Electrostatic turbulence in tokamaks on transport time scales

Peter J. Catto, Andrei N. Simakov, Felix I. Parra, Grigory Kagan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Simulating electrostatic turbulence in tokamaks on transport time scales requires retaining and evolving a complete turbulence modified neoclassical transport description, including all the axisymmetric neoclassical and zonal flow radial electric field effects, as well as the turbulent transport normally associated with drift instabilities. Neoclassical electric field effects are particularly difficult to retain since they require evaluating the ion distribution function to higher order in gyroradius over background scale length than standard gyrokinetic treatments. To avoid extending gyrokinetics an alternate hybrid gyrokinetic-fluid treatment is formulated that employs moments of the full Fokker-Planck kinetic equation to remove the need for a higher order gyrokinetic distribution function. The resulting hybrid description is able to model all electrostatic turbulence effects with wavelengths much longer than an electron Larmor radius such as the ion temperature gradient (ITG) and trapped electron modes (TEM).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number115006
JournalPlasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Volume50
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2008
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear Energy and Engineering
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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