Development of the simulation platform between EAST plasma control system and the tokamak simulation code based on Simulink

Plasma control system (PCS),mainly developed for real-time feedback control calculation,plays a significant part during normal discharges in a magnetic fusion device,while the tokamak simulation code (TSC) is a nonlinear numerical model that studies the time evolution of an axisymmetric magnetized tokamak plasma.The motivation to combine these two codes for an integrated simulation is specified by the facts that the control system module in TSC is relatively simple compared to PCS,and meanwhile,newly-implemented control algorithms in PCS,before applied to experimental validations,require numerical validations against a tokamak plasma simulator that TSC can act as.In this paper,details of establishment of the integrated simulation framework between the EAST PCS and TSC are generically presented,and the poloidal power supply model and data acquisition model that have been implemented in this framework are described as well.In addition,the correctness of data interactions among the EAST PCS,Simulink and TSC is clearly confirmed during an interface test,and in a simulation test,the RZIP control scheme in the EAST PCS is numerically validated using this simulation platform.     

New developments of the EAST data system

As the discharge time becomes longer, the old EAST data system will not meet the requirements of EAST discharge experiment gradually. The problems mainly focus on continuous data acquisition and real-time data access.To meet the requirements of EAST 1000s discharges, the data acquisition mode, data storage structure and data access interface must be improved or reconstructed. Time slice mechanism is one of the popular solutions for continuous data acquisition and real-time data transfer. Data access of large signal files has been successfully solved via a hierarchical storage management system. Moreover, conventional “remote indexing” is replaced with “local indexing” in data access, which greatly enhanced data access speed. These improvements have been implemented and applied to EAST long-pulse plasma experiments which are described in this paper in detail.     

Development of a Data Acquisition Control System for the First NBI on EAST

Neutral beam injection （NBI） heating is one of the most efficient auxiliary plasma heating methods for fusion devices. The data acquisition control system （DACS） with PXI （pe- ripheral component interconnect extensions for instrumentation） data acquisition card for the first NBI system in the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak （EAST） is presented in this paper. As an important sub-system, DACS is designed to obtain physical measurement signals in the EAST NBI system and to deal and store these data with the Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer （LZO） lossless data compression algorithm, as well as offer convenient data call-back and access inter- faces to the user for examining and analyzing the data. Experimental results show that accurate data will ensure that researchers correctly analyze it and then properly adjust the experimental parameters or operation, so DACS should take a large step in improving experimental efficiency. Tile hardware and software sections are briefly presented in this paper, and now this system has been tested to be able to work reliably and steadily.     

Real-time virtual EAST physical experiment system

As a large fusion reaction device, experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST)’s internal structure is complicated and not easily accessible. Moreover, various diagnostic systems and complicated configuration bring about the inconveniency to the scientists who are unfamiliar with the system but interested in the data. We propose a virtual system to display the 3D model of EAST facility and enable people to view its inner structure and get access to the information of its components in various view sights. We would also provide most of the diagnostic configuration details together with their signal names and physical properties. Compared to the previous ways of viewing information by reference to collected drawings and videos, virtual EAST system is more interactive and immersive. We constructed the browser-oriented virtual EAST physical experiment system, integrated real-time experiment data acquisition, plasma shape visualization and experiment result simulation in order to reproduce physical experiments in a web browser. This system used B/S (Browser/Server) structure in combination with the technology of virtual reality – VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and Java 3D. In order to avoid the bandwidth limit across internet, we balanced the rendering speed and the precision of the virtual model components. Any registered user can view the experimental information visually and efficiently by logining the system through a web browser. The establishment of the system provides the framework basis for a comprehensive virtual EAST cooperative physical experimental environment.     

Conceptual design of Remote Control System for EAST tokamak

The international collaboration becomes popular in tokamak research like in many other fields of science, because the experiment facilities become larger and more expensive. The traditional On-site collaboration Model that has to spend much money and time on international travel is not fit for the more frequent international collaboration. The Remote Control System (RCS), as an extension of the Central Control System for the EAST tokamak, is designed to provide an efficient and economical way to international collaboration. As a remote user interface, the RCS must integrate with the Central Control System for EAST tokamak to perform discharge control function. This paper presents a design concept delineating a few key technical issues and addressing all significant details in the system architecture design. With the aim of satisfying system requirements, the RCS will select rich Internet application (RIA) as a user interface, Java as a back-end service and Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) for securable Internet communication.     

