tokamak plasmas
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Liu ◽  
Zheng-Xiong Wang ◽  
Lai Wei ◽  
Jialei Wang

Abstract The explosive burst excited by neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) is one of the possible candidates of disruptive terminations in reversed magnetic shear (RMS) tokamak plasmas. For the purpose of disruption avoidance, numerical investigations have been implemented on the prevention of explosive burst triggered by the ill-advised application of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) in RMS configuration. Under the situation of controlling NTMs by ECCD in RMS tokamak plasmas, a threshold in EC driven current has been found. Below the threshold, not only are the NTM islands not effectively suppressed, but also a deleterious explosive burst could be triggered, which might contribute to the major disruption of tokamak plasmas. In order to prevent this ECCD triggering explosive burst, three control strategies have been attempted in this work and two of them have been recognized to be effective. One is to apply differential poloidal plasma rotation in the proximity of outer rational surface during the ECCD control process; The other is to apply two ECCDs to control NTM islands on both rational surfaces at the same time. In the former strategy, the threshold is diminished due to the modification of classical TM index. In the latter strategy, the prevention is accomplished as a consequence of the reduction of the coupling strength between the two rational surfaces via the stabilization of inner islands. Moreover, the physical mechanism behind the excitation of the explosive burst and the control processes by different control strategies have all been discussed in detail.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hooman Hezaveh Hesar Maskan ◽  
Y Todo ◽  
Zhisong Qu ◽  
Boris N Breizman ◽  
Matthew J Hole

Abstract We present a procedure to examine energetic particle phase-space during long range frequency chirping phenomena in tokamak plasmas. To apply the proposed method, we have performed self-consistent simulations using the MEGA code and analyzed the simulation data. We demonstrate a travelling wave in phase-space and that there exist specific slices of phase-space on which the resonant particles lie throughout the wave evolution. For non-linear evolution of an n=6 toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmode (TAE), our results reveal the formation of coherent phase-space structures (holes/clumps) after coarse-graining of the distribution function. These structures cause a convective transport in phase-space which implies a radial drift of the resonant particles. We also demonstrate that the rate of frequency chirping increases with the TAE damping rate. Our observations of the TAE behaviour and the corresponding phase-space dynamics are consistent with the Berk-Breizman (BB) theory.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Jiquan Li ◽  
Yan-Lin Fu ◽  
Zheng-Xiong Wang ◽  
Min Jiang

Abstract Two reduced simulation approaches are exploited to predict the parametric boundary of dominant instability regime with global effects and the characteristics of corresponding turbulent particle fluxes in tokamak plasmas. One is usual numerical simulation of coexisting ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode and trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence employing an extended fluid code (ExFC) based on the so-called Landau-Fluid model including the trapped electron dynamics. Here the density gradient (i.e. R/Ln) driven TEM (∇n-TEM) is emphasized. The other one is a surrogate turbulence transport model, taking a neural network (NN) based approach with speeding calculation. It is shown that the turbulent particle flux, particularly their directions depend on the type of micro-instability as ITG and/or TEM. On the other hand, the density gradient may govern the direction of the turbulent particle fluxes in general circumstances. Specifically, in the parameter regime explored here, the ITG and the electron temperature gradient driven TEM (∇Te-TEM) are destabilized for flat density profile, generally causing an inward particle flux, i.e., particle pinch. Contrarily, for steep density profile, the ∇n-TEM or coexisting ITG and TEM turbulence are dominant so that the particle always diffuses outwards. An empirical criterion is obtained to predict the dominant instability and the direction of particle flux for medium density gradients, involving the gradients of both ion and electron temperature as well as the density. These two transport models are applied to analyze the spontaneous excitation of a quasi-coherent mode (QCM) in the turbulence modulation discharge by MHD magnetic island observed on tokamak HL-2A, clearly showing a dynamic transition from ITG to TEM. Furthermore, the ExFC-NN model can predict and speed up the analysis of the turbulence transport in tokamak experiments.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Sik Kim ◽  
Seung-Hoe Ku ◽  
Hogun Jhang

Abstract We present a possible mechanism for the generation of strong E × B flow shear relevant to internal transport barrier formation in tokamak plasmas. From gyrokinetic calculations, we show that strong E × B flow shear can be generated by finite orbit width (FOW) effects associated with a non-uniform heat source and is sufficient to lead to transport barrier formation in the core region with a moderate power level. Two FOW effects inducing neoclassical polarization are shown to be responsible for this: 1) the radial drift of particle orbit center due to the variation of the heat source within orbit width and 2) the non-uniformly evolved orbit width by the non-uniform heating.


