Supplementary heating of fusion plasmas by means of Alfven waves

Technical Report · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5198951· OSTI ID:5198951

Tataronis, J A; Grossmann, W

A comprehensive treatment of the theory of rf energy absorption in inhomogeneous plasmas by means of Alfven waves is presented. A straight cylindrical plasma column whose motion is governed by linearized ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is assumed to be surrounded by a vacuum region in which an ideal coil consisting of surface currents is placed. The coil is oscillated at frequencies which lie in the MHD continuous spectrum of local Alfven frequencies of the inhomogeneous plasma leading to the occurrence of local Alfven resonances. A rigorous self-consistent analysis of the resulting resonant energy absorption is presented along with calculations relevant to present and future fusion devices. Specifically, the experimentally useful coil impedance is calculated for a plasma-vacuum-coil-wall system with realistic nonuniform plasma profiles corresponding to present day Tokamak and Scyllac devices. Impressively large coupling and absorption is indicated for such devices independent of the value of total plasma ..beta... Significant differences occur however for variations in the spatial plasma profiles. Consequently accurate scaling estimates of Alfven wave absorption are not possible without solving the complete nonuniform problem.

• Research Organization: New York Univ., N.Y. (USA). Courant Inst. of Mathematical Sciences
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-02-3077
• OSTI ID: 5198951
• Report Number(s): COO-3077-102
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
ALFVEN WAVES
BETA RATIO
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
FLUID MECHANICS
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
INHOMOGENEOUS PLASMA
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MECHANICS
PINCH DEVICES
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
SCYLLAC DEVICES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
TOKAMAK TYPE REACTORS
TOROIDAL PINCH DEVICES
TOROIDAL THETA PINCH DEVICES