M3D-K simulations of sawteeth and energetic particle transport in tokamak plasmas

Journal Article · Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896341· OSTI ID:22303436

Shen, Wei; Sheng, Zheng-Mao ^[1]; Fu, G. Y.; Breslau, J. A. ^[2]; Wang, Feng ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)
2. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)
3. School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 (China)

Nonlinear simulations of sawteeth and related energetic particle transport are carried out using the kinetic/magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) hybrid code M3D-K. MHD simulations show repeated sawtooth cycles for a model tokamak equilibrium. Furthermore, test particle simulations are carried out to study the energetic particle transport due to a sawtooth crash. The results show that energetic particles are redistributed radially in the plasma core, depending on pitch angle and energy. For trapped particles, the redistribution occurs for particle energy below a critical value in agreement with existing theories. For co-passing particles, the redistribution is strong with little dependence on particle energy. In contrast, the redistribution level of counter-passing particles decreases with increasing particle energy.

• OSTI ID: 22303436
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
EQUILIBRIUM
INCLINATION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
SAWTOOTH OSCILLATIONS
SIMULATION
TEST PARTICLES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
TRAPPING