We study the effects of Resonant Magnetic Perturbations (RMPs) on turbulence, flows and confinement in the framework of resistive drift-wave turbulence. This work was motivated, in parts, by experiments reported at the IAEA 2010 conference [Y. Xu {it et al}, Nucl. Fusion textbf{51}, 062030] which showed a decrease of long-range correlations during the application of RMPs. We derive and apply a zero-dimensional predator-prey model coupling the Drift-Wave Zonal Mode system [M. Leconte and P.H. Diamond, Phys. Plasmas textbf{19}, 055903] to the evolution of mean quantities. This model has both density gradient drive and RMP amplitude as control parameters and predicts a novel type of transport bifurcation in the presence of RMPs. This model allows a description of the full L-H transition evolution with RMPs, including the mean sheared flow evolution. The key results are: i) The L-I and I-H power thresholds emph{both} increase with RMP amplitude $|bx|$, the relative increase of the L-I threshold scales as $Delta P_{rm LI} propto |bx|^2 u_*^{-2} gyro^{-2}$, where $ u_*$ is edge collisionality and $gyro$ is the sound gyroradius. ii) RMPs are predicted to emph{decrease} the hysteresis between the forward and back-transition. iii) Taking into account the mean density evolution, the density profile - sustained by the particle source - has an increased turbulent diffusion compared with the reference case without RMPs which provides one possible explanation for the emph{density pump-out} effect.
Download