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MHD activity at the beta limit in RI mode discharges on TEXTOR-94

Author
Abstract

The beta limit in radiative improved (RI mode) discharges where energy confinement is enhanced due to an increased radiation level from the edge by impurity seeding of neon has been investigated. Under these discharge conditions spontaneous confinement transitions from higher to lower energy confinement can be observed when the beta limit is approached. The empirically determined limit of the normalized toroidal beta, PN, is 2.2, pp reaches values up to 1.5 in the circular limiter tokamak TEXTOR-94. The sawtooth activity is often stabilized and replaced by central mode oscillations around q = 1 when high values (greater than or equal to 1) of the confinement enhancement factor f(H93) With respect to the ELM-free ITER-93H mode scaling are reached. Measurements of the plasma current distribution show that already before the confinement transition the central current density decreases, i.e. the current profile broadens and magnetic shear is decreased. The deterioration of energy confinement has been found to correlate with the onset of MHD activity either at the q = 1.5 and/or the q = 2 surface. The enhanced transport after the beta drop is caused by the MHD mode activity in the plasma; the favourable stabilization of the ITG mode under RI mode conditions is not altered. The possible role of pressure driven contributions to the destabilization of the observed MHD modes will be discussed.

Year of Publication
2000
Journal
Nuclear Fusion
Volume
40
Number
4
Number of Pages
821-832
Date Published
Apr
ISBN Number
0029-5515
DOI
10.1088/0029-5515/40/4/307
PId
f94700a6ab15f8582f7d02f8b148253f
Journal Article
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