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Qingquan Yu

Publications and source records attributed to Qingquan Yu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

MHD analysis on the physical designs of CFETR and HFRC

The China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) and the Huazhong Field Reversed Configuration (HFRC), currently both under intensive physical and engineering designs in China, are the two major projects representative of the low-density steady-state and high-density pulsed pathways to fusion. One of the primary tasks of the physics designs for both CFETR and HFRC is the assessment and analysis of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability of the proposed design schemes. Comprehensive efforts on the assessment of MHD stability of CFETR and HFRC baseline scenarios have led to preliminary progresses that may further benefit engineering designs.

physics.plasm-ph

Comparison between resistive and collisionless double tearing modes for nearby resonant surfaces

The linear instability and nonlinear dynamics of collisional (resistive) and collisionless (due to electron inertia) double tearing modes (DTMs) are compared with the use of a reduced cylindrical model of a tokamak plasma. We focus on cases where two q = 2 resonant surfaces are located a small distance apart. It is found that regardless of the magnetic reconnection mechanism, resistivity or electron inertia, the fastest growing linear eigenmodes may have high poloidal mode numbers m ~ 10. The spectrum of unstable modes tends to be broader in the collisionless case. In the nonlinear regime, it is shown that in both cases fast growing high-m DTMs lead to an annular collapse involving small magnetic island structures. In addition, collisionless DTMs exhibit multiple reconnection cycles due to reversibility of collisionless reconnection and strong ExB flows. Collisionless reconnection leads to a saturated stable state, while in the collisional case resistive decay keeps the system weakly dynamic by driving it back towards the unstable equilibrium maintained by a source term.

physics.plasm-ph

Large-mode-number magnetohydrodynamic instability driven by sheared flows in a tokamak plasma with reversed central shear

The effect of a narrow sub-Alfvenic shear flow layer near the minimum q_min of the tokamak safety factor profile in a configuration with reversed central shear is analyzed. Sufficiently strong velocity shear gives rise to a broad spectrum of fast growing Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH)-like ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes with dominant mode numbers m,n ~ 10. Nonlinear simulations with finite resistivity show magnetic reconnection near ripples caused by KH-like vortices, the formation of turbulent structures, and a flattening of the flow profile. The KH modes are compared to double tearing modes (DTM) which dominate at lower shearing rates. The possible application of these results in tokamaks with internal transport barrier is discussed.

physics.plasm-ph