Real time plasma equilibrium reconstruction in a Tokamak

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time method for reconstructing plasma equilibrium in a Tokamak by identifying the nonlinear plasma current source from measurements using advanced numerical techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel real-time identification approach combining fixed point algorithms, finite element methods, reduced basis techniques, and least-squares optimization.

Findings

Effective real-time plasma equilibrium reconstruction demonstrated.

Improved accuracy in identifying nonlinear plasma current sources.

Potential for enhanced control in Tokamak operations.

Abstract

The problem of equilibrium of a plasma in a Tokamak is a free boundary problemdescribed by the Grad-Shafranov equation in axisymmetric configurations. The right hand side of this equation is a non linear source, which represents the toroidal component of the plasma current density. This paper deals with the real time identification of this non linear source from experimental measurements. The proposed method is based on a fixed point algorithm, a finite element resolution, a reduced basis method and a least-square optimization formulation.