedestal variation; and (4) Channel to channel pedestal variation. The new version of the AFE board, AFEII, addresses these limitations by use of a new chip, the TriP-t and by architectural changes, while retaining the well understood and desirable features of the AFEI board.« less

  19. Alternative divertor target concepts for next step fusion devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mazul, I. V.

    2016-12-01

    The operational conditions of a divertor target in the next steps of fusion devices are more severe in comparison with ITER. The current divertor designs and technologies have a limited application concerning these conditions, and so new design concepts/technologies are required. The main reasons which practically prevent the use of the traditional motionless solid divertor target are analyzed. We describe several alternative divertor target concepts in this paper. The comparative analysis of these concepts (including the advantages and the drawbacks) is made and the prospects for their practical implementation are prioritized. The concept of the swept divertor target with a liquid metal interlayer between the moving armour and motionless heat-sink is presented in more detail. The critical issues of this design are listed and outlined, and the possible experiments are presented.

  20. Multidimensional FEM-FCT schemes for arbitrary time stepping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuzmin, D.; Möller, M.; Turek, S.

    2003-05-01

    The flux-corrected-transport paradigm is generalized to finite-element schemes based on arbitrary time stepping. A conservative flux decomposition procedure is proposed for both convective and diffusive terms. Mathematical properties of positivity-preserving schemes are reviewed. A nonoscillatory low-order method is constructed by elimination of negative off-diagonal entries of the discrete transport operator. The linearization of source terms and extension to hyperbolic systems are discussed. Zalesak's multidimensional limiter is employed to switch between linear discretizations of high and low order. A rigorous proof of positivity is provided. The treatment of non-linearities and iterative solution of linear systems are addressed. The performance of the new algorithm is illustrated by numerical examples for the shock tube problem in one dimension and scalar transport equations in two dimensions.

  1. Fast and robust estimation of ophthalmic wavefront aberrations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dillon, Keith

    2016-12-01

    Rapidly rising levels of myopia, particularly in the developing world, have led to an increased need for inexpensive and automated approaches to optometry. A simple and robust technique is provided for estimating major ophthalmic aberrations using a gradient-based wavefront sensor. The approach is based on the use of numerical calculations to produce diverse combinations of phase components, followed by Fourier transforms to calculate the coefficients. The approach does not utilize phase unwrapping nor iterative solution of inverse problems. This makes the method very fast and tolerant to image artifacts, which do not need to be detected and masked or interpolated as is needed in other techniques. These features make it a promising algorithm on which to base low-cost devices for applications that may have limited access to expert maintenance and operation.

  2. VENTURE/PC manual: A multidimensional multigroup neutron diffusion code system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shapiro, A.; Huria, H.C.; Cho, K.W.

    1991-12-01

    VENTURE/PC is a recompilation of part of the Oak Ridge BOLD VENTURE code system, which will operate on an IBM PC or compatible computer. Neutron diffusion theory solutions are obtained for multidimensional, multigroup problems. This manual contains information associated with operating the code system. The purpose of the various modules used in the code system, and the input for these modules are discussed. The PC code structure is also given. Version 2 included several enhancements not given in the original version of the code. In particular, flux iterations can be done in core rather than by reading and writing tomore » disk, for problems which allow sufficient memory for such in-core iterations. This speeds up the iteration process. Version 3 does not include any of the special processors used in the previous versions. These special processors utilized formatted input for various elements of the code system. All such input data is now entered through the Input Processor, which produces standard interface files for the various modules in the code system. In addition, a Standard Interface File Handbook is included in the documentation which is distributed with the code, to assist in developing the input for the Input Processor.« less

  3. Scalable domain decomposition solvers for stochastic PDEs in high performance computing

    DOE PAGES

    Desai, Ajit; Khalil, Mohammad; Pettit, Chris; ...

    2017-09-21

    Stochastic spectral finite element models of practical engineering systems may involve solutions of linear systems or linearized systems for non-linear problems with billions of unknowns. For stochastic modeling, it is therefore essential to design robust, parallel and scalable algorithms that can efficiently utilize high-performance computing to tackle such large-scale systems. Domain decomposition based iterative solvers can handle such systems. And though these algorithms exhibit excellent scalabilities, significant algorithmic and implementational challenges exist to extend them to solve extreme-scale stochastic systems using emerging computing platforms. Intrusive polynomial chaos expansion based domain decomposition algorithms are extended here to concurrently handle high resolutionmore » in both spatial and stochastic domains using an in-house implementation. Sparse iterative solvers with efficient preconditioners are employed to solve the resulting global and subdomain level local systems through multi-level iterative solvers. We also use parallel sparse matrix–vector operations to reduce the floating-point operations and memory requirements. Numerical and parallel scalabilities of these algorithms are presented for the diffusion equation having spatially varying diffusion coefficient modeled by a non-Gaussian stochastic process. Scalability of the solvers with respect to the number of random variables is also investigated.« less

  4. Scalable domain decomposition solvers for stochastic PDEs in high performance computing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Desai, Ajit; Khalil, Mohammad; Pettit, Chris

    Stochastic spectral finite element models of practical engineering systems may involve solutions of linear systems or linearized systems for non-linear problems with billions of unknowns. For stochastic modeling, it is therefore essential to design robust, parallel and scalable algorithms that can efficiently utilize high-performance computing to tackle such large-scale systems. Domain decomposition based iterative solvers can handle such systems. And though these algorithms exhibit excellent scalabilities, significant algorithmic and implementational challenges exist to extend them to solve extreme-scale stochastic systems using emerging computing platforms. Intrusive polynomial chaos expansion based domain decomposition algorithms are extended here to concurrently handle high resolutionmore » in both spatial and stochastic domains using an in-house implementation. Sparse iterative solvers with efficient preconditioners are employed to solve the resulting global and subdomain level local systems through multi-level iterative solvers. We also use parallel sparse matrix–vector operations to reduce the floating-point operations and memory requirements. Numerical and parallel scalabilities of these algorithms are presented for the diffusion equation having spatially varying diffusion coefficient modeled by a non-Gaussian stochastic process. Scalability of the solvers with respect to the number of random variables is also investigated.« less

  5. Translation position determination in ptychographic coherent diffraction imaging.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Fucai; Peterson, Isaac; Vila-Comamala, Joan; Diaz, Ana; Berenguer, Felisa; Bean, Richard; Chen, Bo; Menzel, Andreas; Robinson, Ian K; Rodenburg, John M

    2013-06-03

    Accurate knowledge of translation positions is essential in ptychography to achieve a good image quality and the diffraction limited resolution. We propose a method to retrieve and correct position errors during the image reconstruction iterations. Sub-pixel position accuracy after refinement is shown to be achievable within several tens of iterations. Simulation and experimental results for both optical and X-ray wavelengths are given. The method improves both the quality of the retrieved object image and relaxes the position accuracy requirement while acquiring the diffraction patterns.

  6. Iterative design of one- and two-dimensional FIR digital filters. [Finite duration Impulse Response

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Suk, M.; Choi, K.; Algazi, V. R.

    1976-01-01

    The paper describes a new iterative technique for designing FIR (finite duration impulse response) digital filters using a frequency weighted least squares approximation. The technique is as easy to implement (via FFT) and as effective in two dimensions as in one dimension, and there are virtually no limitations on the class of filter frequency spectra approximated. An adaptive adjustment of the frequency weight to achieve other types of design approximation such as Chebyshev type design is discussed.

  7. Non-iterative determination of the stress-density relation from ramp wave data through a window

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dowling, Evan; Fratanduono, Dayne; Swift, Damian

    2017-06-01

    In the canonical ramp compression experiment, a smoothly-increasing load is applied the surface of the sample, and the particle velocity history is measured at interfaces two or more different distances into the sample. The velocity histories are used to deduce a stress-density relation by correcting for perturbations caused by reflected release waves, usually via the iterative Lagrangian analysis technique of Rothman and Maw. We previously described a non-iterative (recursive) method of analysis, which was more stable and orders of magnitude faster than iteration, but was subject to the limitation that the free surface velocity had to be sampled at uniform intervals. We have now developed more general recursive algorithms suitable for analyzing ramp data through a finite-impedance window. Free surfaces can be treated seamlessly, and the need for uniform velocity sampling has been removed. These calculations require interpolation of partially-released states using the partially-constructed isentrope, making them slower than the previous free-surface scheme, but they are still much faster than iterative analysis. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

  8. Joint Transmit Power Allocation and Splitting for SWIPT Aided OFDM-IDMA in Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Li, Shanshan; Zhou, Xiaotian; Wang, Cheng-Xiang; Yuan, Dongfeng; Zhang, Wensheng

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we propose to combine Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing-Interleave Division Multiple Access (OFDM-IDMA) with Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT), resulting in SWIPT aided OFDM-IDMA scheme for power-limited sensor networks. In the proposed system, the Receive Node (RN) applies Power Splitting (PS) to coordinate the Energy Harvesting (EH) and Information Decoding (ID) process, where the harvested energy is utilized to guarantee the iterative Multi-User Detection (MUD) of IDMA to work under sufficient number of iterations. Our objective is to minimize the total transmit power of Source Node (SN), while satisfying the requirements of both minimum harvested energy and Bit Error Rate (BER) performance from individual receive nodes. We formulate such a problem as a joint power allocation and splitting one, where the iteration number of MUD is also taken into consideration as the key parameter to affect both EH and ID constraints. To solve it, a sub-optimal algorithm is proposed to determine the power profile, PS ratio and iteration number of MUD in an iterative manner. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm can provide significant performance improvement. PMID:28677636

  9. Joint Transmit Power Allocation and Splitting for SWIPT Aided OFDM-IDMA in Wireless Sensor Networks.

    PubMed

    Li, Shanshan; Zhou, Xiaotian; Wang, Cheng-Xiang; Yuan, Dongfeng; Zhang, Wensheng

    2017-07-04

    In this paper, we propose to combine Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing-Interleave Division Multiple Access (OFDM-IDMA) with Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT), resulting in SWIPT aided OFDM-IDMA scheme for power-limited sensor networks. In the proposed system, the Receive Node (RN) applies Power Splitting (PS) to coordinate the Energy Harvesting (EH) and Information Decoding (ID) process, where the harvested energy is utilized to guarantee the iterative Multi-User Detection (MUD) of IDMA to work under sufficient number of iterations. Our objective is to minimize the total transmit power of Source Node (SN), while satisfying the requirements of both minimum harvested energy and Bit Error Rate (BER) performance from individual receive nodes. We formulate such a problem as a joint power allocation and splitting one, where the iteration number of MUD is also taken into consideration as the key parameter to affect both EH and ID constraints. To solve it, a sub-optimal algorithm is proposed to determine the power profile, PS ratio and iteration number of MUD in an iterative manner. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm can provide significant performance improvement.

  10. FAST TRACK PAPER: Non-iterative multiple-attenuation methods: linear inverse solutions to non-linear inverse problems - II. BMG approximation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikelle, Luc T.; Osen, Are; Amundsen, Lasse; Shen, Yunqing

    2004-12-01

    The classical linear solutions to the problem of multiple attenuation, like predictive deconvolution, τ-p filtering, or F-K filtering, are generally fast, stable, and robust compared to non-linear solutions, which are generally either iterative or in the form of a series with an infinite number of terms. These qualities have made the linear solutions more attractive to seismic data-processing practitioners. However, most linear solutions, including predictive deconvolution or F-K filtering, contain severe assumptions about the model of the subsurface and the class of free-surface multiples they can attenuate. These assumptions limit their usefulness. In a recent paper, we described an exception to this assertion for OBS data. We showed in that paper that a linear and non-iterative solution to the problem of attenuating free-surface multiples which is as accurate as iterative non-linear solutions can be constructed for OBS data. We here present a similar linear and non-iterative solution for attenuating free-surface multiples in towed-streamer data. For most practical purposes, this linear solution is as accurate as the non-linear ones.