Design of Main Control Console Software in EAST Neutral Beam Injector’s Control System for the First Beam Line

Neutral beam injector is one of the main plasma heating and plasma current driving methods for experimental advanced superconducting tokomaks (EAST). In order to realize visual operation of EAST neutral beam injector’s control system (NBICS), main control console (MCC) is developed to work as the human–machine interface between the NBICS and physical operator. It can meet the requirements of visual control of NBICS by providing a user graphic interface. With the specific algorithms, the setup of power supply sequence is relatively independent and simple. Displaying the real-time feedback of the subsystems provides a reference for operators to monitor the status of the system. The MCC software runs on a Windows system and uses C++ language code while using client/server (C/S) mode, multithreading and cyclic redundancy check technology. The experimental results have proved that MCC provides a stability and reliability operation of NBICS and works as an effective man–machine interface at the same time.     

Easy web interfaces to IDL code for NSTX Data Analysis

Reusing code is a well-known Software Engineering practice to substantially increase the efficiency of code production, as well as to reduce errors and debugging time. A variety of “Web Tools” for the analysis and display of raw and analyzed physics data are in use on NSTX [1], and new ones can be produced quickly from existing IDL [2] code. A Web Tool with only a few inputs, and which calls an IDL routine written in the proper style, can be created in less than an hour; more typical Web Tools with dozens of inputs, and the need for some adaptation of existing IDL code, can be working in a day or so. Efficiency is also increased for users of Web Tools because of the familiar interface of the web browser, and not needing X-windows, or accounts and passwords, when used within our firewall. Web Tools were adapted for use by PPPL physicists accessing EAST data stored in MDSplus with only a few man-weeks of effort; adapting to additional sites should now be even easier. An overview of Web Tools in use on NSTX, and a list of the most useful features, is also presented.     

Data Acquisition System of Neutral Beam Injector on EAST

In order to supervise the elements of the neutral beam injector (NBI) spatially located at several places, a distributed NBI data acquisition system (NBIDAS) on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) is developed in this paper. NBIDAS consists of field instrument and measurement devices, servers and remote data processing terminals. In order to remotely manage and monitor the field devices of the NBI system, a device management client software is also developed as the human–machine interfaces between the field devices and remote system administrators. A control signal acquisition system is developed for diagnosing these generated analog and digital signals from the NBI control system. NBIDAS based on network technologies is capable of extending system functions and upgrading devices. The detail of the architecture and implementation of the NBIDAS on EAST is discussed in the paper.     

The EAST distributed data system

In this year, Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has undergone the first tests successfully, and the EAST distributed data system has been reliably operated in the EAST experimental campaigns. This paper gives an overview of this system.The EAST distributed data system is based on the design of, and the experiences with the HT-7 data system; it is aimed to be a distributed, real-time and scalable system. The EAST distributed data system includes control subsystem, data acquisition subsystem and data service subsystem. Control subsystem provides remote control of the all data acquisition units, full information management and state monitoring; data acquisition subsystem that provide real-time and quasi-real-time data support for long-pulse operation consists of a set of autonomous data acquisition units which support autonomous operating and remote control. Data service subsystem is responsible for storing and publishing data.     

A WEB-based integrated data processing system for the TRIAM-1M

In TRIAM-1M, plasma discharge can be sustained for over five hours [H. Zushi, et al., Steady-state tokamak operation, ITB transition and sustainment and ECCD experiments in TRIAM-1M, Nucl. Fusion 45 (2005) S142–S156]. In order to avoid sitting in front of one console for the purpose of monitoring the plasma discharge, it is recommended that the experimental information be accessible from any location at any time. In addition, simple services to access experimental information are required in order to promote the participation of multiple researchers in the TRIAM-1M experiment. Thus, A WEB-based integrated data processing system that provides management for experiment planning, an experimental log, numerical data, and plasma supervision has been installed in the TRIAM-1M. These services are composed primarily of an Apache WEB server, a Tomcat JSP/Servlet container, and a MySQL relational database. This system is constructed using the object-oriented Java language, which is easy to maintain and develop because of the intrinsic characteristics of the Java language. When participating in experiments, researchers are required only to prepare a WEB browser on any platform and are no longer required to memorize complex operations because all services are provided with a uniform user interface through a WEB browser. Furthermore, with the integration of these services, the required information and numerical data can be provided promptly by tracing HTML links that are created dynamically by server applications.     

Real-Time Detection for Magnetic Island of Neoclassical Tearing Mode in EAST Plasma Control System

Accurate detection of a magnetic island in real time is one of the important issues for the tearing mode(TM) and neoclassical tearing mode(NTM) control.This paper presents a real-time detection system for the magnetic island of NTM control in the EAST Plasma Control System(PCS).Diagnosis is based on magnetic periodic perturbation and electron temperature fluctuation caused by the magnetic island.Therefore,a Mirnov measurement has been selected to calculate the island's parameters,such as island width,frequency of island rotation,and toroidal number.The electron cyclotron emission(ECE) system can detect the island position,which is calculated by two fast detection algorithms called correlation analysis and Hilbert transform.For future NTM control,real-time equilibrium reconstruction(rt-EFIT) is needed to locate the rational q-surface where the island is detected.This fast detection system is able to detect an island within 3 ms.It can be integrated into PCS to provide effective parameters of the island for NTM control by using EC resonance heating(ECRH) in the next experiment of EAST.     

