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Title: Gyrokinetic Studies of Turbulence in Steep Gradient Region: Role of Turbulence Spreading and E x B Shear

Abstract

An integrated program of gyrokinetic particle simulation and theory has been developed to investigate several outstanding issues in both turbulence and neoclassical physics. Gyrokinetic particle simulations of toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence spreading using the GTC code and its related dynamical model have been extended to the case with radially increasing ion temperature gradient, to study the inward spreading of edge turbulence toward the core. Due to turbulence spreading from the edge, the turbulence intensity in the core region is significantly enhanced over the value obtained from simulations of the core region only. Even when the core gradient is within the Dimits shift regime (i.e., self-generated zonal flows reduce the transport to a negligible value), a significant level of turbulence and transport is observed in the core due to spreading from the edge. The scaling of the turbulent front propagation speed is closer to the prediction from our nonlinear diffusion model than one based on linear toroidal coupling. A calculation of ion poloidal rotation in the presence of sharp density and toroidal angular rotation frequency gradients from the GTC-Neo particle simulation code shows that the results are significantly different from the conventional neoclassical theory predictions. An energy conserving setmore » of a fully electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic Vlasov equation and Maxwell's equations, which is applicable to edge turbulence, is being derived via the phase-space action variational Lie perturbation method. Our generalized ordering takes the ion poloidal gyroradius to be on the order of the radial electric field gradient length.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab., Princeton, NJ (US)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
OSTI Identifier:
836572
Report Number(s):
PPPL-4037
TRN: US0500637
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH03073
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 21 Dec 2004
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION; DIFFUSION; ELECTRIC FIELDS; FORECASTING; ION TEMPERATURE; PHASE SPACE; PHYSICS; ROTATION; SHEAR; SIMULATION; TRANSPORT; TURBULENCE; VELOCITY; GYROKINETIC EQUATIONS; H-MODE PLASMA CONFINEMENT

Citation Formats

T.S. Hahm, Z. Lin, P.H. Diamond, G. Rewoldt, W.X. Wang, S. Ethier, O. Gurcan, W.W. Lee, and W.M. Tang. Gyrokinetic Studies of Turbulence in Steep Gradient Region: Role of Turbulence Spreading and E x B Shear. United States: N. p., 2004. Web. doi:10.2172/836572.
T.S. Hahm, Z. Lin, P.H. Diamond, G. Rewoldt, W.X. Wang, S. Ethier, O. Gurcan, W.W. Lee, & W.M. Tang. Gyrokinetic Studies of Turbulence in Steep Gradient Region: Role of Turbulence Spreading and E x B Shear. United States. doi:10.2172/836572.
T.S. Hahm, Z. Lin, P.H. Diamond, G. Rewoldt, W.X. Wang, S. Ethier, O. Gurcan, W.W. Lee, and W.M. Tang. Tue . "Gyrokinetic Studies of Turbulence in Steep Gradient Region: Role of Turbulence Spreading and E x B Shear". United States. doi:10.2172/836572. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/836572.
@article{osti_836572,
title = {Gyrokinetic Studies of Turbulence in Steep Gradient Region: Role of Turbulence Spreading and E x B Shear},
author = {T.S. Hahm and Z. Lin and P.H. Diamond and G. Rewoldt and W.X. Wang and S. Ethier and O. Gurcan and W.W. Lee and W.M. Tang},
abstractNote = {An integrated program of gyrokinetic particle simulation and theory has been developed to investigate several outstanding issues in both turbulence and neoclassical physics. Gyrokinetic particle simulations of toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence spreading using the GTC code and its related dynamical model have been extended to the case with radially increasing ion temperature gradient, to study the inward spreading of edge turbulence toward the core. Due to turbulence spreading from the edge, the turbulence intensity in the core region is significantly enhanced over the value obtained from simulations of the core region only. Even when the core gradient is within the Dimits shift regime (i.e., self-generated zonal flows reduce the transport to a negligible value), a significant level of turbulence and transport is observed in the core due to spreading from the edge. The scaling of the turbulent front propagation speed is closer to the prediction from our nonlinear diffusion model than one based on linear toroidal coupling. A calculation of ion poloidal rotation in the presence of sharp density and toroidal angular rotation frequency gradients from the GTC-Neo particle simulation code shows that the results are significantly different from the conventional neoclassical theory predictions. An energy conserving set of a fully electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic Vlasov equation and Maxwell's equations, which is applicable to edge turbulence, is being derived via the phase-space action variational Lie perturbation method. Our generalized ordering takes the ion poloidal gyroradius to be on the order of the radial electric field gradient length.},
doi = {10.2172/836572},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2004},
month = {Tue Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2004}
}

Technical Report:

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  • This paper reports: (1) substantial transport reduction by turbulence-driven E x B flows observed in 3D nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of microturbulence in magnetically-confined toroidal plasmas; (2) analytical derivation of the effective shearing rate for the time-dependent E x B flow; (3) interpretation of experimental data using linear gyrokinetic microinstability rotation models of E x B shear; and (4) other developments in gyrokinetic theory and simulation.
  • The authors calculate microinstability growth rates in JET optimized shear plasmas with a comprehensive gyrofluid model, including sheared E x B flows, trapped electrons, and all dominant ion species in realistic magnetic geometry. They find good correlation between E x B shear suppression of microinstabilities and both the formation and collapse of the internal transport barrier.
  • Experiments have been conducted on NSTX to study both steady state and perturbative mo mentum transport. These studies are unique in their parameter space under investigation, where the low aspect ratio of NSTX results in rapid plasma rotation with E x B shearing rates high enough to suppress low-k turbulence. In some cases, the ratio of momentum to energy confinement time is found to exceed five. Momentum pinch velocities of order 10-40 m/s are inferred from the measured angular momentum flux evolution after non-resonant magnetic perturbations are applied to brake the plasma.
  • Data from several current tokamak experiments indicate that the equilibrium perpendicular velocity field can become strongly sheared accompanying the transition from the L mode to the H mode, i.e. improved, confinement, and that fluctuation levels are reduced. Linear theory suggests that velocity shear can stabilize ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) modes when the frequency shift experienced by the mode due to the radial dependence of the Doppler shift is comparable to the growth rate. To confirm the predictions of linear theory and to explore nonlinear issues, e.g., self-generated shear flows, saturation amplitudes, and the concomitant energy transport levels, two- and three-dimensional gyrokinetic simulationsmore » of ITG modes have been performed. The simulations were done with and without magnetic shear in a slab configuration using the partially linearized ([delta][ital f]) algorithm to reduce statistical noise. The simulations confirm theoretical analyses of the stabilizing and destabilizing effects of imposed perpendicular velocity fields. The ion energy transport levels at saturation follow the trends of the linear growth rates and the mixing-length estimates. The gyrokinetic simulations are in qualitative agreement with the results of gyrofluid simulations, and exhibit saturation amplitudes and energy transport similar to those in gyrofluid simulations. These transport levels are generally lower than those typically reported in the laboratory experiments; including toroidal driving terms significantly increases the transport levels in the simulations.« less
  • Results from a fully nonlinear three dimensional toroidal electrostatic gyrokinetic simulation of the ion temperature gradient instability are presented. The model has fully gyro-averaged ion dynamics, including trapped particles, and adiabatic electrons. Simulations of large tokamak plasma volumes are made possible due to recent advances in [delta]f methods and massively parallel computing. Linearly, a coherent ballooning eigenmode is observed, where the mode is radially elongated. In the turbulent steady-state, the spectrum peaks around k[theta] [rho][sub s] [approximately] 0.1 with the ballooning structure reduced, but still prevalent.