  11. Improved cryoEM-Guided Iterative Molecular Dynamics–Rosetta Protein Structure Refinement Protocol for High Precision Protein Structure Prediction

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Many excellent methods exist that incorporate cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) data to constrain computational protein structure prediction and refinement. Previously, it was shown that iteration of two such orthogonal sampling and scoring methods – Rosetta and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations – facilitated exploration of conformational space in principle. Here, we go beyond a proof-of-concept study and address significant remaining limitations of the iterative MD–Rosetta protein structure refinement protocol. Specifically, all parts of the iterative refinement protocol are now guided by medium-resolution cryoEM density maps, and previous knowledge about the native structure of the protein is no longer necessary. Models are identified solely based on score or simulation time. All four benchmark proteins showed substantial improvement through three rounds of the iterative refinement protocol. The best-scoring final models of two proteins had sub-Ångstrom RMSD to the native structure over residues in secondary structure elements. Molecular dynamics was most efficient in refining secondary structure elements and was thus highly complementary to the Rosetta refinement which is most powerful in refining side chains and loop regions. PMID:25883538

  12. Evaluation of the Environmental Gamma-ray Dose Rate by Skyshine Analysis During the Maintenance of an Activated TFC in ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sato, S.; Takatsu, H.; Maki, K.; Yamada, K.; Mori, S.; Iida, H.; Santoro, R. T.

    1997-09-01

    Gamma-ray exposure dose rates at the ITER site boundary were estimated for the cases of removal of a failed activated Toroidal Field (TF) coil from the torus and removal of a failed activated TF coil together with a sector of the activated Vacuum Vessel (VV). Skyshine analyses were performed using the two-dimensional SN radiation transport code, DOT3.5. The exposure gamma-ray dose rates on the ground at the site boundary (presently assumed to be 1 km from the ITER building), were calculated to be 1.1 and 84 μSv/year for removal of the TF coil without and with a VV sector, respectively. The dose rate level for the latter case is close to the tentative radiation limit of 100 μSv/year so an additional ˜14 cm of concrete is required in the ITER building roof to satisfy the criterion for a safety factor often for the site boundary dose rate.

  13. Comparison of different eigensolvers for calculating vibrational spectra using low-rank, sum-of-product basis functions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leclerc, Arnaud; Thomas, Phillip S.; Carrington, Tucker

    2017-08-01

    Vibrational spectra and wavefunctions of polyatomic molecules can be calculated at low memory cost using low-rank sum-of-product (SOP) decompositions to represent basis functions generated using an iterative eigensolver. Using a SOP tensor format does not determine the iterative eigensolver. The choice of the interative eigensolver is limited by the need to restrict the rank of the SOP basis functions at every stage of the calculation. We have adapted, implemented and compared different reduced-rank algorithms based on standard iterative methods (block-Davidson algorithm, Chebyshev iteration) to calculate vibrational energy levels and wavefunctions of the 12-dimensional acetonitrile molecule. The effect of using low-rank SOP basis functions on the different methods is analysed and the numerical results are compared with those obtained with the reduced rank block power method. Relative merits of the different algorithms are presented, showing that the advantage of using a more sophisticated method, although mitigated by the use of reduced-rank SOP functions, is noticeable in terms of CPU time.

  14. 2009 Space Shuttle Probabilistic Risk Assessment Overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hamlin, Teri L.; Canga, Michael A.; Boyer, Roger L.; Thigpen, Eric B.

    2010-01-01

    Loss of a Space Shuttle during flight has severe consequences, including loss of a significant national asset; loss of national confidence and pride; and, most importantly, loss of human life. The Shuttle Probabilistic Risk Assessment (SPRA) is used to identify risk contributors and their significance; thus, assisting management in determining how to reduce risk. In 2006, an overview of the SPRA Iteration 2.1 was presented at PSAM 8 [1]. Like all successful PRAs, the SPRA is a living PRA and has undergone revisions since PSAM 8. The latest revision to the SPRA is Iteration 3. 1, and it will not be the last as the Shuttle program progresses and more is learned. This paper discusses the SPRA scope, overall methodology, and results, as well as provides risk insights. The scope, assumptions, uncertainties, and limitations of this assessment provide risk-informed perspective to aid management s decision-making process. In addition, this paper compares the Iteration 3.1 analysis and results to the Iteration 2.1 analysis and results presented at PSAM 8.

  15. Toward Generalization of Iterative Small Molecule Synthesis

    PubMed Central

    Lehmann, Jonathan W.; Blair, Daniel J.; Burke, Martin D.

    2018-01-01

    Small molecules have extensive untapped potential to benefit society, but access to this potential is too often restricted by limitations inherent to the customized approach currently used to synthesize this class of chemical matter. In contrast, the “building block approach”, i.e., generalized iterative assembly of interchangeable parts, has now proven to be a highly efficient and flexible way to construct things ranging all the way from skyscrapers to macromolecules to artificial intelligence algorithms. The structural redundancy found in many small molecules suggests that they possess a similar capacity for generalized building block-based construction. It is also encouraging that many customized iterative synthesis methods have been developed that improve access to specific classes of small molecules. There has also been substantial recent progress toward the iterative assembly of many different types of small molecules, including complex natural products, pharmaceuticals, biological probes, and materials, using common building blocks and coupling chemistry. Collectively, these advances suggest that a generalized building block approach for small molecule synthesis may be within reach. PMID:29696152

  16. Non-ideal operating conditions of the ion source prototype for the ITER neutral beam injector due to thermal deformation of the support structure.

    PubMed

    Sartori, E; Pavei, M; Marcuzzi, D; Zaccaria, P

    2014-02-01

    The beam formation and acceleration of the ITER neutral beam injector will be studied in the full-scale ion source, Source for Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from a RF plasma (SPIDER). It will be able to sustain 40 A deuterium ion beam during 1-h pulses. The operating conditions of its multi-aperture electrodes will diverge from ideality, as a consequence of inhomogeneous heating and thermally induced deformations in the support structure of the extraction and acceleration grids, which operate at different temperatures. Meeting the requirements on the aperture alignment and distance between the grids with such a large number of apertures (1280) and the huge support structures constitute a challenge. Examination of the structure thermal deformation in transient and steady conditions has been carried out, evaluating their effect on the beam performance: the paper describes the analyses and the solutions proposed to mitigate detrimental effects.

  17. ILUBCG2-11: Solution of 11-banded nonsymmetric linear equation systems by a preconditioned biconjugate gradient routine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Y.-M.; Koniges, A. E.; Anderson, D. V.

    1989-10-01

    The biconjugate gradient method (BCG) provides an attractive alternative to the usual conjugate gradient algorithms for the solution of sparse systems of linear equations with nonsymmetric and indefinite matrix operators. A preconditioned algorithm is given, whose form resembles the incomplete L-U conjugate gradient scheme (ILUCG2) previously presented. Although the BCG scheme requires the storage of two additional vectors, it converges in a significantly lesser number of iterations (often half), while the number of calculations per iteration remains essentially the same.

  18. A system of nonlinear set valued variational inclusions.

    PubMed

    Tang, Yong-Kun; Chang, Shih-Sen; Salahuddin, Salahuddin

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we studied the existence theorems and techniques for finding the solutions of a system of nonlinear set valued variational inclusions in Hilbert spaces. To overcome the difficulties, due to the presence of a proper convex lower semicontinuous function ϕ and a mapping g which appeared in the considered problems, we have used the resolvent operator technique to suggest an iterative algorithm to compute approximate solutions of the system of nonlinear set valued variational inclusions. The convergence of the iterative sequences generated by algorithm is also proved. 49J40; 47H06.

  19. Gaussian-Beam/Physical-Optics Design Of Beam Waveguide

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Veruttipong, Watt; Chen, Jacqueline C.; Bathker, Dan A.

    1993-01-01

    In iterative method of designing wideband beam-waveguide feed for paraboloidal-reflector antenna, Gaussian-beam approximation alternated with more nearly exact physical-optics analysis of diffraction. Includes curved and straight reflectors guiding radiation from feed horn to subreflector. For iterative design calculations, curved mirrors mathematically modeled as thin lenses. Each distance Li is combined length of two straight-line segments intersecting at one of flat mirrors. Method useful for designing beam-waveguide reflectors or mirrors required to have diameters approximately less than 30 wavelengths at one or more intended operating frequencies.

  20. Considerations For Distributed Short Takeoff Vertical Landing (STOVL) Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-05-18

    intended to confuse the enemy through non-linear operations by creating a network of highly-capable battalion to squad sized units spread across the...the next iteration was named Enhanced Company Operations ( ECO ). Here, the infantry Company became the focus of the distributed concept... friendly battlefield against the MAGTF commander’s idea. As events progress over time, the enemy can eventually target the remaining defended M-FARPs and

  1. Reconsidering 'ethics' and 'quality' in healthcare research: the case for an iterative ethical paradigm.

    PubMed

    Stevenson, Fiona A; Gibson, William; Pelletier, Caroline; Chrysikou, Vasiliki; Park, Sophie

    2015-05-08

    UK-based research conducted within a healthcare setting generally requires approval from the National Research Ethics Service. Research ethics committees are required to assess a vast range of proposals, differing in both their topic and methodology. We argue the methodological benchmarks with which research ethics committees are generally familiar and which form the basis of assessments of quality do not fit with the aims and objectives of many forms of qualitative inquiry and their more iterative goals of describing social processes/mechanisms and making visible the complexities of social practices. We review current debates in the literature related to ethical review and social research, and illustrate the importance of re-visiting the notion of ethics in healthcare research. We present an analysis of two contrasting paradigms of ethics. We argue that the first of these is characteristic of the ways that NHS ethics boards currently tend to operate, and the second is an alternative paradigm, that we have labelled the 'iterative' paradigm, which draws explicitly on methodological issues in qualitative research to produce an alternative vision of ethics. We suggest that there is an urgent need to re-think the ways that ethical issues are conceptualised in NHS ethical procedures. In particular, we argue that embedded in the current paradigm is a restricted notion of 'quality', which frames how ethics are developed and worked through. Specific, pre-defined outcome measures are generally seen as the traditional marker of quality, which means that research questions that focus on processes rather than on 'outcomes' may be regarded as problematic. We show that the alternative 'iterative' paradigm offers a useful starting point for moving beyond these limited views. We conclude that a 'one size fits all' standardisation of ethical procedures and approach to ethical review acts against the production of knowledge about healthcare and dramatically restricts what can be known about the social practices and conditions of healthcare. Our central argument is that assessment of ethical implications is important, but that the current paradigm does not facilitate an adequate understanding of the very issues it aims to invigilate.