The design and application of the movable limiter in EAST

There are two movable limiters that have been installed on EAST. The movable limiter consists of three parts that are blade, support components and drive components. The blade which consists of heat sink and graphite tiles has to face plasma during plasma discharge. The support components consist of a long shaft and a movable plate. The drive components consists of a screw shaft, a step motor, four guide shafts and two support plates. There is an extra support which has fit in Tokamak and a frame on the outside of the flange. The specific shape of the blade has been optimized so that the graphite tiles on the blade can withstand max 5 MW/m^2 heat load with two long cooling channels. The long shaft of the transfer components connect with blade to make it can move along the axis of the limiter. The movable blade could adjust a wide variety of plasma major and minor diameters. The drive components provide motion from step motor which can be remote controlled in the control room far away from the scene. The rotation is translated to slide motion by a screw shaft. The screw shaft can push the slide which connected with the long shaft to at last move the blade. To introduce the motion from outside to the vacuum vessel, the limiter has a long bellow and special structure as dynamical seal. This seal structure proved very reliable. The remote control system has been also equipped the distance sensor to provide the information of the position of the limiter. The control system is based on PC so it can be easily operated. The two movable limiters have been installed on the EAST. During past twice discharges, the movable limiter proved to be a useful tool for EAST to control the plasma boundary.     

Web-based Logbook System for EAST Experiments

Implementation of a web-based logbook system on EAST is introduced,which can store the comments for the experiments into a database and access the documents via various web browsers. The three-tier software architecture and asynchronous access technology are adopted to improve the system effectively. Authorized users can view the information of real-time discharge, comments from others and signal plots; add, delete, or revise their own comments; search signal data or comments under complicated search conditions; and collect relevant information and output it to an excel file. The web pages can be automatically updated after a new discharge is completed and without refreshment.     

Data Server Application Software for Neutral Beam Injection Control System

The neutral beam injection (NBI) heating is one of the mainly auxiliary plasma heating methods for EAST. In this paper, a data server application software is presented for NBI control system. This application software is developed on Centos OS by C programming language with TCP and multithreading technology. It mainly focuses on storing and querying experimental pulse data and engineering data; experimental user’s operation records; experimental configuration information; the collected data after processing; as well as managing and releasing experimental discharge shot number and so on. By using the unified data header structure, the data server software provides universal information exchange interfaces for different service request terminals with different operating platform, such as WinCC, Labview. With the help of data server software, those problems related on the storage, querying and processing of information and data for NBI control system are well solved.     

The upgrade of the J-TEXT experimental data access and management system

The experimental data of J-TEXT tokamak are stored in the MDSplus database. The old J-TEXT data access system is based on the tools provided by MDSplus. Since the number of signals is huge, the data retrieval for an experiment is difficult. To solve this problem, the J-TEXT experimental data access and management system (DAMS) based on MDSplus has been developed. The DAMS left the old MDSplus system unchanged providing new tools, which can help users to handle all signals as well as to retrieve signals they need thanks to the user information requirements. The DAMS also offers users a way to create their jScope configuration files which can be downloaded to the local computer. In addition, the DAMS provides a JWeb-Scope tool to visualize the signal in a browser. JWeb-Scope adopts segment strategy to read massive data efficiently. Users can plot one or more signals on their own choice and zoom-in, zoom-out smoothly. The whole system is based on B/S model, so that the users only need of the browsers to access the DAMS. The DAMS has been tested and it has a better user experience. It will be integrated into the J-TEXT remote participation system later.     

Kinematic and dynamic analysis of a serial-link robot for inspection process in EAST vacuum vessel

The present paper introduces a serial-link robot which is named flexible in-vessel inspection robot (FIVIR) and developed for Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The task of the robot is to carry process tools, such as viewing camera and leakage detector, to inspect the components installed inside of EAST vacuum vessel. The FIVIR can help to understand the physical phenomena which could be happened in the vacuum vessel during plasma operation and could be one part of EAST remote handling system if needed. The FIVIR was designed with the consideration of having easy control and a good mechanics property which drives it resulted in function modular design. The workspace simulation and kinematic analysis are given in this paper. The dynamic behavior of the FIVIR is studied by multi-body system simulation using ADAMS software. The study result shows the FIVIR has ascendant kinematic and dynamic performance and can fulfill the design requirement for inspection process in EAST vacuum vessel.     

