Rotation braking with n = 1 nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbation in the EAST tokamak

Abstract

The toroidal plasma rotation braking effect during the application of n = 1 static resonant magnetic perturbation is studied by momentum transport analysis in the EAST tokamak. The braking torque shows a global profile and two peaks located near the plasma core and the edge, respectively. The effect of momentum diffusion contributes significantly to the calculated torque. Simulation results with the obtained torque and momentum diffusion coefficients well reproduce the observed plasma rotation evolution. Neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque is modeled for comparison with the experimental torque. The total integrated NTV torque is around −0.12 Nm, which is comparable to the observed braking torque (around −0.33 Nm). In the plasma edge, there is a peak in the NTV torque profile, which agrees well in amplitude with the obvious peak in the observed torque density profile. An additional peak in the NTV torque profile due to the ion bounce resonance is also located in the core region. However, the magnitude of this peak is much smaller than the observed one near the plasma core.