  2. A fast and robust iterative algorithm for prediction of RNA pseudoknotted secondary structures

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Improving accuracy and efficiency of computational methods that predict pseudoknotted RNA secondary structures is an ongoing challenge. Existing methods based on free energy minimization tend to be very slow and are limited in the types of pseudoknots that they can predict. Incorporating known structural information can improve prediction accuracy; however, there are not many methods for prediction of pseudoknotted structures that can incorporate structural information as input. There is even less understanding of the relative robustness of these methods with respect to partial information. Results We present a new method, Iterative HFold, for pseudoknotted RNA secondary structure prediction. Iterative HFold takes as input a pseudoknot-free structure, and produces a possibly pseudoknotted structure whose energy is at least as low as that of any (density-2) pseudoknotted structure containing the input structure. Iterative HFold leverages strengths of earlier methods, namely the fast running time of HFold, a method that is based on the hierarchical folding hypothesis, and the energy parameters of HotKnots V2.0. Our experimental evaluation on a large data set shows that Iterative HFold is robust with respect to partial information, with average accuracy on pseudoknotted structures steadily increasing from roughly 54% to 79% as the user provides up to 40% of the input structure. Iterative HFold is much faster than HotKnots V2.0, while having comparable accuracy. Iterative HFold also has significantly better accuracy than IPknot on our HK-PK and IP-pk168 data sets. Conclusions Iterative HFold is a robust method for prediction of pseudoknotted RNA secondary structures, whose accuracy with more than 5% information about true pseudoknot-free structures is better than that of IPknot, and with about 35% information about true pseudoknot-free structures compares well with that of HotKnots V2.0 while being significantly faster. Iterative HFold and all data used in this work are freely available at http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hjabbari/software.php. PMID:24884954

  3. Iterative integral parameter identification of a respiratory mechanics model.

    PubMed

    Schranz, Christoph; Docherty, Paul D; Chiew, Yeong Shiong; Möller, Knut; Chase, J Geoffrey

    2012-07-18

    Patient-specific respiratory mechanics models can support the evaluation of optimal lung protective ventilator settings during ventilation therapy. Clinical application requires that the individual's model parameter values must be identified with information available at the bedside. Multiple linear regression or gradient-based parameter identification methods are highly sensitive to noise and initial parameter estimates. Thus, they are difficult to apply at the bedside to support therapeutic decisions. An iterative integral parameter identification method is applied to a second order respiratory mechanics model. The method is compared to the commonly used regression methods and error-mapping approaches using simulated and clinical data. The clinical potential of the method was evaluated on data from 13 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) patients. The iterative integral method converged to error minima 350 times faster than the Simplex Search Method using simulation data sets and 50 times faster using clinical data sets. Established regression methods reported erroneous results due to sensitivity to noise. In contrast, the iterative integral method was effective independent of initial parameter estimations, and converged successfully in each case tested. These investigations reveal that the iterative integral method is beneficial with respect to computing time, operator independence and robustness, and thus applicable at the bedside for this clinical application.

  4. ITER Fusion Energy

    ScienceCinema

    Holtkamp, Norbert

    2018-01-09

    ITER (in Latin “the way”) is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. Fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier over one and thus release energy. In the fusion process two isotopes of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – fuse together to form a helium atom and a neutron. Thus fusion could provide large scale energy production without greenhouse effects; essentially limitless fuel would be available all over the world. The principal goals of ITER are to generate 500 megawatts of fusion power for periods of 300 to 500 seconds with a fusion power multiplication factor, Q, of at least 10. Q ? 10 (input power 50 MW / output power 500 MW). The ITER Organization was officially established in Cadarache, France, on 24 October 2007. The seven members engaged in the project – China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States – represent more than half the world’s population. The costs for ITER are shared by the seven members. The cost for the construction will be approximately 5.5 billion Euros, a similar amount is foreseen for the twenty-year phase of operation and the subsequent decommissioning.

  5. Material migration studies with an ITER first wall panel proxy on EAST

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ding, R.; Pitts, R. A.; Borodin, D.; Carpentier, S.; Ding, F.; Gong, X. Z.; Guo, H. Y.; Kirschner, A.; Kocan, M.; Li, J. G.; Luo, G.-N.; Mao, H. M.; Qian, J. P.; Stangeby, P. C.; Wampler, W. R.; Wang, H. Q.; Wang, W. Z.

    2015-02-01

    The ITER beryllium (Be) first wall (FW) panels are shaped to protect leading edges between neighbouring panels arising from assembly tolerances. This departure from a perfectly cylindrical surface automatically leads to magnetically shadowed regions where eroded Be can be re-deposited, together with co-deposition of tritium fuel. To provide a benchmark for a series of erosion/re-deposition simulation studies performed for the ITER FW panels, dedicated experiments have been performed on the EAST tokamak using a specially designed, instrumented test limiter acting as a proxy for the FW panel geometry. Carbon coated molybdenum plates forming the limiter front surface were exposed to the outer midplane boundary plasma of helium discharges using the new Material and Plasma Evaluation System (MAPES). Net erosion and deposition patterns are estimated using ion beam analysis to measure the carbon layer thickness variation across the surface after exposure. The highest erosion of about 0.8 µm is found near the midplane, where the surface is closest to the plasma separatrix. No net deposition above the measurement detection limit was found on the proxy wall element, even in shadowed regions. The measured 2D surface erosion distribution has been modelled with the 3D Monte Carlo code ERO, using the local plasma parameter measurements together with a diffusive transport assumption. Excellent agreement between the experimentally observed net erosion and the modelled erosion profile has been obtained.

  6. A study of core Thomson scattering measurements in ITER using a multi-laser approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kurskiev, G. S.; Sdvizhenskii, P. A.; Bassan, M.; Andrew, P.; Bazhenov, A. N.; Bukreev, I. M.; Chernakov, P. V.; Kochergin, M. M.; Kukushkin, A. B.; Kukushkin, A. S.; Mukhin, E. E.; Razdobarin, A. G.; Samsonov, D. S.; Semenov, V. V.; Tolstyakov, S. Yu.; Kajita, S.; Masyukevich, S. V.

    2015-05-01

    The electron component is the main channel for anomalous power loss and the main indicator of transient processes in the tokamak plasma. The electron temperature and density profiles mainly determine the operational mode of the machine. This imposes demanding requirements on the precision and on the spatial and temporal resolution of the Thomson scattering (TS) measurements. Measurements of such high electron temperature with good accuracy in a large fusion device such as ITER using TS encounter a number of physical problems. The 40 keV TS spectrum has a significant blue shift. Due to the transmission functions of the fibres and to their darkening that can occur under a strong neutron irradiation, the operational wavelength range is bounded on the blue side. For example, high temperature measurements become impossible with the 1064 nm probing wavelength since the TS signal within the boundaries of the operational window weakly depends on Te. The second problem is connected with the TS calibration. The TS system for a large fusion machine like ITER will have a set of optical components inaccessible for maintenance, and their spectral characteristics may change with time. Since the present concept of the TS system for ITER relies on the classical approach to measuring the shape of the scattered spectra using wide spectral channels, the diagnostic will be very sensitive to the changes in the optical transmission. The third complication is connected with the deviation of the electron velocity distribution function from a Maxwellian that can happen under a strong ECRH/ECCD, and it may additionally hamper the measurements. This paper analyses the advantages of a ‘multi-laser approach’ implementation for the current design of the core TS system. Such an approach assumes simultaneous plasma probing with different wavelengths that allows the measurement accuracy to be improved significantly and to perform the spectral calibration of the TS system. Comparative analysis of the conservative and advanced approaches is given.

  7. Rapid alignment of nanotomography data using joint iterative reconstruction and reprojection.

    PubMed

    Gürsoy, Doğa; Hong, Young P; He, Kuan; Hujsak, Karl; Yoo, Seunghwan; Chen, Si; Li, Yue; Ge, Mingyuan; Miller, Lisa M; Chu, Yong S; De Andrade, Vincent; He, Kai; Cossairt, Oliver; Katsaggelos, Aggelos K; Jacobsen, Chris

    2017-09-18

    As x-ray and electron tomography is pushed further into the nanoscale, the limitations of rotation stages become more apparent, leading to challenges in the alignment of the acquired projection images. Here we present an approach for rapid post-acquisition alignment of these projections to obtain high quality three-dimensional images. Our approach is based on a joint estimation of alignment errors, and the object, using an iterative refinement procedure. With simulated data where we know the alignment error of each projection image, our approach shows a residual alignment error that is a factor of a thousand smaller, and it reaches the same error level in the reconstructed image in less than half the number of iterations. We then show its application to experimental data in x-ray and electron nanotomography.

  8. Simulating transient dynamics of the time-dependent time fractional Fokker-Planck systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kang, Yan-Mei

    2016-09-01

    For a physically realistic type of time-dependent time fractional Fokker-Planck (FP) equation, derived as the continuous limit of the continuous time random walk with time-modulated Boltzmann jumping weight, a semi-analytic iteration scheme based on the truncated (generalized) Fourier series is presented to simulate the resultant transient dynamics when the external time modulation is a piece-wise constant signal. At first, the iteration scheme is demonstrated with a simple time-dependent time fractional FP equation on finite interval with two absorbing boundaries, and then it is generalized to the more general time-dependent Smoluchowski-type time fractional Fokker-Planck equation. The numerical examples verify the efficiency and accuracy of the iteration method, and some novel dynamical phenomena including polarized motion orientations and periodic response death are discussed.

  9. Exploiting parallel computing with limited program changes using a network of microcomputers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rogers, J. L., Jr.; Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.

    1985-01-01

    Network computing and multiprocessor computers are two discernible trends in parallel processing. The computational behavior of an iterative distributed process in which some subtasks are completed later than others because of an imbalance in computational requirements is of significant interest. The effects of asynchronus processing was studied. A small existing program was converted to perform finite element analysis by distributing substructure analysis over a network of four Apple IIe microcomputers connected to a shared disk, simulating a parallel computer. The substructure analysis uses an iterative, fully stressed, structural resizing procedure. A framework of beams divided into three substructures is used as the finite element model. The effects of asynchronous processing on the convergence of the design variables are determined by not resizing particular substructures on various iterations.

  10. Transmission of electrons inside the cryogenic pumps of ITER injector.

    PubMed

    Veltri, P; Sartori, E

    2016-02-01

    Large cryogenic pumps are installed in the vessel of large neutral beam injectors (NBIs) used to heat the plasma in nuclear fusion experiments. The operation of such pumps can be compromised by the presence of stray secondary electrons that are generated along the beam path. In this paper, we present a numerical model to analyze the propagation of the electrons inside the pump. The aim of the study is to quantify the power load on the active pump elements, via evaluation of the transmission probabilities across the domain of the pump. These are obtained starting from large datasets of particle trajectories, obtained by numerical means. The transmission probability of the electrons across the domain is calculated for the NBI of the ITER and for its prototype Megavolt ITer Injector and Concept Advancement (MITICA) and the results are discussed.

  11. Virtual fringe projection system with nonparallel illumination based on iteration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Duo; Wang, Zhangying; Gao, Nan; Zhang, Zonghua; Jiang, Xiangqian

    2017-06-01

    Fringe projection profilometry has been widely applied in many fields. To set up an ideal measuring system, a virtual fringe projection technique has been studied to assist in the design of hardware configurations. However, existing virtual fringe projection systems use parallel illumination and have a fixed optical framework. This paper presents a virtual fringe projection system with nonparallel illumination. Using an iterative method to calculate intersection points between rays and reference planes or object surfaces, the proposed system can simulate projected fringe patterns and captured images. A new explicit calibration method has been presented to validate the precision of the system. Simulated results indicate that the proposed iterative method outperforms previous systems. Our virtual system can be applied to error analysis, algorithm optimization, and help operators to find ideal system parameter settings for actual measurements.

  12. Conceptual Design of the ITER ECE Diagnostic - An Update

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Austin, M. E.; Pandya, H. K. B.; Beno, J.; Bryant, A. D.; Danani, S.; Ellis, R. F.; Feder, R.; Hubbard, A. E.; Kumar, S.; Ouroua, A.; Phillips, P. E.; Rowan, W. L.

    2012-09-01

    The ITER ECE diagnostic has recently been through a conceptual design review for the entire system including front end optics, transmission line, and back-end instruments. The basic design of two viewing lines, each with a single ellipsoidal mirror focussing into the plasma near the midplane of the typical operating scenarios is agreed upon. The location and design of the hot calibration source and the design of the shutter that directs its radiation to the transmission line are issues that need further investigation. In light of recent measurements and discussion, the design of the broadband transmission line is being revisited and new options contemplated. For the instruments, current systems for millimeter wave radiometers and broad-band spectrometers will be adequate for ITER, but the option for employing new state-of-the-art techniques will be left open.

