skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Effect of magnetic perturbations on turbulence-flow dynamics at the L-H transition on DIII-D

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5145207· OSTI ID:1631960

Detailed 2D turbulence measurements from the DIII-D tokamak provide an explanation for how resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) raise the L-H power threshold P LH [P. Gohil et al., Nucl. Fusion 51, 103020 (2011)] in ITER-relevant, low rotation, ITER-similar-shape plasmas with favorable ion B direction. RMPs simultaneously raise the turbulence decorrelation rate Δ ω D and reduce the flow shear rate ω shear in the stationary L-mode state preceding the L-H transition, thereby disrupting the turbulence shear suppression mechanism. RMPs also reduce the Reynolds stress drive for poloidal flow, contributing to the reduction of ω shear . On the ~100 μs timescale of the L-H transition, RMPs reduce Reynolds-stress-driven energy transfer from turbulence to flows by an order of magnitude, challenging the energy depletion theory for the L-H trigger mechanism. In contrast, non-resonant magnetic perturbations, which do not significantly affect P LH , do not affect Δ ω D and only slightly reduce ω shear and Reynolds-stress-driven energy transfer.<

Research Organization:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
FC02-04ER54698; FG02-08ER54999; SC0001288
OSTI ID:
1631960
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1631774
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 27, Issue 6; Conference: 61. Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Fort Lauderdale, FL (United States), 21-25 Oct 2019; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (78)

