Predictive simulations of tokamak plasmas with a model for ion-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence

Abstract

A drift wave transport model, recently developed by Ottaviani, Horton and Erba (OHE) [Ottaviani et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 39, 1461 (1997)], has been implemented and tested in a time-dependent predictive transport code. This OHE model assumes that anomalous transport is due to turbulence driven by ion temperature gradients and that the fully developed turbulence will extend into linearly stable regions, as described in the reference cited above. A multiplicative elongation factor is introduced in the OHE model and simulations are carried out for 12 discharges from major tokamak experiments, including both L- and H-modes (low- and high-confinement modes) and both circular and elongated discharges. Good agreement is found between the OHE model predictions and experiment. This OHE model is also used to describe the performance of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) [Putvinski et al., in Proceedings of the 16th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Montréal, Canada, 1996 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1997), Vol. 2, p. 737.] A second version of the OHE model, in which the turbulent transport is not allowed to penetrate into linearly stable regions, has also been implemented and tested. In simulations utilizing this version of the model, the linear stability of the plasma core eliminates the anomalous thermal transport near the magnetic axis, resulting in an increase in the core temperatures to well above the experimental values.