Influence of centrifugal effects on particle and momentum transport in National Spherical Torus Experiment

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of rotation on microinstabilities under experimentally relevant conditions in the spherical tokamak National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The focus is specifically on the centrifugal force effects on the impurity and momentum transport in the core (r/a=0.7) of an H-mode plasma. Due to relatively high beta, the linear simulations predict the presence of both microtearing mode (MTM) and hybrid ion temperature gradient-kinetic ballooning mode (ITG-KBM) electromagnetic instabilities. Rotation effects on both MTM and ITG-KBM growth rates and mode frequencies are found to be small for the experimental values. However, they do influence the quasi-linear particle and momentum fluxes predicted by ITG-KBM (MTM contributes only to electron heat flux). The gradient of the intrinsic carbon impurity in the source-free core region is predicted to be locally hollow, strengthened by centrifugal effects. This result is consistent with experimental measurements and contradicts neoclassical theory that typically provides a reasonable explanation of the impurity profiles in NSTX. The diffusive and Coriolis pinch contributions to momentum transport are found to be relatively weak. Surprisingly, the strongest contribution derives from a centrifugal effect proportional to the product of rotation and rotation shear, which predicts an inward momentum flux roughly three times bigger than the Coriolis pinch, suggesting it should be considered when interpreting previous experimental pinch measurements.