Nonlinear evolution of resistive wall mode in a cylindrical tokamak with poloidal rotation.

Nonlinear simulations of resistive wall modes (RWMs) with a Doppler shift dominant equilibrium poloidal rotation have been carried out by using reduced magnetohydrodynamic equations in a low beta cylindrical tokamak, where the core plasma is surrounded by a cold plasma with a high resistivity. When the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency is small and the Doppler shift is predominant, the wall mode becomes unstable, which is one of the RWMs nearly locked to the resistive wall. Since the slowing down torque increases with equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency and the poloidal rotation decreases to almost zero near the plasma surface before the saturation, the nonlinear saturation level does not depend on either the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency or the density of the cold plasma. When the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency becomes larger than a critical value, the plasma mode rotating to the resistive wall becomes unstable. When the cold plasma has the same density as that in the core plasma, neither the centrifugal force nor the Coriolis force has any effect. In such a case, as the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency increases, the magnetic flux is so hard to diffuse into the resistive wall that the slowing down torque decreases and the rotation tends to survive in the nonlinear phase, which makes the saturation level decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]