With the advent of neoclassically optimised stellarators, optimising stellarators for turbulent transport is an important next step. The reduction of ion-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence has been achieved via shaping of the magnetic field, and the reduction of trapped-electron mode (TEM) turbulence is adressed in the present paper. Recent analytical and numerical findings suggest TEMs are stabilised when a large fraction of trapped particles experiences favourable bounce-averaged curvature. This is the case for example in Wendelstein 7-X [C.D. Beidler $\textit{et al}$ Fusion Technology $\bf{17}$, 148 (1990)] and other Helias-type stellarators. Using this knowledge, a proxy function was designed to estimate the TEM dynamics, allowing optimal configurations for TEM stability to be determined with the STELLOPT [D.A. Spong $\textit{et al}$ Nucl. Fusion $\bf{41}$, 711 (2001)] code without extensive turbulence simulations. A first proof-of-principle optimised equilibrium stemming from the TEM-dominated stellarator experiment HSX [F.S.B. Anderson $\textit{et al}$, Fusion Technol. $\bf{27}$, 273 (1995)] is presented for which a reduction of the linear growth rates is achieved over a broad range of the operational parameter space. As an important consequence of this property, the turbulent heat flux levels are reduced compared with the initial configuration.
Quasisymmetric stellarators are an attractive class of optimised magnetic confinement configurations. The property of quasisymmetry (QS) is in practice limited to be approximate, and thus the construction requires measures that quantify the deviation from the exact property. In this paper we study three measure candidates used in the literature, placing the focus on their origin and the comparison of their forms. The analysis shows clearly the lack of universality in these measures. As these metrics do not directly correspond to any physical property (except when exactly QS), optimisation shou…
In fusion devices, the geometry of the confining magnetic field has a significant impact on the instabilities that drive turbulent heat loss. This is especially true of stellarators, where the "trapped electron mode" (TEM) is stabilised if specific optimisation criteria are satisfied, as in the Wendelstein 7-X experiment (W7-X). Here we find, by numerical simulation, that W7-X indeed has low TEM-driven transport, and also benefits from stabilisation of the ion-temperature-gradient mode, giving theoretical support for the existence of enhanced confinement regimes at finite density gradients.
Spectrally accurate, reverse-mode differentiable bounce-averaging algorithm and its applications
Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学安德林格能源与环境中心）；Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory（普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室）
In the complex 3D magnetic fields of stellarators, ion-temperature-gradient turbulence is shown to have two distinct saturation regimes, as revealed by petascale numerical simulations, and explained by a simple turbulence theory. The first regime is marked by strong zonal flows, and matches previous observations in tokamaks. The newly observed second regime, in contrast, exhibits small- scale quasi-two-dimensional turbulence, negligible zonal flows, and, surprisingly, a weaker heat flux scaling. Our findings suggest that key details of the magnetic geometry control turbulence in stellarators.
The accumulation of impurities in the core of magnetically confined plasmas, resulting from standard collisional transport mechanisms, is a known threat to their performance as fusion energy sources. Whilst the axisymmetric tokamak systems have been shown to benefit from the effect of temperature screening, that is an outward flux of impurities driven by the temperature gradient, impurity accumulation in stellarators was thought to be inevitable, driven robustly by the inward pointing electric field characteristic of hot fusion plasmas. We have shown in Helander et. al. (2017b) that such scree…
Turbulent transport is known to limit the plasma confinement of present-day optimized stellarators. To address this issue, a novel method to strongly suppress turbulence in such devices is proposed, namely the resonant wave-particle interaction of supra-thermal particles - e.g., from ion-cyclotron-resonance-frequency (ICRF) heating - with turbulence-driving microinstabilities like ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) modes. The effectiveness of this mechanism is demonstrated via analytic theory and large-scale gyrokinetic simulations, revealing an overall turbulence reduction by up to $80\%$. These …
We present a stellarator configuration optimized for a large threshold (``critical gradient'') for the onset of the ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven mode, which achieves the largest critical gradient we have seen in any stellarator. Above this threshold, gyrokinetic simulations show that the configuration has low turbulence levels over an experimentally relevant range of the drive strength. The applied optimization seeks to maximize the drift curvature, leading to enhanced local-shear stabilization of toroidal ITG modes, and the associated turbulence. These benefits are combined with exce…