  13. Evaluation of noise limits to improve image processing in soft X-ray projection microscopy.

    PubMed

    Jamsranjav, Erdenetogtokh; Kuge, Kenichi; Ito, Atsushi; Kinjo, Yasuhito; Shiina, Tatsuo

    2017-03-03

    Soft X-ray microscopy has been developed for high resolution imaging of hydrated biological specimens due to the availability of water window region. In particular, a projection type microscopy has advantages in wide viewing area, easy zooming function and easy extensibility to computed tomography (CT). The blur of projection image due to the Fresnel diffraction of X-rays, which eventually reduces spatial resolution, could be corrected by an iteration procedure, i.e., repetition of Fresnel and inverse Fresnel transformations. However, it was found that the correction is not enough to be effective for all images, especially for images with low contrast. In order to improve the effectiveness of image correction by computer processing, we in this study evaluated the influence of background noise in the iteration procedure through a simulation study. In the study, images of model specimen with known morphology were used as a substitute for the chromosome images, one of the targets of our microscope. Under the condition that artificial noise was distributed on the images randomly, we introduced two different parameters to evaluate noise effects according to each situation where the iteration procedure was not successful, and proposed an upper limit of the noise within which the effective iteration procedure for the chromosome images was possible. The study indicated that applying the new simulation and noise evaluation method was useful for image processing where background noises cannot be ignored compared with specimen images.

  14. Evaluation of concentrated space solar arrays using computer modeling. [for spacecraft propulsion and power supplies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rockey, D. E.

    1979-01-01

    A general approach is developed for predicting the power output of a concentrator enhanced photovoltaic space array. A ray trace routine determines the concentrator intensity arriving at each solar cell. An iterative calculation determines the cell's operating temperature since cell temperature and cell efficiency are functions of one another. The end result of the iterative calculation is that the individual cell's power output is determined as a function of temperature and intensity. Circuit output is predicted by combining the individual cell outputs using the single diode model of a solar cell. Concentrated array characteristics such as uniformity of intensity and operating temperature at various points across the array are examined using computer modeling techniques. An illustrative example is given showing how the output of an array can be enhanced using solar concentration techniques.

  15. Fractal Based Triple Band High Gain Monopole Antenna

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pandey, Shashi Kant; Pandey, Ganga Prasad; Sarun, P. M.

    2017-10-01

    A novel triple-band microstrip fed planar monopole antenna is proposed and investigated. A fractal antenna is created by iterating a narrow pulse (NP) generator model at upper side of modified ground plane, which has a rhombic patch, for enhancing the bandwidth and gain. Three iterations are carried out to study the effects of fractal geometry on the antenna performance. The proposed antenna can operate over three frequency ranges viz, 3.34-4.8 GHz, 5.5-10.6 GHz and 13-14.96 GHz suitable for WLAN 5.2/5.8 GHz, WiMAX 3.5/5.5 GHz and X band applications respectively. Simulated and measured results are in good agreements with each others. Results show that antenna provides wide/ultra wide bandwidths, monopole like radiation patterns and very high antenna gains over the operating frequency bands.

  16. Feasibility of a far infrared laser based polarimeter diagnostic system for the JT-60SA fusion experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boboc, A.; Gil, C.; Terranova, D.; Orsitto, F. P.; Soare, S.; Lotte, P.; Sozzi, C.; Imazawa, R.; Kubo, H.

    2018-07-01

    JT-60SA is the large Tokamak device that is being built in Japan under the Broader Approach Satellite Tokamak Programme and the Japanese National Programme and will operate as a satellite machine for ITER. The main goal of the JT-60SA Programme is to provide valuable information for the ITER steady-state scenario and for the design of DEMO, where the real-time control of the safety factor profile is very important, in connection with both MHD stability and plasma confinement. It has been demonstrated in this work that to this end polarimetry measurements are necessary, in particular in order to reconstruct the safety factor profile in reversed shear scenarios. In this paper we present the main steps of a conceptual feasibility study of a multi-channel polarimeter diagnostic and the resulting optimised geometry. In this study, magnetic scenario modelling, a realistic CAD-driven design and long-term operation requirements, rarely even considered at this stage, have been considered. It is shown that a far infrared polarimeter system, with a laser operating at a wavelength of 194.7 μm and up to twelve channels can be envisaged for JT-60SA. The top requirements can be attained, i.e., that the polarimeter, together with other diagnostic measurements, should provide q-profile reconstruction with an accuracy of 10% for the entire plasma cycle and suitable time resolution for real-time applications, in particular in high density and ITER-relevant plasma scenarios.

  17. Isotope effects on L-H threshold and confinement in tokamak plasmas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maggi, C. F.; Weisen, H.; Hillesheim, J. C.; Chankin, A.; Delabie, E.; Horvath, L.; Auriemma, F.; Carvalho, I. S.; Corrigan, G.; Flanagan, J.; Garzotti, L.; Keeling, D.; King, D.; Lerche, E.; Lorenzini, R.; Maslov, M.; Menmuir, S.; Saarelma, S.; Sips, A. C. C.; Solano, E. R.; Belonohy, E.; Casson, F. J.; Challis, C.; Giroud, C.; Parail, V.; Silva, C.; Valisa, M.; Contributors, JET

    2018-01-01

    The dependence of plasma transport and confinement on the main hydrogenic ion isotope mass is of fundamental importance for understanding turbulent transport and, therefore, for accurate extrapolations of confinement from present tokamak experiments, which typically use a single hydrogen isotope, to burning plasmas such as ITER, which will operate in deuterium-tritium mixtures. Knowledge of the dependence of plasma properties and edge transport barrier formation on main ion species is critical in view of the initial, low-activation phase of ITER operations in hydrogen or helium and of its implications on the subsequent operation in deuterium-tritium. The favourable scaling of global energy confinement time with isotope mass, which has been observed in many tokamak experiments, remains largely unexplained theoretically. Moreover, the mass scaling observed in experiments varies depending on the plasma edge conditions. In preparation for upcoming deuterium-tritium experiments in the JET tokamak with the ITER-like Be/W Wall (JET-ILW), a thorough experimental investigation of isotope effects in hydrogen, deuterium and tritium plasmas is being carried out, in order to provide stringent tests of plasma energy, particle and momentum transport models. Recent hydrogen and deuterium isotope experiments in JET-ILW on L-H power threshold, L-mode and H-mode confinement are reviewed and discussed in the context of past and more recent isotope experiments in tokamak plasmas, highlighting common elements as well as contrasting observations that have been reported. The experimental findings are discussed in the context of fundamental aspects of plasma transport models.

  18. Voltage scheduling for low power/energy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manzak, Ali

    2001-07-01

    Power considerations have become an increasingly dominant factor in the design of both portable and desk-top systems. An effective way to reduce power consumption is to lower the supply voltage since voltage is quadratically related to power. This dissertation considers the problem of lowering the supply voltage at (i) the system level and at (ii) the behavioral level. At the system level, the voltage of the variable voltage processor is dynamically changed with the work load. Processors with limited sized buffers as well as those with very large buffers are considered. Given the task arrival times, deadline times, execution times, periods and switching activities, task scheduling algorithms that minimize energy or peak power are developed for the processors equipped with very large buffers. A relation between the operating voltages of the tasks for minimum energy/power is determined using the Lagrange multiplier method, and an iterative algorithm that utilizes this relation is developed. Experimental results show that the voltage assignment obtained by the proposed algorithm is very close (0.1% error) to that of the optimal energy assignment and the optimal peak power (1% error) assignment. Next, on-line and off-fine minimum energy task scheduling algorithms are developed for processors with limited sized buffers. These algorithms have polynomial time complexity and present optimal (off-line) and close-to-optimal (on-line) solutions. A procedure to calculate the minimum buffer size given information about the size of the task (maximum, minimum), execution time (best case, worst case) and deadlines is also presented. At the behavioral level, resources operating at multiple voltages are used to minimize power while maintaining the throughput. Such a scheme has the advantage of allowing modules on the critical paths to be assigned to the highest voltage levels (thus meeting the required timing constraints) while allowing modules on non-critical paths to be assigned to lower voltage levels (thus reducing the power consumption). A polynomial time resource and latency constrained scheduling algorithm is developed to distribute the available slack among the nodes such that power consumption is minimum. The algorithm is iterative and utilizes the slack based on the Lagrange multiplier method.

  19. An overview of ITER diagnostics (invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Young, Kenneth M.; Costley, A. E.; ITER-JCT Home Team; ITER Diagnostics Expert Group

    1997-01-01

    The requirements for plasma measurements for operating and controlling the ITER device have now been determined. Initial criteria for the measurement quality have been set, and the diagnostics that might be expected to achieve these criteria have been chosen. The design of the first set of diagnostics to achieve these goals is now well under way. The design effort is concentrating on the components that interact most strongly with the other ITER systems, particularly the vacuum vessel, blankets, divertor modules, cryostat, and shield wall. The relevant details of the ITER device and facility design and specific examples of diagnostic design to provide the necessary measurements are described. These designs have to take account of the issues associated with very high 14 MeV neutron fluxes and fluences, nuclear heating, high heat loads, and high mechanical forces that can arise during disruptions. The design work is supported by an extensive research and development program, which to date has concentrated on the effects these levels of radiation might cause on diagnostic components. A brief outline of the organization of the diagnostic development program is given.

  20. Installation and Testing of ITER Integrated Modeling and Analysis Suite (IMAS) on DIII-D

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lao, L.; Kostuk, M.; Meneghini, O.; Smith, S.; Staebler, G.; Kalling, R.; Pinches, S.

    2017-10-01

    A critical objective of the ITER Integrated Modeling Program is the development of IMAS to support ITER plasma operation and research activities. An IMAS framework has been established based on the earlier work carried out within the EU. It consists of a physics data model and a workflow engine. The data model is capable of representing both simulation and experimental data and is applicable to ITER and other devices. IMAS has been successfully installed on a local DIII-D server using a flexible installer capable of managing the core data access tools (Access Layer and Data Dictionary) and optionally the Kepler workflow engine and coupling tools. A general adaptor for OMFIT (a workflow engine) is being built for adaptation of any analysis code to IMAS using a new IMAS universal access layer (UAL) interface developed from an existing OMFIT EU Integrated Tokamak Modeling UAL. Ongoing work includes development of a general adaptor for EFIT and TGLF based on this new UAL that can be readily extended for other physics codes within OMFIT. Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.

  1. Systematic iteration between model and methodology: A proposed approach to evaluating unintended consequences.

    PubMed

    Morell, Jonathan A

    2018-06-01

    This article argues that evaluators could better deal with unintended consequences if they improved their methods of systematically and methodically combining empirical data collection and model building over the life cycle of an evaluation. This process would be helpful because it can increase the timespan from when the need for a change in methodology is first suspected to the time when the new element of the methodology is operational. The article begins with an explanation of why logic models are so important in evaluation, and why the utility of models is limited if they are not continually revised based on empirical evaluation data. It sets the argument within the larger context of the value and limitations of models in the scientific enterprise. Following will be a discussion of various issues that are relevant to model development and revision. What is the relevance of complex system behavior for understanding predictable and unpredictable unintended consequences, and the methods needed to deal with them? How might understanding of unintended consequences be improved with an appreciation of generic patterns of change that are independent of any particular program or change effort? What are the social and organizational dynamics that make it rational and adaptive to design programs around single-outcome solutions to multi-dimensional problems? How does cognitive bias affect our ability to identify likely program outcomes? Why is it hard to discern change as a result of programs being embedded in multi-component, continually fluctuating, settings? The last part of the paper outlines a process for actualizing systematic iteration between model and methodology, and concludes with a set of research questions that speak to how the model/data process can be made efficient and effective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. MO-DE-207A-07: Filtered Iterative Reconstruction (FIR) Via Proximal Forward-Backward Splitting: A Synergy of Analytical and Iterative Reconstruction Method for CT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gao, H

