Large Toroidal Field Research Articles

Multi-harmonic electron cyclotron heating and current drive scenarios for non-inductive start-up and ramp-up in high field ST-40 spherical tokamak

Non-inductive start-up and ramp-up is an important topic for spherical tokamak reactor design as the central solenoid implementation is highly restrictive particularly for the low-aspect-ratio tokamak configuration. In the high field spherical tokamak (ST), ST-40 with B T0 ⩽ 3 T, a preparation is underway for high power ECH and ECCD current start-up/ramp-up experiments utilizing two MW-class 140/105 GHz gyrotrons. Here, we explored various ECH/ECCD scenarios for a low-field-side (LFS) launch-angle steerable waveguide launcher placed near the mid-plane region. Due to the large toroidal field variation of ST configuration, multiple cyclotron harmonic resonance layers could exist within the plasma. In this start-up and ramp-up regime, both fundamental and second harmonic ECH resonances must be considered. We find that even with the presence of X-II resonance layer in the plasma, an efficient X-I ECH and ECCD regime can be accessed for the low electron temperature T e0 as low as 200 eV which is a typical starting temperature of ECH heated plasmas in an open-field-line configuration. The presence of X-II resonance could become significant at higher T e0 as X-II absorption increases with T e0 which could reduce the current ramp-up efficiency as the power reaching X-I is reduced. Finally for the pure X-I regime where the 2Ωe resonance is moved outside the plasma with B T0 ∼ 3.4 T, we find that it is possible to reach the full current of I p ∼ 1 MA fully non-inductively with the ECH power of ∼1 MW at n e0 ∼ 1.0 × 1019 m−3 using 105 GHz frequency gyrotron. By reducing the outer limiter position R L ∼ 78 cm to 70 cm, the pure X-I regime is recovered at the rated ST-40 magnetic field of B T0 ∼ 3.0 T. This X-I regime is accessible with a relatively broad range of launched n II or the launching angles. A survey of X-mode X-II ECH and ECCD at higher density regimes is also shown for completeness.

Design of a 60 kA Flux Pump for Fusion Toroidal Field Coils

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets offer a novel pathway to magnetically confined fusion energy generation. Reactor-scale fusion devices require tens of kA of current to generate large toroidal fields for magnetic confinement. Operating HTS magnets at kA-current levels is difficult due to unavoidable joint resistances that require active driving of current. The large footprint and energy demand of a solid-state power supply and multi-kA current leads present significant constraints on the size, cost and efficiency of a fusion tokamak. An alternative approach is to use an HTS flux pump, which can generate and sustain persistent currents in HTS coils at the kA-levels required by fusion magnet systems. Here, we outline the design of a 60 kA transformer-rectifier flux pump for energizing and sustaining an 80 mH HTS fusion magnet. The flux pump is driven by an iron-core transformer with copper primary and HTS secondary windings. This is rectified by switching elements in the superconducting circuit into a uni-directional dc voltage output which charges the inductive load. To charge the load coil to 60 kA in 24 hours, an output dc voltage of 55 mV is needed. However, only 6 mV is required to maintain a long-term steady current of 60 kA. Such a device can significantly reduce the cost and footprint of future fusion reactor designs.

