A method for calculating active feedback system to provide vertical position control of plasma in a tokamak

In designing tokamaks, the maintenance of vertical stability of plasma is one of the most important problems. Systems of the passive and active feedbacks are applied for this purpose. Role of the passive system consisting of a vacuum vessel and passive coils is to suppress fast MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) instabilities. The active feedback system is applied to control slow motions of plasma. The objective of the paper is to investigate two successive problems, solution of which allows to determine the possibility of controlling plasm a motions. One of these is the problem of vertical stability under the assumption of ideal conductivity of plasma and passive stabilizing elements. The problem is solved analytically and on the basis of the obtained solution a criterion of MHD-stability is formulated. The other problem is connected with the control of plasma vertical position with active feedback system. Calculation of feedback control parameters is formulated as an optimization problem and an approximate method to solve the problem is suggested. Numerical simulations are performed with parameters of the T-15M tokamak in order to justify the suggested method.