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Zonal flow generation and its nonlinear dynamics in trapped electron mode turbulence of flat density tokamak plasmas

Nuclear Fusion, ISSN: 1741-4326, Vol: 56, Issue: 6
2016
  • 12
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 10
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    12
    • Citation Indexes
      12
  • Captures
    10

Article Description

We investigate zonal flow (ZF) generation in ion temperature gradient driven trapped-electron-mode (ITG-driven TEM) turbulence via modulational instability analysis. We show that the acceleration of a seed ZF is a consequence of the competition of negative radiation pressure (NRP, acting as a driving force) and positive radiation pressure (PRP, acting as a retarding force) of the ITG-driven TEM turbulence. A critical dimensionless ion temperature logarithmic gradient (R/L) normalized to the major radius is obtained by balancing the NRP- and PRP effects. For R/L < R/L, the NRP effect is dominant and the seed ZF is accelerated. Otherwise, the PRP effect is dominant and the seed ZF is decelerated. In addition, a new nonlinear evolution mechanism of the ZF is also proposed. It is shown that the turbulence energy intensity spectrum gets steepened in k-space due to the ZF shearing, which in turn induces nonlinear growth of the ZF.

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