MHD stability of JT-60SA operation scenarios driven by passing energetic particles for a hot Maxwellian model Articles uri icon

authors

  • VARELA RODRIGUEZ, JACOBO
  • WATANABE, K.Y.
  • SHINOHARA, K.
  • HONDA, M.
  • SUZUKI, Y.
  • SHIRAISHI, J.
  • SPONG, D.A.
  • GARCIA GONZALO, LUIS

publication date

  • July 2020

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 13

issue

  • 9

volume

  • 60

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0029-5515

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1741-4326

abstract

  • We analyze the effects of the passing energetic particles on the resistive ballooning modes (RBM) and the energetic particle driven modes in JT-60SA plasma, which leads to the prediction of the stability in N-NBI heated plasma. The analysis is performed using the code FAR3d that solves the reduced MHD equations describing the linear evolution of the poloidal flux and the toroidal component of the vorticity in a full 3D system, coupled with equations of density and parallel velocity moments for the energetic particle (EP) species assuming an averaged Maxwellian EP distribution fitted to the slowing down distribution, including the effect of the acoustic modes. The simulations show the possible destabilization of a 3/2-4/2 TAE with a frequency (f) of 115 kHz, a 6/4-7/4 TAE with f = 98 kHz and a 6/4 or 7/4 BAE with f = 57 kHz in the ITER-like inductive scenario. If the energetic particle beta increases, beta induced Alfven Eigenmodes (BAE), toroidal AEs (TAE) and elliptical AEs (EAE) are destabilized between the inner-middle plasma region, leading to the overlapping of AE of different toroidal families. If these instabilities coexist in the non-linear saturation phase the EP transport could be enhanced leading to a lower heating efficiency. For a hypothetical configuration based on the ITER-like inductive scenario but an center peaked EP profile, the EP beta threshold increases and several BAEs are destabilized in the inner plasma region, indicating an improved AE stability with respect to the off-axis peaked EP profile. In addition, the analysis of a hypothetical JT-60SA scenario with a resonant q = 1 in the inner plasma region shows the destabilization of fishbones-like instabilities by the off-axis peaked EP profile. Also, the EPs have a stabilizing effect on the RBM, stronger as the population of EP with low energies (below 250 keV) increases at the plasma pedestal.

keywords

  • tokamak; jt-60sa; mhd; ae; energetic particles