Roles of driven current locations on ETB and ITB based on three-field bifurcation concept

Abstract

This work investigates the roles of external current source on the formation and effectiveness of an internal transport barrier (ITB) and an edge transport barrier (ETB) in fusion plasma using bifurcation approach. Thermal, particle and toroidal momentum transport equations are solved simultaneously for the spatiotemporal profiles of plasma pressure, density and toroidal velocity, respectively. The transport effects include neoclassical and turbulent terms with constant coefficients assumption. The turbulent suppression, leading to intrinsic formation of transport barriers, is driven by the magnetic shear and the flow shear. Residual stress effect is included in this work. Thermal, particle and torques sources are locally provided based on Gaussian shape distribution at plasma center, plasma edge and plasma center, respectively. The effects of off-axis driven current locations on ITB and ETB formations are investigated. In particular, width and height of ETB and ITB are shown to be affected by the source. It is found that off-axis of driven current can increase plasma temperature, density and toroidal velocity at its core because ITB is formed and expanded. However, size of ETB pedestal is slightly affected by the location of driven current. When the location of driven current is changed from r = 0.00 to 0.60, ITB width changes from r = 0.00 to 0.12 of plasma profile and ITB top formation location changes from r = 0.00 to 0.80.