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By assuming well defined magnetic surfaces we examine the characteristics of special three dimensional equilibria with incompressible flows such that any two out of the vectors of velocity, vorticity, magnetic field and current density are parallel one another. In the majority of the equilibria considered, it turns out that the only isodynamic equilibrium configuration, defined so that the magnetic field modulus be uniform on magnetic surfaces, is the axisymmetric Palumbo one. Also, except for equilibria with the velocity parallel to the current density in the other five of the above mentioned special axisymmetric (non-isodynamic) equilibria the velocity should be parallel to the magnetic field. In addition, isodynamicity is removed by the non parallel component of the flow associated with the electric field in axisymmetric equilibria with either complex lamellar generalised velocity, ρ V where ρ is the density, or complex lamellar magnetic field.

It is believed that plasma rotation can affect transitions to the advanced confinement regimes in tokamaks. In addition, in order to achieve fusion temperatures, modern tokamaks rely on auxiliary heating methods. These methods generate pressure anisotropy in the plasma. For incompressible rotation with pressure anisotropy, the equilibrium is governed by a generalized Grad–Shafranov (GGS) equation and a decoupled Bernoulli-type equation for the effective pressure, p̄=(p∥+p⊥)/2, where p∥ (p⊥) is the pressure tensor element parallel (perpendicular) to the magnetic field. In the case of plasma rotation parallel to the magnetic field, the GGS equation can be transformed to one equation identical in form with the GS equation. In this study, by making use of the aforementioned property of the GGS equation for parallel plasma rotation, we have constructed ITER-like numerical equilibria by extending HELENA, an equilibrium fixed-boundary solver, and examined the impact of rotation and anisotropy on certain equilibrium quantities. The main conclusions are that the addition of pressure anisotropy to rotation allows the profile shaping of the equilibrium quantities to much more extent compared to the isotropic case, thus favoring the confinement, and allows extension of the parametric space of the Mach number corresponding to higher values. Furthermore, the impact of pressure anisotropy on the equilibrium quantities is stronger than that of the rotation for most of the quantities examined in view of respective experimental values. For the pressure components, the impact of the pressure anisotropy is the same, regardless of whether the power is deposited parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic surfaces, thus implying that there is no preferable heating direction, while for the current density, the heating parallel to the magnetic surfaces seems to be beneficial for the current gradient-driven instabilities.

We present recent results on steady states of translational symmetric and axisymmetric ITER relevant plasmas with incompressible sheared flow in connection with a generalized Grad-Shafranov (GGS) equation and on their stability. On the basis of a vari- ety of ITER pertinent solutions of the GGS equation constructed it turns out that the flow affects noticeably the equilibrium quantities in qualitative agreement with the advanced confinement regimes phenomenology. Also, application of a sufficient condition for linear stability indicates that stabilization is mainly caused by the variation of the magnetic field in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic surfaces, related to the magnetic shear, depends on the plasma shaping and is sensitive to the up-down asymmetry. In certain cases the sheared flow has a weaker stabilizing effect enhanced by the equilibrium nonlinearity.

We consider a generalized Grad–Shafranov equation (GGSE) in a triangularity-deformed axisymmetric toroidal coordinate system and solve it numerically for the generic case of ITER-like and JET-like equilibria with non-parallel flow. It turns out that increase of the triangularity improves confinement by leading to larger values of the toroidal beta and the safety factor. This result is supported by the application of a criterion for linear stability valid for equilibria with flow parallel to the magnetic field. Also, the parallel flow has a weaker stabilizing effect.

An analytic solution to a generalized Grad-Shafranov equation with flow of arbitrary direction is obtained upon adopting the generic linearizing ansatz for the free functions related to the poloidal current, the static pressure, and the electric field. Subsequently, a D-shaped tokamak pertinent equilibrium with sheared flow is constructed using the aforementioned solution.An analytic solution to a generalized Grad-Shafranov equation with flow of arbitrary direction is obtained upon adopting the generic linearizing ansatz for the free functions related to the poloidal current, the static pressure, and the electric field. Subsequently, a D-shaped tokamak pertinent equilibrium with sheared flow is constructed using the aforementioned solution.

