Virtual Tokamak for Test and Development of Plasma Control Applied to NSTX-U

Safe and efficient operation of Tokamak experiments depends on shot preparation before the experiment to maximize performance and avoid issues that are predictable consequences of known physics. The General Atomics TokSys toolbox is used to test and develop the plasma control system (PCS) on numerous Tokamaks around the world. Tokamaks that use a version of the DIII-D PCS can connect it to a TokSys simulation and control a virtual version of the Tokamak with the real PCS. Recent upgrades to the simulation include more detailed profile and transport modeling to support the design and implementation of optimized scenarios. The simulation combines a module called “Profiles” that simulates the 1-D profiles of density, pressure, and current and a module called “GSevolve” that evolves the 2-D Grad-Shafranov equilibrium. The “Profiles” module primarily uses simplified models for fueling, heating, and current. The TRANSP code provides precomputed diffusion coefficients and heating/current drive profiles from radio frequency and neutral beam sources for the scenarios being simulated. The fidelity of a simulation can be enhanced by analyzing it with TRANSP, making corrections to the precomputed values, and iterating until convergence. Simulations of the National Spherical Torus Upgrade (NSTX-U) are presented. It is shown that the simulation reproduces the experimental profile evolution. The simulation has also been upgraded to reproduce the experimental outcome at points of bifurcation. This is demonstrated with a simulation of vertical displacement in NSTX-U.