Magnetized relativistic jets and helical magnetic fields

This is the second of a series of two papers that deepen our understanding of the transversal structure and the properties of recollimation shocks of axisymmetric, relativistic, superfast magnetosonic, overpressured jets. They extend previous work that characterized these properties in connection with the dominant type of energy (internal, kinetic, or magnetic) in the jet to models with helical magnetic fields with larger magnetic pitch angles and force-free magnetic fields. In the first paper of this series, the magnetohydrodynamical models were computed following an approach that allows studying the structure of steady, axisymmetric, relativistic (magnetized) flows using one-dimensional time-dependent simulations. In this paper, synthetic radio images of the magnetohydrodynamical models are produced based on two different models to connect the thermal particle population, modeled by the hydrodynamical code, and the nonthermal particle population (added in post-processing) that causes the synchrotron radiation. The role of the magnetic tension and the Lorentz force in modeling the observational appearance of jets, namely the cross-section emission asymmetries, spine brightening, relative intensity of the knots, and polarized emission is analyzed. A cross-section emission asymmetry caused by a differential change in the angle between the helical magnetic field and the line of sight across the jet width is observed in all models and for both synchrotron emission approximations, as expected from a purely geometrical origin, for viewing angles < 10°. Models with the highest magnetizations and/or magnetic pitch angles lead to an uneven distribution of the internal energy as a consequence of the larger relative magnetic tension and radial Lorentz force, which translates into a spine brightening in the total and linearly polarized intensity maps. Force-free models display a distinct spine brightening that originates in the radial gradient of the axial magnetic field. Highly magnetized jets with large toroidal fields tend to have weaker shocks and correspondingly weaker radio knots. Signatures of this toroidal field can be found in the linearly polarized synchrotron emission for jets with large enough magnetic pitch angles and large enough viewing angles.

Magnetized relativistic jets and helical magnetic fields

This is the first of a series of two papers that deepen our understanding of the transversal structure and the properties of recollimation shocks of axisymmetric, relativistic, superfast magnetosonic, overpressured jets. They extend previous work that characterized these properties in connection with the dominant type of energy (internal, kinetic, or magnetic) in the jet to models with helical magnetic fields with larger magnetic pitch angles and force-free magnetic fields. In this paper, the magnetohydrodynamical models were computed following an approach that allows studying the structure of steady, axisymmetric, relativistic (magnetized) flows using one-dimensional time-dependent simulations. In these approaches, the relevance of the magnetic tension and of the Lorentz force in shaping the internal structure of jets (transversal structure, radial oscillations, and internal shocks) is discussed. The radial Lorentz force controls the jet internal transversal equilibrium. Hence, highly magnetized non-force-free jets exhibit a thin spine of high internal energy around the axis. The properties of the recollimation shocks and sideways expansions and compressions of the jet result from the total pressure mismatch at the jet surface, which among other factors depends on the magnetic tension and the magnetosonic Mach number of the flow. Hot jets with low Mach number tend to have strong oblique shocks and wide radial oscillations. Highly magnetized jets with large toroidal fields tend to have weaker shocks and radial oscillations of smaller amplitude. In the second paper, we present synthetic synchrotron radio images of the magnetohydrodynamical models that are produced at a post-processing phase, focusing on the observational properties of the jets, namely the top-down emission asymmetries, spine brightening, the relative intensity of the knots, and polarized emission.

Suppression of runaway current by magnetic energy transfer in J-TEXT

For disruptions without mitigation, a large amount of thermal energy and poloidal magnetic energy will be dissipated inside the vacuum vessel (VV). A slow current quench may be accompanied by a large halo current, while a fast current quench often causes large eddy current, which will result in electromagnetic force. At the same time, fast current quench will induce strong toroidal electric field, which will result in a large fraction of runaway current and the hitting of runaway beam on first wall. The disruption mitigation is essential for large scale tokamak. The existing methods to mitigate disruptions, such as massive gas injection and resonant magnetic perturbations, are aimed at increasing the runaway generation threshold or the lose rate of runaway electrons. It may not work for ITER with Ip = 15 MA operation. The root of runaway generation is the large toroidal electric field induced by fast current quench and the large avalanche factor with high plasma current. The reduction of toroidal electric field is favor for the runaway suppression. The magnetic energy transfer (MET) based on electromagnetic coupling for disruption mitigation has been proposed on J-TEXT. It has the advantage of transferring the magnetic energy to outside of vessel by the electromagnetic coupling. It accelerates the current quench (CQ) rate and reduces the toroidal electric field at the same time. The runaway current has been suppressed by the MET system on J-TEXT. The experimental results show that the MET can reduce the energy dissipated in the VV by 20 % through transferring of energy to outside of VV. The MET can increase the CQ rate about 50.7 % and decrease the loop voltage about 35.3 %. The MET provides a new idea to transfer the magnetic energy and to suppress runaway current for disruption mitigation in future devices.

