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Results for “Plasma stability”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Effect of negative triangularity on tearing mode stability in tokamak plasmas

Abstract The influence of negative triangularity (NT) of the plasma shape on the n = 1 (n is the toroidal mode number) tearing mode (TM) stability has been numerically investigated, with results compared to that of the positive triangularity (PT) counterpart. By matching the safety factor profile for a series of toroidal equilibria, several important plasma parameters, including the triangularity, the plasma equilibrium pressure, the plasma resistivity as well as the toroidal rotation, have been varied. The TM localized near the plasma edge is found to be more unstable in the NT plasmas as compared to the PT counterpart. The fundamental reason for this difference is the lack of favorable average curvature stabilization in NT configurations. Direct comparison of the Mercier index corroborates this conclusion. For the core-localized mode, where the difference in the local triangularity between NT and PT becomes small and the curvature stabilization is significantly reduced, larger Shafranov shift in the plasma core associated with the NT configuration results in more stable TM. The plasma toroidal flow generally stabilizes the TM in plasmas with both NTs and PTs. The flow stabilization is however weaker in the case of negative triangularity with finite plasma pressure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1992

Electron-ion hybrid instabilities driven by velocity shear in a magnetized plasma

The stability of a magnetized plasma is investigated in which a sheared electron flow channel is present. The flow's peak velocity and shear scale length are denoted by V and L, respectively. If the velocity channel is perpendicular to the confining magnetic field and L is less than the ion Larmor radius, an electrostatic instability develops whose frequency is on the order of the lower hybrid frequency. It is concluded that velocity shear is the only source of free energy. Further, it is shown that density gradients do not stabilize this mode. It follows that the mode presented in this work can not be identified with the well-known modified two-stream instability. If the velocity channel is parallel to the confining magnetic field and the plasma is weakly magnetized, an instability driven by velocity shear is shown to exist.

Romero, H.↗
DOE OSTI2025

A generalized effective potential for differentially rotating plasmas

Global stability of differentially rotating plasma is investigated using a generalized effective potential. We first, for a current-free system, obtain a general form of an effective potential in terms of the free energies of global curvature and gradients of rotation for non-axisymmetric disturbances. We then examine the stability of differentially rotating disks for several rotation profiles and present the associated effective potential for the onset of these instabilities in the MHD regime. In particular, results for global axisymmetric magnetorotational instability as well as local and global non-axisymmetric modes are presented. The latter constitute two distinct non-axisymmetric modes, a high frequency local MRI and a global low-frequency non-axisymmetric mode (the magneto-curvature mode, introduced in Ebrahimi and Pharr [Astrophys. J. 936, 145 (2022)]), confined either between two Alfvénic resonances or an Alfvénic resonance and a boundary.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1984

The effect of line-tying on the radiative MHD stability of coronal plasmas with radial pressure profile

The role of photospheric line-tying, i.e., solar coronal loop structures, was investigated in terms of the effect on radiative modes and the influence that different radial pressure profiles exert on the effects of line-tying on radiative MHD stability. Energy is assumed dissipated by heat conduction and radiation and zero- and first-order solutions are obtained for the radiative time scales. Line-tying is a magnetic tension in the zero-order MHD mode and produces stability. Heat conduction occurs along bent field lines in first-order MHD modes when plasmas cross the field lines. Irradiated cool-core loops can experience MHD instabilities in the cylinder center, while line-tying can stabilize the plasma in the surrounding hot medium. Line-tying also adds stability to magnetosonic and condensation modes.

An, C.-H.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The stability of the cometary plasma tail and rays

The stability of both the main cometary plasma tail and the tail rays is considered, taking into account the coupling between the plasma and the neutrals that flow out radially from the nucleus. It is shown that this coupling has a negligible effect on wave damping. Rather, it was found that the neutral wind tends to destabilize the flanks of the main tail. On the other hand, the cometary rays are subject to both stabilizing and destabilizing effects because of the ion-neutrals drag. As a result, helical perturbations should become azimuthally asymmetric. The study predicts that the folding rays may become wavy while approaching the tail axis, whereas they should remain straight far away from the tail axis.

