R.S. Wilcox

Scaling and transport analyses based on an international edge turbulence database

Microscopic turbulence properties in the edge of toroidally confined fusion plasmas are studied by comparative analysis of experimental data from seven devices, collected in an international edge turbulence database. The database contains Langmuir probe measurements of fluctuations in the floating potential and ion saturation current across the last closed flux surface. They are used to address statistical properties and particle transport. Universal features of plasma edge turbulence such as an increase in skewness across the scrape-off layer (SOL) as footprints of density blobs are recovered in all devices. Analysis of the correlation lengths and times reveals power law scaling relations with macroscopic drift-wave parameters, albeit weaker than would be expected for drift-wave turbulence. As a result, the turbulent diffusivity scales with the inverse of the magnetic field strength, which is closer to Bohm-like scaling than to gyro-Bohm scaling. Nearly identical scaling relations are determined in the confined plasma edge and the SOL, pointing to a strong connection between drift-wave turbulence in the edge and blobs in the SOL. The contributions of blobs and holes (negative density spikes) to the radial particle transport are analyzed qualitatively with a conditional averaging approach. Blobs are connected to outward transport in the SOL of all devices whereas holes exhibit no uniform propagation pattern.

Intrinsic plasma rotation and Reynolds stress at the plasma edge in the HSX stellarator

Using multi-tipped Langmuir probes in the edge of the HSX stellarator, the radial electric field and parallel flows are found to deviate from the values calculated by the neoclassical transport code PENTA for the optimized quasi-helically symmetric (QHS) configuration. To understand whether Reynolds stress might explain the discrepancy, fluctuating floating potential measurements are made at two locations in the torus corresponding to the low field and high field sides of the device. The measurements at the two locations show clear evidence of a gradient in the Reynolds stress. However, the resulting flow due to the gradient in the stress is found to be large and in opposite directions for the two locations. This makes an estimation of the flux surface average using a small number of measurement locations impractical from an experimental perspective. These results neither confirm nor rule out whether Reynolds stress plays an important role for the QHS configuration. Measurements made in configurations with the quasi-symmetry degraded show even larger flows and greater deviations from the neoclassically calculated velocity profiles than the QHS configuration while the fluctuation magnitudes are reduced. Therefore, for these configurations in particular, the Reynolds stress is most likely not responsible for the additional momentum.

Impact of ideal MHD stability limits on high-beta hybrid operation

The hybrid scenario is a candidate for stationary high-fusion gain tokamak operation in ITER and DEMO. To obtain such performance, the energy confinement and the normalized pressure βN must be maximized, which requires operating near or above ideal MHD no-wall limits. New experimental findings show how these limits can affect hybrid operation. Even if hybrids are mainly limited by tearing modes, proximity to the no-wall limit leads to 3D field amplification that affects plasma profiles, e.g. rotation braking is observed in ASDEX Upgrade throughout the plasma and peaks in the core. As a result, even the small ASDEX Upgrade error fields are amplified and their effects become visible. To quantify such effects, ASDEX Upgrade measured the response to 3D fields applied by 8×2 non-axisymmetric coils as βN approaches the no-wall limit. The full n = 1 response profile and poloidal structure are measured by a suite of diagnostics and compared with linear MHD simulations, revealing a characteristic feature of hybrids: the n = 1 response is due to a global, marginally-stable n = 1 kink characterized by a large m = 1, n = 1 core harmonic due to qmin being just above 1. A helical core distortion of a few cm forms and affects various core quantities, including plasma rotation, electron and ion temperature, and intrinsic W density. In similar experiments, DIII-D also measured the effect of this helical core on the internal current profile, providing useful information to understand the physics of magnetic flux pumping, i.e. anomalous current redistribution by MHD modes that keeps qmin > 1. Thanks to flux pumping, a broad current profile is maintained in DIII-D even with large on-axis current drive, enabling fully non-inductive operation with high βN up to 3.5− 4. Impact of ideal MHD stability limits on high-beta hybrid operation 2

Use of reconstructed 3D VMEC equilibria to match effects of toroidally rotating discharges in DIII-D

Here, a technique for tokamak equilibrium reconstructions is used for multiple DIII-D discharges, including L-mode and H-mode cases when weakly 3D fields

Helical variation of density profiles and fluctuations in the tokamak pedestal with applied 3D fields and implications for confinement

\left(\delta B/B\sim { {10}^{-3}}\right)

Verification of Doppler coherence imaging for 2D ion velocity measurements on DIII-D

are applied. The technique couples diagnostics to the non-linear, ideal MHD equilibrium solver VMEC, using the V3FIT code, to find the most likely 3D equilibrium based on a suite of measurements. It is demonstrated that V3FIT can be used to find non-linear 3D equilibria that are consistent with experimental measurements of the plasma response to very weak 3D perturbations, as well as with 2D profile measurements. Observations at DIII-D show that plasma rotation larger than 20 krad s–1 changes the relative phase between the applied 3D fields and the measured plasma response. Discharges with low averaged rotation (10 krad s–1) and peaked rotation profiles (40 krad s–1) are reconstructed. Similarities and differences to forward modeled VMEC equilibria, which do not include rotational effects, are shown. Toroidal phase shifts of up to

Helical core reconstruction of a DIII-D hybrid scenario tokamak discharge

{ {30}^{\circ}}