Cumulative Impact of Electromagnetic Effects and Inhomogeneous Temperature Distribution on Dynamics of Plasma Filaments at the Tokamak Edge

Abstract

The cumulative impact of the inhomogeneous distribution of the plasma temperature and electromagnetic effects on dynamics of plasma filaments in the hot edge plasma of a tokamak, characterized by small values of the parameter $$\beta < {{m}_{e}}{\text{/}}{{m}_{i}}$$ , is analyzed. The physical model describing the filament dynamics is presented. Estimates of the scrape-off-layer plasma parameters, for which electromagnetic and temperature effects can have a substantial impact on the filament dynamics in conditions of the low ratio of the plasma pressure to the pressure of the magnetic field, are obtained. The model equations are used for three-dimensional simulations of the macroscopic motion of filaments in plasma, the parameters of which are similar to the parameters of the peripheral plasma of the tokamak T-15MD, for different types of the spatial distribution of the electron temperature inside the filaments. It is shown that simultaneously taking electromagnetic and temperature effects into account can lead to a considerable departure of the filament trajectories of motion from those in the electrostatic case.