Kinetic Effects on the Stability Properties of Field-reversed Configurations: I. Linear Stability

Technical Report · Tue Jan 28 04:00:00 EST 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/811955· OSTI ID:811955

Belova, Elena V ^[1]; Davidson, Ronald C; Ji, Hantao; Yamada, Masaaki

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

New computational results are presented which advance the understanding of the stability properties of the Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC). We present results of hybrid and two-fluid (Hall-MHD) simulations of prolate FRCs. The n = 1 tilt instability mechanism and growth rate reduction mechanisms are investigated in detail including resonant particle effects, finite Larmor radius and Hall stabilization, and profile effects. It is shown that the Hall effect determines the mode rotation and the change in the linear mode structure in the kinetic regime; however, the reduction in the growth rate is mostly due to finite Larmor radius effects. Resonant wave-particle interactions are studied as a function of (a) elongation, (b) the kinetic parameter S*, which is proportional to the ratio of the separatrix radius to the thermal ion Larmor radius, and (c) the separatrix shape. It is demonstrated that, contrary to the usually assumed stochasticity of the ion orbits in the FRC, a large fraction of the orbits are regular in long configurations when S* is small. A stochasticity condition is found, and a scaling with the S* parameter is presented. Resonant particle effects are shown to maintain the instability in the large gyroradius regime regardless of the separatrix shape.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab., NJ (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 811955
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3773
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ELONGATION
FIELD REVERSED CONFIGURATIONS
FIELD-REVERSED THETA PINCH DEVICES
HALL EFFECT
INSTABILITY
KINETICS
LARMOR RADIUS
NUMERICAL SIMULATION
ROTATION
SHAPE
STABILITY
STABILITY
IDEAL HYDROMAGNETIC
STABILIZATION