Impact of poloidal convective cells on momentum flux in tokamaks

Xavier Garbet (1) , Y Asahi (1) , P Donnel (1) , C Ehrlacher (1) , Guilhem Dif-Pradalier (1) , Philippe Ghendrih (1) , Virginie Grandgirard (1) , Yanick Sarazin (1)

1 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique

Radial fluxes of parallel momentum due to E × B and curvature (and B) drifts are shown to be correlated in tokamak plasmas. This correlation comes from the onset of poloidal convective cells generated by turbulence. The entire process requires a symmetry breaking mechanism, e.g. a mean shear flow. An analytical calculation shows that anti-correlation between the poloidal and parallel components of the turbulent Reynolds stress results in anti-correlation of the fluxes of parallel momentum generated by E × B and curvature drifts.

Mots clés: tokamaks; Turbulence; plasmas

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

Xavier Garbet, Y Asahi, P Donnel, C Ehrlacher, Guilhem Dif-Pradalier, et al.. Impact of poloidal convective cells on momentum flux in tokamaks. New Journal of Physics, 2017, 19 (015011). ⟨hal-01381813v2⟩