Turbulence regulation by stochastic zonal flows in dynamical models
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH (United Kingdom)
A theory of turbulence reduction by zonal flows is presented in the interchange turbulence model. Zonal flows with a finite correlation time {tau}{sub ZF} are shown to lead to a significant reduction in particle transport and turbulence amplitude, with the scalings {upsilon}{sub x}{proportional_to}{tau}{sub D}{omega}{sub eff}{sup -1}{proportional_to}{omega}{sub eff}{sup -3/2}, n{sup 2}{proportional_to}{tau}{sub D}{proportional_to}{omega}{sub eff}{sup -1/2}, and {upsilon}{sub x}{sup 2}{proportional_to}{tau}{sub D}{omega}{sub eff}{sup -2}{proportional_to}{omega}{sub eff}{sup -5/2}. Here, {omega}{sub eff}={tau}{sub ZF}{omega}{sub rms}{sup 2}, {tau}{sub D}=({tau}{sub {eta}}/{omega}{sub eff}){sup 1/2}, and {tau}{sub {eta}} are the effective shearing rate, effective decorrelation time, and diffusive turbulent scattering time, respectively. Compared to the transport of passive scalar fields [E. Kim and P. H. Diamond, Phys. Plasmas, 11, L77 (2004)], the reduction is much more severe due to the suppression of turbulent velocity. However, the overall transport and turbulence amplitude are still larger compared with the case of coherent shearing because shearing by random zonal flows with a finite correlation time is less efficient, with a longer decorrelation time {tau}{sub D} than ({tau}{sub {eta}}/{omega}{sup 2}){sup 1/3} in the case of coherent shearing.
- OSTI ID:
- 20764502
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2034287; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Theory of turbulence regulation by oscillatory zonal flows
A generic model for transport in turbulent shear flows