    Purpose: This work is to develop a general framework, namely filtered iterative reconstruction (FIR) method, to incorporate analytical reconstruction (AR) method into iterative reconstruction (IR) method, for enhanced CT image quality. Methods: FIR is formulated as a combination of filtered data fidelity and sparsity regularization, and then solved by proximal forward-backward splitting (PFBS) algorithm. As a result, the image reconstruction decouples data fidelity and image regularization with a two-step iterative scheme, during which an AR-projection step updates the filtered data fidelity term, while a denoising solver updates the sparsity regularization term. During the AR-projection step, the image is projected tomore » the data domain to form the data residual, and then reconstructed by certain AR to a residual image which is in turn weighted together with previous image iterate to form next image iterate. Since the eigenvalues of AR-projection operator are close to the unity, PFBS based FIR has a fast convergence. Results: The proposed FIR method is validated in the setting of circular cone-beam CT with AR being FDK and total-variation sparsity regularization, and has improved image quality from both AR and IR. For example, AIR has improved visual assessment and quantitative measurement in terms of both contrast and resolution, and reduced axial and half-fan artifacts. Conclusion: FIR is proposed to incorporate AR into IR, with an efficient image reconstruction algorithm based on PFBS. The CBCT results suggest that FIR synergizes AR and IR with improved image quality and reduced axial and half-fan artifacts. The authors was partially supported by the NSFC (#11405105), the 973 Program (#2015CB856000), and the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program (#14PJ1404500).« less

  3. Evaluation of integration methods for hybrid simulation of complex structural systems through collapse

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Del Carpio R., Maikol; Hashemi, M. Javad; Mosqueda, Gilberto

    2017-10-01

    This study examines the performance of integration methods for hybrid simulation of large and complex structural systems in the context of structural collapse due to seismic excitations. The target application is not necessarily for real-time testing, but rather for models that involve large-scale physical sub-structures and highly nonlinear numerical models. Four case studies are presented and discussed. In the first case study, the accuracy of integration schemes including two widely used methods, namely, modified version of the implicit Newmark with fixed-number of iteration (iterative) and the operator-splitting (non-iterative) is examined through pure numerical simulations. The second case study presents the results of 10 hybrid simulations repeated with the two aforementioned integration methods considering various time steps and fixed-number of iterations for the iterative integration method. The physical sub-structure in these tests consists of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) cantilever column with replaceable steel coupons that provides repeatable highlynonlinear behavior including fracture-type strength and stiffness degradations. In case study three, the implicit Newmark with fixed-number of iterations is applied for hybrid simulations of a 1:2 scale steel moment frame that includes a relatively complex nonlinear numerical substructure. Lastly, a more complex numerical substructure is considered by constructing a nonlinear computational model of a moment frame coupled to a hybrid model of a 1:2 scale steel gravity frame. The last two case studies are conducted on the same porotype structure and the selection of time steps and fixed number of iterations are closely examined in pre-test simulations. The generated unbalance forces is used as an index to track the equilibrium error and predict the accuracy and stability of the simulations.

  4. Broadband excitation in nuclear magnetic resonance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tycko, Robert

    1984-10-01

    Theoretical methods for designing sequences of radio frequency (rf) radiation pulses for broadband excitation of spin systems in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are described. The sequences excite spins uniformly over large ranges of resonant frequencies arising from static magnetic field inhomogeneity, chemical shift differences, or spin couplings, or over large ranges of rf field amplitudes. Specific sequences for creating a population inversion or transverse magnetization are derived and demonstrated experimentally in liquid and solid state NMR. One approach to broadband excitation is based on principles of coherent averaging theory. A general formalism for deriving pulse sequences is given, along withmore » computational methods for specific cases. This approach leads to sequences that produce strictly constant transformations of a spin system. The importance of this feature in NMR applications is discussed. A second approach to broadband excitation makes use of iterative schemes, i.e. sets of operations that are applied repetitively to a given initial pulse sequences, generating a series of increasingly complex sequences with increasingly desirable properties. A general mathematical framework for analyzing iterative schemes is developed. An iterative scheme is treated as a function that acts on a space of operators corresponding to the transformations produced by all possible pulse sequences. The fixed points of the function and the stability of the fixed points are shown to determine the essential behavior of the scheme. Iterative schemes for broadband population inversion are treated in detail. Algebraic and numerical methods for performing the mathematical analysis are presented. Two additional topics are treated. The first is the construction of sequences for uniform excitation of double-quantum coherence and for uniform polarization transfer over a range of spin couplings. Double-quantum excitation sequences are demonstrated in a liquid crystal system. The second additional topic is the construction of iterative schemes for narrowband population inversion. The use of sequences that invert spin populations only over a narrow range of rf field amplitudes to spatially localize NMR signals in an rf field gradient is discussed.« less

  5. Objective performance assessment of five computed tomography iterative reconstruction algorithms.

    PubMed

    Omotayo, Azeez; Elbakri, Idris

    2016-11-22

    Iterative algorithms are gaining clinical acceptance in CT. We performed objective phantom-based image quality evaluation of five commercial iterative reconstruction algorithms available on four different multi-detector CT (MDCT) scanners at different dose levels as well as the conventional filtered back-projection (FBP) reconstruction. Using the Catphan500 phantom, we evaluated image noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), modulation transfer function (MTF) and noise-power spectrum (NPS). The algorithms were evaluated over a CTDIvol range of 0.75-18.7 mGy on four major MDCT scanners: GE DiscoveryCT750HD (algorithms: ASIR™ and VEO™); Siemens Somatom Definition AS+ (algorithm: SAFIRE™); Toshiba Aquilion64 (algorithm: AIDR3D™); and Philips Ingenuity iCT256 (algorithm: iDose4™). Images were reconstructed using FBP and the respective iterative algorithms on the four scanners. Use of iterative algorithms decreased image noise and increased CNR, relative to FBP. In the dose range of 1.3-1.5 mGy, noise reduction using iterative algorithms was in the range of 11%-51% on GE DiscoveryCT750HD, 10%-52% on Siemens Somatom Definition AS+, 49%-62% on Toshiba Aquilion64, and 13%-44% on Philips Ingenuity iCT256. The corresponding CNR increase was in the range 11%-105% on GE, 11%-106% on Siemens, 85%-145% on Toshiba and 13%-77% on Philips respectively. Most algorithms did not affect the MTF, except for VEO™ which produced an increase in the limiting resolution of up to 30%. A shift in the peak of the NPS curve towards lower frequencies and a decrease in NPS amplitude were obtained with all iterative algorithms. VEO™ required long reconstruction times, while all other algorithms produced reconstructions in real time. Compared to FBP, iterative algorithms reduced image noise and increased CNR. The iterative algorithms available on different scanners achieved different levels of noise reduction and CNR increase while spatial resolution improvements were obtained only with VEO™. This study is useful in that it provides performance assessment of the iterative algorithms available from several mainstream CT manufacturers.

  6. A framework for directional and higher-order reconstruction in photoacoustic tomography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boink, Yoeri E.; Lagerwerf, Marinus J.; Steenbergen, Wiendelt; van Gils, Stephan A.; Manohar, Srirang; Brune, Christoph

    2018-02-01

    Photoacoustic tomography is a hybrid imaging technique that combines high optical tissue contrast with high ultrasound resolution. Direct reconstruction methods such as filtered back-projection, time reversal and least squares suffer from curved line artefacts and blurring, especially in the case of limited angles or strong noise. In recent years, there has been great interest in regularised iterative methods. These methods employ prior knowledge of the image to provide higher quality reconstructions. However, easy comparisons between regularisers and their properties are limited, since many tomography implementations heavily rely on the specific regulariser chosen. To overcome this bottleneck, we present a modular reconstruction framework for photoacoustic tomography, which enables easy comparisons between regularisers with different properties, e.g. nonlinear, higher-order or directional. We solve the underlying minimisation problem with an efficient first-order primal-dual algorithm. Convergence rates are optimised by choosing an operator-dependent preconditioning strategy. A variety of reconstruction methods are tested on challenging 2D synthetic and experimental data sets. They outperform direct reconstruction approaches for strong noise levels and limited angle measurements, offering immediate benefits in terms of acquisition time and quality. This work provides a basic platform for the investigation of future advanced regularisation methods in photoacoustic tomography.

  7. Modelling of minority ion cyclotron current drive during the activated phase of ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Laxåback, M.; Hellsten, T.

    2005-12-01

    Neoclassical tearing modes, triggered by the long-period sawteeth expected in tokamaks with large non-thermal α-particle populations, may impose a severe β limit on experiments with large fusion yields and on reactors. Sawtooth destabilization by localized current drive could relax the β limit and improve plasma performance. 3He minority ion cyclotron current drive around the sawtooth inversion radius has been planned for ITER. Several ion species, including beam injected D ions and fusion born α particles, are however also resonant in the plasma and may represent a parasitic absorption of RF power. Modelling of minority ion cyclotron current drive in an ITER-FEAT-like plasma is presented, including the effects of ion trapping, finite ion drift orbit widths, wave-induced radial transport and the coupled evolution of wave fields and resonant ion distributions. The parasitic absorption of RF power by the other resonant species is concluded to be relatively small, but the 3He minority current drive is nevertheless negligible due to the strong collisionality of the 3He ions and the drag current by toroidally counter-rotating background ions and co-rotating electrons. H minority current drive is found to be a significantly more effective alternative.

  8. Task toward a Realization of Commercial Tokamak Fusion Plants in 2050 -The Role of ITER and the Succeeding Developments- 4.Technology and Material Research in Fusion Power Plant Development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akiba, Masato; Matsui, Hideki; Takatsu, Hideyuki; Konishi, Satoshi

    Technical issues regarding the fusion power plant that are required to be developed in the period of ITER construction and operation, both with ITER and with other facilities that complement ITER are described in this section. Three major fields are considered to be important in fusion technology. Section 4.1 summarizes blanket study, and ITER Test Blanket Module (TBM) development that focuses its effort on the first generation power blanket to be installed in DEMO. ITER will be equipped with 6 TBMs which are developed under each party's fusion program. In Japan, the solid breeder using water as a coolant is the primary candidate, and He-cooled pebble bed is the alternative. Other liquid options such as LiPb, Li or molten salt are developed by other parties' initiatives. The Test Blanket Working Group (TBWG) is coordinating these efforts. Japanese universities are investigating advanced concepts and fundamental crosscutting technologies. Section 4.2 introduces material development and particularly, the international irradiation facility, IFMIF. Reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels are identified as promising candidates for the structural material of the first generation fusion blanket, while and vanadium alloy and SiC/SiC composite are pursued as advanced options. The IFMIF is currently planning the next phase of joint activity, EVEDA (Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activity) that encompasses construction. Material studies together with the ITER TBM will provide essential technical information for development of the fusion power plant. Other technical issues to be addressed regarding the first generation fusion power plant are summarized in section 4.3. Development of components for ITER made remarkable progress for the major essential technology also necessary for future fusion plants, however many still need further improvements toward power plant. Such areas includes; the divertor, plasma heating/current drive, magnets, tritium, and remote handling. There remain many other technical issues for power plant which require integrated efforts.

