Tokamak Edge Turbulence Research Articles

Thermally driven convective cells and tokamak edge turbulence

A unified theory for the dynamics of thermally driven convective cell turbulence is presented. The cells are excited by the combined effects of radiative cooling and resistivity gradient drive. The model also includes impurity dynamics. Parallel thermal and impurity flows enhanced by turbulent radial diffusion regulate and saturate overlapping cells, even in regimes dominated by thermal instability. Transport coefficients and fluctuation levels characteristic of the saturated turbulence are calculated. It is found that the impurity radiation increases transport coefficients for high density plasmas, while the parallel conduction damping, elevated by radial diffusion, in turn quenches the thermal instability. The enhancement due to radiative cooling provides a resolution to the dilemma of explaining the experimental observation that potential fluctuations exceed density fluctuations in the edge plasma (eΦ/Te >n/n0).

Characterization of tokamak edge turbulence by far-infrared laser scattering and Langmuir probes

The spectra, magnitude and spatial distribution of low-frequency (ω ≪ ωci) density fluctuation have been measured by two independent experimental methods in the edge plasma of the TEXT tokamak. Good agreement between far-infrared laser scattering and Langmuir probe measurements has been achieved and the strengths of each technique are evaluated. Langmuir probes are used to directly determine the particle flux induced by edge fluctuations (Γ ∝ ⟨ñυ̃Ẽ×B⟩) and collective Thomson scattering permits an extension of these observations to the plasma interior. Results are presented for typical discharge conditions in a tokamak.

Effects of a radial electric field on tokamak edge turbulence

Turbulence associated with sheared radial electric fields such as those arising in tokamak edge plasmas is investigated analytically. Two driving mechanisms are considered: in the region of maximum vorticity (maximum electric field shear), the electric field is the dominant driving mechanism. Away from the maximum, turbulence is driven by the density gradient. In the latter case, previous work is extended to include the effects of the electric field on the spatial scales of density correlation in the frequency-Doppler-shifted, density-gradient-driven turbulence. For radial-electric-field-driven turbulence, the effects of magnetic shear on linear instability and on fully developed turbulence are examined. In the case of weak magnetic shear, saturation occurs through an enstrophy cascade process which couples regions of driving and dissipation in wavenumber space. For stronger magnetic shear, such that the width of the dissipation region resulting from parallel resistivity is comparable to the radial electric field scale length, saturation occurs through nonlinear broadening of the mode structure, which pushes enstrophy into the region of dissipation. Estimates of mode widths, fluctuation levels, and scalings are obtained for both mechanisms. Comparison is made with the results of fluctuation measurements in the TEXT tokamak [Phys. Fluids 27, 2956 (1984)].