A two-nonlinearity model of dissipative drift wave turbulence

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

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.860903· OSTI ID:6695076

Liang, Y; Diamond, P H; Wang, X ^[1]; Newman, D E; Terry, P W ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, California 92093 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

A simple, one-field, two-nonlinearity, drift wave model equation is derived to describe the dynamics of a nonuniform magnetized plasma by taking into account the effects of dissipative trapped electron response in the turbulence dynamics. Because of the nonadiabatic response of trapped electrons, mode couplings by both the [bold E][times][bold B] drift and the polarization drift nonlinearities are present. In this work, the statistical dynamics for this dissipative drift wave turbulence is investigated using the EDQNM (eddy-damped quasinormal Markovian) closure scheme. In particular, apart from the eddy viscosity, a large nonlinear frequency shift is shown to be induced by cross coupling of the two nonlinearities. Thus instability drive is modified by this turbulent back reaction. By taking into account this self-consistency effect, a wave kinetic equation is derived, and the density fluctuation spectrum is obtained in different parameter ranges. The results show that the dynamics of dissipative drift wave turbulence is fundamentally different from that of the familiar Hasegawa--Mima model, because [bold E][times][bold B] drift nonlinearity blocks the low-[ital k] condensation of fluctuation energy. It is shown that both the [bold E][times][bold B] drift nonlinearity and the nonlinear frequency shift effect transfer energy nonlocally from large to small scales and, in contrast to the predictions of dimensional analysis, their contribution to the nonlinear transfer processes are actually of the same order as that of the polarization drift nonlinearity, [ital even] within the Hasegawa--Mima regime. This results in a significant modification of the Hasegawa--Mima spectrum for the short-wavelength drift waves.

• DOE Contract Number: FG03-88ER53275; FG02-89ER53291
• OSTI ID: 6695076
• Journal Information: Physics of Fluids B; (United States), Vol. 5:4; ISSN 0899-8221
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
TURBULENCE
KINETIC EQUATIONS
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA DRIFT
TOKAMAK DEVICES
TRAPPED ELECTRONS
VISCOSITY
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
CONFINEMENT
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
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