Related papers: Transport control by coherent zonal flows in the c…
In tokamaks, turbulence is responsible not only for the anomalous transport of heat and particles from the core to the edge, which reduces heating efficiency, but also for the generation of zonal structures (ZSs). Examples of ZSs are those…
Turbulent transport near the X-point of a large tokamak is examined using local, gradient-driven simulations that determine the saturated plasma profiles. The distribution of a representative set of particle tracers evolving within these…
The derivation of an intermediate-scale gyrokinetic-electron theory in nonuniform tokamak plasmas [Chen H. et al 2021 Nucl. Fusion 61 066017] has shown that a Navier-Stokes type nonlinearity couples electron-temperature-gradient (ETG) modes…
Gyrokinetic simulations are utilized to study effects of magnetic islands on the ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence in the KSTAR tokamak with resonant magnetic perturbations. Simulations show that the transport is controlled by the…
The role of self-generated zonal flows in the collisionless trapped-electron mode (CTEM) turbulence is a long-standing open issue in tokamak plasmas. Here we show, for the first time, that the zonal flow excitation in the CTEM turbulence is…
Turbulence driven zonal flows play an important role in fusion devices since they improve plasma confinement by limiting the level of anomalous transport. Current theories mostly focus on flow excitation but do not self-consistently…
Full-f global gyrokinetic simulations of the plasma boundary have until now required heroic computational efforts and case-by-case expert intervention, precluding systematic parameter scans. Here we demonstrate a paradigm shift: hundreds of…
Starting from the Braginskii equations, relevant for the tokamak edge region, a complete set of nonlinear equations for the geodesic acoustic modes (GAM) has been derived which includes collisionality, plasma beta and external sources of…
It is shown that a relevant control of Hamiltonian chaos is possible through suitable small perturbations whose form can be explicitly computed. In particular, it is possible to control (reduce) the chaotic diffusion in the phase space of a…
The transition between turbulent and zonal flow dominated states is investigated by varying the ion temperature gradient in nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations. Independent gradient scans reveal three distinct regimes: a turbulent regime at…
The interaction of passing-ion drift orbits with spatially-inhomogeneous but purely diffusive radial transport is demonstrated to cause spontaneous toroidal spin-up to experimentally-relevant values in the tokamak edge. Physically,…
In tokamak experiments, sufficiently strong $E\times B$ flow shear reduces turbulent transport, thereby improving the prospects for fusion power plants. It is therefore of great importance to efficiently explore parameter space to find…
Gyrokinetic simulations have greatly improved our theoretical understanding of turbulent transport in fusion devices. Most gyrokinetic models in use are delta-f simulations in which the slowly varying radial profiles of density and…
Transition to turbulence dramatically alters the properties of fluid flows. In most canonical shear flows, the laminar flow is linearly stable and a finite-amplitude perturbation is necessary to trigger transition. Controlling transition to…
There are two distinct phases in the evolution of drift wave envelope in the presence of zonal flow. A long-lived standing wave phase, which we call the Caviton, and a short-lived traveling wave phase (in radial direction) we call the…
First-principles numerical simulations are used to describe a transport bifurcation in a differentially rotating tokamak plasma. Such a bifurcation is more probable in a region of zero magnetic shear than one of finite magnetic shear…
The design of commercially feasible magnetic confinement fusion reactors strongly relies on the reduced turbulent transport in the plasma edge during operation in the high confinement mode (H-mode). We present first global turbulence…
Gyrokinetic tokamak plasmas can exhibit intrinsic toroidal rotation driven by the residual stress. While most studies have attributed the residual stress to the parallel-momentum flux from the turbulent $\boldsymbol{E}\times\boldsymbol{B}$…
In this study, global nonlinear electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations are conducted to investigate turbulence in the Internal transport barrier (ITB) region of the EAST tokamak discharge with weakly reversed magnetic shear. Linear…
Wave-particle interaction in toroidal plasmas is an essential transport mechanism in drift wave instability-driven microturbulence. In tokamkas, different wave-particle resonance conditions have been found important for the energy and…