Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Reneé Jordashe Franco Sgalla
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física (IF/SBI) |
| Defense date: | 2010-03-26 |
| Examining board members: |
Ricardo Magnus Osorio Galvao;
Marisa Roberto;
José Helder Facundo Severo
|
| Advisor: | Ricardo Magnus Osorio Galvao |
| Abstract | |
We investigate the efect of equilibrium rotation on zonal flows (ZF) and geodesic acoustic modes (GAM) in tokamaks of circular cross section. These models, ZF and GAM, occur in toroidal systems as a response of the plasma to the geodesic curvature of the magnetic field lines and due to the drift motion of the fluid (plasma). This drift motions is caused by the response of charged particles to the electric and magnetic field and, for both species of charges, i. e., positive ions and negative electrons, the motion is in the same direction. By making use of basically three approximations, high aspect ratio tokamkas, the quasi-neutrality principle and low values (electrostatic approximation), and pertubing the ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations to first order, we find that the equilibrium rotation does affects the ZF and GAM frequencies. In the equilibrium toroidal rotation flow, which had already been studied by W. Shaojie, the ZF becomes unstable and the GAM frequency is changed by rotation for finity heat conductivity; but when the heat conductivity goes to infinity, the rotation has no influence on the ZF and GAM frequencies. This assertion and also the ZF and GAM frequencies values differ from the original publication and therefore, if we are correct, our work may help to solve the ZF and GAM problem, which is not yet a completely understood subject. The rotation caused by an equilibrium electrostatic field created by ambipolar diffusion, which has not been dealt is also investigate. We find no instability in this case, but the rotation also affects the ZF and GAM frequencies. The ZF frequency, which is usually null, becomes proportional to the equilibrium rotation flow. We interptret this result as a consequency of the doppler effect. The GAM frequency, on the other hand, becomes zero when the rotation reaches a certain value, which is related to the safety factor and the aspect ratio of the tokamak. Consideration of equilibrium flows scaling to order one leads to high frequencies, which is not accepted by contrasting the quasi-neutrality approximation and so, our model is valid only for small equilibrium electric field that scale to the inverse aspect ratio. But even in this regime, we find that the rotation has great impact on the ZF and GAM frequencies, which is the main result we obtain. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 07/01214-3 - Study of shear flows generated by turbulence in tokamaks |
| Grantee: | Reneé Jordashe Franco Sgalla |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |