Validation of nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of L- and I-mode plasmas on Alcator C-Mod

Creely, A. J.; Howard, N. T.; Rodriguez-Fernandez, P.; Cao, N.; Hubbard, A. E.; Hughes, J. W.; Rice, J. E.; White, A. E.; Candy, J.; Staebler, G. M.; Conway, G. D.; Freethy, S. J.; Sung, C.

doi:10.1063/1.4977466

Title: Validation of nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of L- and I-mode plasmas on Alcator C-Mod

Journal Article · Thu Mar 02 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4977466· OSTI ID:1348024

^[1]; Howard, N. T. ^[1]; Rodriguez-Fernandez, P. ^[1]; Cao, N. ^[1]; Hubbard, A. E. ^[1];

^[1]; Rice, J. E. ^[1]; White, A. E. ^[1];

^[2]; Staebler, G. M. ^[2]; Conway, G. D. ^[3]; Freethy, S. J. ^[3]; Sung, C. ^[4]

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
General Atomics, San Diego, California 92186, USA
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, Germany
University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 92093, USA

New validation of global, nonlinear, ion-scale gyrokinetic simulations (GYRO) is carried out for L- and I-mode plasmas on Alcator C-Mod, utilizing heat fluxes, profile stiffness, and temperature fluctuations. Previous work at C-Mod found that ITG/TEM-scale GYRO simulations can match both electron and ion heat fluxes within error bars in I-mode [White PoP 2015], suggesting that multi-scale (cross-scale coupling) effects [Howard PoP 2016] may be less important in I-mode than in L-mode. New results presented here, however, show that global, nonlinear, ion-scale GYRO simulations are able to match the experimental ion heat flux, but underpredict electron heat flux (at most radii), electron temperature fluctuations, and perturbative thermal diffusivity in both L- and I-mode. Linear addition of electron heat flux from electron scale runs does not resolve this discrepancy. These results indicate that single-scale simulations do not sufficiently describe the I-mode core transport, and that multi-scale (coupled electron- and ion-scale) transport models are needed. In conclusion a preliminary investigation with multi-scale TGLF, however, was unable to resolve the discrepancy between ion-scale GYRO and experimental electron heat fluxes and perturbative diffusivity, motivating further work with multi-scale GYRO simulations and a more comprehensive study with multi-scale TGLF.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0006419; FC02-99ER54512; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1348024

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1349367; OSTI ID: 1430264

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Vol. 24 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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