The intermittent turbulent transport in the scrape-off-layer (SOL) of Alcator C-Mod [I.H. Hutchinson, R. Boivin, P.T. Bonoli et
al., Nucl. Fusion 41, 1391 (2001)] is studied experimentally by imaging with a very high density of spatial measurements. The
two-dimensional structure and dynamics of emission from a localized gas puff are observed, and intermittent features (also
sometimes called "filaments" or "blobs") are typically seen. The characteristics of the spatial structure of the turbulence and their
relationship to the time-averaged SOL profiles are discussed and compared with those measured on the National Spherical
Torus Experiment [M. Ono, S. M. Kaye, Y.-K. M. Pong et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)]. The experimental observations
are compared also with three-dimensional nonlinear numerical simulations of edge turbulence. Radial profiles of the poloidal
wave number spectra and the poloidal scale length from the simulations are in reasonable agreement with those obtained from the
experimental images, once the response of the optical system is accounted for. The resistive ballooning mode is the dominant
linear instability in the simulations. The ballooning character of the turbulence is also consistent with fluctuation measurements
made at the inboard and outboard midplane, where normalized fluctuation levels are found to be about 10 times smaller on the
inboard side. For discharges near the density limit, turbulent structures are seen on closed flux surfaces
Nanoconfined fluids
(NCFs), which are confined in nanospaces, exhibit
distinctive nanoscale effects, including surface effects, small-size
effects, quantum effects, and others. The continuous medium hypothesis
in fluid mechanics is not valid in this context because of the comparable
characteristic length of spaces and molecular mean free path, and
accordingly, the classical continuum theories developed for the bulk
fluids usually cannot describe the mass and energy transport of NCFs.
In this Perspective, we summarize the nanoscale effects on the thermodynamics,
mass transport, flow dynamics, heat transfer, phase change, and energy
transport of NCFs and highlight the related representative works.
The applications of NCFs in the fields of membrane separation, oil
and gas production, energy harvesting and storage, and biological
engineering are especially indicated. Currently, the theoretical description
framework of NCFs is still missing, and it is expected that this framework
can be established by adopting the classical continuum theories with
the consideration of nanoscale effects.
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