Toroidal and poloidal momentum transport studies in tokamaks

The present status of understanding of toroidal and poloidal momentum transport in tokamaks is presented in this paper. Similar energy confinement and momentum confinement times, i.e. tau(E)/tau(phi)approximate to 1 have been reported on several tokamaks. It is more important though, to study the local transport both in the core and edge plasma separately as, for example, in the core plasma, a large scatter in the ratio of the local effective momentum diffusivity to the ion heat diffusivity chi(phi eff)/chi(i.eff) among different tokamaks can be found. For example, the value of effective Prandtl number is typically around chi(phi eff)/chi(i.eff)approximate to 0.2 on JET while still tau(E)/tau(phi)approximate to 1 holds. Perturbative NBI modulation experiments on JET have shown, however, that a Prandtl number chi(phi)/chi(i) of around 1 is valid if there is an additional, significant inward momentum pinch which is required to explain the amplitude and phase behaviour of the momentum perturbation. The experimental results, i.e. the high Prandtl number and pinch, are in good qualitative and to some extent also in quantitative agreement with linear gyro-kinetic simulations. In contrast to the toroidal momentum transport which is clearly anomalous, the poloidal velocity is usually believed to be neo-classical. However, experimental measurements on JET show that the carbon poloidal velocity can be an order of magnitude above the predicted value by the neo-classical theory within the ITB. These large measured poloidal velocities, employed for example in transport simulations, significantly affect the calculated radial electric field and therefore the E x B flow shear and hence modify and can significantly improve the simulation predictions. Several fluid turbulence codes have been used to identify the mechanism driving the poloidal velocity to such high values. CUTIE and TRB turbulence codes and also the Weiland model predict the existence of an anomalous poloidal velocity, peaking in the vicinity of the ITB and driven dominantly by the flow due to the Reynold's stress. It is worth noting that these codes and models treat the equilibrium in a simplified way and this affects the geodesic curvature effects and geodesic acoustic modes. The neo-classical equilibrium is calculated more accurately in the GEM code and the simulations suggest that the spin-up of poloidal velocity is a consequence of the plasma profiles steepening when the ITB grows, following in particular the growth of the toroidal velocity within the ITB

Toroidal and poloidal momentum transport studies in JET

This paper reports on the recent studies of toroidal and poloidal momentum transport in JET. The ratio of the global energy confinement time to the momentum confinement is found to be close to tau(E)/tau(phi) = 1 except for the low density or low collisionality discharges where the ratio is tau(E)/tau(phi) = 2-3. On the other hand, local transport analysis of around 40 discharges shows that the ratio of the local effective momentum diffusivity to the ion heat diffusivity is chi(phi)/chi(i) approximate to 0.1-0.4 (averaged over the radial region r/a = 0.4-0.7) rather than unity, as expected from the global confinement times and used often in ITER predictions. The apparent discrepancy in the global and local momentum versus ion heat transport can be at least partly explained by the fact that momentum confinement within edge pedestal is worse than that of the ion heat and thus, momentum pedestal is weaker than that of ion temperature. In addition, while the ion temperature profile shows clearly strong profile stiffness, the toroidal velocity profile does not exhibit stiffness, as exemplified here during a giant ELM crash. Predictive transport simulations with the self-consistent modelling of toroidal velocity using the Weiland model and GLF23 also confirm that the ratio chi(phi)/chi(i) approximate to 0.4 reproduces the core toroidal velocity profiles well and similar accuracy with the ion temperature profiles. Concerning poloidal velocities on JET, the experimental measurements show that the carbon poloidal velocity can be an order of magnitude above the neo-classical estimate within the ITB. This significantly affects the calculated radial electric field and therefore, the E x B flow shear used for example in transport simulations. Both the Weiland model and GLF23 reproduce the onset, location and strength of the ITB well when the experimental poloidal velocity is used while they do not predict the formation of the ITB using the neo-classical poloidal velocity in time-dependent transport simulation. The most plausible explanation for the generation of the anomalous poloidal velocity is the turbulence driven flow through the Reynolds stress. Both CUTIE and TRB turbulence codes show the existence of an anomalous poloidal velocity, being significantly larger than the neo-classical values. And similarly to experiments, the poloidal velocity profiles peak in the vicinity of the ITB and seem to be dominantly caused by flow due to the Reynolds stress. However, it is important to note that both the codes treat the equilibrium in a simplified way and this affects the geodesic curvature effects and geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs). Therefore, the results should be considered as indicative, and most probably provide an upper bound of the mean poloidal velocity as results from other codes including GAM dynamics show that they often serve as a damping mechanism to flows