Plasma turbulence in the scrape-off layer of the ISTTOK tokamak

The properties of plasma turbulence in a poloidally limited scrape-off layer (SOL) are addressed, with focus on ISTTOK, a large aspect ratio tokamak with a circular cross section. Theoretical investigations based on the drift-reduced Braginskii equations are carried out through linear calculations a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jorge, Rogério, Ricci, Paolo, Halpern, Federico D., Silva, Carlos, Gomes Loureiro, Nuno F
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Format: Article
Published: American Institute of Physics (AIP) 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117069
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9755-6563
Description
Summary:The properties of plasma turbulence in a poloidally limited scrape-off layer (SOL) are addressed, with focus on ISTTOK, a large aspect ratio tokamak with a circular cross section. Theoretical investigations based on the drift-reduced Braginskii equations are carried out through linear calculations and non-linear simulations, in two-and three-dimensional geometries. The linear instabilities driving turbulence and the mechanisms that set the amplitude of turbulence as well as the SOL width are identified. A clear asymmetry is shown to exist between the low-field and the high-field sides of the machine. While the comparison between experimental measurements and simulation results shows good agreement in the far SOL, large intermittent events in the near SOL, detected in the experiments, are not captured by the simulations.