Centrifugal acceleration of protons by a supermassive black hole

ABSTRACT Centrifugal acceleration is due to the rotating poloidal magnetic field in the magnetosphere that creates the electric field which is orthogonal to the magnetic field. Charged particles with finite cyclotron radii can move along the electric field and receive energy. Centrifugal acceleration pushes particles to the periphery, where their azimuthal velocity reaches the speed of light. We calculated particle trajectories by numerical and analytical methods. The maximum obtained energies depend on the parameter of the particle magnetization κ, which is the ratio of rotation frequency of magnetic field lines in the magnetosphere ΩF to non-relativistic cyclotron frequency of particles ωc, κ = ΩF/ωc <<1, and on the parameter α which is the ratio of toroidal magnetic field BT to the poloidal one BP, α = BT/BP. It is shown that for small toroidal fields, α < κ1/4, the maximum Lorentz factor γm is only the square root of magnetization, γm = κ−1/2, while for large toroidal fields, α > κ1/4, the energy increases significantly, γm = κ−2/3. However, the maximum possible acceleration, γm = κ−1, is not achieved in the magnetosphere. For a number of active galactic nuclei, such as M87, maximum values of Lorentz factor for accelerated protons are found. Also, for special case of Sgr. A*, estimations of the maximum proton energy and its energy flux are obtained. They are in agreement with experimental data obtained by HESS Cherenkov telescope.

Time-dependent runaway electron simulations: Ampere–Faraday equations implemented in CQL3D

The runaway electron (RE) distributions driven by a large toroidal electric field induced by the drop in the temperature profile due to disruption or pellets are comprehensively simulated by the 3D Fokker–Planck (FP) solver CQL3D (Harvey and McCoy 1992 Proc. of IAEA TCM), recently coupled to the Ampere–Faraday (AF) equations. The evolution of the toroidal current in a plasma occurs on a resistive time scale, τres = 4πa2/(c2η), which is typically of the order of seconds in present tokamaks. Here, a and η are respectively plasma radius or radial extent of a current density perturbation, and Ohmic resistivity. From the Faraday EM equation, the toroidal electric field is proportional to the time derivative of the poloidal magnetic field, which, from the Ampere equation, is proportional to the toroidal current. Thus, the toroidal electric field rapidly increases due to an abrupt temperature drop decrease in conductivity, to prevent change in the toroidal current faster than τres. This is a example of Lenz’s law. For example, in simulations with KPRAD (Whyte et al 2003 J. Nucl. Mater. 313–6 1239) of neon pellet injection into a DIII-D shot, Te drops from 2 keV to 10 eV in 0.1 ms and Zeff increases 1–4, giving that the electric field increases 3500× to 0.8 V cm−1. As described in Harvey et al (2000 PoP 7 4590), this places much of the tail electron distribution beyond the Dreicer runaway velocity, giving so-called ‘hot-tail runaways’ which for a time are the dominant source of runaways, more so than the knockon source. In this prior calculation, performed for a single flux surface, the toroidal current density is held constant, on the basis that τres is large. Most of the initial current can be converted to runaway current, which is then dangerous, particularly for ITER. A more comprehensive A–F model recently implemented in CQL3D, taking into account the time-development of the full-plasma-width toroidal electric field on time-scales of order τres applies an iterative technique for the toroidal field previously developed for a different application (Kupfer et al 1996 PoP 3 3644), maintaining the implicit-in-time evolution of CQL3D. The degree of runaway current formation is reduced in AF augmented CQL3D, but the basic mechanism of ‘hot-tail runaways’ remains a dominant contribution to the REs at early times after the Te drop in these simulations. On the other hand, a NIMROD (Sovinec et al 2004 J. Comput. Phys. 195 355) simulation of shattered-pellet shutdown of DIII-D plasma (Kim 2018 APS/DPP Meeting), gives a slower thermal quench; when the plasma profiles and electric field are coupled one-way to CQL3D, the ‘hot-tail’ REs are much less, and growth of RE is dominated by the knockon process.

