Two-fluid and finite Larmor radius effects on helicity evolution in a plasma pinch

Sauppe, J. P.; Sovinec, C. R.

doi:10.1063/1.4942761

Title: Two-fluid and finite Larmor radius effects on helicity evolution in a plasma pinch

Journal Article · Thu Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4942761· OSTI ID:1461731

Sauppe, J. P. ^[1]; Sovinec, C. R. ^[2]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Center for Plasma Theory and Computation and Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Center for Plasma Theory and Dept. of Engineering-Physics

In this, the evolution of magnetic energy, helicity, and hybrid helicity during nonlinear relaxation of a driven-damped plasma pinch is compared in visco-resistive magnetohydrodynamics and two-fluid models with and without the ion gyroviscous stress tensor. Magnetic energy and helicity are supplied via a boundary electric field which initially balances the resistive dissipation, and the plasma undergoes multiple relaxation events during the nonlinear evolution. The magnetic helicity is well conserved relative to the magnetic energy over each event, which is short compared with the global resistive diffusion time. The magnetic energy decreases by roughly 1.5% of its initial value over a relaxation event, while the magnetic helicity changes by at most 0.2% of the initial value. The hybrid helicity is dominated by magnetic helicity in low-β pinch conditions and is also well conserved. Differences of less than 1% between magnetic helicity and hybrid helicity are observed with two-fluid modeling and result from cross helicity evolution. The cross helicity is found to change appreciably due to the first-order finite Larmor radius effects which have not been included in contemporary relaxation theories. The plasma current evolves towards the flat parallel current state predicted by Taylor relaxation theory but does not achieve it. Plasma flow develops significant structure for two-fluid models, and the flow perpendicular to the magnetic field is much more substantial than the flow along it.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-06ER54850; PHY-0821899; AC02-05CH1123

OSTI ID:: 1461731

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1240201

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 3; ISSN 1070-664X

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 6 works

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Title: Two-fluid and finite Larmor radius effects on helicity evolution in a plasma pinch

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