Nonlinear tranlational symmetric equilibria with up to quartic flux terms in the free functions, reversed magnetic shear and sheared flow are constructed in two ways: i) quasianalytically by an ansatz which reduces the pertinent generalized Grad-Shafranov equation to a set of ordinary differential equations and algebraic constraints which is then solved numerically, and ii) completely numerically by prescribing analytically a boundary having an X-point. The equilibrium characteristics are then examined by means of the pressure, safety factor, current density and electric field. For flows parallel to the magnetic field the stability of the equilibria constructed is also examined by applying a sufficient condition. It turns out that the equilibrium nonlinearity has a stabilizing impact which is slightly enhanced by the sheared flow. In addition, the results indicate that the stability is affected by the up-down asymmetry., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures

An alternative method based on an inverse aspect ratio (ϵ) expansion which reduces the axisymmetric equilibrium problem to a set of ODEs containing terms of arbitrary order in ϵ is employed to solve a generalized Grad-Shafranov equation with incompressible sheared flow nonparallel to the magnetic field. The method is applied to construct equilibria with either circular magnetic surfaces and reversed magnetic shear or D-shaped magnetic surfaces and normal magnetic shear. From the former equilibrium, it turns out that the electric field results in an increase of the reversed magnetic shear, thus indicating potential synergetic effects of the sheared flow and the magnetic shear in the formation of an internal transport barrier in consistent with experimental evidence.

The aim of the present work is to investigate tokamak equilibria with reversed magnetic shear and sheared flow, which may play a role in the formation of internal transport barriers (ITBs), within the framework of two-fluid model. The study is based on exact self-consistent solutions in cylindrical geometry by means of which the impact of the magnetic shear, s, and the "toroidal" (axial) and "poloidal" (azimuthal) ion velocity components on the radial electric field, its shear and the shear of the ExB velocity is examined. For a wide parametric regime of experimental concern it turns out that the contributions of the toroidal and poloidal velocity and pressure gradient terms to the electric field, its shear and ExB velocity shear are of the same order of magnitude. The impact of s on ExB velocity shear through the pressure gradient term is stronger than that through the velocity terms. The results indicate that, alike MHD, the magnetic shear and the sheared toroidal and poloidal velocities act synergetically in producing electric fields and therefore ExB velocity shear profiles compatible with ones observed in discharges with ITBs; owing to the pressure gadient term, however, the impact of s on the electic field, its shear and the shear of ExB velocity is stronger than that in MHD., 25 pages, 21 figures

We construct nonlinear toroidal equilibria of fixed diverted boundary shaping with reversed magnetic shear and flows parallel to the magnetic field. The equilibria have hole-like current density and the reversed magnetic shear increases as the equilibrium nonlinearity becomes stronger. Also, application of a sufficient condition for linear stability implies that the stability is improved as the equilibrium nonlinearity correlated to the reversed magnetic shear gets stronger with a weaker stabilizing contribution from the flow. These results indicate synergetic stabilizing effects of reversed magnetic shear, equilibrium nonlinearity and flow in the establishment of Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs).

By choosing appropriate deformed Maxwellian ion and electron distribution functions depending on the two particle constants of motion, i.e. the energy and toroidal angular momentum, we reduce the Vlasov axisymmetric equilibrium problem for quasineutral plasmas to a transcendental Grad-Shafranov-like equation. This equation is then solved numerically under the Dirichlet boundary condition for an analytically prescribed boundary possessing a lower X-point to construct tokamak equilibria with toroidal sheared ion flow and anisotropic pressure. Depending on the deformation of the distribution functions these steady states can have toroidal current densities either peaked on the magnetic axis or hollow. These two kinds of equilibria may be regarded as a bifurcation in connection with symmetry properties of the distribution functions on the magnetic axis., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

Analytic solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium equations for a symmetric magnetically confined plasma with sheared incompressible flows associated with electric fields similar to those observed in the transition from the low- to the high-confinement mode in tokamaks are constructed in cylindrical and toroidal geometries. In particular, an exact toroidal solution is obtained which for vanishing flows reduces to the Solovev equilibrium which has been extensively employed in tokamak confinement studies. Owing to the flow, several toroidal configurations having either one or two stagnation points are possible in addition to the usual ones with a single magnetic axis. For flows pertaining to tokamak operational regime the extremum of the electric field becomes larger as flow and its shear increase, the location of the extremum being, however, nearly independent of these variations. In addition, the flow affects the safety factor profile and the shape of the magnetic surfaces and results in an increase of the magnetic shear and a decrease of the toroidal beta. The impact of plasma elongation on the above-mentioned confinement figures of merit is also evaluated. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics. Physics of Plasmas

A Solovev-like solution describing equilibria with field aligned incompressible flows [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and H. Tasso, Phys. Plasmas 19, 014504 (2012)] is extended to non parallel flows. The solution expressed as a superposition of Bessel functions contains an arbitrary number of free parameters which are exploited to construct a variety of configurations including ITER shaped ones. For parallel flows, application of a sufficient condition for linear stability shows that this condition is satisfied in an appreciable part of the plasma region on the high-field side mostly due to the variation of the magnetic field perpendicular to the magnetic surfaces. Also, the results indicate that depending on the shape of the Mach-function profile and the values of the free parameters the flow and flow shear may have either stabilizing or destabilizing effects.