  9. SU-D-206-03: Segmentation Assisted Fast Iterative Reconstruction Method for Cone-Beam CT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wu, P; Mao, T; Gong, S

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: Total Variation (TV) based iterative reconstruction (IR) methods enable accurate CT image reconstruction from low-dose measurements with sparse projection acquisition, due to the sparsifiable feature of most CT images using gradient operator. However, conventional solutions require large amount of iterations to generate a decent reconstructed image. One major reason is that the expected piecewise constant property is not taken into consideration at the optimization starting point. In this work, we propose an iterative reconstruction method for cone-beam CT (CBCT) using image segmentation to guide the optimization path more efficiently on the regularization term at the beginning of the optimizationmore » trajectory. Methods: Our method applies general knowledge that one tissue component in the CT image contains relatively uniform distribution of CT number. This general knowledge is incorporated into the proposed reconstruction using image segmentation technique to generate the piecewise constant template on the first-pass low-quality CT image reconstructed using analytical algorithm. The template image is applied as an initial value into the optimization process. Results: The proposed method is evaluated on the Shepp-Logan phantom of low and high noise levels, and a head patient. The number of iterations is reduced by overall 40%. Moreover, our proposed method tends to generate a smoother reconstructed image with the same TV value. Conclusion: We propose a computationally efficient iterative reconstruction method for CBCT imaging. Our method achieves a better optimization trajectory and a faster convergence behavior. It does not rely on prior information and can be readily incorporated into existing iterative reconstruction framework. Our method is thus practical and attractive as a general solution to CBCT iterative reconstruction. This work is supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LR16F010001), National High-tech R&D Program for Young Scientists by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2015AA020917).« less

  10. 20 years of research on the Alcator C-Mod tokamaka)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greenwald, M.; Bader, A.; Baek, S.; Bakhtiari, M.; Barnard, H.; Beck, W.; Bergerson, W.; Bespamyatnov, I.; Bonoli, P.; Brower, D.; Brunner, D.; Burke, W.; Candy, J.; Churchill, M.; Cziegler, I.; Diallo, A.; Dominguez, A.; Duval, B.; Edlund, E.; Ennever, P.; Ernst, D.; Faust, I.; Fiore, C.; Fredian, T.; Garcia, O.; Gao, C.; Goetz, J.; Golfinopoulos, T.; Granetz, R.; Grulke, O.; Hartwig, Z.; Horne, S.; Howard, N.; Hubbard, A.; Hughes, J.; Hutchinson, I.; Irby, J.; Izzo, V.; Kessel, C.; LaBombard, B.; Lau, C.; Li, C.; Lin, Y.; Lipschultz, B.; Loarte, A.; Marmar, E.; Mazurenko, A.; McCracken, G.; McDermott, R.; Meneghini, O.; Mikkelsen, D.; Mossessian, D.; Mumgaard, R.; Myra, J.; Nelson-Melby, E.; Ochoukov, R.; Olynyk, G.; Parker, R.; Pitcher, S.; Podpaly, Y.; Porkolab, M.; Reinke, M.; Rice, J.; Rowan, W.; Schmidt, A.; Scott, S.; Shiraiwa, S.; Sierchio, J.; Smick, N.; Snipes, J. A.; Snyder, P.; Sorbom, B.; Stillerman, J.; Sung, C.; Takase, Y.; Tang, V.; Terry, J.; Terry, D.; Theiler, C.; Tronchin-James, A.; Tsujii, N.; Vieira, R.; Walk, J.; Wallace, G.; White, A.; Whyte, D.; Wilson, J.; Wolfe, S.; Wright, G.; Wright, J.; Wukitch, S.; Zweben, S.

    2014-11-01

    The object of this review is to summarize the achievements of research on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak [Hutchinson et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1511 (1994) and Marmar, Fusion Sci. Technol. 51, 261 (2007)] and to place that research in the context of the quest for practical fusion energy. C-Mod is a compact, high-field tokamak, whose unique design and operating parameters have produced a wealth of new and important results since it began operation in 1993, contributing data that extends tests of critical physical models into new parameter ranges and into new regimes. Using only high-power radio frequency (RF) waves for heating and current drive with innovative launching structures, C-Mod operates routinely at reactor level power densities and achieves plasma pressures higher than any other toroidal confinement device. C-Mod spearheaded the development of the vertical-target divertor and has always operated with high-Z metal plasma facing components—approaches subsequently adopted for ITER. C-Mod has made ground-breaking discoveries in divertor physics and plasma-material interactions at reactor-like power and particle fluxes and elucidated the critical role of cross-field transport in divertor operation, edge flows and the tokamak density limit. C-Mod developed the I-mode and the Enhanced Dα H-mode regimes, which have high performance without large edge localized modes and with pedestal transport self-regulated by short-wavelength electromagnetic waves. C-Mod has carried out pioneering studies of intrinsic rotation and demonstrated that self-generated flow shear can be strong enough in some cases to significantly modify transport. C-Mod made the first quantitative link between the pedestal temperature and the H-mode's performance, showing that the observed self-similar temperature profiles were consistent with critical-gradient-length theories and followed up with quantitative tests of nonlinear gyrokinetic models. RF research highlights include direct experimental observation of ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) mode-conversion, ICRF flow drive, demonstration of lower-hybrid current drive at ITER-like densities and fields and, using a set of novel diagnostics, extensive validation of advanced RF codes. Disruption studies on C-Mod provided the first observation of non-axisymmetric halo currents and non-axisymmetric radiation in mitigated disruptions. A summary of important achievements and discoveries are included.

  11. Overview of ASDEX Upgrade results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    A. Kallenbachthe ASDEX Upgrade Team; the EUROfusion MST1 Team

    2017-10-01

    The ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) programme is directed towards physics input to critical elements of the ITER design and the preparation of ITER operation, as well as addressing physics issues for a future DEMO design. Since 2015, AUG is equipped with a new pair of 3-strap ICRF antennas, which were designed for a reduction of tungsten release during ICRF operation. As predicted, a factor two reduction on the ICRF-induced W plasma content could be achieved by the reduction of the sheath voltage at the antenna limiters via the compensation of the image currents of the central and side straps in the antenna frame. There are two main operational scenario lines in AUG. Experiments with low collisionality, which comprise current drive, ELM mitigation/suppression and fast ion physics, are mainly done with freshly boronized walls to reduce the tungsten influx at these high edge temperature conditions. Full ELM suppression and non-inductive operation up to a plasma current of {{I}\\text{p}}=0.8 MA could be obtained at low plasma density. Plasma exhaust is studied under conditions of high neutral divertor pressure and separatrix electron density, where a fresh boronization is not required. Substantial progress could be achieved for the understanding of the confinement degradation by strong D puffing and the improvement with nitrogen or carbon seeding. Inward/outward shifts of the electron density profile relative to the temperature profile effect the edge stability via the pressure profile changes and lead to improved/decreased pedestal performance. Seeding and D gas puffing are found to effect the core fueling via changes in a region of high density on the high field side (HFSHD). The integration of all above mentioned operational scenarios will be feasible and naturally obtained in a large device where the edge is more opaque for neutrals and higher plasma temperatures provide a lower collisionality. The combination of exhaust control with pellet fueling has been successfully demonstrated. High divertor enrichment values of nitrogen {{E}\\text{N}}≥slant 10 have been obtained during pellet injection, which is a prerequisite for the simultaneous achievement of good core plasma purity and high divertor radiation levels. Impurity accumulation observed in the all-metal AUG device caused by the strong neoclassical inward transport of tungsten in the pedestal is expected to be relieved by the higher neoclassical temperature screening in larger devices.

  12. Development of the Long Pulse Negative Ion Source for ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hemsworth, R.S.; Svensson, L.; Esch, H.P.L. de

    2005-04-06

    A model of the ion source designed for the neutral beam injectors of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the KAMABOKO III ion source, is being tested on the MANTIS test stand at the DRFC Cadarache in collaboration with JAERI, Japan, who designed and supplied the ion source. The ion source is attached to a 3 grid 30 keV accelerator (also supplied by JAERI) and the accelerated negative ion current is determined from the energy deposited on a calorimeter located 1.6 m from the source.During experiments on MANTIS three adverse effects of long pulse operation were found: The negative ionmore » current to the calorimeter is {approx_equal}50% of that obtained from short pulse operation Increasing the plasma grid (PG) temperature results in {<=}40% enhancement in negative ion yield, substantially below that reported for short pulse operation, {>=}100%. The caesium 'consumption' is up to 1500 times that expected.Results presented here indicate that each of these is, at least partially, explained by thermal effects. Additionally presented are the results of a detailed characterisation of the source, which enable the most efficient mode of operation to be identified.« less

  13. Development of iterative techniques for the solution of unsteady compressible viscous flows

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sankar, Lakshmi N.; Hixon, Duane

    1991-01-01

    Efficient iterative solution methods are being developed for the numerical solution of two- and three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Iterative time marching methods have several advantages over classical multi-step explicit time marching schemes, and non-iterative implicit time marching schemes. Iterative schemes have better stability characteristics than non-iterative explicit and implicit schemes. Thus, the extra work required by iterative schemes can also be designed to perform efficiently on current and future generation scalable, missively parallel machines. An obvious candidate for iteratively solving the system of coupled nonlinear algebraic equations arising in CFD applications is the Newton method. Newton's method was implemented in existing finite difference and finite volume methods. Depending on the complexity of the problem, the number of Newton iterations needed per step to solve the discretized system of equations can, however, vary dramatically from a few to several hundred. Another popular approach based on the classical conjugate gradient method, known as the GMRES (Generalized Minimum Residual) algorithm is investigated. The GMRES algorithm was used in the past by a number of researchers for solving steady viscous and inviscid flow problems with considerable success. Here, the suitability of this algorithm is investigated for solving the system of nonlinear equations that arise in unsteady Navier-Stokes solvers at each time step. Unlike the Newton method which attempts to drive the error in the solution at each and every node down to zero, the GMRES algorithm only seeks to minimize the L2 norm of the error. In the GMRES algorithm the changes in the flow properties from one time step to the next are assumed to be the sum of a set of orthogonal vectors. By choosing the number of vectors to a reasonably small value N (between 5 and 20) the work required for advancing the solution from one time step to the next may be kept to (N+1) times that of a noniterative scheme. Many of the operations required by the GMRES algorithm such as matrix-vector multiplies, matrix additions and subtractions can all be vectorized and parallelized efficiently.

  14. In situ measurements of fuel retention by laser induced desorption spectroscopy in TEXTOR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zlobinski, M.; Philipps, V.; Schweer, B.; Huber, A.; Stoschus, H.; Brezinsek, S.; Samm, U.; TEXTOR Team

    2011-12-01

    In future fusion devices such as ITER tritium retention due to tritium co-deposition in mixed material layers can be a serious safety problem. Laser induced desorption spectroscopy (LIDS) can measure the hydrogen content of hydrogenic carbon layers locally on plasma-facing components, while hydrogen is used as a tritium substitute. For several years, this method has been applied in the TEXTOR tokamak in situ during plasma operation to monitor the hydrogen content in space and time. This work shows the LIDS signal reproducibility and studies the effects of different plasma conditions, desorption distances from the plasma and different laser energies using a dedicated sample with constant hydrogen amount. Also the LIDS signal evaluation procedure is described in detail and the detection limits for different conditions in the TEXTOR tokamak are estimated.

  15. A Method for Scheduling Air Traffic with Uncertain En Route Capacity Constraints

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Arneson, Heather; Bloem, Michael

    2009-01-01

    A method for scheduling ground delay and airborne holding for flights scheduled to fly through airspace with uncertain capacity constraints is presented. The method iteratively solves linear programs for departure rates and airborne holding as new probabilistic information about future airspace constraints becomes available. The objective function is the expected value of the weighted sum of ground and airborne delay. In order to limit operationally costly changes to departure rates, they are updated only when such an update would lead to a significant cost reduction. Simulation results show a 13% cost reduction over a rough approximation of current practices. Comparison between the proposed as needed replanning method and a similar method that uses fixed frequency replanning shows a typical cost reduction of 1% to 2%, and even up to a 20% cost reduction in some cases.

  16. Accelerating electron tomography reconstruction algorithm ICON with GPU.

    PubMed

    Chen, Yu; Wang, Zihao; Zhang, Jingrong; Li, Lun; Wan, Xiaohua; Sun, Fei; Zhang, Fa

    2017-01-01

    Electron tomography (ET) plays an important role in studying in situ cell ultrastructure in three-dimensional space. Due to limited tilt angles, ET reconstruction always suffers from the "missing wedge" problem. With a validation procedure, iterative compressed-sensing optimized NUFFT reconstruction (ICON) demonstrates its power in the restoration of validated missing information for low SNR biological ET dataset. However, the huge computational demand has become a major problem for the application of ICON. In this work, we analyzed the framework of ICON and classified the operations of major steps of ICON reconstruction into three types. Accordingly, we designed parallel strategies and implemented them on graphics processing units (GPU) to generate a parallel program ICON-GPU. With high accuracy, ICON-GPU has a great acceleration compared to its CPU version, up to 83.7×, greatly relieving ICON's dependence on computing resource.

