Quantitative predictions of tokamak energy confinement from first‐principles simulations with kinetic effects

A first‐principles model of anomalous thermal transport based on numerical simulations is presented, with stringent comparisons to experimental data from the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [Fusion Technol. 21, 1324 (1992)]. This model is based on nonlinear gyrofluid simulations, which predict the fluctuation and thermal transport characteristics of toroidal ion‐temperature‐gradient‐driven (ITG) turbulence, and on comprehensive linear gyrokinetic ballooning calculations, which provide very accurate growth rates, critical temperature gradients, and a quasilinear estimate of χe/χi. The model is derived solely from the simulation results. More than 70 TFTR low confinement (L‐mode) discharges have been simulated with quantitative success. Typically, the ion and electron temperature profiles are predicted within the error bars, and the global energy confinement time within ±10%. The measured temperatures at r/a≂0.8 are used as a boundary condition to predict the temperature profiles in the main confinement ...

[1]  C. Barnes,et al.  Status and Plans for TFTR , 1992 .

[2]  R. Paccagnella,et al.  Toroidal ηi mode stability in a multispecies plasma , 1990 .

[3]  Robert J. Goldston,et al.  Data analysis on TFTR using the SNAP transport code , 1992 .

[4]  W. Lee,et al.  Partially linearized algorithms in gyrokinetic particle simulation , 1993 .

[5]  Jose Milovich,et al.  Toroidal gyro‐Landau fluid model turbulence simulations in a nonlinear ballooning mode representation with radial modes , 1994 .

[6]  William Dorland,et al.  Gyrofluid turbulence models with kinetic effects , 1993 .

[7]  Gregory W. Hammett,et al.  Gyro‐Landau fluid models for toroidal geometry , 1992 .

[8]  Parker,et al.  Gyrokinetic simulation of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence in 3D toroidal geometry. , 1993, Physical review letters.

[9]  S. Briguglio,et al.  Toroidal semicollisional microinstabilities and anomalous electron and ion transport , 1990 .

[10]  Tadashi Sekiguchi,et al.  Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research , 1987 .

[11]  Physics of Plasmas Close to Thermonuclear Conditions, Volume 2 , 1981 .

[12]  A. T. Ramsey,et al.  Nondimensional transport scaling in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor: Is tokamak transport Bohm or gyro‐Bohm? , 1993 .

[13]  G. Bateman.  Theory‐based transport simulations of TFTR L‐mode temperature profiles , 1992 .

[14]  Mike Kotschenreuther,et al.  Comparison of initial value and eigenvalue codes for kinetic toroidal plasma instabilities , 1995 .

[15]  V E Zakharov,et al.  Figure Captions , 1994 .

[16]  Gregory W. Hammett,et al.  Field‐aligned coordinates for nonlinear simulations of tokamak turbulence , 1995 .

[17]  Perkins,et al.  Fluid moment models for Landau damping with application to the ion-temperature-gradient instability. , 1990, Physical review letters.

[18]  W. Horton,et al.  Toroidal kinetic ηi‐mode study in high‐temperature plasmas , 1992 .

[19]  W. Dorland,et al.  Fluid models of phase mixing, Landau damping, and nonlinear gyrokinetic dynamics , 1992 .

[20]  R. Waltz,et al.  Comparisons of nonlinear toroidal turbulence simulations with experiment , 1994 .

[21]  T.K. Fowler,et al.  Nuclear fusion , 1989, IEEE Potentials.