Towards the conceptual design of the ITER real-time plasma control system

ITER will be the world's largest magnetic confinement tokamak fusion device and is currently under construction in southern France. The ITER Plasma Control System (PCS) is a fundamental component of the ITER Control, Data Access and Communication system (CODAC). It will control the evolution of all plasma parameters that are necessary to operate ITER throughout all phases of the discharge. The design and implementation of the PCS poses a number of unique challenges. The timescales of phenomena to be controlled spans three orders of magnitude, ranging from a few milliseconds to seconds. Novel control schemes, which have not been implemented at present-day machines need to be developed, and control schemes that are only done as demonstration experiments today will have to become routine. In addition, advances in computing technology and available physics models make the implementation of real-time or faster-than-real-time predictive calculations to forecast and subsequently to avoid disruptions or undesired plasma regimes feasible. This requires the PCS design to be adaptable in real-time to the results of these forecasting algorithms. A further novel feature is a sophisticated event handling system, which provides a means to deal with plasma related events (such as MHD instabilities or L-H transitions) or component failure. Finally, the schedule for design and implementation poses another challenge. The beginning of ITER operation will be in late 2020, but the conceptual design activity of the PCS has already commenced as required by the on-going development of diagnostics and actuators in the domestic agencies and the need for integration and testing. This activity is presently underway as a collaboration of international experts and the results will be published as a subsequent publication. In this paper, an overview about the main areas of intervention of the plasma control system will be given as well as a summary of the interfaces and the integration into ITER CODAC (networks, other applications, etc.). The limited amount of commissioning time foreseen for plasma control will make extensive testing and validation necessary. This should be done in an environment that is as close to the PCS version running the machine as possible. Furthermore, the integration with an Integrated Modeling Framework will lead to a versatile tool that can also be employed for pulse validation, control system development and testing as well as the development and validation of physics models. An overview of the requirements and possible structure of such an environment will also be presented.     

Progress and improvement of KSTAR plasma control using model-based control simulators

Superconducting tokamaks like KSTAR, EAST and ITER need elaborate magnetic controls mainly due to either the demanding experiment schedule or tighter hardware limitations caused by the superconducting coils. In order to reduce the operation runtime requirements, two types of plasma simulators for the KSTAR plasma control system (PCS) have been developed for improving axisymmetric magnetic controls. The first one is an open-loop type, which can reproduce the control done in an old shot by loading the corresponding diagnostics data and PCS setup. The other one, a closed-loop simulator based on a linear nonrigid plasma model, is designed to simulate dynamic responses of the plasma equilibrium and plasma current (I_p) due to changes of the axisymmetric poloidal field (PF) coil currents, poloidal beta, and internal inductance. The closed-loop simulator is the one that actually can test and enable alteration of the feedback control setup for the next shot. The simulators have been used routinely in 2012 plasma campaign, and the experimental performances of the axisymmetric shape control algorithm are enhanced. Quality of the real-time EFIT has been enhanced by utilizations of the open-loop type. Using the closed-loop type, the decoupling scheme of the plasma current control and axisymmetric shape controls are verified through both the simulations and experiments. By combining with the relay feedback tuning algorithm, the improved controls helped to maintain the shape suitable for longer H-mode (10–16 s) with the number of required commissioning shots largely reduced.     

The Design of the Plasma Control System in KTX

KTX(Keda Torus for eXperiment)is a new reversed field pinch device.The KTX plasma control system(PCS)can provide real-time,stable,flexible plasma control which is designed by ASIPP(Institute of Plasma Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences),based on the Linux cluster system and EPICS(Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System)framework,and developed from DIII-D(Doublet III-D)PCS.The control of the equilibrium field in KTX uses a PID(Proportional-Integral-Derivative)feedback controller.The control of the gas injection is an open loop control.The plasma control simulation system is one part of the plasma control system,which is used to test the plasma control algorithm if it is revised and updated.The KTX PCS has been successfully tested using HT-7(Hefei Torus 7)experiment data in simulation mode.In the next phase,an error field feedback control and KTX simulator will be added to the KTX PCS,and the KTX PCS will be applied in experiments in the future.     

The Development of Data Acquisition and Remote Real-Time Display System for EAST NBI

The data acquisition and remote real-time display system for the neutral beam injectors (NBI) on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) are described in this paper. Distributed computer systems including local data acquisition (DAQ) facility, remote data server (DS), real-time display terminal are adopted with Linux and Windows operating system. Experimental signals are gathered by DAQ device at local working field. On the one hand, these gathered data will be sent to DS which runs on remote server main control layer on EAST NBI control network for saving and processing; on the other hand, these data will be sent to real-time display terminal which runs on remote monitoring layer on EAST NBI for displaying and monitoring experimental signals real-timely. Another point needs to be mentioned is that the real-time display software can call back historical data from DS for querying. The software of data acquisition and DS are programmed by C language while the real-time display software is programmed by Labview flow chart. The hardware mainly includes DAQ cards, server, industrial personal computer and others auxiliary hardware. Now the system proved to be performed well through experiments on NBI testing bed.