arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T. Fülöp.
Heat conduction experiments are performed in order to identify effects beyond Fourier. Two experimental setups are discussed. First, a simple experiment by a heterogeneous material is investigated from the point of view of generalized heat conduction, then the classical laser flash method is analysed.
Trapped electron mode turbulence is studied by gyrokinetic simulations with the GYRO code and an analytical model including the effect of a poloidally varying electrostatic potential. Its impact on radial transport of high-Z trace impurities close to the core is thoroughly investigated and the dependence of the zero-flux impurity density gradient (peaking factor) on local plasma parameters is presented. Parameters such as ion-to-electron temperature ratio, electron temperature gradient and main species density gradient mainly affect the impurity peaking through their impact on mode characteristics. The poloidal asymmetry, the safety factor and magnetic shear have the strongest effect on impurity peaking, and it is shown that under certain scenarios where trapped electron modes are dominant, core accumulation of high-Z impurities can be avoided. We demonstrate that accounting for the momentum conservation property of the impurity-impurity collision operator can be important for an accurate evaluation of the impurity peaking factor.
Hydrogen majority plasmas will be used in the initial non-activated phase of ITER operation. Optimizing ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) in such scenarios will help in achieving H-mode in these plasmas. Past JET experiments with the carbon wall revealed a significant impact of intrinsic impurities on the ICRH performance in (3He)-H plasmas relevant for the full-field initial ITER phase. High plasma contamination with carbon impurities resulted in the appearance of a supplementary mode conversion layer and significant reduction in the transition concentration of 3He minority ions, defined as the concentration at which the change from minority heating to mode conversion regime occurs. In view of the installation of the new ITER-like wall at JET, it is important to evaluate the effect of Be and W impurities on ICRH scenarios in (3He)-H plasmas. In this paper, an approximate analytical expression for the transition concentration of 3He minority ions is derived as a function of plasma and ICRH parameters, and accounting for typical impurity species at JET. The accompanying 1D wave modeling supports the analytical results and suggests a potential experimental method to reduce 3He level needed to achieve a specific heating regime by puffing a small amount of 4He ions additionally to (3He)-H plasma.
Runaway electron distributions are strongly anisotropic in velocity space. This anisotropy is a source of free energy that may destabilize electromagnetic waves through a resonant interaction between the waves and the energetic electrons. In this work we investigate the high-frequency electromagnetic waves that are destabilized by runaway electron beams when the electric field is close to the critical field for runaway acceleration. Using a runaway electron distribution appropriate for the near-critical case we calculate the linear instability growth rate of these waves and conclude that the obliquely propagating whistler waves are most unstable. We show that the frequencies, wave numbers and propagation angles of the most unstable waves depend strongly on the magnetic field. Taking into account collisional and convective damping of the waves, we determine the number density of runaways that is required to destabilize the waves and show its parametric dependences.
The onset and characteristics of Micro-Tearing Modes (MTM) in the core of spherical (NSTX) and conventional tokamaks (ASDEX-UG and JET) are studied through local linear gyrokinetic simulations with gyro [J. Candy and E. Belli, General Atomics Report GA-A26818 (2011)]. For experimentally relevant core plasma parameters in the NSTX and ASDEX-UG tokamaks, in agreement with previous works, we find MTMs as the dominant linear instability. Also, for JET-like core parameters considered in our study an MTM is found as the most unstable mode. In all these plasmas, finite collisionality is needed for MTMs to become unstable and the electron temperature gradient is found to be the fundamental drive. However, a significant difference is observed in the dependence of linear growth rate of MTMs on electron temperature gradient. While it varies weakly and non-monotonically in JET and ASDEX-UG plasmas, in NSTX it increases with the electron temperature gradient.
A linear irreversible thermodynamic framework of heat conduction in rigid conductors is introduced. The deviation from local equilibrium is characterized by a single internal variable and a current intensity factor. A general constitutive evolution equation of the current density of the internal energy is derived by introducing linear relationship between the thermodynamic forces and fluxes. The Fourier, Maxwell-Cattaneo-Vernotte, Guyer-Krumhansl, Jeffreys type and Green-Naghdi type equations of heat conduction are obtained as special cases. The universal character of the approach is demonstrated by two examples. Solutions illustrating the properties of the equation with jump boundary conditions are given.
Kinematic quantities for finite elastic and plastic deformations are defined via an approach that does not rely on auxiliary elements like reference frame and reference configuration, and that gives account of the inertial-noninertial aspects explicitly. These features are achieved by working on Galilean spacetime directly. The quantity expressing elastic deformations is introduced according to its expected role: to measure how different the current metric is from the relaxed/stressless metric. Further, the plastic kinematic quantity is the change rate of the stressless metric. The properties of both are analyzed, and their relationship to frequently used elastic and plastic kinematic quantities is discussed. One important result is that no objective elastic or plastic quantities can be defined from deformation gradient.
The effect of poloidal asymmetry of impurities on impurity transport driven by electrostatic turbulence in tokamak plasmas is analyzed. It is found that in the presence of in-out asymmetric impurity populations the zero-flux impurity density gradient (the so-called peaking factor) is significantly reduced. A sign change in the impurity flux may occur if the asymmetry is sufficiently large. This may be a contributing reason for the observed outward convection of impurities in the presence of radio frequency heating. The effect of in-out asymmetry is most significant in regions with low temperature gradients. In the trapped electron mode dominated case also an up-down asymmetry can lead to a sign change in the peaking factor from positive to negative. The effect of ion parallel compressibility on the peaking factor is significant, and leads to positive peaking factors in regions with high temperature gradients, even in the presence of in-out asymmetry.
In the pedestal of a tokamak, the sharp radial gradients of density and temperature can give rise to poloidal variation in the density of impurities. At the same time, the flow of the impurity species is modified relative to the conventional neoclassical result. In this paper, these changes to the density and flow of a collisional impurity species are calculated for the case when the main ions are in the plateau regime. In this regime it is found that the impurity density can be higher at either the inboard or outboard side. This finding differs from earlier results for banana- or Pfirsch-Schlüter-regime main ions, in which case the impurity density is always higher at the inboard side in the absence of rotation. Finally, the modifications to the impurity flow are also given for the other regimes of main-ion collisionality.
The Schrödinger-type formalism of the Klein-Gordon quantum mechanics is adapted for the case of the $SL(2,\R)$ spacetime. The free particle case is solved, the results of a recent work are reproduced while all the other, topologically nontrivial solutions and the antiparticle modes are also found, and a deeper insight into the physical content of the theory is given.