Stability of the toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmode in axisymmetric toroidal equilibria

Journal Article · Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Physics of Fluids B; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.860572· OSTI ID:6072098

Fu, G Y; Cheng, C Z; Wong, K L ^[1]

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

The stability of toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmodes (TAE) is investigated in general tokamak equilibria with finite aspect ratio and finite plasma beta. The finite orbit width of the hot particles and the collisional damping of the trapped electrons are included. For the trapped hot particles, the finite orbit width is found to be stabilizing. For the circulating hot particles, the finite orbit width effect is stabilizing for larger values of [ital v][sub [ital h]]/[ital v][sub A] ([gt]1) and destabilizing for smaller values of [ital v][sub [ital h]]/[ital v][sub A] ([lt]1), where [ital v][sub [ital h]] is the hot particle speed and [ital v][sub A] is the Alfven speed. The collisional damping of the trapped electrons is found to have a much weaker dependence on the collision frequency than the previous analytic results. The contribution of the curvature term to the trapped electron collisional damping is negligible compared to that of the parallel electric field term for typical parameters. The calculated critical hot particle beta values for the TAE instability are consistent with the experimental measurements.

• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 6072098
• Journal Information: Physics of Fluids B; (United States), Vol. 5:11; ISSN 0899-8221
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
TOKAMAK DEVICES
ALFVEN WAVES
STABILITY
HOT PLASMA
KINETIC EQUATIONS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MHD EQUILIBRIUM
PLASMA DRIFT
TRAPPED ELECTRONS
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
EQUILIBRIUM
FERMIONS
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
LEPTONS
MECHANICS
PLASMA
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
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