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One promising approach to maintaining stability of high beta tokamak plasmas is the use of a conducting wall near the plasma to stabilize low-n ideal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities. However, with a resistive wall, either plasma rotation or active feedback control is required to stabilize the more slowly growing resistive wall modes (RWMs). Previous experiments have demonstrated that plasmas with a nearby conducting wall can remain stable to the n=1 ideal external kink above the beta limit predicted with the wall at infinity. Recently, extension of the wall stabilized lifetime τL to more than 30 times the resistive wall time constant τw and detailed, reproducible observation of the n=1 RWM have been possible in DIII-D [Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Research (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1986), p. 159] plasmas above the no-wall beta limit. The DIII-D measurements confirm characteristics common to several RWM theories. The mode is destabilized as the plasma rotation at the q=3 surface decreases below a critical frequency of 1?7 kHz (˜1% of the toroidal Alfvén frequency). The measured mode growth times of 2?8 ms agree with measurements and numerical calculations of the dominant DIII-D vessel eigenmode time constant τw . From its onset, the RWM has little or no toroidalrotation (ωmode≤τw-1«ωplasma), and rapidly reduces the plasma rotation to zero. These slowly growing RWMs can in principle be destabilized using external coils controlled by a feedback loop. In this paper, the encouraging results from the first open loop experimental tests of active control of the RWM, conducted in DIII-D, are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In DIII-D [J. L. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)] tokamak plasmas with an internal transport barrier (ITB), the comparison of gyrokinetic linear stability (GKS) predictions with experiments in both low and strong negative magnetic shear plasmas provide improvedunderstanding for electron thermal transport within the plasma. Within a limited region just inside the ITB, the electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes appear to control the electron temperature gradient and, consequently, the electron thermal transport. The increase in the electron temperature gradient with more strongly negative magnetic shear is consistent with the increase in the ETG mode marginal gradient. Closer to the magnetic axis the T3 profile flattens and the ETG modes are predicted to be stable. With additional core electron heating, FIR scattering measurements near the axis show the presence of high k fluctuations (12 cm-1), rotating in the electron diamagnetic drift direction. This turbulence could impact electron transport and possibly also ion transport. Thermal diffusivities for electrons, and to a lesser degree ions, increase. The ETG mode can exist at this wave number, but it is computed to be robustly stable near the axis. Consequently, in the plasmas we have examined, calculations of drift wave linear stability do not explain the observed transport near the axis in plasmas with or without additional electron heating, and there are probably other processes controling transport in this region.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines high-performance negative central magnetic shear discharges in the DIII-D tokamak. Increases in plasma performance and reactivity resulting from reliable operation of discharges; Noninductive current ranges in the discharges; Toroidal rotation and ion temperature profiles.

Nonlinear simulations of experimentally observed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) bursts in DIII-D [J. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)] L-mode negative central magnetic shear (NCS) discharges were performed with a full three-dimensional nonlinear MHD code. The effects of plasma rotation in the presence of resistivity and viscosity are included and an effectively implicit numerical scheme allows the transport profile to evolve self-consistently with the nonlinear MHD instabilities and externally applied sources and sinks. The simulations follow the MHD bursts and disruptions through the linear and nonlinear phases and identify the connections between the early MHD bursts and the ultimate disruption phase. Specific predictions of the growth and saturation of the modes are directly compared with experimental diagnostic measurements in DIII-D. The simulations show that the bursts observed in experiments are triggered by MHD instability of a resistive interchange mode and a resistive kink mode that are excited for critical plasma profiles. The critical profiles are determined by the balance between inductive and noninductive sources of current density. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]