Experimental investigation of dynamical coupling between turbulent transport and parallel flows in the JET plasma-boundary region

The dynamical coupling between turbulent transport and parallel flows has been investigated in the plasma boundary region of the Joint European Torus tokamak. Experimental results show that there is a dynamical relationship between transport and parallel flows. As the size of transport events increases, parallel flows also increase. These results show that turbulent transport can drive parallel flows in the plasma boundary of fusion plasmas. This new type of measurement is an important element to unravel the overall picture connecting radial transport and flows in fusion plasmas.     

Dynamical coupling between gradients and transport in fusion plasmas

The dynamical coupling between density gradients and particle transport has been investigated using similar experimental tools in the plasma boundary of different tokamak (JET, ISTTOK) and stellarator (TJ-II) devices, showing that the size of turbulent events is minimum in the proximity of the most probable density gradient. Experimental results were found to be consistent with results from two very different models of plasma turbulence and transport. The present findings, common to several plasma devices, suggest the importance of self-regulation mechanisms between plasma transport and gradients in fusion devices.     

Nonlinear growth of firehose and mirror fluctuations in astrophysical plasmas

In turbulent high-beta astrophysical plasmas (exemplified by the galaxy cluster plasmas), pressure-anisotropy-driven firehose and mirror fluctuations grow nonlinearly to large amplitudes, deltaB/B approximately 1, on a time scale comparable to the turnover time of the turbulent motions. The principle of their nonlinear evolution is to generate secularly growing small-scale magnetic fluctuations that on average cancel the temporal change in the large-scale magnetic field responsible for the pressure anisotropies. The presence of small-scale magnetic fluctuations may dramatically affect the transport properties and, thereby, the large-scale dynamics of the high-beta astrophysical plasmas.     

Characterization of nondiffusive transport in plasma turbulence via a novel Lagrangian method

A novel method to probe and characterize the nature of the transport of passive scalars carried out by a turbulent flow is introduced. It requires the determination of two exponents which encapsulate the statistical and correlation properties of the component of interest of the Lagrangian velocities of the flow. Numerical simulations of a magnetically confined, near-critical turbulent plasma, known to exhibit superdiffusive radial transport, are used to illustrate the method. It is shown that the method can easily detect the change in the dynamics of the radial transport that takes place after adding to the simulations a (subdominant) diffusive channel of tunable strength.     

Electrostatic global vortices in a nonuniform cylindrical magneto-plasma

We present nonlinear properties of the low-frequency nonlinear electrostatic waves in a nonuniform bounded magneto-plasma with the equilibrium density and parallel ion velocity gradients along the radial direction. The existence of electrostatic global vortices in a cylindrical magnetoplasma is established. The present results should help to understand the properties of coherent vortical structures in the presence of a magnetic field-aligned ion flow with a radial ion velocity gradient in laboratory magnetoplasmas that are bounded and nonuniform.     

实验物理与工业控制系统平台在HL-2A主机测控系统中的应用

描述了利用实验物理与工业控制系统(EPICS)平台对HL-2A主机运行参数进行的集中测控系统开发。系统采用s7nodave设备驱动模块,实现了SoftIOC与各PLC的通讯,将各子系统的PLC集成到了EPICS控制系统中。通过对关系型数据库和应用层软件CSS中数据归档及报警等组件的扩展与配置,实现OPI层与各个子系统的实时通信。测控系统成功地将HL-2A主机参数集中在EPICS平台下运行,为下一代装置的主机集中测控系统设计打下了基础。     

HL-2A等离子体边缘极向剩余胁强的研究

首次报导了托卡马克等离子体边缘与湍流相关的极向剩余胁强剖面的测量结果。采用外中平面往复式静电探针阵列对HL-2A托卡马克边缘的极向湍流动量输运进行研究。在没有外部动量注入的欧姆放电下,剩余胁强为有限值、且其空间剖面在等离子体边缘具有明显的径向梯度,表明托卡马克等离子体边缘存在极向动量源。由动量源产生的动量主要以扩散形式向与剩余胁强相反的方向传播,最终的结果是等离子体边缘存在有限的雷诺胁强。在最后闭合磁面以内0.5~2cm区域,剩余胁强的梯度提供自发旋转的力矩,由该力矩引起的动量产生与由速度梯度引起的动量扩散共同导致了雷诺胁强出现负梯度,造成动量沉积,从而驱动极向平衡流。     

Nonlinear dispersion relation of geodesic acoustic modes

The energy input and frequency shift of geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) due to turbulence in tokamak edge plasmas are investigated in numerical two-fluid turbulence studies. Surprisingly, the turbulent GAM dispersion relation is qualitatively equivalent to the linear GAM dispersion but can have drastically enhanced group velocities. In up-down asymmetric geometry the energy input due to turbulent transport may favor the excitation of GAMs with one particular sign of the radial phase velocity relative to the magnetic drifts and may lead to pulsed GAM activity.     

