Search

Two ways for producing a transport barrier through strong shear of the E × B poloidal flow have been investigated using GYSELA gyrokinetic simulations in a flux-driven regime. The first one uses an external poloidal momentum (i.e. vorticity) source that locally polarizes the plasma, and the second one enforces a locally steep density profile that also stabilizes the ion temperature gradient (ITG) instability modes linearly. Both cases show a very low local turbulent heat diffusivity coefficient χ T turb and a slight increase in core pressure when a threshold of ω E × B ≈ γ ¯ lin (respectively the E × B shear rate and average linear growth rate of ITG) is reached, validating previous numerical results. This pressure increase and χ T turb quench are the signs of a transport barrier formation. This behaviour is the result of a reduced turbulence intensity which strongly correlates with the shearing of turbulent structures as evidenced by a reduction of the auto-correlation length of potential fluctuations as well as an intensity reduction of the k θ spectrum. Moreover, a small shift towards smaller poloidal wavenumber is observed in the vorticity source region which could be linked to a tilt of the turbulent structures in the poloidal direction.

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

The ITER scenarios and the project of DEMO involve stable operation above the Greenwald density, which justifies efforts to understand and overcome the density limit, this last observed as a disruptive termination of tokamak discharges and a thermal crash (with no disruption) of stellarator and reversed-field pinch (RFP) ones. Both in the tokamak and the RFP, new findings show that the high density limit is not governed by a unique, theoretically well-determined physical phenomenon, but by a combination of complex mechanisms involving two-fluid effects, electrostatic plasma response to magnetic islands and plasma-wall interaction. In this paper we will show new evidence challenging the traditional picture of the 'Greenwald limit', in particular with reference to the role of thermal instabilities and the edge radial electric field Er in the development of this limit. © 2015 EURATOM.

The electrostatic response of the edge plasma to a magnetic island induced by resonant magnetic perturbations to the plasma edge of the circular limiter tokamak TEXTOR is analyzed. Measurements of plasma potential are interpreted by simulations with the Hamiltonian guiding center code Orbit. We find a strong correlation between the magnetic field topology and the poloidal modulation of the measured plasma potential. The ion and electron drifts yield a predominantly electron driven radial diffusion when approaching the island X-point while ion diffusivities are generally an order of magnitude smaller. This causes a strong radial electric field structure pointing outward from the island O-point. The good agreement found between measured and modeled plasma potential connected to the enhanced radial particle diffusivities supports that a magnetic island in the edge of a tokamak plasma can act as convective cell. We show in detail that the particular, non-ambipolar drifts of electrons and ions in a 3D magnetic topology account for these effects. An analytical model for the plasma potential is implemented in the code Orbit, and analyses of ion and electron radial diffusion show that both ion- and electron-dominated transport regimes can exist, which are known as ion and electron root solutions in stellarators. This finding and comparison with reversed field pinch studies and stellarator literature suggest that the role of magnetic islands as convective cells and hence as major radial particle transport drivers could be a generic mechanism in 3D plasma boundary layers.

The impact of reversed magnetic shear (s < 0) along with a radial electric field E-r on negative-energy perturbations (NEP's) is investigated for the case of cylindrical tokamak-like equilibria. NEP's can imply instabilities leading to anomalous transport [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and D. Pfirsch, Phys. Rev. E 56, 5979 (1997) and references therein]. For equilibria with E-r corresponding to \e(nu)phi\much less than beta T-nu and eta(nu)< 4/3 (phi is the electrostatic potential, beta equivalent to 8 pi P/B-2, eta(nu)equivalent to partial derivative lnT(nu)/partial derivative lnN(nu) and nu denotes the particle species) s < 0 results in a reduction of the fraction of particles associated with NEP's (active particles) as compared with equilibria with s > 0, by making the pressure profile steeper. The reduction is stronger the closer the minimum of the safety factor (q(min)) to the plasma center and the lower the negative value of s. For equilibria with \e(nu)phi\much less than beta T-nu and eta(nu)> 4/3 the fraction of active particles decreases as the magnetic tension B-theta(2)/r becomes larger. For E-r< 0 corresponding to \e(nu)phi\approximate to beta T-nu the electric field leads to a reduction of the fraction of active ions for eta(i)< 4/3 and of the fraction of active electrons for eta(e)> 4/3 in addition to that caused by s < 0 and B-theta(2)/r, respectively. For T(nu)greater than or equal to\e(nu)phi\much greater than beta T-nu, which corresponds to experimental observations, the reduction of active particles caused by E-r< 0 is insensitive to the sign and the value of s, the position of q(min), and the value of B-theta(2)/r. In addition, it is shown that the experimentally evidenced facts that (a) s < 0 is associated with a steepness of the pressure profile and (b) the position of q(min) is displaced towards the plasma edge as the toroidal current is increased are consistent with equilibrium considerations. It is emphasized that these results cannot yet give a complete picture, since the present paper still neglects toroidal effects. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(99)03208-5]. Physics of Plasmas

Toroidal momentum transport mechanisms are reviewed and put in a broader perspective. The generation of a finite momentum flux is closely related to the breaking of symmetry (parity) along the field. The symmetry argument allows for the systematic identification of possible transport mechanisms. Those that appear to lowest order in the normalized Larmor radius (the diagonal part, Coriolis pinch, E × B shearing, particle flux, and up–down asymmetric equilibria) are reasonably well understood. At higher order, expected to be of importance in the plasma edge, the theory is still under development.