Latest advancements in DIII-D Plasma Control software and hardware

B. G. Penaflor, J. R. Ferron, A. W. Hyatt, M. L. Walker, R. D. Johnson, D. A. Piglowski, E. Kolemen, A. S. Welander, M. J. Lanctot

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

A number of important software and hardware changes have recently been made to the DIII-D Plasma Control System (PCS) to further its capabilities in support of fusion research. The PCS is a highly customizable real-time control application developed at General Atomics used to manage the many parameters that affect plasmas produced on the DIII-D tokamak. Included in the most recent updates to the PCS are refinements to the real-time Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) capabilities which have improved overall performance and reliability for fast and precise aiming of the mirrors used to control direct ECH power into the plasma. The introduction of new real-time streaming data acquisition hardware has provided a means for acquiring plasma electron temperatures and densities from the Thomson scattering System along with data from the Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) diagnostic for use in PCS feedback control algorithms. The new fiber optically connected streaming digitizers allow PCS computers located in one part of the tokamak facility to easily communicate with remotely located diagnostic systems in other parts of the lab, in addition to being able to transfer high frequency data (sampled at 500 Hz) for a large number of channels in real-time. Details of the most recent PCS enhancements will be provided along with a more thorough description of the latest software and hardware architecture.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2013 IEEE 25th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, SOFE 2013
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event2013 IEEE 25th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, SOFE 2013 - San Francisco, CA, United States
Duration: Jun 10 2013Jun 14 2013

Publication series

Name2013 IEEE 25th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, SOFE 2013

Other

Other2013 IEEE 25th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, SOFE 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco, CA
Period6/10/136/14/13

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software

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