Author(s):  
R R Ma ◽  
Liu Chen ◽  
Fulvio Zonca ◽  
Yueyan Li ◽  
Zhiyong Qiu

Abstract Linear wave properties of the low-frequency Alfvén modes (LFAMs) observed in the DIII-D tokamak experiments with reversed magnetic shear [Nucl. Fusion 61, 016029 (2021)] are theoretically studied and delineated based on the general fishbone-like dispersion relation. By adopting the representative experimental equilibrium parameters, it is found that, in the absence of energetic ions, the LFAM is a kinetic ballooning mode instability of reactive-type with a dominant Alfvénic polarization. More specifically, due to diamagnetic and trapped particle effects, the LFAM can be coupled with the beta-induced Alfvén-acoustic mode in the low-frequency region (frequency much less than the thermal-ion transit and/or bounce frequency); or with the beta-induced Alfvén eigenmode in the high frequency region (frequency higher than or comparable to the thermal-ion transit frequency); resulting in reactive-type instabilities. Moreover, the ‘Christmas light’ and ‘mountain peak’ spectral patterns of LFAMs as well as the dependence of instability drive on the electron temperature observed in the experiments can be theoretically interpreted by varying the relevant physical parameters. Conditions when dissipative-type instabilities may set in are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Xiaolong Zhu ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Zhengxiong Wang

Abstract Based on the conventional tokamak HL-2A-like parameters and profiles, the linear properties and the nonlinear dynamics of non-resonant kink mode (NRK) and non-resonant fishbone instability (NRFB) in reversed shear tokamak plasmas are investigated by using the global hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) nonlinear code M3D-K. This work mainly focuses on the effect of passing energetic-ions on the NRK and NRFB instabilities, which is different from the previous works. It is demonstrated that the NRFB can be destabilized by the passing energetic-ions when the energetic-ion beta $\beta_h$ exceeds a critical value. The transition from NRK to NRFB occurs when the energetic-ion beta $\beta_h$ increases to above a critical value. The resonance condition responsible for the excitation of NRFB is interestingly found to be satisfied at $\omega_t+\omega_p\approx\omega$, where $\omega_t$ is the toroidal motion frequency, $\omega_p$ is the poloidal motion frequency and $\omega$ is the mode frequency. The nonlinear evolutions of NRFB's mode structures and Poincar\'{e} plots are also analyzed in this work and it is found that the NRFB can induce evident energetic-ion loss/redistribution, which can degrade the performance of the plasmas. These findings are conducive to understanding the mechanisms of NRFB-induced energetic-ion loss/redistribution through nonlinear wave-particle interaction.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
V I Ilgisonis ◽  
Vladimir P Lakhin ◽  
Nikita Marusov ◽  
Andrei I Smolyakov ◽  
Ekaterina Sorokina

Abstract The nonlocal eigenmode analysis of low-frequency zonal flows in toroidally rotating tokamak plasmas is performed in the framework of the reduced one-fluid ideal MHD-model. It is shown that for typical profiles of plasma parameters toroidal plasma rotation results in the global zonal flow formation on the periphery of plasma column. For some types of equilibria these zonal flows are aperiodically unstable that leads to the excitation of the differential plasma rotation at the tokamak plasma edge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 112884
Author(s):  
M.B. Chowdhuri ◽  
R. Manchanda ◽  
J. Ghosh ◽  
N. Yadava ◽  
Kinjal Patel ◽  
...  

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