Modeling fast-ion transport during toroidal Alfven eigenmode avalanches in National Spherical Torus Experiment

Journal Article · Mon Dec 14 23:00:00 EST 2009 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3265965· OSTI ID:21371247

Fredrickson, E D; Bell, R E; Darrow, D S; Gorelenkov, N N; Kramer, G J; Medley, S S; White, R B ^[1]; Crocker, N A; Kubota, S ^[2]; Levinton, F M; Yuh, H ^[3]; Liu, D; Podesta, M ^[4]; Tritz, K ^[5]

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)
2. University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
3. Nova Photonics, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)
4. University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)
5. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21287 (United States)

Experiments on the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)] found strong bursts of toroidal Alfven eigenmode (TAE) activity correlated with abrupt drops in the neutron rate. A fairly complete data set offers the opportunity to benchmark the NOVA[C. Z. Cheng, Phys. Rep. 211, 1 (1992)] and ORBIT[R. B. White and M. S. Chance, Phys. Fluids 27, 2455 (1984)] codes in the low aspect ratio tokamak (ST) geometry. The internal structure of TAE was modeled with NOVA and good agreement is found with measurements made with an array of five fixed-frequency reflectometers. The fast-ion transport resulting from these bursts of multiple TAE was then modeled with the ORBIT code. The simulations are reasonably consistent with the observed drop in neutron rate, however, further refinements in both the simulation of the TAE structure and in the modeling of the fast-ion transport are needed. Benchmarking stability codes against present experiments is an important step in developing the predictive capability needed to plan future experiments.

• OSTI ID: 21371247
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 16; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
BARYONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
IONS
NEUTRONS
NSTX DEVICE
NUCLEONS
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SIMULATION
SPHEROMAK DEVICES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES