Reduction In Heat Transport Research Articles

Plasma size scaling of avalanche-like heat transport in tokamaks

The influence of plasma size on global ion temperature gradient turbulence is studied with the full-f Eulerian code GT5D (Idomura et al 2009 Nucl. Fusion 49 065029). The gyrokinetic model includes a consistent neoclassical electric field as well as a fixed-power source operator, enabling long-time simulations with self-consistent turbulent transport and equilibrium profiles. The effects of plasma size (from ρ* = 1/100 to ρ* = 1/225) are studied by scaling the minor radius a and the input power. For the first time, worse-than-Bohm scaling is observed under experimentally realistic conditions. For all plasma sizes, avalanches propagate over significant radii but their propagation depends on the radial electric shear. It is found that this quantity does not scale with ρ* due to the building up of intrinsic momentum. Such a dependence can be inferred from a force balance relation, which remains approximately valid in nonlinear simulations. An adaptive parallel momentum source has been implemented in GT5D to damp the parallel momentum profile. The new scan then reveals that the radial electric shear scales with ρ* while the transport is globally higher. These simulations therefore suggest that intrinsic momentum reduces heat transport. This work also addresses another important issue in gyrokinetics: it is shown that for fixed initial physical parameters the turbulent quasi-steady-state is statistically independent of the initial conditions.

Holocene evolution of the Indonesian throughflow and the western Pacific warm pool

High sea surface temperatures in the western Pacific warm pool fuel atmospheric convection and influence tropical climate. This region also hosts the Indonesian throughflow, the network of currents through which surface and thermocline waters are transported from the western equatorial Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean. Here we show, using records of the delta O-18 and Mg/Ca of planktonic foraminifera from eight sediment cores, that from about 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, sea surface temperatures in the western sector of the western Pacific warm pool were about 0.5 degrees C higher than during pre-industrial times. We also find that about 9,500 years ago, when the South China and Indonesian seas were connected by rising sea level, surface waters in the Makassar Strait became relatively fresher. We suggest that the permanent reduction of surface salinity initiated the enhanced flow at lower, thermocline depths seen in the modern Indonesian throughflow. However, the uniformly warm sea surface temperatures found upstream and downstream of the Indonesian throughflow indicate that the early Holocene warmth in this region was not directly related to reduced heat transport by the throughflow that may have resulted from surface freshening of the Makassar Strait. Instead, we propose that the elevated temperatures were the result of a westward shift or expansion of the boundaries of the western Pacific warm pool.

Reduced Heat Transport between Edge-Localized-Mode Bursts at Low Collisionality and Small Poloidal Larmor Radius

Nondimensional parameter dependence of heat transport between edge localized modes (ELMs) is examined for H mode plasmas. The electron heat diffusivity between ELMs is reduced to the level of ion neoclassical transport in the plasma edge region which is affected by ELM burst. At lower edge collisionality, the heat flux assigned to the heat transport between ELMs is reduced and the ELM loss power is enhanced. During the inter-ELM phase, the energy confinement time becomes larger with decreasing the edge collisionality and poloidal Larmor radius.

Observation of reduced heat transport inside the magnetic island O point in the large helical device.

Evidence for a reduction of heat transport inside the magnetic island O point is observed from the propagation of a cold pulse produced by a tracer encapsulated solid pellet in the Large Helical Device. A small peak and slow propagation of the cold pulse are observed inside the island. A significant result is that electron heat diffusivity inside the island is estimated to be 0.2 m(2)/s which is smaller than that outside the island by an order of magnitude.

Radial electric field and transport near the rational surface and the magnetic island in LHD

The structure of the radial electric field and heat transport at the magnetic island in the large helical device (LHD) are investigated by measuring the radial profile of the poloidal flow with charge exchange spectroscopy and measuring the time evolution of the electron temperature with ECE. A vortex-like plasma flow along the magnetic flux surface inside the magnetic island is observed when the n/m = 1/1 external perturbation field becomes large enough to increase the magnetic island width above a critical range (15–20% of minor radius) in LHD. This convective poloidal flow results in a non-flat space potential inside the magnetic island. The sign of the curvature of the space potential (∂2Φ/∂r2, where Φ is the space potential) depends on the radial electric field at the boundary of the magnetic island. The heat transport inside the magnetic island is studied with a cold pulse propagation technique. The experimental results show the existence of radial electric field shear at the boundary of the magnetic island and a reduction in heat transport at the boundary and inside the magnetic island.

What drives heat transport in the Atlantic: Sensitivity to mechanical energy supply and buoyancy forcing in the Southern Ocean

[1] Climate model simulations are used to demonstrate that there is not a simple link between the mechanical energy supply and heat transport in the Atlantic. Setting the flux of momentum into the ocean to zero between 35–60°S reduces the net mechanical energy input by more than a factor of two without much effect on the heat transport in the Atlantic. The strong westerly winds in the Southern Ocean are found to be more important for the circulation of bottom water and for localizing the upwelling of deep water around Antarctica. Furthermore, it is illustrated that the hydrological cycle plays a significant role in maintaining the global ocean circulation and the associated heat transport in the Atlantic, given sufficient mechanical energy to support the diapycnal mixing. A reduction of the meridional moisture transport to the Southern Ocean by a factor of two reduces heat transport in the Atlantic by about the same factor.

High-pressure discharges with imposed stability resulting in reduced power requirements

High-pressure plasma discharge columns that are long and straight, as well as uniform in the axial direction, have been generated in a steady state. These discharges, stabilized by rotation of the containment envelope about a horizontal axis, have reduced heat transport to the wall due to the absence of buoyancy-driven radial convection and the elimination of eddies caused by sheared flow. These “rotating tube discharges” may take the form of electric arcs powered with dc or low-frequency ac; or of electrodeless plasmas, heated by electromagnetic waves at rf or microwave frequencies.

El Niño's tropical climate and teleconnections as a blueprint for pre‐Ice Age climates

At ∼2.7 million years ago the warm equable climates of early and “middle” Pliocene time (used here to mean from ∼5 to ∼2.7 Ma) were replaced by recurring ice ages. Most attempts to explain the change appeal either to changes in CO2 in the atmosphere or reduced heat transport by the Atlantic Ocean. The sources of the strongest teleconnections in the current climate, however, lie in the tropics, and such connections occur by transport of heat and moisture by the atmosphere. The most prominent of these teleconnections link aberrations in sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variations, with warm and dry or cool and wet anomalies in extratropical climates. We show that in most cases early and middle Pliocene climate both in equatorial regions and in the extratropics differ from present‐day climates with the same spatial pattern as that associated with ENSO. For instance, not only was Canada warmer during early Pliocene time than at present, as it is during El Niño, but the region surrounding the Gulf of Mexico appears to have been cooler and a bit wetter, as it commonly is during El Niño. A virtually permanent El Niño‐like state appears to have characterized pre‐Ice Age climates, suggesting that transport of heat by the atmosphere was the principal mechanism that maintained extratropical warmth. Accordingly, cooling and the growth of recurring ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere resulted from the development of a strong Walker circulation and a weakening of the Hadley circulation.

Configuration flexibility and extended regimes in Large Helical Device

Recent experimental results in the Large Helical Device have indicated that a large pressure gradient can be formed beyond the stability criterion for the Mercier (high-n) mode. While the stability against an interchange mode is violated in the inward-shifted configuration due to an enhancement of the magnetic hill, the neoclassical transport and confinement of high-energy particle are, in contrast, improved by this inward shift. Mitigation of the unfavourable effects of MHD instability has led to a significant extension of the operational regime. Achievements of the stored energy of 1 MJ and the volume-averaged beta of 3% are representative results from this finding. A confinement enhancement factor above the international stellarator scaling ISS95 is also maintained around 1.5 towards a volume-averaged beta, ⟨β⟩, of 3%. Configuration studies on confinement and MHD characteristics emphasize the superiority of the inward-shifted geometry to other geometries. The emergence of coherent modes appears to be consistent with the linear ideal MHD theory; however, the inward-shifted configuration has reduced heat transport in spite of a larger amplitude of magnetic fluctuation than the outward-shifted configuration. While neoclassical helical ripple transport becomes visible for the outward-shifted configuration in the collisionless regime, the inward-shifted configuration does not show any degradation of confinement deep in the collisionless regime (ν*<0.1). The distinguished characteristics observed in the inward-shifted configuration help in creating a new perspective of MHD stability and related transport in net current-free plasmas. The first result of the pellet launching at different locations is also reported.

Energy confinement of beam-heated divertor and limiter discharges in Doublet III

Observation of the intensity of the recycling particle flux at the main plasma edge for various limiter and divertor discharges indicates that the gross energy confinement of beam-heated discharges is closely related to the intensity of the edge particle flux. In limiter discharges, the global particle confinement time and the energy confinement time τE show many similarities: 1) linear Ip dependence at Ip < 600 kA, 2) no BT dependence, and 3) deterioration against injection power. Improvement of τE by increasing Ip, for example, is associated with high temperatures at the plasma edge region accompanied by reduced particle recycling. – Divertor discharges with low particle recycling around the main plasma show better energy confinement than limiter discharges at high plasma densities. The improvement of τE is primarily originated in the reduction of heat transport at the main plasma edge region, which is associated with the reduction of recycling particle flux at the main plasma edge. Under certain operation condition, for example, excessive cold-gas puffing, the discharge shows relatively high scrape-off plasma density and strong particle recycling between the main plasma and the limiter. The energy confinement time of these discharges degrades somewhat or reduces completely to that of the limiter discharge. – In low-recycling divertor discharges, the central electron and ion temperature is proportional to the injection power, and the plasma stored energy is proportional to n̄ePabs (scales as INTOR scaling). With ≈ 4 MW beam injection, high-temperature and high-density plasmas were obtained (stored energy up to 280 kJ, Te(0) ≈ Ti(0) ≈ 2.5–3.0 keV at n̄e ≈ (6–7) × 1013 cm−3, τE* ≈ 70 ms).