Magnetohydrodynamic clump instability

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:6007146

Tetreault, D J

The theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) clump instability in current-driven plasma is presented. MHD clump fluctuations are current-carrying bundles of correlated magnetic field lines. The instability occurs when turbulent mixing of the mean current density at island overlap produces clumps at a rate faster than their decay as a result of magnetic-field-line stochasticity. The renormalized dynamical equation describing MHD clump instability is derived from one-fluid MHD equations and conserves the dynamical invariants of the exact equations. The renormalized equation is a nonlinear, turbulent version of the Newcomb equation of linear MHD stability theory and can be cast into the form of a nonlinear MHD energy principle. MHD clump instability is a dynamical route to the Taylor state.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
• OSTI ID: 6007146
• Report Number(s): AD-A-204903/9/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
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700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
CURRENT DENSITY
CURRENT-DRIVE HEATING
DYNAMICS
ELECTRIC HEATING
EQUILIBRIUM
FLUID FLOW
HEATING
INSTABILITY
JOULE HEATING
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MECHANICS
MHD EQUILIBRIUM
MIXING
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA INSTABILITY
RESISTANCE HEATING
TURBULENT FLOW