Ershkovich, A. I.↗
NASA NTRS1983

'Stabilization' of the lower-hybrid-drift instability in finite-beta plasmas

The stability properties of the lower-hybrid-drift instability are reexamined for finite-beta plasmas. In contrast to previous results, it is found that finite-beta does not stabilize the instability in the sense that the growth rate becomes negative. Rather, as beta increases, the fastest growing mode shifts to longer wavelengths and makes a transition to an ion-cyclotron mode when the growth rate falls below the ion-cyclotron frequency.

Drake, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1980

On self-consistent waves and their stability in warm plasmas. II - Instability of circularly polarized waves both in the presence and the absence of an ambient magnetic field

The stability of a self-consistent, large-amplitude, circularly polarized wave in a warm plasma is investigated. For perturbations to the system propagating normal to the plane of circular polarization, a dispersion relation is derived employing an expansion in the nonlinear wave amplitude and the momentum of the plasma particles in the plane of polarization. Instability results both in the absence and presence of a large-scale magnetic field with a growth rate of the order of the nonlinear wave amplitude.

Lee, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Comments on the MHD stability of coronal plasmas with line-tying

Reasonable boundary conditions and test functions for photospheric line-tying are discussed, and their effects on the ideal MHD stability of coronal loops are considered. It is concluded that the plasma at the footpoints of a loop may safely be assumed to be stationary. When a simple perturbed test function is used for the energy principle, the function should be helical in form. Constraints on the test function should be discarded because they overestimate stability.

An, C.-H.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Kinetic equilibrium reconstruction and the impact on stability analysis of KSTAR plasmas

High fidelity kinetic plasma equilibrium reconstructions are an essential requirement for accurate stability and disruption prediction analyses to support continuous operation of high beta tokamak plasmas. The present kinetic equilibrium reconstructions of plasmas in the KSTAR device include plasma density and temperature profiles from Thomson scattering and ion temperature from charge exchange spectroscopy diagnostics, and allowance for fast particle pressure. In addition, up to 25 channels of motional Stark effect diagnostic data are used to constrain the magnetic field pitch angle profile in the plasma to produce a reliable computation of the safety factor, q, profile. In this work, H-mode plasmas exhibit clear pedestal characteristics in the reconstructed pressure profile compared to internal transport barrier or L-mode plasmas. The plasma configuration and vertical position of inner strike points are validated by CCD and infrared camera images. Ideal and resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability analyses using the DCON and resistive DCON codes utilize these kinetic equilibrium reconstructions to compare to experimental plasma stability. Equilibria with sufficiently low convergence error can provide reliable computation of ideal and resistive MHD stability analysis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2001

Interfacial Stability of Converging Plasma Jets for Magnetized Target Fusion

The merging of a spherical distribution of plasma jets to dynamically form a gaseous liner has been proposed for use in magnetized target fusion propulsion. In this paper, a study is made of the interfacial stability of the interaction of these jets. Specifically, the Orr-Sommerfeld equation is integrated to obtain the growth rate of a perturbation to the primary flow at the interface between the colliding jets. The analysis lead to an estimate on the tolerances on the relative flow velocities of the merging plasma jets to form a stable, imploding liner. The results show that during the merging of the jets to form a liner and before contact with the target plasma the growth of the perturbed flow at the jet interface is not likely to destabilize the liner. These data suggest that, as far as the stability of the interface between the merging jets is concerned, the formation of liner can withstand velocity variation up to 50% between the neighboring jets over the density and temperature ranges investigated.