  17. Multi-spectral temperature measurement method for gas turbine blade

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Shan; Feng, Chi; Wang, Lixin; Li, Dong

    2016-02-01

    One of the basic methods to improve both the thermal efficiency and power output of a gas turbine is to increase the firing temperature. However, gas turbine blades are easily damaged in harsh high-temperature and high-pressure environments. Therefore, ensuring that the blade temperature remains within the design limits is very important. There are unsolved problems in blade temperature measurement, relating to the emissivity of the blade surface, influences of the combustion gases, and reflections of radiant energy from the surroundings. In this study, the emissivity of blade surfaces has been measured, with errors reduced by a fitting method, influences of the combustion gases have been calculated for different operational conditions, and a reflection model has been built. An iterative computing method is proposed for calculating blade temperatures, and the experimental results show that this method has high precision.

  18. Development of Acoustic Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction Technique for Thick-Concrete Imaging

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Almansouri, Hani; Clayton, Dwight A; Kisner, Roger A

    Ultrasound signals have been used extensively for non-destructive evaluation (NDE). However, typical reconstruction techniques, such as the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT), are limited to quasi-homogenous thin media. New ultrasonic systems and reconstruction algorithms are in need for one-sided NDE of non-homogenous thick objects. An application example space is imaging of reinforced concrete structures for commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). These structures provide important foundation, support, shielding, and containment functions. Identification and management of aging and degradation of concrete structures is fundamental to the proposed long-term operation of NPPs. Another example is geothermal and oil/gas production wells. These multi-layered structuresmore » are composed of steel, cement, and several types of soil and rocks. Ultrasound systems with greater penetration range and image quality will allow for better monitoring of the well's health and prediction of high-pressure hydraulic fracturing of the rock. These application challenges need to be addressed with an integrated imaging approach, where the application, hardware, and reconstruction software are highly integrated and optimized. Therefore, we are developing an ultrasonic system with Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) as the image reconstruction backbone. As the first implementation of MBIR for ultrasonic signals, this paper document the first implementation of the algorithm and show reconstruction results for synthetically generated data.« less

  19. An iterative algorithm for soft tissue reconstruction from truncated flat panel projections

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Langan, D.; Claus, B.; Edic, P.; Vaillant, R.; De Man, B.; Basu, S.; Iatrou, M.

    2006-03-01

    The capabilities of flat panel interventional x-ray systems continue to expand, enabling a broader array of medical applications to be performed in a minimally invasive manner. Although CT is providing pre-operative 3D information, there is a need for 3D imaging of low contrast soft tissue during interventions in a number of areas including neurology, cardiac electro-physiology, and oncology. Unlike CT systems, interventional angiographic x-ray systems provide real-time large field of view 2D imaging, patient access, and flexible gantry positioning enabling interventional procedures. However, relative to CT, these C-arm flat panel systems have additional technical challenges in 3D soft tissue imaging including slower rotation speed, gantry vibration, reduced lateral patient field of view (FOV), and increased scatter. The reduced patient FOV often results in significant data truncation. Reconstruction of truncated (incomplete) data is known an "interior problem", and it is mathematically impossible to obtain an exact reconstruction. Nevertheless, it is an important problem in 3D imaging on a C-arm to address the need to generate a 3D reconstruction representative of the object being imaged with minimal artifacts. In this work we investigate the application of an iterative Maximum Likelihood Transmission (MLTR) algorithm to truncated data. We also consider truncated data with limited views for cardiac imaging where the views are gated by the electrocardiogram(ECG) to combat motion artifacts.

  20. Sensorless adaptive optics for isoSTED nanoscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antonello, Jacopo; Hao, Xiang; Allgeyer, Edward S.; Bewersdorf, Joerg; Rittscher, Jens; Booth, Martin J.

    2018-02-01

    The presence of aberrations is a major concern when using fluorescence microscopy to image deep inside tissue. Aberrations due to refractive index mismatch and heterogeneity of the specimen under investigation cause severe reduction in the amount of fluorescence emission that is collected by the microscope. Furthermore, aberrations adversely affect the resolution, leading to loss of fine detail in the acquired images. These phenomena are particularly troublesome for super-resolution microscopy techniques such as isotropic stimulated-emission-depletion microscopy (isoSTED), which relies on accurate control of the shape and co-alignment of multiple excitation and depletion foci to operate as expected and to achieve the super-resolution effect. Aberrations can be suppressed by implementing sensorless adaptive optics techniques, whereby aberration correction is achieved by maximising a certain image quality metric. In confocal microscopy for example, one can employ the total image brightness as an image quality metric. Aberration correction is subsequently achieved by iteratively changing the settings of a wavefront corrector device until the metric is maximised. This simplistic approach has limited applicability to isoSTED microscopy where, due to the complex interplay between the excitation and depletion foci, maximising the total image brightness can lead to introducing aberrations in the depletion foci. In this work we first consider the effects that different aberration modes have on isoSTED microscopes. We then propose an iterative, wavelet-based aberration correction algorithm and evaluate its benefits.

  1. Carbon charge exchange analysis in the ITER-like wall environment.

    PubMed

    Menmuir, S; Giroud, C; Biewer, T M; Coffey, I H; Delabie, E; Hawkes, N C; Sertoli, M

    2014-11-01

    Charge exchange spectroscopy has long been a key diagnostic tool for fusion plasmas and is well developed in devices with Carbon Plasma-Facing Components. Operation with the ITER-like wall at JET has resulted in changes to the spectrum in the region of the Carbon charge exchange line at 529.06 nm and demonstrates the need to revise the core charge exchange analysis for this line. An investigation has been made of this spectral region in different plasma conditions and the revised description of the spectral lines to be included in the analysis is presented.

  2. Fast multilevel radiative transfer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paletou, Frédéric; Léger, Ludovick

    2007-01-01

    The vast majority of recent advances in the field of numerical radiative transfer relies on approximate operator methods better known in astrophysics as Accelerated Lambda-Iteration (ALI). A superior class of iterative schemes, in term of rates of convergence, such as Gauss-Seidel and Successive Overrelaxation methods were therefore quite naturally introduced in the field of radiative transfer by Trujillo Bueno & Fabiani Bendicho (1995); it was thoroughly described for the non-LTE two-level atom case. We describe hereafter in details how such methods can be generalized when dealing with non-LTE unpolarised radiation transfer with multilevel atomic models, in monodimensional geometry.

  3. The CLASSY clustering algorithm: Description, evaluation, and comparison with the iterative self-organizing clustering system (ISOCLS). [used for LACIE data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lennington, R. K.; Malek, H.

    1978-01-01

    A clustering method, CLASSY, was developed, which alternates maximum likelihood iteration with a procedure for splitting, combining, and eliminating the resulting statistics. The method maximizes the fit of a mixture of normal distributions to the observed first through fourth central moments of the data and produces an estimate of the proportions, means, and covariances in this mixture. The mathematical model which is the basic for CLASSY and the actual operation of the algorithm is described. Data comparing the performances of CLASSY and ISOCLS on simulated and actual LACIE data are presented.

  4. Simultaneous imaging/reflectivity measurements to assess diagnostic mirror cleaning.

    PubMed

    Skinner, C H; Gentile, C A; Doerner, R

    2012-10-01

    Practical methods to clean ITER's diagnostic mirrors and restore reflectivity will be critical to ITER's plasma operations. We describe a technique to assess the efficacy of mirror cleaning techniques and detect any damage to the mirror surface. The method combines microscopic imaging and reflectivity measurements in the red, green, and blue spectral regions and at selected wavelengths. The method has been applied to laser cleaning of single crystal molybdenum mirrors coated with either carbon or beryllium films 150-420 nm thick. It is suitable for hazardous materials such as beryllium as the mirrors remain sealed in a vacuum chamber.

  5. VENTURE/PC manual: A multidimensional multigroup neutron diffusion code system. Version 3

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shapiro, A.; Huria, H.C.; Cho, K.W.

    1991-12-01

    VENTURE/PC is a recompilation of part of the Oak Ridge BOLD VENTURE code system, which will operate on an IBM PC or compatible computer. Neutron diffusion theory solutions are obtained for multidimensional, multigroup problems. This manual contains information associated with operating the code system. The purpose of the various modules used in the code system, and the input for these modules are discussed. The PC code structure is also given. Version 2 included several enhancements not given in the original version of the code. In particular, flux iterations can be done in core rather than by reading and writing tomore » disk, for problems which allow sufficient memory for such in-core iterations. This speeds up the iteration process. Version 3 does not include any of the special processors used in the previous versions. These special processors utilized formatted input for various elements of the code system. All such input data is now entered through the Input Processor, which produces standard interface files for the various modules in the code system. In addition, a Standard Interface File Handbook is included in the documentation which is distributed with the code, to assist in developing the input for the Input Processor.« less

  6. Manufacture and mechanical characterisation of high voltage insulation for superconducting busbars - (Part 1) Materials selection and development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clayton, N.; Crouchen, M.; Devred, A.; Evans, D.; Gung, C.-Y.; Lathwell, I.

    2017-04-01

    It is planned that the high voltage electrical insulation on the ITER feeder busbars will consist of interleaved layers of epoxy resin pre-impregnated glass tapes ('pre-preg') and polyimide. In addition to its electrical insulation function, the busbar insulation must have adequate mechanical properties to sustain the loads imposed on it during ITER magnet operation. This paper reports an investigation into suitable materials to manufacture the high voltage insulation for the ITER superconducting busbars and pipework. An R&D programme was undertaken in order to identify suitable pre-preg and polyimide materials from a range of suppliers. Pre-preg materials were obtained from 3 suppliers and used with Kapton HN, to make mouldings using the desired insulation architecture. Two main processing routes for pre-pregs have been investigated, namely vacuum bag processing (out of autoclave processing) and processing using a material with a high coefficient of thermal expansion (silicone rubber), to apply the compaction pressure on the insulation. Insulation should have adequate mechanical properties to cope with the stresses induced by the operating environment and a low void content necessary in a high voltage application. The quality of the mouldings was assessed by mechanical testing at 77 K and by the measurement of the void content.

  7. Advances in the high bootstrap fraction regime on DIII-D towards the Q = 5 mission of ITER steady state

    DOE PAGES

    Qian, Jinping P.; Garofalo, Andrea M.; Gong, Xianzu Z.; ...

    2017-03-20

    Recent EAST/DIII-D joint experiments on the high poloidal betamore » $${{\\beta}_{\\text{P}}}$$ regime in DIII-D have extended operation with internal transport barriers (ITBs) and excellent energy confinement (H 98y2 ~ 1.6) to higher plasma current, for lower q 95 ≤ 7.0, and more balanced neutral beam injection (NBI) (torque injection < 2 Nm), for lower plasma rotation than previous results. Transport analysis and experimental measurements at low toroidal rotation suggest that the E × B shear effect is not key to the ITB formation in these high $${{\\beta}_{\\text{P}}}$$ discharges. Experiments and TGLF modeling show that the Shafranov shift has a key stabilizing effect on turbulence. Extrapolation of the DIII-D results using a 0D model shows that with the improved confinement, the high bootstrap fraction regime could achieve fusion gain Q = 5 in ITER at $${{\\beta}_{\\text{N}}}$$ ~ 2.9 and q 95 ~ 7. With the optimization of q(0), the required improved confinement is achievable when using 1.5D TGLF-SAT1 for transport simulations. Furthermore, results reported in this paper suggest that the DIII-D high $${{\\beta}_{\\text{P}}}$$ scenario could be a candidate for ITER steady state operation.« less

  8. Modelling of the test of the JT-60SA HTS current leads

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zappatore, A.; Heller, R.; Savoldi, L.; Zanino, R.

