Intrinsic Rotation Drive on DIII-D

ORAL

Abstract

Recent experiments on \hbox{DIII-D} have focused on understanding the drive mechanisms for intrinsic rotation in tokamak fusion plasmas. At the edge ($\rho >0.8$) of \hbox{H-mode} plasmas, a clear dependence of the ``intrinsic torque'' associated with the intrinsic rotation is observed with the edge pressure gradient. The intrinsic torque in the core ($\rho <0.5$) of \hbox{H-mode} plasmas tends to be small, although some cases have been found where it is sufficient to modify the rotation profile. For example, large core intrinsic torques have been observed in quiescent \hbox{H-mode} plasmas and more recently in hybrid discharges. In such cases, the net result when integrated across the profile is an intrinsic torque that is in the counter current direction, which is the opposite for usual \hbox{H-modes}. Recent studies of the residual stress with the global gyrokinetic code GYRO, suggest that nonlocal profile variations are capable of generating large residual stresses suitable for driving intrinsic rotation.

*Supported by the US DOE under DE-AC02-09CH11466, DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-FG02-95ER54309 and DE-FG02-04ER54761.

Authors

  • W.M. Solomon

    • PPPL
    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
  • T.S. Hahm

    • PPPL
  • K.H. Burrell

    • General Atomics
  • J.S. deGrassie

    • GA
    • General Atomics
  • A.M. Garofalo

    • General Atomics
  • Ronald Waltz

    • General Atomics
    • General Atomics, San Diego
  • H. Reimerdes

    • Columbia University
    • Columbia U.
  • P.H. Diamond

    • UCSD
  • S.H. Muller

    • UCSD