On Plasma Rotation Induced by Traveling Fast Alfvin Waves

Perkins, F.W. ; White, R.B. ; Chan, and V.S.

Princeton University. Plasma Physics Laboratory.

关键词: Ion Cyclotron-Resonance;    Wavelengths;    70 Plasma Physics And Fusion Technology;    Travelling Waves;    Tokamak Devices;   

DOI  :  10.2172/788205
RP-ID  :  PPPL-3605
RP-ID  :  AC02-76CH03073
RP-ID  :  788205

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Absorption of fast Alfven waves by the minority fundamental ion-cyclotron resonance, coupled with finite banana width physics, generates torque distributions and ultimately rotational shear layers in the bulk plasma, even when the toroidal wavenumber k(subscript ''phi'') = n/R of the fast wave vanishes (n=0) and cyclotron absorption introduces no angular momentum nor canonical angular momentum [F.W. Perkins, R.B. White, P.T. Bonoli, and V.S. Chan, Phys. Plasmas 8 (2001) 2181]. The present work extends these results to travelling waves with non-zero n where heating directly introduces angular momentum. Since tokamak fast-wave antennas have approximately one wavelength per toroidal field coil, the toroidal mode number n lies in the range n = 10-20, independent of machine size. A zero-dimensional analysis shows that the rotation rate arising from direct torque is comparable to that of the rotational shear layer and has the same scaling. Nondimensional rotation profiles for n = (-10, 10) show modest changes from the n = 0 case in the expected direction. For a balanced antenna spectrum, the nondimensional rotational profile (averaged over n = -10, 10) lies quite close to the n = 0 profile.