Rotational and magnetic shear stabilization of magnetohydrodynamic modes and turbulence in DIII-D high performance discharges

Journal Article · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.871991· OSTI ID:283417

Lao, L L; Burrell, K H; Casper, T S; Chan, V S; Chu, M S; DeBoo, J C; Doyle, E J; Durst, R D; Forest, C B; Greenfield, C M; Groebner, R J; Hinton, F L; Kawano, Y; Lazarus, E A; Lin-Liu, Y R; Mauel, M E; Meyer, W H; Miller, R L; Navratil, G A; Osborne, T H ; Peng, Q; Rettig, C L; Rewoldt, G; Rhodes, T L; Rice, B W; Schissel, D P; Stallard, B W; Strait, E J; Tang, W M; Taylor, T S; Turnbull, A D; Waltz, R E ^[1]

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1. General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92186-9784 (United States)

The confinement and the stability properties of the DIII-D tokamak [{ital Plasma} {ital Physics} {ital and} {ital Controlled} {ital Nuclear} {ital Fusion} {ital Research} 1986 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1987), Vol. 1, p. 159] high-performance discharges are evaluated in terms of rotational and magnetic shear, with an emphasis on the recent experimental results obtained from the negative central magnetic shear (NCS) experiments. In NCS discharges, a core transport barrier is often observed to form inside the NCS region accompanied by a reduction in core fluctuation amplitudes. Increasing negative magnetic shear contributes to the formation of this core transport barrier, but by itself is not sufficient to fully stabilize the toroidal drift mode (trapped-electron-{eta}{sub {ital i}} mode) to explain this formation. Comparison of the Doppler shift shear rate to the growth rate of the {eta}{sub {ital i}} mode suggests that the large core {ital E}{times}{ital B} flow shear can stabilize this mode and broaden the region of reduced core transport. Ideal and resistive stability analysis indicates the performance of NCS discharges with strongly peaked pressure profiles is limited by the resistive interchange mode to low {beta}{sub {ital N}}{le}2.3. This mode is insensitive to the details of the rotational and the magnetic shear profiles. A new class of discharges, which has a broad region of weak or slightly negative magnetic shear (WNS), is described. The WNS discharges have broader pressure profiles and higher {beta} values than the NCS discharges, together with high confinement and high fusion reactivity. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-89ER51114; AC05-84OR21400; FG02-89ER53297; FG05-88ER53266; W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 283417
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 3, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: May 1996
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION
DOUBLET-3 DEVICE
HIGH-BETA PLASMA
TURBULENCE
SHEAR
DRIFT INSTABILITY
STABILIZATION
DOPPLER EFFECT
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS