Engineering topics

Stoltzfus-Dueck, T. (ORCID:0000000325876298)

Publications and source records attributed to Stoltzfus-Dueck, T. (ORCID:0000000325876298).

3 records

DOE OSTI2024

Transport-driven toroidal rotation with general viscosity profile

Abstract Using the assumption of a weak normalized turbulent viscosity, usually valid in practice, the modulated-transport model (Stoltzfus-Dueck 2012 Phys. Plasmas 19 055908) is generalized to allow the turbulent transport coefficient to vary in an arbitrary way on radial and poloidal position. The new approach clarifies the physical interpretation of the earlier results and significantly simplifies the calculation, via a boundary-layer asymptotic method. Rigorous detailed appendices verify the result of the simple boundary-layer calculation, also demonstrating that it achieves the claimed order of accuracy and providing a concrete prediction for the strong plasma flows in the immediate vicinity of the last closed flux surface. The new formulas are used to predict plasma rotation at the core-edge boundary, in cases with and without externally applied torque. Dimensional formulas and extensive discussion are provided, to support experimental application of the new model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Intrinsic rotation modulation by diffusive neutral particles in tokamaks

Abstract The modulated transport model, a model kinetic ion transport equation for the pedestal and scrape-off layer (SOL), is generalized to self-consistently include effects of a single neutral particle species. The neutrals contribute additional transport terms, modifying the v ∥ -dependent orbit-averaged ion diffusivities of the original work and the resulting predicted intrinsic rotation of the ions. After making simplifying assumptions of the neutral transport, in particular taking the continuous transport limit via a short charge-exchange step expansion, we derive relatively simple analytic expressions that capture the diffusive neutral physics. Within the scope of the model’s validity, the neutral-driven intrinsic rotation can compete with the turbulence-driven intrinsic rotation. However, for physically motivated parameters, the neutral-driven intrinsic rotation appears negligible, either on a term-by-term basis or due to a strong cancellation between the neutral-driven momentum diffusion and pinch terms. It appears that a treatment containing finite charge-exchange steps is necessary to capture neutral transport of strong flow momentum into the confined region from the SOL.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Effects of collisional ion orbit loss on tokamak radial electric field and toroidal rotation in an L-mode plasma

Abstract Ion orbit loss has been used to model the formation of a strong negative radial electric field E r in the tokamak edge, as well as edge momentum transport and toroidal rotation. To quantitatively measure ion orbit loss, an orbit-flux formulation has been developed and numerically applied to the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code XGC. We study collisional ion orbit loss in an axisymmetric DIII-D L-mode plasma using gyrokinetic ions and drift-kinetic electrons. Numerical simulations, where the plasma density and temperature profiles are maintained through neutral ionization and heating, show the formation of a quasisteady negative E r in the edge. We have measured a radially outgoing ion gyrocenter flux due to collisional scattering of ions into the loss orbits, which is balanced by the radially incoming ion gyrocenter flux from confined orbits on the collisional time scale. This suggests that collisional ion orbit loss can shift E r in the negative direction compared to that in plasmas without orbit loss. It is also found that collisional ion orbit loss can contribute to a radially outgoing (counter-current) toroidal-angular-momentum flux, which is not balanced by the toroidal-angular-momentum flux carried by ions on the confined orbits. Therefore, the edge toroidal rotation shifts in the co-current direction on the collisional time scale.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