    2017-07-01

    The CURLEAD code, which was developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), implements an integrated 1D transient model of a high temperature superconducting (HTS) current lead (CL) including the room termination (RT), the meander-flow type heat exchanger (HX), and the HTS module. CURLEAD was successfully used for the design of the 70 kA ITER demonstrator and of the W7-X and JT-60SA CLs. Recently the code was successfully applied to the prediction and analysis of steady state operation of the ITER correction coils (CC) HTS CL. Here the steady state and pulsed operation of the JT-60SA HTS CLs are analysed, which requires also the modelling of the HX shell and of the vacuum shell, which was not present in the ITER CC. The CURLEAD model extension is presented and the capability of the new version of CURLEAD to reproduce the transient experimental data of the JT-60SA HTS CL is shown. The results obtained provide a better understanding of key parameters of the CL, among which the temperature evolution at the HX-HTS interface, the GHe mass flow rate needed in the HX to achieve the target temperature at that location and the heat load at the cold end.

  9. The use of the long modular diagnostics shield module to mitigate shutdown dose rates in the ITER diagnostics equatorial ports

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Juárez, R.; Guirao, J.; Kolsek, A.; Lopez, A.; Pedroche, G.; Bertalot, L.; Udintsev, V. S.; Walsh, M. J.; Sauvan, P.; Sanz, J.

    2018-05-01

    The ITER equatorial port plugs are submitted to a drained weight limit of 45 T. This limitation can conflict with their radiation shielding demands, although some weight margin is being discussed. The port interspaces are subject to a shutdown dose rate limit of 100 µSv h‑1 after 106 s of cooling time. To meet it, the port plugs must show a neutron flux attenuation comparable to their neighborhood, despite considering penetrations to host systems. Most of this task relies on the drawer shield module (DSM). In this work, two DSM concepts are analyzed with this perspective: the box-based DSM and the modular DSM. Regardless the penetrations, the box-based DSM leads to unsatisfactory port plugs to meet both weight and SDDR requirements. On the contrary, the modular DSM shows a performance which allows for the adoption of such DSM concept, or equivalent, a port may comply with both requirements at the same time, provided the penetrations are well designed.

  10. Linear MHD stability analysis of post-disruption plasmas in ITER

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Aleynikova, K., E-mail: ksenia.aleynikova@gmail.com; Huijsmans, G. T. A.; Aleynikov, P.

    2016-05-15

    Most of the plasma current can be replaced by a runaway electron (RE) current during plasma disruptions in ITER. In this case the post-disruption plasma current profile is likely to be more peaked than the pre-disruption profile. The MHD activity of such plasma will affect the runaway electron generation and confinement and the dynamics of the plasma position evolution (Vertical Displacement Event), limiting the timeframe for runaway electrons and disruption mitigation. In the present paper, we evaluate the influence of the possible RE seed current parameters on the onset of the MHD instabilities. By varying the RE seed current profile,more » we search for subsequent plasma evolutions with the highest and the lowest MHD activity. This information can be applied to a development of desirable ITER disruption scenario.« less

  11. Rapid alignment of nanotomography data using joint iterative reconstruction and reprojection

    DOE PAGES

    Gürsoy, Doğa; Hong, Young P.; He, Kuan; ...

    2017-09-18

    As x-ray and electron tomography is pushed further into the nanoscale, the limitations of rotation stages become more apparent, leading to challenges in the alignment of the acquired projection images. Here we present an approach for rapid post-acquisition alignment of these projections to obtain high quality three-dimensional images. Our approach is based on a joint estimation of alignment errors, and the object, using an iterative refinement procedure. With simulated data where we know the alignment error of each projection image, our approach shows a residual alignment error that is a factor of a thousand smaller, and it reaches the samemore » error level in the reconstructed image in less than half the number of iterations. We then show its application to experimental data in x-ray and electron nanotomography.« less

  12. VUV spectroscopy in impurity injection experiments at KSTAR using prototype ITER VUV spectrometer.

    PubMed

    Seon, C R; Hong, J H; Song, I; Jang, J; Lee, H Y; An, Y H; Kim, B S; Jeon, T M; Park, J S; Choe, W; Lee, H G; Pak, S; Cheon, M S; Choi, J H; Kim, H S; Biel, W; Bernascolle, P; Barnsley, R

    2017-08-01

    The ITER vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) core survey spectrometer has been designed as a 5-channel spectral system so that the high spectral resolving power of 200-500 could be achieved in the wavelength range of 2.4-160 nm. To verify the design of the ITER VUV core survey spectrometer, a two-channel prototype spectrometer was developed. As a subsequent step of the prototype test, the prototype VUV spectrometer has been operated at KSTAR since the 2012 experimental campaign. From impurity injection experiments in the years 2015 and 2016, strong emission lines, such as Kr xxv 15.8 nm, Kr xxvi 17.9 nm, Ne vii 46.5 nm, Ne vi 40.2 nm, and an array of largely unresolved tungsten lines (14-32 nm) could be measured successfully, showing the typical photon number of 10 13 -10 15 photons/cm 2 s.

  13. Transmission of electrons inside the cryogenic pumps of ITER injector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Veltri, P., E-mail: pierluigi.veltri@igi.cnr.it; Sartori, E.

    2016-02-15

    Large cryogenic pumps are installed in the vessel of large neutral beam injectors (NBIs) used to heat the plasma in nuclear fusion experiments. The operation of such pumps can be compromised by the presence of stray secondary electrons that are generated along the beam path. In this paper, we present a numerical model to analyze the propagation of the electrons inside the pump. The aim of the study is to quantify the power load on the active pump elements, via evaluation of the transmission probabilities across the domain of the pump. These are obtained starting from large datasets of particlemore » trajectories, obtained by numerical means. The transmission probability of the electrons across the domain is calculated for the NBI of the ITER and for its prototype Megavolt ITer Injector and Concept Advancement (MITICA) and the results are discussed.« less

  14. The heat removal capability of actively cooled plasma-facing components for the ITER divertor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Missirlian, M.; Richou, M.; Riccardi, B.; Gavila, P.; Loarer, T.; Constans, S.

    2011-12-01

    Non-destructive examination followed by high-heat-flux testing was performed for different small- and medium-scale mock-ups; this included the most recent developments related to actively cooled tungsten (W) or carbon fibre composite (CFC) armoured plasma-facing components. In particular, the heat-removal capability of these mock-ups manufactured by European companies with all the main features of the ITER divertor design was investigated both after manufacturing and after thermal cycling up to 20 MW m-2. Compliance with ITER requirements was explored in terms of bonding quality, heat flux performances and operational compatibility. The main results show an overall good heat-removal capability after the manufacturing process independent of the armour-to-heat sink bonding technology and promising behaviour with respect to thermal fatigue lifetime under heat flux up to 20 MW m-2 for the CFC-armoured tiles and 15 MW m-2 for the W-armoured tiles, respectively.

  15. Study on monostable and bistable reaction-diffusion equations by iteration of travelling wave maps

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yi, Taishan; Chen, Yuming

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, based on the iterative properties of travelling wave maps, we develop a new method to obtain spreading speeds and asymptotic propagation for monostable and bistable reaction-diffusion equations. Precisely, for Dirichlet problems of monostable reaction-diffusion equations on the half line, by making links between travelling wave maps and integral operators associated with the Dirichlet diffusion kernel (the latter is NOT invariant under translation), we obtain some iteration properties of the Dirichlet diffusion and some a priori estimates on nontrivial solutions of Dirichlet problems under travelling wave transformation. We then provide the asymptotic behavior of nontrivial solutions in the space-time region for Dirichlet problems. These enable us to develop a unified method to obtain results on heterogeneous steady states, travelling waves, spreading speeds, and asymptotic spreading behavior for Dirichlet problem of monostable reaction-diffusion equations on R+ as well as of monostable/bistable reaction-diffusion equations on R.

  16. The solution of radiative transfer problems in molecular bands without the LTE assumption by accelerated lambda iteration methods

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kutepov, A. A.; Kunze, D.; Hummer, D. G.; Rybicki, G. B.

    1991-01-01

    An iterative method based on the use of approximate transfer operators, which was designed initially to solve multilevel NLTE line formation problems in stellar atmospheres, is adapted and applied to the solution of the NLTE molecular band radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres. The matrices to be constructed and inverted are much smaller than those used in the traditional Curtis matrix technique, which makes possible the treatment of more realistic problems using relatively small computers. This technique converges much more rapidly than straightforward iteration between the transfer equation and the equations of statistical equilibrium. A test application of this new technique to the solution of NLTE radiative transfer problems for optically thick and thin bands (the 4.3 micron CO2 band in the Venusian atmosphere and the 4.7 and 2.3 micron CO bands in the earth's atmosphere) is described.

  17. High-performance equation solvers and their impact on finite element analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Poole, Eugene L.; Knight, Norman F., Jr.; Davis, D. Dale, Jr.

    1990-01-01

    The role of equation solvers in modern structural analysis software is described. Direct and iterative equation solvers which exploit vectorization on modern high-performance computer systems are described and compared. The direct solvers are two Cholesky factorization methods. The first method utilizes a novel variable-band data storage format to achieve very high computation rates and the second method uses a sparse data storage format designed to reduce the number of operations. The iterative solvers are preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Two different preconditioners are included; the first uses a diagonal matrix storage scheme to achieve high computation rates and the second requires a sparse data storage scheme and converges to the solution in fewer iterations that the first. The impact of using all of the equation solvers in a common structural analysis software system is demonstrated by solving several representative structural analysis problems.

  18. High-performance equation solvers and their impact on finite element analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Poole, Eugene L.; Knight, Norman F., Jr.; Davis, D. D., Jr.

    1992-01-01

    The role of equation solvers in modern structural analysis software is described. Direct and iterative equation solvers which exploit vectorization on modern high-performance computer systems are described and compared. The direct solvers are two Cholesky factorization methods. The first method utilizes a novel variable-band data storage format to achieve very high computation rates and the second method uses a sparse data storage format designed to reduce the number od operations. The iterative solvers are preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Two different preconditioners are included; the first uses a diagonal matrix storage scheme to achieve high computation rates and the second requires a sparse data storage scheme and converges to the solution in fewer iterations that the first. The impact of using all of the equation solvers in a common structural analysis software system is demonstrated by solving several representative structural analysis problems.

  19. Design of a dispersion interferometer combined with a polarimeter to increase the electron density measurement reliability on ITER

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akiyama, T.; Sirinelli, A.; Watts, C.; Shigin, P.; Vayakis, G.; Walsh, M.

    2016-11-01

    A dispersion interferometer is a reliable density measurement system and is being designed as a complementary density diagnostic on ITER. The dispersion interferometer is inherently insensitive to mechanical vibrations, and a combined polarimeter with the same line of sight can correct fringe jump errors. A proof of the principle of the CO2 laser dispersion interferometer combined with the PEM polarimeter was recently conducted, where the phase shift and the polarization angle were successfully measured simultaneously. Standard deviations of the line-average density and the polarization angle measurements over 1 s are 9 × 1016 m-2 and 0.19°, respectively, with a time constant of 100 μs. Drifts of the zero point, which determine the resolution in steady-state operation, correspond to 0.25% and 1% of the phase shift and the Faraday rotation angle expected on ITER.

  20. Design of a dispersion interferometer combined with a polarimeter to increase the electron density measurement reliability on ITER.

    PubMed

    Akiyama, T; Sirinelli, A; Watts, C; Shigin, P; Vayakis, G; Walsh, M

    2016-11-01

    A dispersion interferometer is a reliable density measurement system and is being designed as a complementary density diagnostic on ITER. The dispersion interferometer is inherently insensitive to mechanical vibrations, and a combined polarimeter with the same line of sight can correct fringe jump errors. A proof of the principle of the CO 2 laser dispersion interferometer combined with the PEM polarimeter was recently conducted, where the phase shift and the polarization angle were successfully measured simultaneously. Standard deviations of the line-average density and the polarization angle measurements over 1 s are 9 × 10 16 m -2 and 0.19°, respectively, with a time constant of 100 μs. Drifts of the zero point, which determine the resolution in steady-state operation, correspond to 0.25% and 1% of the phase shift and the Faraday rotation angle expected on ITER.

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