A generalised Grad-Shafranov equation that governs the equilibrium of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma with anisotropic pressure and incompressible flow of arbitrary direction is derived. This equation includes six free surface functions and recovers known Grad-Shafranov-like equations in the literature as well as the usual static, isotropic one. The form of the generalised equation indicates that pressure anisotropy and flow act additively on equilibrium. In addition, two sets of analytical solutions, an extended Solovev one with a plasma reaching the separatrix and an extended Hernegger-Maschke one for a plasma surrounded by a fixed boundary possessing an X-point, are constructed, particularly in relevance to the ITER and NSTX tokamaks. Furthermore, the impacts both of pressure anisotropy and plasma flow on these equilibria are examined. It turns out that depending on the maximum value and the shape of an anisotropy function, the anisotropy can act either paramagnetically or diamagnetically. Also, in most of the cases considered both the anisotropy and the flow have stronger effects on NSTX equilibria than on ITER ones., 27 pages, 14 figures

A Solovev-like equilibrium solution is extended to plasmas with incompressible flow parallel to the magnetic field. ITER-like configurations are constructed for Alfven Mach functions peaked either on or off the magnetic axis. The linear stability of the equilibrium is also examined by applying a sufficient condition. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3672509] Physics of Plasmas

A previous stability condition (see Throumoulopoulos and Tasso, Phys. Plasmas 14, 122104 (2007)) for incompressible plasmas with field-aligned flows is extended to gravitating plasmas, including self-gravitation. It turns out that the stability condition is affected by gravitation through the equilibrium values only.

A class of exact axisymmetric tokamak equilibria with sheared flows parallel to the magnetic field is constructed, generalizing previous work on the subject (Kuiroukidis 2010 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 015002). The additional free parameters associated with new terms in the solution make it possible to construct up-down asymmetric configurations with a divertor X-point and desirable values of confinement figures of merit as the safety factor on the magnetic axis and plasma betas; in particular, we construct a number of ITER-pertinent equilibria. Their stability with respect to linear MHD perturbations is also examined by applying a sufficient condition. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

A nonlinear two-dimensional steady state solution in the framework of hydrodynamics describing a row of periodic counter-rotating vortices is extended to the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium equation with incompressible flow of arbitrary direction. The extended solution covers a variety of equilibria because four surface quantities remain free. Similar to the case of the MHD cat-eyes equilibrium [Throumoulopoulos et al., J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42, 335501 (2009)] and unlike linear equilibria, the flow has a strong impact on isobaric surfaces by forming pressure islands located within the counter-rotating vortices even for values of beta (defined as the ratio of the thermal pressure over the external axial magnetic-field pressure) on the order of 0.01. Also, the axial current density is appreciably modified by the flow. Furthermore, a magnetic-field-aligned flow of experimental fusion relevance, i.e., for Alfven Mach numbers of the order of 0.01, and the flow shear in combination with the variation of the magnetic field perpendicular to the magnetic surfaces have significant stabilizing effects potentially related to the equilibrium nonlinearity. The stable region is enhanced by an external axial magnetic field. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3353077] Physics of Plasmas

Axisymmetric equilibria with incompressible flows of arbitrary direction are studied in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics under a variety of physically relevant side conditions consisting, for example, in that the plasma temperature or the magnetic field modulus are uniform on magnetic surfaces. To this end a set of pertinent nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are transformed to quasilinear ODEs and the respective initial value problem is solved numerically with appropriately determined initial values near the magnetic axis. Several equilibrium configurations are then constructed surface by surface. It turns out that in addition to the usual configurations with a magnetic axis, the non-field aligned flow results to novel toroidal shell equilibria in which the plasma is confined within a couple of magnetic surfaces. In addition, the flow affects the elongation and triangularity of the magnetic surfaces and opens up the possibility of changing the magnetic field topology by creating double toroidal shell-like configurations.

The equilibrium of an axisymmetric magnetically confined plasma with anisotropic resistivity and toroidal flow is investigated in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The stationary states are determined by an elliptic differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function, a Bernoulli equation for the pressure and two relations for the resistivity components parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. The equilibrium characteristics of a tokamak with rectangular cross-section are studied by means of eigenfunctions in connection with exact solutions for the cases of "compressible" flows with constant temperature, but varying density on magnetic surfaces and incompressible ones with constant density, but varying temperature thereon. Those eigenfunctions can describe either single or multiple toroidal configurations. In the former case the equilibrium has the following characteristics: (i) the profiles of the resistivity's components on the poloidal cross-section are roughly collisional (ii) the electric field perpendicular to the magnetic surfaces possesses two local extrema within the plasma and vanishes on the boundary and (iii) the toroidal current density is peaked close to the magnetic axis and vanishes on the boundary. The impact of the flow and the aspect ratio on the aforementioned quantities is evaluated for both "compressible" and incompressible flows., 18 pages, 8 figures

