The effects of main-ion dilution on turbulence in low q95 C-Mod ohmic plasmas, and comparisons with nonlinear GYRO

Abstract

Recent experiments on C-mod seeding nitrogen into ohmic plasmas with q95 = 3.4 found that the seeding greatly reduced long-wavelength (ITG-scale) turbulence. The long-wavelength turbulence that was reduced by the nitrogen seeding was localized to the region of r/a≈0.85, where the turbulence is well above marginal stability (as evidenced by Qi/QGB≫1). The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GYRO was used to simulate the expected turbulence in these plasmas, and the simulated turbulent density fluctuations and turbulent energy fluxes quantitatively agreed with the experimental measurements both before and after the nitrogen seeding. Unexpectedly, the intrinsic rotation of the plasma was also found to be affected by the nitrogen seeding, in a manner apparently unrelated to a change in the electron-ion collisionality that was proposed by other experiments.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2016
Source ID
10.1063/1.4960315

Entities

People

  • D. Ernst
  • G. M. Staebler
  • J. Candy
  • J.E. Rice
  • Jerry Hughes
  • Jon Rost
  • M. Porkolab
  • Matthew Reinke
  • P. Ennever
  • S. G. Baek
  • The Alcator C-mod Team

Organizations

  • General Atomics
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • United States Department of Energy

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics