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Title: Exploring the regime of validity of global gyrokinetic simulations with spherical tokamak plasmas

Abstract

Plasma turbulence is considered one of the main mechanisms for driving anomalous thermal transport in magnetic confinement fusion devices. Based on first-principle model, gradient driven gyrokinetic simulations have often been used to explain turbulence-driven transport in present fusion devices, and in fact, many present predictive codes are based on the assumption that turbulence is gradient-driven. However, using the electrostatic global particle-in-cell gyrokinetic tokamak simulation (GTS) code (Wang et al 2010 Phys. Plasmas 17 072511), we will show that while global gradient-driven gyrokinetic simulations provide decent agreement in ion thermal transport with a set of NBI-heated NSTX (Ono et al 2000 Nucl. Fusion 40 557) H-mode plasmas, they are not able to explain the observed electron thermal transport variation in a set of RF-heated L-mode plasmas, where a factor of 2 decrease in electron heat flux is observed after the cessation of the RF heating. Thus, identifying the regime of validity of the gradient-driven assumption is essential for first-principle gyrokinetic simulation. This understanding will help us to more confidently predict the confinement performance of ITER and future magnetic confinement devices.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  5. Nova Photonics, Inc., Princeton, NJ (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
OSTI Identifier:
1616946
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1777994
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-09CH11466; AC02-76CH03073; FG03-95ER54295; FG03-99ER54518; FG02-99ER54518
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nuclear Fusion
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 60; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5515
Publisher:
IOP Science
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; turbulence; transport; tokamak; NSTX; electrostatic turbulence; gyrokinetic simulation; ion thermal transport; turbulence, transport, tokamak, NSTX, electrostatic turbulence, gyrokinetic simulation, ion thermal transport

Citation Formats

Ren, Y., Wang, W. X., Guttenfelder, W., Kaye, S. M., Ruiz-Ruiz, J., Ethier, S., Bell, R., LeBlanc, B. P., Mazzucato, E., Smith, D. R., Domier, C. W., and Yuh, H. Exploring the regime of validity of global gyrokinetic simulations with spherical tokamak plasmas. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ab5bf5.
Ren, Y., Wang, W. X., Guttenfelder, W., Kaye, S. M., Ruiz-Ruiz, J., Ethier, S., Bell, R., LeBlanc, B. P., Mazzucato, E., Smith, D. R., Domier, C. W., & Yuh, H. Exploring the regime of validity of global gyrokinetic simulations with spherical tokamak plasmas. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab5bf5
Ren, Y., Wang, W. X., Guttenfelder, W., Kaye, S. M., Ruiz-Ruiz, J., Ethier, S., Bell, R., LeBlanc, B. P., Mazzucato, E., Smith, D. R., Domier, C. W., and Yuh, H. Wed . "Exploring the regime of validity of global gyrokinetic simulations with spherical tokamak plasmas". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab5bf5. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1616946.
@article{osti_1616946,
title = {Exploring the regime of validity of global gyrokinetic simulations with spherical tokamak plasmas},
author = {Ren, Y. and Wang, W. X. and Guttenfelder, W. and Kaye, S. M. and Ruiz-Ruiz, J. and Ethier, S. and Bell, R. and LeBlanc, B. P. and Mazzucato, E. and Smith, D. R. and Domier, C. W. and Yuh, H.},
abstractNote = {Plasma turbulence is considered one of the main mechanisms for driving anomalous thermal transport in magnetic confinement fusion devices. Based on first-principle model, gradient driven gyrokinetic simulations have often been used to explain turbulence-driven transport in present fusion devices, and in fact, many present predictive codes are based on the assumption that turbulence is gradient-driven. However, using the electrostatic global particle-in-cell gyrokinetic tokamak simulation (GTS) code (Wang et al 2010 Phys. Plasmas 17 072511), we will show that while global gradient-driven gyrokinetic simulations provide decent agreement in ion thermal transport with a set of NBI-heated NSTX (Ono et al 2000 Nucl. Fusion 40 557) H-mode plasmas, they are not able to explain the observed electron thermal transport variation in a set of RF-heated L-mode plasmas, where a factor of 2 decrease in electron heat flux is observed after the cessation of the RF heating. Thus, identifying the regime of validity of the gradient-driven assumption is essential for first-principle gyrokinetic simulation. This understanding will help us to more confidently predict the confinement performance of ITER and future magnetic confinement devices.},
doi = {10.1088/1741-4326/ab5bf5},
journal = {Nuclear Fusion},
number = 2,
volume = 60,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Wed Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}

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