Tearing-mode transport model in the reversed field pinch concept

In this thesis, a self-consistent model for analyzing the transport performance of a Reversed Field Pinch (RFP)-type of thermonuclear fusion reactor has been developed. The study has been focused on determining equilibrium configurations which describe a plasma evolution dominated by particular instabilities originated by plasma electrical resistivity (tearing-, or resistive interchange, modes). The ultimate goal is to provide a model of transport scaling in an RFP which can evaluate the global parameters describing the plasma confinement performance. Starting from a magnetic field configuration essentially given by Taylor's relaxation model, the self-consistent pressure profile is determined by assuming that the ohmic heating source raises the plasma pressure until the profile is locally marginally stable to tearing modes. A critical point here is the long held belief that an RFP, because of its bad curvature, would always be unstable to tearing or resistive interchange modes; that is, no marginally stable state exists. This belief turns out to be untrue. The basis for this statement is a careful ordering of the resistive layer dynamics, showing that thermal conductivity dominates over convection and compressibility. Thus, the use of the adiabatic equation of state in earlier work is not accurate for an RFP.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Bruno, Antonio, 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jeffrey P. Freidberg.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30007

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30007