Measurement of the impacts of the J-TEXT TBM mock-up on the toroidal and vertical magnetic field

A 1/3 scaled mock-up of the China Helium-Cooled Ceramic Breeder Test Blanket Module (CN HCCB-TBM) was integrated into the J-TEXT tokamak to study the eddy current distribution, electromagnetic load and thermal load modes on the TBM during plasma disruption. The J-TEXT TBM mock-up is made of reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steel and supported by a cantilever structure, with the ability to move along the radial direction. To investigate the effects on the equilibrium magnetic field in the presence of the mock-up containing ferromagnetic material, two poloidal arrays of printed circuit board (PCB) coil-type magnetic probes are developed and installed inside the J-TEXT vacuum vessel. The toroidal field (TF) ripple along the toroidal direction and the difference of vertical field (VF) over the plasma region are measured. Corresponding simulations are also performed, and the results fit well with the measured ones. It is shown that the TBM mock-up in J-TEXT will change the shape of equilibrium magnetic field in the vacuum vessel significantly, introduce large TF and VF ripple, especially in low field side in front of the mock-up. On the other hand, the effects will produce only a few potentially troublesome problems on the normal discharge when the recession of the mock-up is up to 15 cm away from the port.

Overview of the ITER Toroidal Field Magnet System Integration

The first series components of large D-shaped toroidal field coils (TFC) on the ITER Tokamak project are being fabricated and assembled at European Fusion for Energy (F4E) and Japanese Domestic Agency (JADA) premises since 2013. The TF magnet system consists of 18 individual coils connected in series based on a Nb3Sn cable-in-conduit conductors supplied by a 68-kA rated current with an overall 41-GJ stored energy and a peak magnetic field of 11.8 T. One of the key challenges of the construction of the 18 TFCs and their assembly resides in the control of the integration of the large individually manufactured coil components and in the ultimate management of tolerances on the final assembly into the Tokamak pit. This paper presents the integration aspects related to main TFCs subcomponents under fabrication starting from the TF conductor production, the winding of individual double pancakes, and their heat treatment and impregnation. This includes the fabrication of key prototypes for qualification purpose such as helium supply inlets, the electrical joints, and the design of the winding pack insertion into the structural TFC case during the final welding enclosure. Each preassembled 40° sector of a TFCs pair is then integrated into the torus according to tight tolerance requirements to provide both the so-called TF magnetic center line data and to guarantee the final operating wedged design into the inner leg region. The assembly of the coil's terminal is then completed by connecting services through the power feeder busbars, the quench detection high voltage cables and the cryogenics interfaces pipe system.

Modeling turbulent stellar convection zones: Sub-grid scales effects

The impressive development of global numerical simulations of turbulent stellar interiors unveiled a variety of possible differential rotation (solar or anti-solar), meridional circulation (single or multi-cellular), and dynamo states (stable large scale toroidal field or periodically reversing magnetic fields). Various numerical schemes, based on the so-called anelastic set of equations, were used to obtain these results. It appears today mandatory to assess their robustness with respect to the details of the numerics, and in particular to the treatment of turbulent sub-grid scales. We report on an ongoing comparison between two global models, the ASH and EULAG codes. In EULAG the sub-grid scales are treated implicitly by the numerical scheme, while in ASH their effect is generally modeled by using enhanced dissipation coefficients. We characterize the sub-grid scales effect in a turbulent convection simulation with EULAG. We assess their effect at each resolved scale with a detailed energy budget. We derive equivalent eddy-diffusion coefficients and use the derived diffusivities in twin ASH numerical simulations. We find a good agreement between the large-scale flows developing in the two codes in the hydrodynamic regime, which encourages further investigation in the magnetohydrodynamic regime for various dynamo solutions.

