Improved confinement in the TPE-RX RFP by means of the PPCD

Abstract

Pulsed poloidal current drive (PPCD) (Sarff J S et al 1994 Phys. Rev. Lett. 72 3670) is conducted in a reversed-field pinch (RFP) machine, TPE-RX. The PPCD yields a twofold improvement of poloidal beta and energy confinement time. A quiescent phase is observed in the magnetic fluctuations, δb, during the PPCD. The result is discussed in terms of the change of the equilibrium configuration along the F-Θ trajectory (F and Θ are the reversal and pinch parameters, respectively). Representative mode amplitude is numerically simulated. The result indicates that a transient nature of the PPCD, where τPPCD (characteristic time of the PPCD operation) <<τD(0) (resistive diffusion time of the core) holds, allows a trajectory with a deeper F which yields a less turbulent configuration than shot-by-shot F-Θ scans. It is shown that the improvement ratio of τE approximately scales as δb-2 for five cases of the PPCD experiments in three RFP machines, including the present work in TPE-RX.