Designing, Constructing and Using Plasma Control System Algorithms on DIII-D

A. W. Hyatt, D. A. Humphreys, N. W. Eidietis, J. R. Ferron, J. M. Hanson, R. D. Johnson, E. Kolemen, M. J. Lanctot, D. Moreau, B. G. Penaflor, E. Schuster, M. L. Walker

Symposium on Fusion Engineering

San Francisco, California, USA, June 10-14, 2013

Abstract

The DIII-D Plasma Control System (PCS [1]), initially deployed in the early 1990’s, now controls nearly all aspects of the tokamak and plasma environment. Versions of this PCS, supported by General Atomics, are presently used to control several tokamaks around the world, including the superconducting tokamaks EAST and KSTAR. The experimental challenges posed by the advanced tokamak mission of DIII-D and the variety of devices supported by the PCS have driven the development of a rich array of control algorithms, along with a powerful set of tools for algorithm design and testing. Broadly speaking, the PCS mission is to utilize all available sensors, measurements and actuators to safely produce a plasma state trajectory leading to and then maintaining the desired experimental conditions. Often new physics understanding leads to new or modified control requirements that use existing actuators in new ways.

[1] J. L. Luxon, "A design retrospective of the DIII-D tokamak," Nucl. Fusion, vol. 42, p. 614, 2002.