Importance of Plasma Response to Non-axisymmetric Perturbations in Tokamaks
Authors: Jong-kyu Park, Allen H. Boozer, Jonathan E. Menard, Andrea M. Garofalo, Michael J. Schaffer, Richard J. Hawryluk, Stanley M. Kaye, Stefan P. Gerhardt, Steve A. Sabbagh, and the NSTX Team
Abstract:
Tokamaks are sensitive to deviations from axisymmetry as small as δB=B0 ~ 10-4. These non-axisymmetric perturbations greatly modify plasma confinement and performance by either destroying magnetic surfaces with subsequent locking or deforming magnetic surfaces with associated non-ambipolar transport. The Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code (IPEC) calculates ideal perturbed equilibria and provides important basis for understanding the sensitivity of tokamak plasmas to perturbations. IPEC calculations indicate that the ideal plasma response, or equiva- lently the effect by ideally perturbed plasma currents, is essential to explain locking experiments on National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX) and DIII-D. The ideal plasma response is also important for Neoclassical Toroidal Viscosity (NTV) in non-ambipolar transport. The consistency between NTV theory and magnetic braking experiments on NSTX and DIII-D can be improved when the variation in the field strength in IPEC is coupled with generalized NTV theory. These plasma response effects will be compared with the previous vacuum superpositions to illustrate the importance. However, plasma response based on ideal perturbed equilibria is still not suffciently accurate to predict the details of NTV transport, and can be inconsistent when currents associated with a toroidal torque become comparable to ideal perturbed currents.
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Submitted to: Invited paper presented at the 50th APS Conference Dallas, Texas (November 2008)
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Download PPPL-4400 (pdf 1.14 MB 29 pp)
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