The Effects of Sheared Toroidal Rotation on Stability Limits in Tokamak Plasmas

The Effects of Sheared Toroidal Rotation on Stability Limits in Tokamak Plasmas

The Effects of Sheared Toroidal Rotation on Stability Limits in Tokamak Plasmas 150 150 UKAEA Opendata

The Effects of Sheared Toroidal Rotation on Stability Limits in Tokamak Plasmas

Sheared toroidal rotation is found to increase the ideal external kink stability limit, thought to be the ultimate performance limit in fusion tokamaks. However, at rotation speeds approaching a significant fraction of the Alfv´en speed, the toroidal rotation shear drives a Kelvin-Helmholtzlike global plasma instability. Optimising the rotation profile to maximise the pressure before encountering external kink modes, but simultaneously avoiding flow-driven instabilities, can lead to a window of stability attractive for operating future high-performance fusion devices.

Collection:
Journals
Journal:
Publisher:
Published date:
01/01/2011