Edge convection driven by externally applied potentials

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.874195· OSTI ID:20217081

D'Ippolito, D A ^[1]; Myra, J R ^[1]

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1. Lodestar Research Corporation, 2400 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301 (United States)

A theoretical model of convection in collisional tokamak edge and scrape-off-layer plasmas is described. In the linear theory, any mechanism for poloidal and toroidal symmetry breaking of the equilibrium will drive ExB flows; this result stems from the parallel thermal and pressure forces in Ohm's law. In the nonlinear theory, the quadratic coupling of the perturbations leads to quasilinear-type fluxes in the vorticity, density, and temperature equations. If the convection is strong enough, these fluxes lead to an ambipolarity constraint on the equilibrium electric field and to increased transport of particles and energy. The theory shows qualitative agreement with some tokamak experiments in which potential perturbations are externally driven by radio frequency antennas. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

• OSTI ID: 20217081
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 8; Other Information: PBD: Aug 2000; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT THEORY
CONVECTION
TOKAMAK DEVICES
PLASMA FLUID EQUATIONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
VORTEX FLOW
VORTICES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
THEORETICAL DATA
PLASMA SCRAPE-OFF LAYER