Stationary advanced scenarios with internal transport barrier on ASDEX Upgrade

Steady-state discharges with improved core confinement and II-mode edge with edge localized modes (ELMs) are investigated. In plasmas with an upper triangularity SLOP close to zero an H-factor of HITER89-P = 2.7 and beta N = 2.2 could be maintained for 1 s and HITER89-P = 2.4 and beta N = 2.0 for 6 s, the latter corresponding to 40 confinement times 21/2 resistive time scales for current redistribution, only limited by the duration of the possible discharge length. At a line averaged density of 4 x 10(19) m(-3) the central temperatures reach values of T-i = 10 keV and T-e = 6.5 keV. The stationarity of the current profile is explained by magnetic reconnection driven by strong (m = 1, n = 1) fishbones, which, in the absence of sawteeth, also expel energy and impurities. Further increasing the pressure, beta is limited by neoclassical tearing modes. Raising the density by edge gas fuelling and the simultaneous increase of the neutral beam power, HITER89-P remained unchanged up to (n) over bar(e) = 5.5 x 10(19) m(-3), accompanied by a substantial reduction of Z(eff). Increasing delta(top) to 0.2, both confinement and beta-limit improved reaching values of HITER89-P = 3.0 and beta N = 2.4 at densities above (n) over bar(e) = 5 x 10(19) m(-3). This resulted in the highest fusion product of n(D),Ti-0,(0)tau(E) = 0.9 x 10(20) keV m(-3) so far observed in ASDEX Upgrade.