Zonal flow suppression of turbulent transport in the optimized stellarators W7-X and QSTK
Indian Institute of Science（印度科学学院）；Institute for Plasma Research（等离子体研究所）；Homi Bhabha National Institute（霍米·巴巴国立学院）；University of California Irvine（加州大学尔湾分校）
The ongoing development of electromagnets based on High Temperature Superconductors has led to the conceptual exploration of high-magnetic-field fusion reactors of the tokamak type, operating at on-axis fields above 10 T. In this work we explore the consequences of the potential future availability of high-field three-dimensional electromagnets on the physics design point of a stellarator reactor. We find that, when an increase in the magnetic field strength $B$ is used to maximally reduce the device linear size $R\sim B^{-4/3}$ (with otherwise fixed magnetic geometry), the physics design poin…
AI-Accelerated Gyrokinetic Predictions of Turbulent Transport for Stellarator Design Optimization and Experimental Planning
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory（普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室）；University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室）；Type One Energy；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of Wisconsin, Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）
On the effect of flux-surface shaping on trapped-electron modes in quasi-helically symmetric stellarators
University of Wisconsin-Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）；Dutch Institute for Fundamental Research（荷兰基础物理研究所）；Eindhoven University of Technology（埃因霍温理工大学）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, Ruhr-Universität Bochum（波鸿鲁尔大学物理与天文系）；Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics（马克斯·普朗克等离子体物理研究所）；Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne（洛桑联邦理工学院）
Plasma turbulence is studied using Doppler reflectometry at the TJ-II stellarator. By scanning the tilt angle of the probing beam, different values of the perpendicular wave numbers are probed at the reflection layer. In this way, the interaction between zonal flows and turbulence is reported with (a) spatial, (b) temporal, and (c) wavenumber resolution for the first time in any magnetic confinement fusion device. We report measurements of the bicoherence across the Low to High (L--H) confinement transition at TJ-II. We examine both fast transitions and slow transitions characterized by an int…
Global gyrokinetic analysis of Wendelstein 7-X discharge: unveiling the importance of trapped-electron-mode and electron-temperature-gradient turbulence
本文首次对类 W7-X 仿星器放电进行含动理学电子、平衡径向电场及电磁碰撞效应的非线性径向全局回旋动理学模拟，揭示芯部湍流电子热通量主要由 TEM 和 ETG 驱动，并强调有限电子温度梯度的关键作用。
Asymptotic scaling theory of electrostatic turbulent transport in magnetised fusion plasmas
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory（普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室）；University of Maryland（马里兰大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics（电子与应用物理研究所）；United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority（英国原子能管理局）；University of New Hampshire（新罕布什尔大学）；University of Otago（奥塔哥大学）
A recent characterization of core turbulence carried out with a Doppler reflectometer in the optimized stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) found that discharges achieving high ion temperatures at the core featured an ITG-like suppression of density fluctuations driven by a reduction of the gradient ratio $η_i = L_n/L_{T_i}$ [D. Carralero et al., Nucl. Fusion, 2021]. In order to confirm the role of ITG turbulence in this process, we set out to establish experimentally the relation between core density fluctuations, turbulent heat flux and global confinement. With this aim, we consider the scenar…
A large diffusive turbulent contribution to the radial impurity transport in Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) plasmas has been experimentally inferred during the first campaigns and numerically confirmed by means of gyrokinetic simulations with the code stella. In general, the absence of strong impurity accumulation during the initial W7-X campaigns is attributed to this diffusive term. In the present work the diffusive contribution is also calculated in other stellarator plasmas. In particular, the diffusion (D) and convection (V) coefficients of carbon and iron impurities produced by ion-temperature-g…
Isotope Effects on TEM-driven Turbulence and Zonal Flows in Helical and Tokamak Plasmas
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences（国立研究開発法人 国立統合物理学研究所 核融合科学研究所）；The Graduate University for Advanced Studies（総合研究大学院大学）；Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Komazawa University（駒澤大学 文学部・理学部）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）
First results from the optimized helias Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (W7-X) have shown that core transport is no longer mostly neoclassical, as is the case in previous kinds of stellarators. Instead, turbulent transport poses a serious limitation to the global performance of the machine. Several studies have found this particularly relevant for ion transport, with core ion temperatures becoming clamped at relatively low values of $T_{i} \simeq 1.7$ keV, except in the few scenarios in which turbulence can be suppressed. In order to understand turbulent mechanisms at play, it is important to have…
