Engineering topics

Xanthopoulos, P

Publications and source records attributed to Xanthopoulos, P.

4 records

DOE OSTI2012

Gyrokinetic studies of the effect of {beta} on drift-wave stability in the National Compact Stellarator Experiment

The gyrokinetic turbulence code GS2 was used to investigate the effects of plasma {beta} on linear, collisionless ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes and trapped electron modes (TEM) in National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) geometry. Plasma {beta} affects stability in two ways: through the equilibrium and through magnetic fluctuations. The first was studied here by comparing ITG and TEM stability in two NCSX equilibria of differing {beta} values, revealing that the high {beta} equilibrium was marginally more stable than the low {beta} equilibrium in the adiabatic-electron ITG mode case. However, the high {beta} case had a lower kinetic-electron ITG mode critical gradient. Electrostatic and electromagnetic ITG and TEM mode growth rate dependencies on temperature gradient and density gradient were qualitatively similar. The second {beta} effect is demonstrated via electromagnetic ITG growth rates' dependency on GS2's {beta} input parameter. A linear benchmark with gyrokinetic codes GENE and GKV-X is also presented.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

Simulating gyrokinetic microinstabilities in stellarator geometry with GS2

The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GS2 has been extended to treat non-axisymmetric stellarator geometry. Electromagnetic perturbations and multiple trapped particle regions are allowed. Here, linear, collisionless, electrostatic simulations of the quasi-axisymmetric, three-field period national compact stellarator experiment (NCSX) design QAS3-C82 have been successfully benchmarked against the eigenvalue code FULL. Quantitatively, the linear stability calculations of GS2 and FULL agree to within {approx}10%.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

Reducing turbulent transport in toroidal configurations via shaping

Recent progress in reducing turbulent transport in stellarators and tokamaks by 3D shaping using a stellarator optimization code in conjunction with a gyrokinetic code is presented. The original applications of the method focused on ion temperature gradient transport in a quasi-axisymmetric stellarator design. Here, an examination both of other turbulence channels and other starting configurations is initiated. It is found that the designs evolved for transport from ion temperature gradient turbulence also display reduced transport from other transport channels whose modes are also stabilized by improved curvature, such as electron temperature gradient and ballooning modes. The optimizer is also applied to evolving from a tokamak, finding appreciable turbulence reduction for these devices as well. From these studies, improved understanding is obtained of why the deformations found by the optimizer are beneficial, and these deformations are related to earlier theoretical work in both stellarators and tokamaks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

Progress Toward Attractive Stellarators

The quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (QAS) concept offers a promising path to a more compact stellarator reactor, closer in linear dimensions to tokamak reactors than previous stellarator designs. Concept improvements are needed, however, to make it more maintainable and more compatible with high plant availability. Using the ARIES-CS design as a starting point, compact stellarator designs with improved maintenance characteristics have been developed. While the ARIES-CS features a through-the-port maintenance scheme, we have investigated configuration changes to enable a sector-maintenance approach, as envisioned for example in ARIES AT. Three approaches are reported. The first is to make tradeoffs within the QAS design space, giving greater emphasis to maintainability criteria. The second approach is to improve the optimization tools to more accurately and efficiently target the physics properties of importance. The third is to employ a hybrid coil topology, so that the plasma shaping functions of the main coils are shared more optimally, either with passive conductors made of high-temperature superconductor or with local compensation coils, allowing the main coils to become simpler. Optimization tools are being improved to test these approaches.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