Modeling an unmitigated thermal quench event in a large field magnet in a DEMO reactor

The superconducting magnet systems of future fusion reactors, such as a demonstration power plant (DEMO), will produce magnetic field energies in the 10s of GJ range. The release of this energy during a fault condition could produce arcs that can damage the magnets of these systems. The public safety consequences of such events must be explored for a DEMO reactor because the magnets are located near the DEMO's primary radioactive confinement barrier, the reactor's vacuum vessel (VV). Great care will be taken in the design of DEMO's magnet systems to detect and provide a rapid field energy dump to avoid any accidents conditions. During an event when a fault condition proceeds undetected, the potential of producing melting of the magnet exists. If molten material from the magnet impinges on the walls of the VV, these walls could fail, resulting in a pathway for release of radioactive material from the VV. A model is under development at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) called MAGARC to investigate the consequences of this accident in a large toroidal field (TF) coil. Recent improvements to this model are described in this paper, along with predictions for a DEMO relevant event in a toroidal field magnet.

Modeling Technique to Predict Fields, Currents, and Loads for C-Mod's Advanced Outer Divertor During a Disruption With a 2.5-MA Plasma Current and 9-T Toroidal Field

Models have been built using the finite-element software COMSOL to predict fields, currents, and the resulting loads and stresses acting on the C-mod advanced outer divertor (AOD). The AOD is being designed to operate with conditions of a 2.5-MA plasma current and a toroidal field of 9 T while being held at 600 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> C, and so must survive a disruption that occurs in these conditions. In addition to the loads resulting from eddy currents induced in the divertor during a disruption, the divertor will at times need to carry up to 400 kA of halo current, which crosses the toroidal field as it returns to the plasma. The loads resulting from this scenario will be very high, and we have had to develop models to predict the fields, currents, and loads as accurately as possible to ensure that the strength of the new design can withstand these loads. First, the fields and eddy currents are predicted in a COMSOL model of C-mod given two inputs. The first input is the currents for the toroidal and poloidal field coils, which come from measured data taken during a discharge. The second input is the current in the plasma, which comes from another model that solves Maxwell's equations to reconstruct the plasma as 24 current carrying filaments. The advantage of this new modeling technique is that it provides the ability to create a model based on actual measured data and to model whichever type of disruption, whether a midplane disruption or a vertical displacement event, so that the model more accurately reflects operating conditions the AOD will see. In addition to the Lorenz forces due to the induced eddy currents in the AOD, the model can also calculate the large forces due to halo currents that cross C-mod's large toroidal field. The loads due to the halo currents will be the largest loads the divertor sees. With all the loads defined, a structural model of the divertor is run to determine stresses and displacements.

Overview of Runaway Electron Control and Mitigation Experiments on Tore Supra and Lessons Learned in View of ITER

Runaway electrons (REs) generated during disruption are identified as a major issue for ITER and reactor-size tokamaks. Such electrons are produced when a large toroidal electric field is generated in the plasma. This field continuously accelerates low-collisional electrons up to relativistic energy. Such a large electric field occurs both in the plasma core at thermal quench of the disruption when the current profile flattens due to high magnetohydrodynamic activity, and during the current quench (CQ) of a disruption. These REs may initiate secondary RE generation during CQ due to the avalanching process, leading to a multiplication of these relativistic electrons. The impact of REs on the first wall is well localized due to their very small pitch angle. The energy deposition may be huge, and plasma-facing component damages are often reported.Mitigation techniques are thus mandatory to suppress RE formation or/and reduce their heat loads. Two ways are explored on Tore Supra: (a) suppressing the RE beam formation and avalanche amplification by multiple gas jet injections at CQ and (b) controlling the RE beam when it is formed and increasing the collisionality to slow down the relativistic electrons.

ANSYS Model to Predict Magnetic Fields and Loads in Alcator C-Mod’s New Outer Divertor During a Disruption

A new outer divertor is being designed for installation on Alcator C-Mod. This divertor will be toroidally continuous such that the currents during a disruption will be driven in the toroidal direction and not cross Alcator’s large toroidal field and it eliminates leading edges. However, currents will still cross the poloidal fields, and so it is important to properly predict the poloidal fields in the area of the divertor so that we can properly predict the loads on the divertor during a disruption. To that end, an ANSYS model has been built which can predict the fields and field transients in C-Mod given two inputs, the currents for the toroidal and poloidal field coils which come from measured data taken during a discharge, and the current in the plasma, which comes from another model that solves Maxwell’s equations to reconstruct the plasma as 24 current carrying filaments. The advantage of using this method to predict fields is that it provides the ability to create a model based on actual measured data and to model whichever type of disruption, whether a midplane disruption or a vertical displacement event, is deemed necessary for the design. The ANSYS model then is able to predict the fields, including the shielding effects of the structures in the vessel, and the currents induced in the vessel and these structures. These results can then be mapped to a sub-model of the divertor to predict loading and stress during the disruption.

