Motoki Nakata

Nonlinear entropy transfer via zonal flows in gyrokinetic plasma turbulence

Nonlinear entropy transfer processes in toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) and electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven turbulence are investigated based on the gyrokinetic entropy balance relations for zonal and non-zonal modes, which are coupled through the entropy transfer function regarded as a kinetic extension of the zonal-flow production due to the Reynolds stress. Spectral analyses of the “triad” entropy transfer function introduced in this study reveal not only the nonlinear interactions among the zonal and non-zonal modes, but also their effects on the turbulent transport level. Different types of the entropy transfer processes between the ITG and ETG turbulence are found: the entropy transfer from non-zonal to zonal modes is substantial in the saturation phase of the ITG instability, while, once the strong zonal flow is generated, the entropy transfer to the zonal modes becomes quite weak in the steady turbulence state. Instead, the zonal flows mediate the entropy transfer from non-zonal...

Plasma size and collisionality scaling of ion-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence

Fixed-flux (FF), fixed-gradient (FG) and local fluxtube (FT) gyrokinetic simulations are systematically compared for ion-temperature-gradient (ITG)-driven turbulence. The collisionality (ν*) dependence of ion heat diffusivity is verified through the inter-model comparisons. When the temperature gradient is far from the nonlinear critical value, the FF and FT models give a weak ν*-dependence, while the FG model shows a strong ν*-dependence. The entropy transfer analysis on the zonal-flow saturation mechanisms in the quasi-steady state of the FT simulation provides clear insights on the different ν*-dependence of the turbulent transport and zonal-flow shearing rate in the far-above- and near-critical cases. It has also been revealed that the FG model provides the strong ν*-dependence through the change of ITG-mode stability due to ν*-dependent heating/sink by the adaptive heat source, where the velocity distribution function is deformed. The plasma size (ρ*) scan in the FF simulations show a Bohm-like transport scaling even in a local limit regime, ρ*−1 ≥ 300, where profile-shear effects are weak. It has been clarified that the transient variations of local power balance are essential mechanisms leading to the Bohm-like heat transport even at similar mean temperature gradients, where the burst amplitude and its frequency increase with the plasma size and the heating power. The mechanism is unique to the FF model. Comparisons of statistical characteristics in the local limit regime show differences in frequency spectra and probability density functions of the heat flux, while zonal-flow structures and avalanche propagations properties are similar among these models.

Roles of argon seeding in energy confinement and pedestal structure in JT-60U

The mechanism of improving energy confinement with argon seeding at high density has been investigated in JT-60U. Better confinement is sustained at high density by argon seeding accompanied by higher core and pedestal temperatures. The electron density profiles become flatter with increasing density in conventional H-mode plasmas, whereas peaked density profiles are maintained with argon seeding. Density peaking and dilution effects lower the pedestal density at a given averaged density. The pedestal density in the argon seeded plasmas, which is lower than that in plasmas with deuterium puff, enables the pedestal temperature to be higher, whereas the increase in the pedestal pressure with argon seeding is small. High pedestal temperature is a boundary condition for high core temperature through profile stiffness, which leads to better confinement with argon seeding. The density peaking is a key factor of sustaining better confinement in argon seeded H-mode plasmas. The radiative loss power density is predominantly enhanced in the edge region by argon puff. The role of argon seeding in the pedestal characteristics has also been examined. The pedestal width becomes larger continuously with edge collisionality, but is nearly independent of the presence of argon seeding.

Plasma size and power scaling of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence

The transport scaling with respect to plasma size and heating power is studied for ion temperature gradient driven turbulence using a fixed-flux full-f gyrokinetic Eulerian code. It is found that when heating power is scaled with plasma size, the ion heat diffusivity increases with plasma size in a local limit regime, where fixed-gradient δf simulations predict a gyro-Bohm scaling. In the local limit regime, the transport scaling is strongly affected by the stiffness of ion temperature profiles, which is related to the power degradation of confinement.

Abstract: Communication Overlap Techniques for Improved Strong Scaling of Gyrokinetic Eulerian Code beyond 100k Cores on the K-Computer

A plasma turbulence research based on 5D gyrokinetic simulations is one of the most critical and demanding issues in fusion science. To pioneer new physics regimes both in problem sizes and in time scales, an improvement of strong scaling is essential. Overlap of computations and communications is a promising approach in improving strong scaling, but it often fails on practical applications with conventional MPI libraries. In this work, this classical issue is revisited, and resolved by communication overlap techniques, which work even on conventional MPI libraries. These techniques dramatically improve the parallel efficiency of a gyrokinetic Eularian code GT5D on the K-computer and the Helios, which are based on dedicated and commodity networks, respectively. On the K-computer, excellent strong scaling is confirmed beyond 100k cores with keeping the peak ratio of ~10% (~307 TFlops using 196,608 cores), and simulations for ITER-size fusion devices are significantly accelerated.

