학술논문

Nonlocal effects in negative triangularity TCV plasmas.
Document Type
Article
Source
Plasma Physics & Controlled Fusion. Apr2021, Vol. 63 Issue 4, p1-12. 12p.
Subject
*PLASMA turbulence
*HEAT flux
*ELECTRON density
*ELECTRON temperature
Language
ISSN
0741-3335
Abstract
Global gradient driven gyrokinetic simulations performed with the Gyrokinetic Electromagnetic Numerical Experiment (GENE) code are used to investigate Tokamak ŕ configuration variable (TCV) plasmas with negative triangularity. Considering limited L-mode plasmas, the numerical results are able to reproduce the actual transport level over a major fraction of the plasma minor radius for a plasma with and its equivalent with standard positive triangularity δ. For the same heat flux, a larger electron temperature gradient is sustained by , in turn resulting in an improved electron energy confinement. In agreement with the experiments, a reduction of the electron density fluctuations is also seen. Local flux-tube simulations are used to gauge the magnitude of nonlocal effects. Surprisingly, very little differences are found between local and global approaches for , while local results yield a strong overestimation of the heat fluxes when. Despite the high sensitivity of the turbulence level with respect to the input parameters, global effects appear to play a crucial role in the negative triangularity plasma and must be retained to reconcile simulations and experiments. Finally, a general stabilizing effect of negative triangularity, reducing fluxes and fluctuations by a factor dependent on the actual profiles, is recovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]