Neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity torque in collisionless regimes in tokamaks

Bumpiness in a magnetic field enhances the magnitude of the plasma viscosity and increases the rate of the plasma flow damping. A general solution of the neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity (NTV) torque induced by nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbation (NAMP) in the collisionless regimes in tokamaks is obtained in this Letter. The plasma angular momentum can be strongly changed, when there is a small deviation of the toroidal symmetry caused by a NAMP of the order of 0.1% of the toroidal field strength.     

托卡马克等离子体不同运行模式下的电子回旋波电流驱动

在给定等离子体密度分布下，从电子、离子的能量方程出发，根据不同运行模式下等离子体的热传导率不同，分别求出了中心负剪切模式，常规剪切H模式和L模式下的等离子体温度分布，然后通过求解波迹方程与相对论情况下的Fokker-Planck方程，分别计算了这些模式下的电子回旋波电流驱动和波功率沉积.得到在中心负剪切下，驱动电流最大，驱动效率最高，功率沉积和电流分布区间跨度大；在常规剪切H模式下，驱动电流较小，分布区间跨度比较窄，驱动效率相对较低；在常规剪切L模式，驱动电流效率最低，分布区间跨度也非常集中. 关键词： 托卡马克 电子回旋波电流驱动 中心负剪切 常规剪切     

High-density operation in tokamaks

Conclusion  In this paper we have examined various aspects regarding high-density operation in tokamaks and in particular the density limit, the plasma detachment, the MARFE formation and the fuelling efficiency. As regarding the density limit, both experimental findings and theoretical model indicate that the plasma current and the total input power are relevant in limiting the edge density that can be sustained in a tokamak discharge: radiation losses and SOL momentum and energy conservation are the underlying mechanisms. In the latest divertor experiments, operating in the detached regime, the influence of the input power seems to vanish or even disappear. Edge phenomena such as plasma detachment, occurring beyond a density threshold that can be lowered by means of impurity injection, can lead to the almost complete exhausting of the heating power by radiation which is greatly helpful for the design of the divertor plates. The compatibility of H-mode operation with this regime is still under investigation. The MARFE phenomenon, sometimes precursor of a major disruption, is now understood in terms of a radiation induced thermal instability. Finally, experiments performed in order to investigate the fuelling efficiency of the gas puffing technique have shown that at high density this technique becomes rather inefficient, thus indicating that pellet injection still remains an essential requirement to fuel the reactor plasma. The drop of the fuelling efficiency of gas-puffing at high density can be accounted for by collision phenomena taking place in the SOL.     

Physics of spherical tokamaks

Spherical tokamaks are a limiting case of conventional tokamaks, combining simple design with attractive physical characteristics. Being of potential importance for the controlled nuclear fusion program in their own right, spherical tokamaks also contribute much to our understanding of the physics of conventional tokamaks. For instance, they are contributing to the modeling of confinement scalings for ITER and to research on general plasma properties such as energy confinement and MHD processes. Results obtained for the first generation of spherical prototype tokamaks are reviewed and the main trends for further research are indicated. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 50–57 (September 1999)     

Transport in boundary layer of divertor tokamaks

Study of transport in the boundary layer of tokamak plasma in presence of magnetic divertors is extended to the second order in ion collision frequency. Numerical results for ion and energy losses to the collector plates are presented for toroidal and poloidal divertors. For the toroidal case, the Wiener-Hopf solution for the second order distribution function is obtained. An error occurring in an earlier first order calculation is pointed out and corrected first order fluxes are also given. For the poloidal divertor, asymmetry observed in ion and energy transport is found to persist in the second order result.     

Probability of statistical L-H transition in tokamaks

A statistical model for the bifurcation of the radial electric field Er is analyzed in view of describing L-H transitions of tokamak plasmas. Noise in microfluctuations is shown to lead to random changes of Er if a deterministic approach allows for more than one solution. The probability density function for and the ensemble average of Er are obtained. The L-to-H and the H-to-L transition probabilities are calculated, and the effective phase limit is derived. Because of the suppression of turbulence by shear in Er, the limit deviates from Maxwell's rule.     

Fractal growth of deposited films in tokamaks

Surface topography of some amorphous films from the T-10 tokamak has been analyzed by using the scanning tunnel microscope. Film surfaces on the scale from ∼10 nm to ∼100 μm have stochastic topography and a hierarchy of granularity. Fractal geometry and statistical physics techniques have been used to study a variety of irregular films within a common framework of the invariance under scaling. Quantitative analysis of a local fracture surface has been made. Experimental probability density functions of surface height increments resemble the Cauchy distribution rather than the Gaussian function. Stochastic topography of the film surface is characterized by the Hurst exponent in the range of 0.68-0.85, indicating non-trivial self-similarity of the structure. A fractality (porosity) of deposited films has to be considered as a critical issue of the tritium inventory in fusion devices. The process of film growth on plasma-facing materials (PFMs) in tokamaks is considered in a frame of the surface growth problem.     

Current dynamics during disruptions in large tokamaks

Self-consistent modeling of the evolution of the plasma current during disruptions in large tokamaks is presented, taking into account both the generation of runaway electrons and their backreaction on the electric field. It is found that the current profile changes dramatically, so that the postdisruption current carried by runaway electrons is much more peaked than the thermal predisruption current. Although only a fraction of the thermal current is converted into runaway electrons, the central current density increases significantly for typical parameters in JET and ITER. It is also shown that the radial runaway profile can easily become filamented in the radial direction.     

Plasma confinement in tokamaks with robust torus

We present a non-linear symplectic map that describes the alterations of the magnetic field lines inside the tokamak plasma due to the presence of a robust torus (RT) at the plasma edge. This RT prevents the magnetic field lines from reaching the tokamak wall and reduces, in its vicinity, the islands and invariant curve destruction due to resonant perturbations. The map describes the equilibrium magnetic field lines perturbed by resonances created by ergodic magnetic limiters (EMLs). We present the results obtained for twist and non-twist mappings derived for monotonic and non-monotonic plasma current density radial profiles, respectively. Our results indicate that the RT implementation would decrease the field line transport at the tokamak plasma edge.     

Fluctuation measurements with emissive probes in tokamaks

A new probe head, composed of two electro-emissive probes and two Langmuir probes has been designed to measure edge fluctuations in the CASTOR tokamak. In this contribution, only one Langmuir and one electron-emissive probe are used to measure the temperature and potential fluctuations and the phase angle between them.