Ion-acoustic turbulence and anomalous transport

We present results for the dynamics of evolution of non-linear state plasmas in a d.c. electric field which causes ion-acoustic turbulence (IAT). We look at (1) the time variation of the drift electron velocity and of the effective collision frequency, (2) features of the redistribution and heating of resonance ions, (3) the evolution of the spectral and angular distribution of turbulent pulsations, (4) processes of heating of the bulk of the particles. The results of an analytical IAT theory are compared with computer simulations.Special attention is paid to the theory of inhomogeneous plasmas with IAT. A self-consistent theory of anomalous transport is presented. We discuss the anisotropy of anomalous transport and the influence of non-Maxwellian particle velocity distributions on the transport processes. The electromagnetic properties, self-organization and hydrodynamic instability of plasmas with IAT are discussed.     

Infinite Products of Random Isotropically Distributed Matrices

Statistical properties of infinite products of random isotropically distributed matrices are investigated. Both for continuous processes with finite correlation time and discrete sequences of independent matrices, a formalism that allows to calculate easily the Lyapunov spectrum and generalized Lyapunov exponents is developed. This problem is of interest to probability theory, statistical characteristics of matrix T-exponentials are also needed for turbulent transport problems, dynamical chaos and other parts of statistical physics.     

When can the Fokker-Planck equation describe anomalous or chaotic transport?

The Fokker-Planck equation, applied to transport processes in fusion plasmas, can model several anomalous features, including uphill transport, scaling of confinement time with system size, and convective propagation of externally induced perturbations. It can be justified for generic particle transport provided that there is enough randomness in the Hamiltonian describing the dynamics. Then, except for 1 degree of freedom, the two transport coefficients are largely independent. Depending on the statistics of interest, the same dynamical system may be found diffusive or dominated by its Lévy flights.     

Lagrangian dynamics of drift-wave turbulence

The statistical properties of Lagrangian particle transport are investigated in dissipative drift-wave turbulence modelled by the Hasegawa-Wakatani system. By varying the adiabaticity parameter c, the flow regime can be modified from a hydrodynamic limit for c=0 to a geostrophic limit for c→∞. For c of order unity the quasi-adiabatic regime is obtained, which might be relevant to describe the edge turbulence of fusion plasmas in tokamaks. This particularity of the model allows one to study the change in dynamics when varying from one turbulent flow regime to another. By means of direct numerical simulation we consider four values for c and show that the Lagrangian dynamics is most intermittent in the hydrodynamic regime, while the other regimes are not or only weakly intermittent. In both quasi-adiabatic and quasi-geostrophic regimes the PDFs of acceleration exhibit exponential tails. This behaviour is due to the pressure term in the acceleration and not a signature of intermittency.     

修正屏蔽库仑势下二维尘埃等离子体的动力学和结构特性

本文考虑等离子体密度分布变化, 得到了修正屏蔽库仑势的解析解. 数值分析以及分子动力学模拟表明, 在常见实验室参数情况下, 等离子体密度分布变化引起的屏蔽库仑势修正对二维尘埃等离 子体系统的动力学和结构特性影响很小. 在极限参数情况下, 本模型的计算结果表明二维尘埃等离子体系统的扩散能力明显降低, 并且系统组态呈圆形分布. 此外, 本文还研究了实验室常见大小磁场对二维尘埃等离子体系统的影响. 关键词： 修正屏蔽库仑势 二维尘埃等离子体 分子动力学模拟     

Review of plasma turbulence experiments

Understandings of turbulent plasma have been developed along with nuclear fusion research for more than a half century. Long international research has produced discoveries concerning turbulent plasma that allow us to notice the hidden nature and physics questions that could contribute to other scientific fields and the development of technologies. Guiding concepts have been established up to now that stimulate investigations on turbulent plasma. Research based on concepts concerning symmetry breaking and global linkage requires observing the entire field of plasma turbulence for an ultimate understanding of plasma. This article reviews the achievements as well as contemporary problems regarding turbulence experiments associated with strongly magnetized plasmas in the last and present century, and introduces forthcoming experimental issues, including new diagnostics and physics-oriented devices related to plasma turbulence.     

Numerical investigation of non-local electron transport in laser-produced plasmas

Non-local electron transport in laser-produced plasmas under inertial confinement fusion (ICF) conditions is studied based on Fokker-Planck (FP) and hydrodynamic simulations. A comparison between the classical Spitzer--H\"arm (SH) transport model and non-local transport models has been made. The result shows that among those non-local models the Epperlein and Short (ES) model of heat flux is in reasonable agreement with the FP simulation in overdense region. However, the non-local models are invalid in the hot underdense plasmas. Hydrodynamic simulation is performed with the flux limiting model and the non-local model, separately. The simulation results show that in the underdense region of the laser-produced plasmas the temperature given by the flux limiting model is significantly higher than that given with the non-local model.     

Turbulent transport in tokamak plasmas with rotational shear

Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations are conducted to investigate turbulent transport in tokamak plasmas with rotational shear. At sufficiently large flow shears, linear instabilities are suppressed, but transiently growing modes drive subcritical turbulence whose amplitude increases with flow shear. This leads to a local minimum in the heat flux, indicating an optimal E×B shear value for plasma confinement. Local maxima in the momentum fluxes are observed, implying the possibility of bifurcations in the E×B shear. The critical temperature gradient for the onset of turbulence increases with flow shear at low flow shears; at higher flow shears, the dependence of heat flux on temperature gradient becomes less stiff. The turbulent Prandtl number is found to be largely independent of temperature and flow gradients, with a value close to unity.