M. Giacomin D. Dickinson D. Kennedy B. Patel C. M. Roach
Linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations are performed in experimentally relevant scenarios built from a MAST case where a microtearing mode instability dominates at ion Larmor radius scale. This collisional microtearing mode instability appears only when a vel…
PreprintDaniel Kennedy Bhavin S Patel Colin M Roach
Microinstabilities often result in turbulence that influences energy confinement in tokamak discharges. One such microinstability, of particular importance to the design of next-generation spherical tokamaks (STs) such as STEP [1], is the microtearing mode (MTM), a tearing-parity mode centred on high-order rational surfaces. MTMs are short-wavel…
PreprintFrancesco Palermo G. D. Conway E. Poli C. M. Roach
Geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) represent the oscillating counterpart of the zonal flow and can affect transport with their interaction on turbulence eddies. GAMs have been observed in many experiments and modelled under different conditions, but because of their variety of characteristics, we do not yet have a complete picture of their dynamics.…
PreprintS.M. Kaye J.W. Connor C.M. Roach
In this paper, we review the confinement and transport properties observed and predicted in low aspect ratio tokamaks, or spherical tokamaks (STs), which can depart significantly from those observed at higher aspect ratio. In particular, thermal energy confinement scalings show a strong, near linear dependence of energy confinement time on toroidal…
Preprint PublishedH. G. Dudding F. J. Casson D. Dickinson B. Patel C. M. Roach E. A. Belli G. M. Staebler
A new quasilinear saturation model SAT3 has been developed for the purpose of calculating radial turbulent fluxes in the core of tokamak plasmas. The new model is shown to be able to better recreate the isotope mass dependence of nonlinear gyrokinetic fluxes compared to contemporary quasilinear models, including SAT2 [1], whilst performing at least…
Preprint PublishedB.S. Patel D. Dickinson C.M. Roach H.R. Wilson
Spherical tokamaks (STs) have been shown to possess properties desirable for a fusion power plant such as achieving high plasma β and having increased vertical stability. To understand their confinement properties in a reactor relevant regime a 1GW fusion power spherical tokamak plasma equilibrium was analysed using linear gyrokinetics to deter…
Preprint PublishedB. Chapman D.R. Hatch A.R. Field L. Frassinetti J.C. Hillesheim L. Horvath C.F. Maggi J. F. Parisi C.M. Roach S.Saarelma J. Walker JET contributors
We present the results of GENE gyrokinetic calculations based on a series of JET-ILW type I ELMy H-mode discharges operating with similar experimental inputsbut at different levels of power and gas fuelling. We show that turbulence due to slab electron-temperature-gradient modes (sETGs) produces a significant amount of heat flux in four JET-ILW …
PublishedT. Adkins A. A. Schekochihin P. G. Ivanov C. M. Roach
Electromagnetic instabilities and turbulence driven by the electron-temperature gradient are considered in a local slab model of a tokamak-like plasma, with constant equilibrium gradients (including magnetic drifts but no magnetic shear). The model describes perturbations at scales both larger and smaller than the electron inertial scale de…
Preprint PublishedC J Ham A Bokshi D Brunetti G Bustos Ramirez B Chapman J W Connor D Dickinson A R Field J P Graves T Kiviniemi S Leerink B McMillan S Newton S Pamela C M Roach S Saarelma J Simpson S F Smith P Strand A Virtanen the JET Contributors*
The pedestal plays an important role in determining the confinement in tokamak H-mode plasmas. However, the steep pressure gradients in this transport barrier also lead to edge localized modes (ELMs) [1]. There is good understanding of the pedestal in type I ELM regimes [2], however, type I ELMs are known to damage plasma facing components and f…
Preprint Published