Vertical and Kink Mode Stability Calculations for Current Carrying Quasiaxial Stellarators
Authors: M.H. Redi, C. Nuehrenberg, W.A. Cooper, G-Y. Fu, C. Kessel, L.P. Ku, D.A. Monticello, A. Reiman, and M.C. Zarnstorff
Date: July 9, 1999
Presented at the 26th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics, held in Maastricht, Netherlands, June 14-18, 1999
Vertical and kink mode stability are essential for strongly shaped tokamaks, to preclude disruptive plasma termination. Similarly, the design of stellarators with significant current, such as quasiaxial stellarators (QAS) must be carefully examined to ensure adequate vertical and kink stability. The CAS3D [1] and TERPSICHORE [2] MHD stability code packages are being used to evaluate the stability of QAS configurations. CAS3D has previously been applied to predict stability of the W7-X stellarator, under construction at IPP, Greifswald, Germany. As part of a multifaceted effort to develop an interesting compact quasiaxial stellarator configuration for a modest sized experiment at PPPL, these two code packages are being used for three dimensional calculations of internal and external MHD stability, including extensive benchmarking of MHD stability for axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric cases.