Stable plasma start-up in the KSTAR device under various discharge conditions

A time series of static nonlinear ferromagnetic calculations was performed to mimic the time-dependent modelling of plasma start-up by assessing the effects of the ferromagnetic Incoloy 908 used in the superconducting coil jackets of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. Time-series calculations of a two-dimensional axisymmetric circuit model with nonlinear ferromagnetic effects enabled us to find appropriate waveforms for the KSTAR poloidal field coil currents that satisfied various start-up requirements, such as the formation and sustainment of field nulls, a sufficient amount of magnetic flux for further plasma current ramp-up, sufficiently large E_t ·B_t/B_⊥ > 1 kV m⁻¹ contours for successful breakdown, plasma current toroidal equilibria, etc. In addition to the aforementioned requirements, the results introduced in this report also provided the positional stability of the plasma current channel against radial as well as vertical perturbations by compensating the field deformation originating from the ferromagnetic effects. With the improved positional stability, robust plasma start-up was achieved during the 2010 KSTAR campaign under various discharge conditions such as the recovery process from plasma disruptions.