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

Experimental study of the shear Alfven resonance in a tokamak

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5539737

Studies of a new rf heating technique in tokamaks, Shear Alfven Resonance Heating, have been performed on the Tokapole II tokamak at the University of Wisconsin. High power heating experiments have been preceded by careful identification of the resonance and its properties at low power. Experiments on the Tokapole II device have demonstrated the existence of the shear Alfven resonance in a tokamak by direct probe measurement of the wave magnetic field within the plasma. The resonance is experimentally identified as a radially localized enhancement of the poloidal wave magnetic field. The radial location of the resonance agrees with a 2-D MHD calculation which includes toroidicity and non-circularity of the plasma cross-section. Other properties of the resonance such as polarization, radial width, risetime to saturation, and resonant enhancement over the driving vacuum rf fields are found to be in good agreement with theory. The resonances are driven by a novel launching structure which utilizes the four existing poloidal divertor rings within the vacuum vessel of Tokapole II.

Research Organization:
Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76ET53051
OSTI ID:
5539737
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/53051-78; ON: DE85014863
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English