It is proved that irrespective of compressibility tokamak steady states with purely poloidal mass flow can not exist in the framework of either magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) or Hall MHD models. Non-existence persists within single fluid plasma models with pressure anisotropy and incompressible flows., Comment: The conclusion reported in the last sentence of the first paragraph of Sec. V in the version of the paper published in Physics of Plasmas is incorrect. The correct conclusion is given here (15 pages)

From the equilibrium solution of a toroidal plasma with toroidal velocity it is possible to define a relaxed energy state. This state corresponds to the minimum total energy at a given current and under certain assumptions retains the current and pressure profiles of the static case. For large toroidal radius it produces unique current and pressure profiles which however are completely different to those of the static case.

The equilibrium of a resistive axisymmetric plasma with purely toroidal flow surrounded by a conductor is investigated within the framework of the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic theory. It is proved that a) the poloidal current density vanishes and b) apart from an idealized case the pressure profile should vanish on the plasma boundary. For the cases of isothermal magnetic surfaces, isentropic magnetic surfaces and magnetic surfaces with constant density, the equilibrium states obey to an elliptic partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function, which is identical in form to the corresponding equation governing ideal equilibria. The conductivity, which can not be either uniform or a surface quantity, results however in a restriction of the possible classes of equilibrium solutions, e.g., for the cases considered the only possible equilibria with Spitzer conductivity are of cylindrical shape., Comment: latex, 16 pages, 1 figure available on request to the author (gthroum@cc.uoi.gr), to be published in J. Plasma Physics

It is proved that (a) the solutions of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equation, which describe the equlibrium states of a cylindrical plasma with purely poloidal flow and arbitrary cross sectional shape [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and G. Pantis, Plasma Phys. and Contr. Fusion 38, 1817 (1996)] are also valid for incompressible equlibrium flows with the axial velocity component being a free surface quantity and (b) for the case of isothermal incompressible equilibria the magnetic surfaces have necessarily circular cross section., Comment: 7 pages, latex, no figures

The equilibrium of a cylindrical plasma with purely poloidal mass flow and cross section of arbitrary shape is investigated within the framework of the ideal MHD theory. For the system under consideration it is shown that only incompressible flows are possible and, conscequently, the general two dimensional flow equilibrium equations reduce to a single second-order quasilinear partial differential equation for the poloidal magnetic flux function $\psi$, in which four profile functionals of $\psi$ appear. Apart from a singularity occuring when the modulus of Mach number associated with the Alfv\'en velocity for the poloidal magnetic field is unity, this equation is always elliptic and permits the construction of several classes of analytic solutions. Specific exact equlibria for a plasma confined within a perfectly conducting circular cylindrical boundary and having i) a flat current density and ii) a peaked current density are obtained and studied., Comment: Accepted to Plasma Physics & Controlled Fusion, 14 pages, revtex

Several classes of analytic solutions to a generalized Grad-Shafranov equation with incompressible plasma flow non-parallel to the magnetic field are constructed. The solutions include higher transcendental functions such as the Meijer G-function and describe D-shaped and diverted configurations with either a single or double X-points. Their characteristics are examined in particular with respect to the flow parameters associated with the electric field. It turns out that the electric field makes the safety factor flatter and increases the magnitude and shear of the toroidal velocity in qualitative agreement with experimental evidence on the formation of internal transport barriers in tokamaks, thus indicating a potential stabilizing effect of the electric field.

A general stability condition for plasma-vacuum systems with resistive walls is derived by using the Frieman Rotenberg Lagrangian stability formulation [Rev. Mod. Phys. 32, 898 ( 1960)]. It is shown that the Lyapunov stability limit for external modes does not depend upon the gyroscopic term but upon the sign of the perturbed potential energy only. In the absence of dissipation in the plasma such as viscosity, it is expected that the flow cannot stabilize the system. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3606470] Physics of Plasmas

Several classes of analytic equilibria of a toroidal axisymmetric plasma with toroidal mass flow are obtained for isothermal as well as isentropic magnetic surfaces under various pressure and toroidal current density profiles. The effects of flow on certain global equilibrium and stability characteristics are examined. It is shown that for a wide family of equilibria the average beta 〈 β〉 does not depend explicitly on flow and falls within the limits of static equilibria. In particular, for the case of field‐reversed configurations 〈 β〉 is totally independent of plasma flow. Calculations based on a specific equilibrium solution for a tokamak with fixed average toroidal magnetic energy show that plasma elongation is an increasing function of the Mach number whereas the safety factor is a decreasing function of it.