U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Propagation of radio frequency waves through turbulent plasmas
Abstract
The practical and economic viability of tokamak fusion reactors depends, in a significant way, on the efficiency of radio frequency (RF) waves to deliver energy and momentum to the plasma in the core of the reactor. The RF electromagnetic waves, excited by antenna structures placed near the wall of a tokamak, have to propagate through the turbulent edge plasma along their path to the core of the fusion device. In present day experiments, the radial width of the edge region and scrape-off layer is of the order of a few centimeters. In ITER, and in future fusion reactors, this width will be of the order of tens of centimeters. Any effects on RF waves due to plasma turbulence have to be properly understood in order to optimize the delivery of RF energy and momentum into the core. This paper is on a multi-pronged, theoretical and computational, approach that is being pursued to quantify the effect of edge plasma turbulence on the propagation of RF waves. The theoretical and analytical models are based on solutions of the Faraday-Ampere equation in a magnetized plasma and on the Kirchhoff tangent plane approximation. An effective medium approach has been developed so as to approximatemore »
- Authors:
-
- OSTI
- Publication Date:
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-91ER54109; FC02-01ER54648
- Research Org.:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Plasma Science and Fusion Center
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1886850
- DOI:
- https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ETYFES
Citation Formats
Ram, A. K., Hizanidis, K., Bairaktaris, F., Papadopoulos, A., and Valvis, S.-I. Propagation of radio frequency waves through turbulent plasmas. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.7910/DVN/ETYFES.
Ram, A. K., Hizanidis, K., Bairaktaris, F., Papadopoulos, A., & Valvis, S.-I. Propagation of radio frequency waves through turbulent plasmas. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ETYFES
Ram, A. K., Hizanidis, K., Bairaktaris, F., Papadopoulos, A., and Valvis, S.-I. 2021.
"Propagation of radio frequency waves through turbulent plasmas". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ETYFES. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1886850. Pub date:Fri Nov 05 04:00:00 UTC 2021
@article{osti_1886850,
title = {Propagation of radio frequency waves through turbulent plasmas},
author = {Ram, A. K. and Hizanidis, K. and Bairaktaris, F. and Papadopoulos, A. and Valvis, S.-I.},
abstractNote = {The practical and economic viability of tokamak fusion reactors depends, in a significant way, on the efficiency of radio frequency (RF) waves to deliver energy and momentum to the plasma in the core of the reactor. The RF electromagnetic waves, excited by antenna structures placed near the wall of a tokamak, have to propagate through the turbulent edge plasma along their path to the core of the fusion device. In present day experiments, the radial width of the edge region and scrape-off layer is of the order of a few centimeters. In ITER, and in future fusion reactors, this width will be of the order of tens of centimeters. Any effects on RF waves due to plasma turbulence have to be properly understood in order to optimize the delivery of RF energy and momentum into the core. This paper is on a multi-pronged, theoretical and computational, approach that is being pursued to quantify the effect of edge plasma turbulence on the propagation of RF waves. The theoretical and analytical models are based on solutions of the Faraday-Ampere equation in a magnetized plasma and on the Kirchhoff tangent plane approximation. An effective medium approach has been developed so as to approximate the permittivity of a turbulent plasma by analytical expressions. The computations are being carried out with a newly developed code ScaRF that is based on the finite difference finite domain technique for solving Maxwell's equations. The plasma permittivity can be assigned as desired. The code is being used to validate the analytical and theoretical models and to evaluate their limitations.},
doi = {10.7910/DVN/ETYFES},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Nov 05 04:00:00 UTC 2021},
month = {Fri Nov 05 04:00:00 UTC 2021}
}