Magnetic field structures inside magnetars with strong toroidal field

AbstractWe have analyzed the magnetized equilibrium studies with strong toroidal magnetic fields and found that the negative toroidal current density inside the star is very important for the strong toroidal magnetic fields. The strong toroidal magnetic fields require the strong poloidal current, but the strong poloidal current results in the localized strong toroidal current density in the axisymmetric system. This localized toroidal current changes the magnetic field configuration and makes the size of the toroidal magnetic field region smaller. As a result, the toroidal magnetic field energy can not become large. We need to cancel out the localized toroidal current density in order to obtain the large toroidal fields solutions. We have found and showed that the negative toroidal current cancels out the localized toroidal current density and sustain the large toroidal magnetic field energy inside the star. We can explain the magnetized equilibrium studies with strong toroidal magnetic fields systematically using the negative current density. Physical meaning of the negative current is key to the magnetar interior magnetic fields.

Axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric magnetostrophic MRI modes

The magnetorotational-instability is central to the understanding of many astrophysical magnetohydrodynamic flows (in particular accretion discs). We have recently shown that a modified version of this instability, the magnetostrophic MRI (MS-MRI), is relevant to the dynamics of the Earth liquid core (Petitdemange et al., 2008). Our previous study used a purely axial imposed magnetic field and considered only axisymmetric instabilities. We investigate here the effects of a large scale toroidal magnetic field on the development and saturation of the MS-MRI both in an axisymmetric setup and in fully three-dimensional configurations. We use direct numerical modeling of the full MHD equations (both in the linear and non-linear regimes) in a spherical geometry. We interpret our results using WKB expansions and shearing coordinates. We find that three-dimensional MS-MRI modes exhibit a strong helical structure for parameters relevant to planetary interiors. Three-dimensional MS-MRI modes share some similarities with their axisymmetric counterparts. They are amplified on the same short timescale. When non-linear effects become significant, they act to decrease the shear. During saturation, the magnetic structure expands spatially, while drifting at a constant rate along the direction of the rotation axis. A striking result is that an m=1 mode can dominate in the non-linear regime when a sufficiently large toroidal field is present. Three-dimensional MS-MRI modes could play an important role in planetary interior dynamics. They can cause rapid magnetic field variations and also act to limit the shear in the conducting liquid core.

Active toroidal field ripple compensation and MHD feedback control coils in FAST

The Fusion Advanced Study Torus (FAST) has been proposed as a high magnetic field, compact size tokamak providing a flexible integrated environment to study physics and technology issues in ITER and DEMO relevant conditions.FAST has a quite large natural toroidal field ripple (around 1.5%) due to its compactness and to the number of access ports: this ripple must be lowered to an acceptable level to allow safe operations and a good confinement quality. An Active Ripple Compensating System (ARCS) has been designed, based on a set of poloidal coils placed between the plasma chamber and the Toroidal Field Coils (TFCs). These ARCS coils will be fed with adjustable currents, opposite in direction respect to the TFC currents, and will allow lowering the ripple up to zero and beyond.The CAD model of FAST including the ARCS coils has been completed and preliminary electromagnetic and thermal analyses have been carried out.Moreover, a Feedback Active Control System (FACS) composed of two arrays of in-vessel saddle coils has been designed to allow safe high plasma current, low safety factor operation and to mitigate possibly large ELMs effects in FAST. These FACS coils will be fed by a feedback system to control MHD modes: a first engineering assessment of the current requirements has been carried out.

