Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 6, 2403113 (2011)

Regular Articles

Gyrofluid Simulation of Slab ITG Turbulence in Plasmas Including Pressure Profile Corrugation
Sho MIYATA, Jiquan LI, Kenji IMADERA and Yasuaki KISHIMOTO
Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
(Received 7 December 2010 / Accepted 18 April 2011 / Published 11 August 2011)

Abstract

Ion temperature gradient driven drift wave instability and turbulence are investigated based on a gyrofluid slab model in the presence of a pressure gradient corrugation (PPC). It is shown that the PPC cannot only stabilize or destabilize the ITG mode through local flattening or steepening of the radial pressure gradient, but most importantly also play a stabilizing role due to the global effect of the wave-type corrugation. The latter effect dominates in the highly corrugated cases and is identified to result from a nonlocal mode coupling in radial wave-number space, which scatters the spectra from unstable modes to high dissipation region. While the local stabilization/destabilization is stronger than the global stabilization in the cases with less corrugation, the global stabilization effect dominates the highly corrugated cases. Interestingly, it is found that the global stabilization of the PPC causes ion heat intermittency, which closely connects to the zonal flow dynamics.

Keywords

pressure profile corrugation, mode coupling, zonal flow, transport intermittency, ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence, gyrofluid simulation

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.6.2403113

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Sho MIYATA, Jiquan LI, Kenji IMADERA and Yasuaki KISHIMOTO, Plasma Fusion Res. 6, 2403113 (2011).