EPFL Physics Thesis Distinction to Anna Teplukhina
© 2018 SPC
Anna Theplukhina recently received the EPFL Physics Thesis Distinction for her thesis on 'Realistic multi-machine tokamak profile simulations and numerical ramp-down optimization using the RAPTOR code'.
The selection committee of the Physics Doctoral School awarded the EPFL Physics Thesis Distinction to Anna Teplukhina for her thesis performed under the guidance of Dr Olivier Sauter.
In her thesis, Anna presents how she extended the RAPTOR code by including the influence of varying plasma geometries, in order to simulate the evolution of plasma profiles during the plasma termination and its associated changes in plasma shape. She also interfaced and tested her simulations with the ASDEX Upgrade (Germany), JET (England) and TCV (Lausanne) tokamaks and applied them to predict ITER cases. She then compared her results to more sophisticated codes that require much longer calculation time and concluded that RAPTOR can be reliably used to predict the plasma state all the way through the discharge, for any tokamak. She used the code to optimise the plasma termination, to have the fastest plasma current ramp-down while avoiding disruptions. She tested the optimized trajectory experimentally on TCV and obtained a safe fast termination as predicted.
RAPTOR stands for RApid Plasma Transport SimulatOR and consists of a 1D tokamak transport code specially designed for rapid execution compatible with needs for optimizing plasma evolution as done by Anna or for real-time execution in the frame of plasma profile control.
The EPFL Physics Thesis Distinction is given to the best 8% doctoral theses within the EPFL Doctoral Program in Physics (EDPY). This prize recognizes the PhD students who have distinguished themselves by a research of the highest quality in physical sciences.