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RMP-Flutter-Induced Pedestal Plasma Transport

Abstract

Full text: Plasma toroidal rotation can prevent or limit reconnection of externally applied resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) fields {delta}B on rational magnetic flux surfaces. Hence, it causes the induced radial perturbations to vanish or be small there, and thereby inhibits magnetic island formation and stochasticity in the edge of high (H-mode) confinement tokamak plasmas. However, the radial component of the spatial magnetic flutter induced by RMP fields off rational surfaces causes a radial electron thermal diffusivity of (1/2)({delta}B{sub p}/B){sup 2} times a magnetic-shear-influenced effective parallel electron thermal diffusivity. The resultant RMP-flutter-induced electron thermal diffusivity can be comparable to experimentally inferred values at the top of H-mode pedestals. This process also causes a factor of about 3 smaller RMP-induced electron density diffusivity there. Because this electron density transport is non-ambipolar, it produces a toroidal torque on the plasma, which is usually in the co-current direction. Kinetic-based cylindrical screw-pinch and toroidal models of these RMP-flutter-induced plasma transport effects have been developed. The RMP-induced increases in these diffusive plasma transport processes are typically spatially inhomogeneous in that they are strongly peaked near the rational surfaces in low collisionality pedestals, which may lead to resonant sensitivities to the local safety factor q. The effects  More>>
Authors:
Callen, J. D.; Hegna, C., E-mail: callen@engr.wisc.edu; [1]  Cole, A. J. [2] 
  1. University of Wisconsin, Madison (United States)
  2. Columbia University, New York (United States)
Publication Date:
Sep 15, 2012
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
IAEA-CN-197; TH/P4-20
Resource Relation:
Conference: FEC 2012: 24. IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, San Diego, CA (United States), 8-13 Oct 2012; Related Information: In: 24. IAEA Fusion Energy Conference. Programme and Book of Abstracts| 789 p.
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; BALLOONING INSTABILITY; DISTURBANCES; EDGE LOCALIZED MODES; ELECTRIC FIELDS; ELECTRON DENSITY; ELECTRON TEMPERATURE; H-MODE PLASMA CONFINEMENT; MAGNETIC FLUX; MAGNETIC ISLANDS; MODE RATIONAL SURFACES; PERTURBATION THEORY; PLASMA; SAFETY; SCREW PINCH; SENSITIVITY; SURFACES; THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY; TOKAMAK DEVICES; TORQUE
OSTI ID:
22140523
Research Organizations:
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
Country of Origin:
IAEA
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
TRN: XA13S0427095075
Availability:
Available from INIS in electronic form. Also available on-line: http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Meetings/PDFplus/2012/cn197/cn197_Programme.pdf
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 367
Announcement Date:
Oct 17, 2013

Citation Formats

Callen, J. D., Hegna, C., E-mail: callen@engr.wisc.edu, and Cole, A. J. RMP-Flutter-Induced Pedestal Plasma Transport. IAEA: N. p., 2012. Web.
Callen, J. D., Hegna, C., E-mail: callen@engr.wisc.edu, & Cole, A. J. RMP-Flutter-Induced Pedestal Plasma Transport. IAEA.
Callen, J. D., Hegna, C., E-mail: callen@engr.wisc.edu, and Cole, A. J. 2012. "RMP-Flutter-Induced Pedestal Plasma Transport." IAEA.
@misc{etde_22140523,
title = {RMP-Flutter-Induced Pedestal Plasma Transport}
author = {Callen, J. D., Hegna, C., E-mail: callen@engr.wisc.edu, and Cole, A. J.}
abstractNote = {Full text: Plasma toroidal rotation can prevent or limit reconnection of externally applied resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) fields {delta}B on rational magnetic flux surfaces. Hence, it causes the induced radial perturbations to vanish or be small there, and thereby inhibits magnetic island formation and stochasticity in the edge of high (H-mode) confinement tokamak plasmas. However, the radial component of the spatial magnetic flutter induced by RMP fields off rational surfaces causes a radial electron thermal diffusivity of (1/2)({delta}B{sub p}/B){sup 2} times a magnetic-shear-influenced effective parallel electron thermal diffusivity. The resultant RMP-flutter-induced electron thermal diffusivity can be comparable to experimentally inferred values at the top of H-mode pedestals. This process also causes a factor of about 3 smaller RMP-induced electron density diffusivity there. Because this electron density transport is non-ambipolar, it produces a toroidal torque on the plasma, which is usually in the co-current direction. Kinetic-based cylindrical screw-pinch and toroidal models of these RMP-flutter-induced plasma transport effects have been developed. The RMP-induced increases in these diffusive plasma transport processes are typically spatially inhomogeneous in that they are strongly peaked near the rational surfaces in low collisionality pedestals, which may lead to resonant sensitivities to the local safety factor q. The effects can be large enough to reduce the radially averaged gradients of the electron temperature and density at the top of H-mode edge pedestals, and modify the plasma toroidal rotation and radial electric field there. At high collisionality the various effects are less strongly peaked at rational surfaces and thus less likely to exhibit RMP-induced resonant behavior. These RMP-flutter-induced plasma transport processes provide a new paradigm for developing an understanding of how RMPs modify the pedestal structure to stabilize peeling-ballooning modes and thereby mitigate or suppress edge localized modes (ELMs) in tokamak H-mode plasmas. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2012}
month = {Sep}
}