Numerical turbulence simulations of intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of magnetized plasmas

Abstract

Intermittent fluctuations in the boundary of magnetically confined plasmas are investigated by numerical turbulence simulations of a reduced fluid model describing the evolution of the plasma density and electric drift vorticity in the two-dimensional plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. Two different cases are considered: one describing resistive drift waves in the edge region and another including only the interchange instability due to unfavorable magnetic field curvature in the scrape-off layer. Analysis of long data time series obtained by single-point recordings is compared to predictions of a stochastic model describing the plasma fluctuations as a superposition of uncorrelated pulses. For both cases investigated, the radial particle density profile in the scrape-off layer is exponential with a radially constant scale length. The probability density function for the particle density fluctuations in the far scrape-off layer has an exponential tail. Radial motion of blob-like structures leads to large-amplitude bursts with an exponential distribution of peak amplitudes and the waiting times between them. The average burst shape is well described by a two-sided exponential function. The frequency power spectral density of the particle density is simply that of the average burst shape and is the same for all radial positions in the scrape-off layer. The fluctuation statistics obtained from the numerical simulations are in excellent agreement with recent experimental measurements on magnetically confined plasmas. The statistical framework defines a new validation metric for boundary turbulence simulations.