A.A. Subbotin

Physics Design of a High-beta Quasi-axisymmetric Stellarator

Note: 8th Toki 11th International Stellarator Conference, Toki-City, Japan, September/October 1997, Proc. published in J. Plasma and Fusion Res., SERIES, Vol. 1, 429 - 432 (1998) Reference CRPP-CONF-1998-055 Record created on 2008-05-13, modified on 2016-08-08

Improved alpha-particle confinement in stellarators with poloidally closed contours of the magnetic field strength

The possibility of fulfilling the condition of poloidal closure of the contours of the second adiabatic invariant for all reflected particles is studied for systems with poloidally closed contours of the magnetic field B on the magnetic surfaces through computational stellarator optimization. It is shown that by adjusting the geometry this is possible in a major fraction of the plasma volume. The most salient characteristic (as compared to previous quasi-isodynamic configurations) is a magnetic axis whose curvature vanishes in all cross sections with an extremum of B on the magnetic axis and renders possible a three-dimensional structure of B with unprecedentedly high collisionless α-particle confinement.

Ideal magnetohydrodynamic stability of the NCSX

Abstract The ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) is extensively analyzed using the most advanced three-dimensional MHD codes. It is shown that the NCSX is stable to finite-n MHD modes, including the vertical mode, external kink modes and ballooning modes. However, high-n external kink modes that peak near the plasma edge are found to be weakly unstable. A global calculation shows that finite-n ballooning modes are significantly more stable than the local infinite-n modes.

Plasma stability in Heliac-like quasi-helically symmetric stellarators

An attempt is made to find an optimal quasi-helically symmetric (QHS) four period magnetic configuration with a Heliac-like structure of the magnetic surface cross-sections. This means that the cross-sections rotate in phase with the magnetic axis principal normal in contrast to the Helias-like systems where the magnetic surface cross-sections rotate half as fast as the principal normal. The equilibrium and local stability are studied with the VMEC and TERPSICHORE codes. It is shown that, in the configuration found, the equilibrium beta limit is about 9%, the Mercier beta limit is about 4% and the ballooning modes restrict the beta value to 1%. The accuracy of the fulfilment of the QHS condition is given by X~3 (i.e. the largest amplitude of the magnetic field strength B harmonic that violates the quasi-symmetry is a third that of the main helical harmonic of B in Boozer co-ordinates)

A new class of quasi-omnigenous configurations

An approximation to a quasi-omnigenous structure of the magnetic field strength has been numerically obtained by optimization of the magnetic configuration of a conventional heliotron/torsatron. This configuration shows very good collisionless confinement of the guiding centre orbits of fusion alpha-particles for values of up to 0.05.

Quasi‐isodynamic Configuration With N = 12 and High β

Results of an optimization toward quasi‐isodynamicity for a stellarator with a comparatively large number of periods, N = 12, are presented. The following set of physics properties to be achieved was used: 1) good long‐time collisionless confinement of α‐particles; 2) small neoclassical transport in the 1/ν regime; 3) small bootstrap current; 4) high stability‐β limit. As a result, the boundary magnetic surface of a configuration is found that satisfies the above requirements for 〈β〉 ≈ 20%.

Energetic Particle Transport in Compact Quasi-axisymmetric Stellarators

Hamiltonian coordinate, guiding-center code calculations of the confinement of suprathermal ions in quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (QAS) designs have been carried out to evaluate the attractiveness of compact configurations which are optimized for ballooning stability. A new stellarator particle-following code is used to predict ion loss rates and particle confinement for thermal and neutral beam ions in a small experiment with R = 145 cm, B = 1-2 T and for alpha particles in a reactor-size device. In contrast to tokamaks, it is found that high edge poloidal flux has limited value in improving ion confinement in QAS, since collisional pitch-angle scattering drives ions into ripple wells and stochastic field regions, where they are quickly lost. The necessity for reduced stellarator ripple fields is emphasized. The high neutral beam ion loss predicted for these configurations suggests that more interesting physics could be explored with an experiment of less constrained size and magnetic field geometry.