Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the I-mode high confinement regime and comparisons with experimenta)

White, A. E.; Howard, N. T.; Creely, A. J.; Chilenski, M. A.; Greenwald, M.; Hubbard, A. E.; Hughes, J. W.; Marmar, E.; Rice, J. E.; Sierchio, J. M.; Sung, C.; Walk, J. R.; Whyte, D. G.; Mikkelsen, D. R.; Edlund, E. M.; Kung, C.; Holland, C.; Candy, J.; Petty, C. C.; Reinke, M. L.; Theiler, C.

doi:10.1063/1.4921150

Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the I-mode high confinement regime and comparisons with experimenta)

Journal Article · Thu May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921150· OSTI ID:1547007

White, A. E. ^[1]; Howard, N. T. ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Hubbard, A. E. ^[2]; ^[2]; Marmar, E. ^[2]; Rice, J. E. ^[2]; Sierchio, J. M. ^[2]; Sung, C. ^[2]; Walk, J. R. ^[2]; Whyte, D. G. ^[2]; ^[3]; Edlund, E. M. ^[3]; Kung, C. ^[3]; Holland, C. ^[4]; Candy, J. ^[5]; Petty, C. C. ^[5]; Reinke, M. L. ^[6] more »

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
York Univ. (United Kingdom)
Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (Switzlerland)

For the first time, nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of I-mode plasmas are performed and compared with experiment. I-mode is a high confinement regime, featuring energy confinement similar to H-mode, but without enhanced particle and impurity particle confinement [D. G. Whyte et al., Nucl. Fusion 50, 105005 (2010)]. As a consequence of the separation between heat and particle transport, I-mode exhibits several favorable characteristics compared to H-mode. The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GYRO [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] is used to explore the effects of E × B shear and profile stiffness in I-mode and compare with L-mode. The nonlinear GYRO simulations show that I-mode core ion temperature and electron temperature profiles are more stiff than L-mode core plasmas. Scans of the input E × B shear in GYRO simulations show that E × B shearing of turbulence is a stronger effect in the core of I-mode than L-mode. The nonlinear simulations match the recorded reductions in long wavelength density fluctuation levels across the L-I transition but underestimate the reduction of long wavelength electron temperature fluctuation levels. The comparisons between experiment and gyrokinetic simulations for I-mode indicate that increased E × B shearing of turbulence combined with increased profile stiffness are responsible for the reductions in core turbulence observed in the experiment, and that I-mode resembles H-mode plasmas more than L-mode plasmas with regards to marginal stability and temperature profile stiffness.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)

Grant/Contract Number:: FC02-99ER54512

OSTI ID:: 1547007

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1228229
OSTI ID: 22410389

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 22; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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