Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Ponderomotive force driven density modifications parallel to B on the LAPD

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071162· OSTI ID:2567859

The ponderomotive force has previously been identified as a possible driver of observed density modifications close to radio frequency actuators during operation. This nonlinear force redistributes density in regions of gradients in the magnitude of an oscillating electric field and describes the influence of the fast time scale RF wave dynamics on slow time scale plasma transport. Depletion of the saturation current (a proxy for the density) measured at the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) was 30–35% during ion cyclotron range of frequencies operation. A coupled 1D plasma transport and cold plasma frequency domain wave solver was developed to self-consistently describe ponderomotive effects and was used to compare with results obtained from the LAPD experiment. The scaled current density driver for the wave model yielded an RF B field in close agreement with two components of the experimental data. However, the 1D parallel model did not accurately reproduce the amplitude or spatial distribution observed in experimental measurements of By. Within the limitations of the 1D model, initial simulation results showed that the ponderomotive force depleted up to 8% for high power (1 MW) and around 1% for the experimental power of 120 kW. This could suggest that the ponderomotive force is not the main driver of density modification for the LAPD experiments presented in this paper. Higher fidelity tools of at least 2D will be required to give a more realistic description of the RF E fields and the effect of the ponderomotive force on the LAPD.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0018090
OSTI ID:
2567859
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1876313
OSTI ID: 1970614
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 29; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of PhysicsCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (39)

Modifications of the magnetospheric plasma due to ponderomotive forces journal January 1993
The drifts and hydrodynamics of particles in a field with a high-frequency component journal October 1968
Ponderomotive Forces in Cosmos journal October 2006
Observation of ponderomotive and other non-linear effects produced by electrostatic waves in a magnetized low density plasma journal November 1995
Ionospheric erosion by Alfvén waves journal January 2006
Ponderomotive wave forces in longitudinal MHD waveguides journal January 1995
Poloidal force generation by applied radio frequency waves journal September 2000
Nonlinear fluxes and forces from radio-frequency waves with application to driven flows in tokamaks journal May 2004
A radio-frequency sheath boundary condition and its effect on slow wave propagation journal October 2006
Scrape-off layer reflectometer for Alcator C-Mod journal October 2008
Status of the ITER IC H&CD System
  • Lamalle, P. U.; Beaumont, B.; Gassmann, T.
  • RADIO FREQUENCY POWER IN PLASMAS: Proceedings of the 18th Topical Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3273744
conference January 2009
SOL Effects on LH Wave Coupling and Current Drive Performance on Alcator C-Mod
  • Meneghini, O.; Lau, C.; Shiraiwa, S.
  • RADIO FREQUENCY POWER IN PLASMAS: Proceedings of the 19th Topical Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3665004
conference January 2011
Interaction Between ICRH and the Plasma Edge: An Overview conference January 1992
2D modeling of electromagnetic waves in cold plasmas
  • Crombé, K.; Van Eester, D.; Koch, R.
  • RADIOFREQUENCY POWER IN PLASMAS: Proceedings of the 20th Topical Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864552
conference January 2014
LH and ICRF driven scrape-off-layer density modifications and their impact on LH coupling on Alcator C-Mod
  • Lau, C.; Lin, Y.; Hanson, G. R.
  • RADIOFREQUENCY POWER IN PLASMAS: Proceedings of the 20th Topical Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864575
conference January 2014
Progress on ion cyclotron range of frequencies heating physics and technology in support of the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor journal November 2014
Radio frequency sheaths in an oblique magnetic field journal June 2015
A crude model to study radio frequency induced density modification close to launchers journal December 2015
The upgraded Large Plasma Device, a machine for studying frontier basic plasma physics journal February 2016
Coupling of lower-hybrid radiation at the plasma edge journal January 1977
Wave-plasma coupling at the lower hybrid frequency journal January 1979
Ponderomotive force effects on slow-wave coupling journal January 1982
Far field sheaths from waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies journal September 1994
Computation of ponderomotive force in 3D FDTD simulation
  • Smithe, David; Pankin, Alexei; Jenkins, Tom
  • THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE ICBS 2019: “Biodiversity as a Cornerstone for Embracing Future Humanity”, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0013578
conference January 2020
Radiofrequency sheaths and impurity generation by ICRF antennas journal April 1989
Faraday screen sheaths and impurity production during ion cyclotron heating journal May 1990
Assessment of beryllium Faraday screens on the JET ICRF antennas journal July 1992
Analysis of RF sheath interactions in TFTR journal October 1998
Hot spot phenomena on Tore Supra ICRF antennas investigated by optical diagnostics journal December 2002
Nonlinear ICRF-plasma interactions journal June 2006
Experimental characterization and modelling of non-linear coupling of the lower hybrid current drive power on Tore Supra journal January 2013
Nonlinear coupling of the slow wave structure with the lower-hybrid waves near the plasma surface journal June 1980
Impurity release from the ICRF antenna screens in JET journal July 1991
The interaction between waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies and the plasma boundary journal November 1993
Ion cyclotron resonance heating-induced density modification near antennas journal December 2012
Modelling of the ICRF induced E   ×   B convection in the scrape-off-layer of ASDEX Upgrade journal August 2016
Simulation of the ion cyclotron range of frequencies slow wave and the lower hybrid resonance in 3D in RAPLICASOL journal October 2019
Experimental Observation of Convective Cell Formation due to a Fast Wave Antenna in the Large Plasma Device journal November 2017
Localized Fields and Density Perturbations Due to Self-Focusing of Nonlinear Lower-Hybrid Waves journal December 1975

Similar Records

RF-transpond: A 1D coupled cold plasma wave and plasma transport model for ponderomotive force driven density modification parallel to B
Journal Article · Tue Jan 18 19:00:00 EST 2022 · Computer Physics Communications · OSTI ID:1845764