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Register a new userInfluence of Micro-turbulence on Neoclassical Tearing Mode Onset
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Direct evidence of micro-turbulence effect on the onset of neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) is reported for the first time in this letter. A puzzling positive correlation between critical width of seed island of NTM and normalized plasma pressure beta_p is first observed employing a novel method for clearly separating the processes of seed island and the onset of NTM in the EAST tokamak. Different from the methods developed before, the width of the seed island is well controlled by slowly ramping up the current in resonant magnetic perturbation coils. It is revealed that the positive correlation is mainly attributed to the enhancement of perpendicular transport by micro-turbulence, which overcomes the destabilizing effect of beta_p on the onset of NTM. Reduced magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) modeling well reproduced the two states of nonlinear bifurcations observed in this experiment by including the finite transport effect. This result provides a new route for understanding multi-scale interaction in plasma physics.
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The stabilization of tearing modes with rf driven current benefits from the cooperative feedback loop between rf power deposition and electron temperature within the island. This effect, termed rf current condensation, can greatly enhance and localize current driven within magnetic islands. It has previously been shown that the condensation effect opens the possibility of passive stabilization with broad rf profiles, as would be typical of LHCD for steady state operation. Here we show that this self-healing effect can be dramatically amplified by operation in a hot ion mode, due to the additional electron heat source provided by the hotter ions.
In this paper we study the scaling relations for the triggering of the fast, or ideal, tearing instability starting from equilibrium configurations relevant to astrophysical as well as laboratory plasmas that differ from the simple Harris current sheet configuration. We present the linear tearing instability analysis for equilibrium magnetic fields which a) go to zero at the boundary of the domain and b) contain a double current sheet system (the latter previously studied as a cartesian proxy for the m=1 kink mode in cylindrical plasmas). More generally, we discuss the critical aspect ratio scalings at which the growth rates become independent of the Lundquist number $S$, in terms of the dependence of the $Delta$ parameter on the wavenumber $k$ of unstable modes. The scaling $Delta(k)$ with $k$ at small $k$ is found to categorize different equilibria broadly: the critical aspect ratios may be even smaller than $L/a sim S^{alpha}$ with $alpha=1/3$ originally found for the Harris current sheet, but there exists a general lower bound $alphage1/4$.
Calculations of tearing mode stability in tokamaks split conveniently into an external region, where marginally stable ideal MHD is applicable, and a resonant layer around the rational surface where sophisticated kinetic physics is needed. These two regions are coupled by the stability parameter. Pressure and current perturbations localized around the rational surface alter the stability of tearing modes. Equations governing the changes in the external solution and - are derived for arbitrary perturbations in axisymmetric toroidal geometry. The relationship of - with and without pressure flattening is obtained analytically for four pressure flattening functions. Resistive MHD codes do not contain the appropriate layer physics and therefore cannot predict stability directly. They can, however, be used to calculate -. Existing methods (Ham et al. 2012 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 54 025009) for extracting - from resistive codes are unsatisfactory when there is a finite pressure gradient at the rational surface and favourable average curvature because of the Glasser stabilizing effect. To overcome this difficulty we introduce a specific pressure flattening function that allows the earlier approach to be used. The technique is first tested numerically in cylindrical geometry with an artificial favourable curvature. Its application to toroidal geometry is then demonstrated using the toroidal tokamak tearing mode stability code T7 (Fitzpatrick et al. 1993 Nucl. Fusion 33 1533) which uses an approximate analytic equilibrium. The prospects for applying this approach to resistive MHD codes such as MARS-F (Liu et al. 2000 Phys. Plasmas 7 3681) which utilize a fully toroidal equilibrium are discussed.
The RF stabilization of tearing modes with current condensation has the potential to increase stabilization efficiency and loosen power localization requirements. Such benefits stem from the cooperative feedback between the RF deposition and resulting island temperature perturbation governed by diffusion. A self consistent treatment of the damping of an rf ray as it traverses the island shows that low damping scenarios can require unfavorably high powers to overcome initial power leakage and effectively capitalize on the nonlinear effect. In this work it is demonstrated that for such regimes,modulated stabilization schemes can achieve significant improvements in heating and current drive contributions to stabilization for the same average power as a continuous wave scheme. The impact of modulation frequency and duty cycle on the performance is explored, the results of which suggest modulation strategies in which the pulsing periods are kept on the order of a diffusive time.
The role of anisotropic thermal diffusivity on tearing mode stability is analysed in general toroidal geometry. A dispersion relation linking the growth rate to the tearing mode stability parameter, Delta, is derived. By using a resistive MHD code, modified to include such thermal transport, to calculate tearing mode growth rates, the dispersion relation is employed to determine Delta in situations with finite plasma pressure that are stabilised by favourable average curvature in a simple resistive MHD model. We also demonstrate that the same code can also be used to calculate the basis-functions [C J Ham, et al, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 54 (2012) 105014] needed to construct Delta.
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