Effects of toroidal rotation shear and magnetic shear on thermal and particle transport in plasmas with electron cyclotron heating on JT-60U

Increases in thermal and particle transport with electron cyclotron heating (ECH) that are observed in many tokamaks can be a critical issue in establishing ITER operational scenarios with electron heating. To address the issues, conditions with no increase in the thermal and particle transport with ECH have been experimentally investigated in positive magnetic shear, weak magnetic shear (WS) and reversed magnetic shear plasmas with internal transport barrier in the ion channel. The ion heat diffusivity (χi) around the internal transport barrier in the ion temperature remains constant with ECH when a large negative toroidal rotation shear (|dV/dr| > 4 × 105 s−1) is formed before the ECH. On the other hand, χi increases on the condition that the toroidal rotation shear is small or positive. The characteristics do not depend on magnetic shear, the electron to ion temperature ratio (Te/Ti) and ECH power. The electron heat diffusivity stays constant with ECH when the magnetic shear is negative. Effective particle transport remains constant or reduces during ECH under the condition of negative magnetic shear. An observation indicates that there is no threshold of the negative magnetic shear or a very small one for the electron channel sustainment; the electron thermal and particle confinement is maintained during ECH with a small negative magnetic shear in the WS operation.

Impact of hydrogen isotope species on microinstabilities in helical plasmas

The impact of isotope ion mass on ion-scale and electron-scale microinstabilities such as ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode, trapped electron mode (TEM), and electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode in helical plasmas are investigated by using gyrokinetic Vlasov simulations with a hydrogen isotope and real-mass kinetic electrons. Comprehensive scans for the equilibrium parameters and magnetic configurations clarify the transition from ITG mode to TEM instability, where a significant TEM enhancement is revealed in the case of inward-shifted plasma compared to that in the standard configuration. It is elucidated that the ion-mass dependence on the ratio of the electron–ion collision frequency to the ion transit one, i.e. , leads to a stabilization of the TEM for heavier isotope ions. The ITG growth rate indicates a gyro-Bohm-like ion-mass dependence, where the mixing-length estimate of diffusivity yields . On the other hand, a weak isotope dependence of the ETG growth rate is identified. A collisionality scan also reveals that the TEM stabilization by the isotope ions becomes more significant for relatively higher collisionality in a banana regime.

Isotope Effects on Trapped-Electron-Mode Driven Turbulence and Zonal Flows in Helical and Tokamak Plasmas

Impacts of isotope ion mass on trapped-electron-mode (TEM)-driven turbulence and zonal flows in magnetically confined fusion plasmas are investigated. Gyrokinetic simulations of TEM-driven turbulence in three-dimensional magnetic configuration of helical plasmas with hydrogen isotope ions and real-mass kinetic electrons are realized for the first time, and the linear and the nonlinear nature of the isotope and collisional effects on the turbulent transport and zonal-flow generation are clarified. It is newly found that combined effects of the collisional TEM stabilization by the isotope ions and the associated increase in the impacts of the steady zonal flows at the near-marginal linear stability lead to the significant transport reduction with the opposite ion mass dependence in comparison to the conventional gyro-Bohm scaling. The universal nature of the isotope effects on the TEM-driven turbulence and zonal flows is verified for a wide variety of toroidal plasmas, e.g., axisymmetric tokamak and non-axisymmetric helical or stellarator systems.

Formation of coherent vortex streets and transport reduction in electron temperature gradient driven turbulence

Vortex structures in slab electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven turbulence are investigated by means of a gyrokinetic simulation with high phase-space resolution. Depending on parameters that determine the eigenfrequency of the linear ETG modes, two different flow structures, i.e., statistically steady turbulence with a weak zonal flow and coherent vortex streets along a strong zonal flow, are observed. The former involves many isolated vortices and their mergers with complicated motion and leads to steady electron heat transport. When the latter is formed, phase difference and high wavenumber components of potential and temperature fluctuations are reduced, and the electron heat transport decreases significantly. It is also found that the phase matching with the potential fluctuation is correlated with the reduction in the imaginary part of the perturbed distribution function, and it occurs not only for the temperature fluctuation but also for any nth velocity moments. A traveling wave solution of a...

Comparison between kinetic-ballooning-mode-driven turbulence and ion-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence

Electromagnetic turbulence driven by kinetic ballooning modes (KBMs) in high-β plasma is investigated based on the local gyrokinetic model. Analysis of turbulent fluxes, norms, and phases of fluctuations shows that KBM turbulence gives narrower spectra and smaller phase factors than those in ion-temperature-gradient (ITG)-driven turbulence. This leads to the smaller transport fluxes in KBM turbulence than those in ITG turbulence even when they have similar linear growth rates. From the analysis of the entropy balance relation, it is found that the entropy transfer from ions to electrons through the field-particle interactions mainly drives electron perturbations, which creates radial twisted modes by rapid parallel motions of electrons in a sheared magnetic geometry. The nonlinear coupling between the dominant unstable mode and its twisted modes is important for the saturation of KBM turbulence, in contrast to the importance of zonal flow shearing in ITG turbulence. The coupling depends on the flux-tube domain with the one-poloidal-turn parallel length and on the torus periodicity constraint.