Suppression of Edge Localized Modes in High-Confinement KSTAR Plasmas by Nonaxisymmetric Magnetic Perturbations journal July 2012
Turbulence velocimetry of density fluctuation imaging data journal October 2004
Structure and scaling properties of the geodesic acoustic mode journal March 2006
Overview of KSTAR research progress and future plans toward ITER and K-DEMO journal July 2019
Simulation of density fluctuations before the L-H transition for Hydrogen and Deuterium plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak using the BOUT++ code journal January 2018
Plasma fluctuation measurements in tokamaks using beam‐plasma interactions journal November 1990
Three‐dimensional fluid simulations of the nonlinear drift‐resistive ballooning modes in tokamak edge plasmas journal October 1993
A non-axisymmetric E   ×   B shear inducing toroidally localized turbulence with an applied magnetic perturbation field in EAST journal November 2019
Fast ion transport during applied 3D magnetic perturbations on DIII-D journal June 2015
Fast Low-to-High Confinement Mode Bifurcation Dynamics in a Tokamak Edge Plasma Gyrokinetic Simulation journal April 2017
Calculations of two-fluid linear response to non-axisymmetric fields in tokamaks journal May 2012
Electron temperature gradient driven turbulence journal May 2000
Interaction between a low-frequency electrostatic mode and resonant magnetic perturbations in MAST journal August 2012
OMFIT Tokamak Profile Data Fitting and Physics Analysis journal January 2018
Gyrokinetic GENE simulations of DIII-D near-edge L-mode plasmas journal September 2019
Magnetic perturbation experiments on MAST L- and H-mode plasmas using internal coils journal April 2011
Evolution of E × B shear and coherent fluctuations prior to H-L transitions in DIII-D and control strategies for H-L transitions journal November 2015
Effects of resonant magnetic perturbations on turbulence and transport in DIII-D L-mode plasmas journal October 2015
Detection of zonal flow spectra in DIII-D by a dual-channel Doppler backscattering system journal October 2008
Theory of mean poloidal flow generation by turbulence journal July 1991
Increase of turbulence and transport with resonant magnetic perturbations in ELM-suppressed plasmas on DIII-D journal September 2013
Zonal flow triggers the L-H transition in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak journal July 2012
Properties of high-β microturbulence and the non-zonal transition journal October 2013
RMP ELM suppression in DIII-D plasmas with ITER similar shapes and collisionalities journal January 2008
Recent progress towards a physics-based understanding of the H-mode transition journal January 2016
Study of in-vessel nonaxisymmetric ELM suppression coil concepts for ITER journal January 2008
Evidence of Toroidally Localized Turbulence with Applied 3D Fields in the DIII-D Tokamak journal September 2016
L–H transition studies on DIII-D to determine H-mode access for operational scenarios in ITER journal August 2011
Drift waves and transport journal April 1999
Particle image velocimetry with optical flow journal August 1998
A novel, multichannel, comb-frequency Doppler backscatter system journal October 2010
Parallel electron force balance and the L-H transition journal May 2016
Role of Zonal Flow Predator-Prey Oscillations in Triggering the Transition to H-Mode Confinement journal April 2012
Zonal flows in plasma—a review journal April 2005
Role of trapped electron mode turbulence in internal transport barrier control in the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak journal May 2004
Influence of sheared poloidal rotation on edge turbulence journal January 1990
Turbulence and sheared flow structures behind the isotopic dependence of the L-H power threshold on DIII-D journal September 2017
Effects of E×B velocity shear and magnetic shear on turbulence and transport in magnetic confinement devices journal May 1997
Experimental studies of high-confinement mode plasma response to non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations in ASDEX Upgrade journal November 2016
Wide-field turbulence imaging with beam emission spectroscopy journal October 2010
Self-Regulating Shear Flow Turbulence: A Paradigm for the L to H Transition journal April 1994
Regime of Improved Confinement and High Beta in Neutral-Beam-Heated Divertor Discharges of the ASDEX Tokamak journal November 1982
Enhanced understanding of non-axisymmetric intrinsic and controlled field impacts in tokamaks journal August 2017
Nonlinear transfer in heated L-modes approaching the L–H transition threshold in Alcator C-Mod journal June 2015
Interplay between turbulence, neoclassical and zonal flows during the transition from low to high confinement mode at ASDEX Upgrade journal October 2016
Effects of applied error fields on the H-mode power threshold of JFT-2M journal August 1991
Observation of the L H Confinement Bifurcation Triggered by a Turbulence-Driven Shear Flow in a Tokamak Plasma journal March 2014
The beam emission spectroscopy diagnostic on the DIII-D tokamak journal January 1999
Integrated modeling applications for tokamak experiments with OMFIT journal July 2015
Nonlinear Transition from Mitigation to Suppression of the Edge Localized Mode with Resonant Magnetic Perturbations in the EAST Tokamak journal September 2016
Frequency-Resolved Nonlinear Turbulent Energy Transfer into Zonal Flows in Strongly Heated L -Mode Plasmas in the HL-2A Tokamak journal June 2012
Long-range correlations and edge transport bifurcation in fusion plasmas journal May 2011
Edge-localized-modes in tokamaks journal September 2014
Gyrokinetic simulation of momentum transport with residual stress from diamagnetic level velocity shears journal April 2011
BOUT++: A framework for parallel plasma fluid simulations journal September 2009
Extracting the turbulent flow-field from beam emission spectroscopy images using velocimetry journal October 2018
Spatial transfer function for the beam emission spectroscopy diagnostic on DIII-D journal October 2006
Impact of resonant magnetic perturbations on zonal modes, drift-wave turbulence and the L–H transition threshold journal November 2013
Suppression of large edge localized modes with edge resonant magnetic fields in high confinement DIII-D plasmas journal June 2005
Effect of ion ∇B drift direction on density fluctuation poloidal flow and flow shear journal June 2005
A review of theories of the L-H transition journal December 1999
A quarter-century of H-mode studies journal November 2007
L–H transition in the presence of magnetic perturbations in ASDEX Upgrade journal October 2012
New plasma measurements with a multichannel millimeter-wave fluctuation diagnostic system in the DIII-D tokamak (invited) journal October 2010
Density fluctuation measurements via beam emission spectroscopy (invited) journal October 1992
Enhancement of zonal flow damping due to resonant magnetic perturbations in the background of an equilibrium E × B sheared flow journal August 2018
L–H threshold studies in NSTX journal October 2011
Energy exchange dynamics across L–H transitions in NSTX journal May 2017
The effect of magnetic flutter on residual flow journal November 2013
A theory-based transport model with comprehensive physics journal May 2007
Suppression of Large Edge-Localized Modes in High-Confinement DIII-D Plasmas with a Stochastic Magnetic Boundary journal June 2004
3D field induced collisionless zonal flow decay in tokamak plasmas journal December 2017
Power requirement for accessing the H-mode in ITER journal July 2008
Zonal Flows and Transient Dynamics of the L H Transition journal May 2003
3D vacuum magnetic field modelling of the ITER ELM control coil during standard operating scenarios journal August 2013
Plasma rotation profile measurements using Doppler reflectometry journal April 2004
LH transition trigger physics in ITER-similar plasmas with applied n   =  3 magnetic perturbations journal September 2019
Potential Vorticity Mixing in a Tangled Magnetic Field journal March 2020

Similar Records

Scaling patch analysis of turbulent planar plume
Journal Article · Mon May 03 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Physics of Fluids · OSTI ID:1631960

Edge turbulence evolution and intermittency development near the density limit on the HL-2A tokamak
Journal Article · Fri Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physics of Plasmas · OSTI ID:1631960

Validation of the model for ELM suppression with 3D magnetic fields using low torque ITER baseline scenario discharges in DIII-D
Journal Article · Mon Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physics of Plasmas · OSTI ID:1631960