Integrated Model For Transport And Large Scale Instabilities In Tokamak Plasmas

Improved models for neoclassical tearing modes and anomalous transport are developed and validated within integrated modeling codes to predict toroidal rotation, temperature and current density profiles in tokamak plasmas. Neoclassical tearing modes produce helical filaments of plasma, called magnetic islands, which have the effect of degrading tokamak plasma confinement or terminating the discharge. An improved code is developed in order to compute the widths of multiple simultaneous magnetic islands whose shapes are distorted by the radial variation in the magnetic perturbation [F. D. Halpern, et al., J. Plasma Physics 72 (2006) 1153]. It is found in simulations of DIII-D and JET tokamak discharges that multiple simultaneous magnetic islands produce a 10% to 20% reduction in plasma thermal confinement. If magnetic islands are allowed to grow to their full width in ITER fusion reactor simulations, fusion power production is reduced by a factor of four [F. D. Halpern, et al., Phys. Plasmas 13 (2006) 062510]. In addition to improving the prediction of neoclassical tearing modes, a new Multi-Mode transport model, MMM08, was developed to predict temperature and toroidal angular frequency profiles in simulations of tokamak discharges. The capability for predicting toroidal rotation is motivated by ITER simulation results that indicate that the effects of toroidal rotation can increase ITER fusion power production [F. D. Halpern et al., Phys. Plasmas 15 (2008), 062505]. The MMM08 model consists of an improved model for transport driven by ion drift modes [F. D. Halpern et al., Phys. Plasmas 15 (2008) 012304] together with a model for transport driven by short wavelength electron drift modes combined with models for transport driven by classical processes. The new MMM08 transport model was validated by comparing predictive simulation results with experimental data for 32 discharges in the DIII-D and JET tokamaks. It was found that the prediction of intrinsic plasma rotation is consistent with experimental measurements in discharges with zero net torque. A scaling relation was developed for the toroidal momentum confinement time (angular momentum divided by net torque) as a function of plasma current and torque per ion.