J.C. Hillesheim F.I. Parra,M. Barnes N.A. Crocker H. Meyer W.A. Peebles R. Scannell A. Thornton The Mast Team
Tokamak plasmas rotate even without any external injection of momentum. A Doppler backscattering system installed at MAST has allowed this intrinsic rotation to be studied in Ohmic L-mode and H-mode plasmas, including the first observation of intrinsic rotation reversals in a spherical tokamak. Experimental results are compared to a novel 1D model,…
PublishedY.-C. Ghim A. A. Schekochihin A. R. Field I. G. Abel M. Barnes G. Colyer S. C. Cowley F. I. Parra D. Dunai S. Zoletnik The Mast Team
Beam emission spectroscopy (BES) measurements of ion-scale density fluctuations in the MAST tokamak are used to show that the turbulence correlation time, the drift time associated with iontemperature or density gradients, the particle (ion) streaming time along the magnetic field, and the magnetic drift time are consistently comparable, suggesting…
PublishedH. Meyer I.G. Abel R.J. Akers A. Allan S.Y. Allan L.C. Appel O. Asunta M. Barnes N.C. Barratt Et Al
New diagnostic, modelling and plant capability on the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) have delivered important results in key areas for ITER/DEMO and the upcoming MAST Upgrade, a step towards future ST devices on the path to fusion currently under procurement. Micro-stability analysis of the pedestal highlights the potential roles of micro-tea…
PublishedE. G. Highcock A. A. Schekochihin S. C. Cowley M. Barnes F. I. Parra C. M. Roach W. Dorland
Sheared toroidal flows can cause bifurcations to zero-turbulent-transport states in tokamak plasmas. The maximum temperature gradients that can be reached are limited by subcritical turbulence driven by the parallel velocity gradient. Here it is shown that magnetic field pitch/inverse aspect ratio is a critical control parameter for sheared tokamak…
PublishedF.I. Parra M. Barnes A.G. Peeters
Two symmetries of the local nonlinear df gyrokinetic system of equations in tokamaks in the high flow regime are presented. The turbulent transport of toroidal angular momentum changes sign under an up-down reflection of the tokamak and a sign change of both the rotation and the rotation shear. Thus, the turbulent transport of toroidal angular mome…
PublishedM. Barnes F. I. Parra A. A. Schekochihin
Scaling laws for ion temperature gradient driven turbulence in magnetized toroidal plasmas are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. Predicted dependences of turbulence fluctuation amplitudes, spatial scales, and resulting heat fluxes on temperature gradient and magnetic field line pitch are found to agree with numerical results i…
PublishedM. Barnes F.I. Parra E.G. Highcock A.A. Schekochihin S.C. Cowley C.M. Roach
Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations are conducted to investigate turbulent transport in tokamak plasmas with rotational shear. At sufficiently large flow shears, linear instabilities are suppressed, but transiently growing modes drive subcritical turbulence whose amplitude increases with flow shear. This leads to a local minimum in the heat flux, ind…
PublishedF.I. Parra M. Barnes E.G. Highcock A.A. Schekochihin S.C. Cowley
The effect of momentum injection on the temperature gradient in tokamak plasmas is studied. A plausible scenario for transitions to reduced transport regimes is proposed. The transition happens when there is sufficient momentum input so that the velocity shear can suppress or reduce the turbulence. However, it is possible to drive too much velocity…
PublishedR. V. Bravenec J. Candy M. Barnes C. Holland
Verification of nonlinear microstability codes is a necessary step before comparisons or predictions of turbulent transport in toroidal devices can be justified. By verification we mean demonstrating that a code correctly solves the mathematical model upon which it is based. Some degree of verification can be accomplished indirectly from analytical…
Published