Kinetic shear Alfvén instability in the presence of impurity ions in tokamak plasmas

Journal Article · Tue Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4824612· OSTI ID:22218530

Lu, Gaimin; Shen, Y.; Xie, T.; He, Zhixiong; He, Hongda ^[1]; Qi, Longyu ^[2]; Cui, Shaoyan ^[3]

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1. Southwestern Institute of Physics, P. O. Box 432, Chengdu 610041 (China)
2. Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)
3. School of Mathematics and Information, Ludong University, Yantai 264025 (China)

The effects of impurity ions on the kinetic shear Alfvén (KSA) instability in tokamak plasmas are investigated by numerically solving the integral equations for the KSA eigenmode in the toroidal geometry. The kinetic effects of hydrogen and impurity ions, including transit motion, finite ion Larmor radius, and finite-orbit-width, are taken into account. Toroidicity induced linear mode coupling is included through the ballooning-mode representation. Here, the effects of carbon, oxygen, and tungsten ions on the KSA instability in toroidal plasmas are investigated. It is found that, depending on the concentration and density profile of the impurity ions, the latter can be either stabilizing or destabilizing for the KSA modes. The results here confirm the importance of impurity ions in tokamak experiments and should be useful for analyzing experimental data as well as for understanding anomalous transport and control of tokamak plasmas.

• OSTI ID: 22218530
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 20; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALFVEN WAVES
BALLOONING INSTABILITY
CARBON
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
CONCENTRATION RATIO
HYDROGEN
INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
LARMOR RADIUS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
ORBITS
OXYGEN
PLASMA
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA IMPURITIES
SHEAR
TOKAMAK DEVICES