P. Helander L.-G. Eriksson F. Andersson
The kinetic theory of runaway electron avalanches caused by close Coulomb collisions is extended to account for radial diffusion. This is found to slow down the growth of avalanches. An approximate analytical formula for the growth rate is derived and is verified by a three-dimensional Monte Carlo code constructed for this purpose. As the poloidal …
PublishedP. Helander
The theory of neoclassical transport near the magnetic axis in a tokamak is discussed. It is shown that the ordinary treatment of transport in the plateau regime holds in most of the region within a trapped orbit width of the magnetic axis, and is not modified by ‘‘potato’’ orbits. It is also demonstrated that transport at low collisionalit…
PublishedT. Fülöp P. Helander
The theory of neoclassical transport in an impure toroidal plasma is extended to allow for larger pressure and temperature gradients and faster toroidal rotation than are usually considered. Under these conditions, the density of heavy impurities is not constant on flux surfaces, and the neoclassical transport becomes a nonlinear function of the gr…
PublishedP. Helander S. C. Chapman R. O. Dendy G. Rowlands N. W. Watkins
A simple one-dimensional sandpile model is constructed which possesses exact analytical solvability while displaying both scale-free behavior and fractal properties. The sandpile grows by avalanching on all scales, yet its shape and energy content are described by a simple, continuous (but nowhere differentiable) analytical formula. The avalanche e…
PublishedP. Helander
The theory of neoclassical transport in an impure, toroidal plasma is extended to allow for steeper pressure and temperature gradients than are usually considered. It is found that the ion particle flux is a nonmonotonic function of these gradients for plasma parameters typical of the tokamak edge. A sudden transition between states of low and high…
PublishedT. Fülöp Peter J. Catto P. Helander
Ion plasma flow and flow shear just inside the last closed flux surface of a tokamak can be strongly altered by neutral atoms and anomalous effects. For a collisional edge, neutrals modify the standard Pfirsch–Schluter expression for the parallel ion flow through the strong coupling provided by ion–neutral collisions. Even for rather small neut…
PublishedPeter J. Catto P. Helander J. W. Connor R. D. Hazeltine
The edge plasma of a tokamak is affected by atomic physics processes and can have density and temperature variations along the magnetic field that strongly modify edge transport. A closed system of equations in the Pfirsch–Schluter regime is presented that can be solved for the radial and poloidal variation of the plasma density, electron and ion…
PublishedT. Fülöp Peter J. Catto P. Helander
Bulk ion flow can be modified by ion–neutral interactions in the edge region of tokamaks where neutral atoms are abundant. In this region, the standard neoclassical expression for the ion flow is not consistent with the experimental observations. Previous work in the plateau regime [Valanju et al., Phys. Fluids B 4, 2675 (1992)] suggests that the…
PublishedJ. B. Taylor J. W. Connor P. Helander
Transport barriers and transitions between modes of low and high confinement in tokamak plasmas are often attributed to suppression of turbulence by a shear flow related to a plasma gradient, e.g., of density. However, such shear flow is also affected by the second derivative of density. When this is introduced there is no unique relation between f…
PublishedP. Helander
In a toroidally rotating tokamak plasma, heavy impurity ions accumulate on the outside of each flux surface under the action of the centrifugal force. The collision frequency therefore varies over the flux surface. This circumstance is shown to enhance the neoclassical transport processes, including the bootstrap current, by making collisions occur…
Published