Edge pedestal characteristics in JET and JT-60U tokamaks under variable toroidal field ripple

The effects of toroidal field (TF) ripple on the edge pedestal characteristics were examined in the TF ripple scan experiments at the plasma current Ip of 1.1 MA in JET and JT-60U. The TF ripple amplitude δR was defined as a value averaged over the existing ripple wells at the separatrix on the outer midplane. By the installation of ferritic inserts (FIs), δR was reduced from 1% to 0.6% at 3.2T (0.5% at 2.2 T) in JT-60U. In JET, δR was varied from 0.08% to 1% by feeding different currents to the odd and even set of coils out of 32 TF coils. The pedestal pressure pped was similar for the cases before and after the installation of FIs in JT-60U. Similarly, no clear difference in pped was also observed in the variation of δR in JET. The core and edge toroidal rotation clearly shifted in the counter-direction by increased δR. However, there were no changes in the spatial profiles of electron density, electron temperature and ion temperature. By the installation of FIs in JT-60U, the ELM frequency fELM decreased by ∼20%, while the ELM energy loss increased by 50–150%. The increased ELM loss power by 30% suggests a reduction of inter-ELM transport with the reduced δR. In JET, fELM increased only slightly with increased δR while the edge toroidal rotation frequency decreased as δR increased. From the inter-machine similarity experiment at 1.1 MA, TF ripple less than 1% does not strongly affect the pedestal pressure. However, in the single TF ripple scan at the higher Ip of 2.6 MA in JET, it clearly decreases with the increased δR, accompanying with a strong density pump out at large TF ripple. These results suggests that the effect of TF ripple on H-mode properties becomes stronger in the plasmas with higher Ip or lower edge collisionality of ripple diffusion.

RESISTIVITY-DRIVEN STATE CHANGES IN VERTICALLY STRATIFIED ACCRETION DISKS

We investigate the effect of shear viscosity and Ohmic resistivity on the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in vertically stratified accretion disks through a series of local simulations with the Athena code. First, we use a series of unstratified simulations to calibrate physical dissipation as a function of resolution and background field strength; the effect of the magnetic Prandtl number, Pm = viscosity/resistivity, on the turbulence is captured by ~32 grid zones per disk scale height, H. In agreement with previous results, our stratified disk calculations are characterized by a subthermal, predominately toroidal magnetic field that produces MRI-driven turbulence for |z| < 2 H. Above |z| = 2 H, magnetic pressure dominates and the field is buoyantly unstable. Large scale radial and toroidal fields are also generated near the mid-plane and subsequently rise through the disk. The polarity of this mean field switches on a roughly 10 orbit period in a process that is well-modeled by an alpha-omega dynamo. Turbulent stress increases with Pm but with a shallower dependence compared to unstratified simulations. For sufficiently large resistivity, on the order of cs H/1000, where cs is the sound speed, MRI turbulence within 2 H of the mid-plane undergoes periods of resistive decay followed by regrowth. This regrowth is caused by amplification of toroidal field via the dynamo. This process results in large amplitude variability in the stress on 10 to 100 orbital timescales, which may have relevance for partially ionized disks that are observed to have high and low accretion states.

SUSTAINED MAGNETOROTATIONAL TURBULENCE IN LOCAL SIMULATIONS OF STRATIFIED DISKS WITH ZERO NET MAGNETIC FLUX

We examine the effects of density stratification on magnetohydrodynamic turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability in local simulations that adopt the shearing box approximation. Our primary result is that, even in the absence of explicit dissipation, the addition of vertical gravity leads to convergence in the turbulent energy densities and stresses as the resolution increases, contrary to results for zero net flux, unstratified boxes. The ratio of total stress to midplane pressure has a mean of ~0.01, although there can be significant fluctuations on long (>~50 orbit) timescales. We find that the time averaged stresses are largely insensitive to both the radial or vertical aspect ratio of our simulation domain. For simulations with explicit dissipation, we find that stratification extends the range of Reynolds and magnetic Prandtl numbers for which turbulence is sustained. Confirming the results of previous studies, we find oscillations in the large scale toroidal field with periods of ~10 orbits and describe the dynamo process that underlies these cycles.