Cassibry, J. T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Kinetic stability of Chapman–Enskog plasmas

In this paper, we investigate the kinetic stability of classical, collisional plasma – that is, plasma in which the mean-free-path $\lambda$ of constituent particles is short compared with the length scale $L$ over which fields and bulk motions in the plasma vary macroscopically, and the collision time is short compared with the evolution time. Fluid equations are typically used to describe such plasmas, since their distribution functions are close to being Maxwellian. The small deviations from the Maxwellian distribution are calculated via the Chapman–Enskog (CE) expansion in $\lambda /L \ll 1$ , and determine macroscopic momentum and heat fluxes in the plasma. Such a calculation is only valid if the underlying CE distribution function is stable at collisionless length scales and/or time scales. We find that at sufficiently high plasma $\beta$ , the CE distribution function can be subject to numerous microinstabilities across a wide range of scales. For a particular form of the CE distribution function arising in strongly magnetised plasma ( viz. plasma in which the Larmor periods of particles are much smaller than collision times), we provide a detailed analytic characterisation of all significant microinstabilities, including peak growth rates and their associated wavenumbers. Of specific note is the discovery of several new microinstabilities, including one at sub-electron-Larmor scales (the ‘whisper instability’) whose growth rate in certain parameter regimes is large compared with other instabilities. Our approach enables us to construct the kinetic stability maps of classical, two-species collisional plasma in terms of $\lambda$ , the electron inertial scale $d_e$ and the plasma $\beta$ . This work is of general consequence in emphasising the fact that high- $\beta$ collisional plasmas can be kinetically unstable; for strongly magnetised CE plasmas, the condition for instability is $\beta \gtrsim L/\lambda$ . In this situation, the determination of transport coefficients via the standard CE approach is not valid.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Stable electron beam propagation in a plasma column

The stability of plasma-based accelerators against transverse misalignments and asymmetries of the drive beam is crucial for their applicability. Without stabilizing mechanisms, even small initial offsets of the drive beam centroid can couple coherently to the plasma wake, grow, and ultimately lead to emittance degradation or beam loss for a trailing witness beam. In this work, we demonstrate the intrinsic stability of a beam propagating in a plasma column. This result is relevant in the context of plasma-based positron acceleration, where a wakefield suitable for the transport and acceleration of a positron witness beam is generated in a plasma column by means of an electron drive beam. The stable propagation of the drive beam is a necessary condition for the experimental implementation of this scheme. The differences and similarities of stabilizing mechanisms in a plasma column compared to a homogeneous plasma are identified via theory and particle-in-cell simulations. Experimental tolerances are given, demonstrating the experimental feasibility of the scheme.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1989

Ballooning stability of axisymmetric plasmas with sheared equilibrium flows

A WKB theory is formulated for large-n ballooning modes in axisymmetric, toroidal plasmas with sheared equilibrium flows. The validity of the standard ballooning respresentation is severely restricted in the presence of sheared toroidal flow, despite the fact that to leading order in (1/n), where n is the azimuthal number, the eigenmode equation contains only derivatives along a field line. Necessary and sufficient conditions for stability are obtained in a high-beta ordering for rigid toroidal rotation as well as field-aligned flows.

Bhattacharjee, A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

First Evidence of Local E × B Drift in the Divertor Influencing the Structure and Stability of Confined Plasma near the Edge of Fusion Devices

The structure of the edge plasma in a magnetic confinement system has a strong impact on the overall plasma performance. Here we uncover for the first time a magnetic-field-direction dependent density shelf, i.e., local flattening of density radial profile near the magnetic separatrix, in high confinement plasmas with low edge collisionality in the DIII-D tokamak. The density shelf is correlated with a doubly peaked density profile near the divertor target plate, which tends to occur for operation with the ion BX∇B drift direction away from the X-point, as currently employed for DIII-D advanced tokamak scenarios. This double-peaked divertor plasma profile is connected via the EXB drifts, arising from a strong radial electric field induced by the radial electron temperature gradient near the divertor target. The drifts lead to the reversal of the poloidal flow above the divertor target, resulting in the formation of the density shelf. The edge density shelf can be also enhanced at higher heating power, preventing large, periodic bursts of the plasma, i.e. Edge-localized Modes, in the edge region, consistent with ideal magnetohydrodynamics calculations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