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2013
In some magnetically confined plasmas, an applied pulse of rapid edge cooling can trigger either a positive or negative excursion in the core electron temperature from its steady state value. We present a new model which captures the time evolution of the transient, non-diffusive local dynamics in the core plasma. We show quantitative agreement bet…
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2013
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2013
Energy transport and confinement in tokamak fusion plasmas is usually determined by the coupled nonlinear interactions of small-scale drift turbulence and larger scale coherent nonlinear structures, such as zonal flows, together with free energy sources such as temperature gradients. Zero-dimensional models, designed to embody plausible physical na…
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2013
Edge localised mode (ELM) measurements from reproducibly similar plasmas in the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak, which differ only in their gas puffing rate, are analysed in terms of the pattern in the sequence of inter-ELM time intervals. It is found that the category of ELM defined empirically as type I—typically more regular, less frequent,…
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2012
Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) with modest powers ( 10% of the total power input) has been used for the first time to completely stabilize performance limiting neoclassical tearing modes in many COMPASS-D tokamak discharges. The stabilizing effect in these experiments is consistent with a reduction in the free energy available in the current pro…
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2011
We report a first principles study of the coupled evolution of energetic ions, background majority ions, electrons and electromagnetic fields in magnetised plasma during the linear phase of the lower hybrid drift instability. A particle-incell code, with one spatial and three velocity space co-ordinates, is used to analyse the evolving distribution…
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2011
We present particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of minority energetic protons in deuterium plasmas, which demonstrate a collective instability responsible for emission near the lower hybrid frequency and its harmonics. The simulations capture the lower hybrid drift instability in a regime relevant to tokamak fusion plasmas, and show further that the …
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2011
The overall phenomenology of plasmas emerges from multiple couplings between processes on many different lengthscales and timescales, creating innumerable feedback loops. For example, overall energy confinement – the central emergent property for fusion – is governed by a selfconsistent loop involving: temperature, density, and current profiles…
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2010
We present a novel code which solves the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck (VFP) equation in three dimensional magnetic turbulence using finite difference methods. The approach is distinct from particle tracking codes. The angular component of velocity space distribution function is represented by a spherical harmonic expansion drawing on an approach pioneered …
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2010
The effect of finite Larmor radius on the transport of passive charged test particles moving in turbulent electrostatic fields is investigated. The turbulent field is governed by a flexible model which is able to produce turbulence where zonal flows are damped or free to self-generate. A subtle interplay between trapping in small scale vortices and…
Showing 41 - 50 of 102 UKAEA Paper Results