1,480 research outputs found
Stellarator bootstrap current and plasma flow velocity at low collisionality
The bootstrap current and flow velocity of a low-collisionality stellarator
plasma are calculated. As far as possible, the analysis is carried out in a
uniform way across all low-collisionality regimes in general stellarator
geometry, assuming only that the confinement is good enough that the plasma is
approximately in local thermodynamic equilibrium. It is found that conventional
expressions for the ion flow speed and bootstrap current in the
low-collisionality limit are accurate only in the -collisionality regime
and need to be modified in the -regime. The correction due to
finite collisionality is also discussed and is found to scale as
L-H transition dynamics in fluid turbulence simulations with neoclassical force balance
Spontaneous transport barrier generation at the edge of a magnetically
confined plasma is investigated. To this end, a model of electrostatic
turbulence in three-dimensional geometry is extended to account for the impact
of friction between trapped and passing particles on the radial electric field.
Non-linear flux-driven simulations are carried out, and it is shown that
considering the radial and temporal variations of the neoclassical friction
coefficients allows for a transport barrier to be generated above a threshold
of the input power
Collisional transport across the magnetic field in drift-fluid models
Drift ordered fluid models are widely applied in studies of low-frequency
turbulence in the edge and scrape-off layer regions of magnetically confined
plasmas. Here, we show how collisional transport across the magnetic field is
self-consistently incorporated into drift-fluid models without altering the
drift-fluid energy integral. We demonstrate that the inclusion of collisional
transport in drift-fluid models gives rise to diffusion of particle density,
momentum and pressures in drift-fluid turbulence models and thereby obviate the
customary use of artificial diffusion in turbulence simulations. We further
derive a computationally efficient, two-dimensional model which can be time
integrated for several turbulence de-correlation times using only limited
computational resources. The model describes interchange turbulence in a
two-dimensional plane perpendicular to the magnetic field located at the
outboard midplane of a tokamak. The model domain has two regions modeling open
and closed field lines. The model employs a computational expedient model for
collisional transport. Numerical simulations show good agreement between the
full and the simplified model for collisional transport
Properties of a new quasi-axisymmetric configuration
A novel, compact, quasi-axisymmetric configuration is presented which
exhibits low fast-particle losses and is stable to ideal MHD instabilities. The
design has fast-particle loss rates below 8\% for flux surfaces within the
half-radius, and is shown to have an MHD-stability limit of a normalised
pressure of where is volume
averaged. The flux surfaces at various plasma betas and currents as calculated
using the SPEC equilibrium code are presented. Neoclassical transport
coefficients are shown to be similar to an equivalent tokamak, with a distinct
banana regime at half-radius. An initial coil design study is presented to
assess the feasibility of this configuration as a fusion-relevant experiment
The comprehensive cohort model in a pilot trial in orthopaedic trauma
Background: The primary aim of this study was to provide an estimate of effect size for the functional outcome of
operative versus non-operative treatment for patients with an acute rupture of the Achilles tendon using
accelerated rehabilitation for both groups of patients. The secondary aim was to assess the use of a
comprehensive cohort research design (i.e. a parallel patient-preference group alongside a randomised group) in
improving the accuracy of this estimate within an orthopaedic trauma setting.
Methods: Pragmatic randomised controlled trial and comprehensive cohort study within a level 1 trauma centre.
Twenty randomised participants (10 operative and 10 non-operative) and 29 preference participants (3 operative
and 26 non-operative). The ge range was 22-72 years and 37 of the 52 patients were men. All participants had an
acute rupture of their Achilles tendon and no other injuries. All of the patients in the operative group had a simple
end-to-end repair of the tendon with no augmentation. Both groups then followed the same eight-week
immediate weight-bearing rehabilitation programme using an off-the-shelf orthotic. The disability rating index (DRI;
primary outcome), EQ-5D, Achilles Total Rupture Score and complications were assessed ed at two weeks, six
weeks, three months, six months and nine months after initial injury.
Results: At nine months, there was no significant difference in DRI between patients randomised to operative or
non-operative management. There was no difference in DRI between the randomised group and the parallel
patient preference group. The use of a comprehensive cohort of patients did not provide useful additional
information as to the treatment effect size because the majority of patients chose non-operative management.
Conclusions: Recruitment to clinical trials that compare operative and non-operative interventions is notoriously
difficult; especially within the trauma setting. Including a parallel patient preference group to create a
comprehensive cohort of patients has been suggested as a way of increasing the power of such trials. In our
study, the comprehensive cohort model doubled the number of patients involved in the study. However, a strong
preference for non-operative treatment meant that the increased number of patients did not significantly increase
the ability of the trial to detect a difference between the two interventions
Drift of ablated material after pellet injection in a tokamak
Pellet injection is used for fuelling and controlling discharges in tokamaks,
and it is foreseen in ITER. During pellet injection, a movement of the ablated
material towards the low-field side (or outward major radius direction) occurs
because of the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field. Due to the complexity of
the theoretical models, computer codes developed to simulate the cross-field
drift are computationally expensive. Here, we present a one-dimensional
semi-analytical model for the radial displacement of ablated material after
pellet injection, taking into account both the Alfv\'en and ohmic currents
which short-circuit the charge separation creating the drift. The model is
suitable for rapid calculation of the radial drift displacement, and can be
useful for e.g. modelling of disruption mitigation via pellet injection.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Journal of Plasma Physic
Collisional damping rates for plasma waves
The distinction between the plasma dynamics dominated by collisional
transport versus collective processes has never been rigorously addressed until
recently. A recent paper [Yoon et al., Phys. Rev. E 93, 033203 (2016)]
formulates for the first time, a unified kinetic theory in which collective
processes and collisional dynamics are systematically incorporated from first
principles. One of the outcomes of such a formalism is the rigorous derivation
of collisional damping rates for Langmuir and ion-acoustic waves, which can be
contrasted to the heuristic customary approach. However, the results are given
only in formal mathematical expressions. The present Brief Communication
numerically evaluates the rigorous collisional damping rates by considering the
case of plasma particles with Maxwellian velocity distribution function so as
to assess the consequence of the rigorous formalism in a quantitative manner.
Comparison with the heuristic ("Spitzer") formula shows that the accurate
damping rates are much lower in magnitude than the conventional expression,
which implies that the traditional approach over-estimates the importance of
attenuation of plasma waves by collisional relaxation process. Such a finding
may have a wide applicability ranging from laboratory to space and
astrophysical plasmas.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; Published in Physics of Plasmas, volume/Issue
23/6. Publisher: AIP Publishing LLC. Date: Jun 1, 2016. URL:
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4953802 Rights managed by AIP
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