Experimental study of the Shear Alfven resonance in a tokamak

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5726898

Witherspoon, F D

Studies of a new RF heating technique in tokamaks, Shear Alfven Resonance Heating, were performed on the Tokapole II tokamak at the University of Wisconsin. High power heating experiments were preceded by careful identification of the resonance and its properties at low power. According to MHD theory, the shear Alfven resonance manifests itself as a resonant enhancement of the wave magnetic field perpendicular to the equilibrium field at the location in the nonuniform plasma where the frequency and parallel wavelength match the Alfven speed. Experiments on the Tokapole II device 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.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5726898
• 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
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
FLUID MECHANICS
HEATING
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
INTERNAL RING DEVICES
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MECHANICS
PLASMA HEATING
RESONANCE
SHEAR
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
TOKAPOLE DEVICES