Plasma q-profile control in tokamaks using a damping assignment passivity-based approach

•The IDA-PBC method is applied to the plasma dynamics in the tokamaks.•Two diffusion equations are coupled to described the complex plant.•A control strategy is underlined: a steady state and stationary control are necessary.•A particular choice of designed control parameters is proposed.•The developed controllers obtained satisfactory results from simulation and experiments.

The IDA-PBC based on PCH model for tokamak q-profile is investigated. Two scenarios are carried out. The first one is the resistive diffusion model for the magnetic poloidal flux. The second one is extended with the thermal diffusion. A feedforward control is used to ensure the compatibility with the actuator physical ability. An IDA-PBC feedback is proposed to improve the system stabilization and convergence speed. The controllers are validated in the simulation using RAPTOR code and tested in TCV, the result is analyzed and the followed discussion proposed the required improvement for the next experiments.