The toroidal symmetry of the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) zonal flows is identified with toroidally distributed three step Langmuir probes at the edge of the HuanLiuqi-2A (commonly referred to as HL-2A) tokamak plasmas for the first time. High coherence of both the GAM and the ambient turbulence for the toroidally displaced measurements along a magnetic field line is observed, in contrast with the high coherence of the GAM but low coherence of the ambient turbulence when the toroidally displaced measurements are not along the same field line. The radial and poloidal features of the flows are also simultaneously determined. The nonlinear three wave coupling between the high frequency turbulent fluctuations and the flows is demonstrated to be a plausible formation mechanism of the flows.

Experiments on HL-2A, DIII-D and EAST show that turbulence just inside the last closed flux surface (LCFS) acts to reinforce existing sheared ExB flows in this region. This flow drive gets stronger as heating power is increased in L-mode, and leads to the development of a strong oscillating shear flow which can transition into the H-mode regime when the rate of energy transfer from the turbulence to the shear flow exceeds a threshold. These effects become compressed in time during an L-H transition, but the key role of turbulent flow drive during the transition is still observed. The results compare favorably with a reduced predator-prey type model.

Blob statistical characteristics across the separatrix of HL-2A tokamak plasma have been studied using a reciprocating Langmuir five-probe array. The radial profile of inverse pressure gradient scale length has a maximum just inside the last closed flux surface (LCFS), where the skewness is close to zero. Conditional average reveals that the density holes and blobs are produced just inside the LCFS and they propagate in opposite directions. The poloidal velocity of blobs changes its sign when it is across the separatrix, which is consistent with E × B drift flow. The dramatic change in phase shift between density and potential fluctuations across the separatrix suggests the distinct properties of turbulence when the magnetic field line changes from a closed to an open one. The dependence of a weak three-wave interaction in terms of wavelet bicoherence on strong time-asymmetry blobs is observed for the first time. Moreover, the effective blob generation rate is estimated as 8.0 × 10 3 s −1 and the convective particle flux induced by the ejective blobs can lead to about 58% loss of radial particle flux.

Abstract:The first comprehensive measurements of plasma flows and fluctuations nearby static magnetic islands driven by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) are presented.These experiments were performed using multiple Langmuir probe arrays in the edge plasmas of the J-TEXT tokamak. The effects of controlled variations of the island size and location are explored. This study aims to understand the interaction between turbulence and magnetic islands, and to elucidate magnetic island effects on edge turbulence and flow intensity profiles, edge electric fields, and thus confinement regime transitions. Turbulence and low frequency flows (LFFs) all drop inside the magnetic island, but increase at its boundary, as island width increases. The geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) is damped in most of the edge area with magnetic islands. The sign of the radial electric field changes from negative to positive within 2 the islands. The gradient of turbulent stresses vanishes at island center, and becomes steeper at the boundary of the islands. The particle transport induced by the turbulence is reduced inside the magnetic islands. The magnetic island effects on flows and turbulence can lead to an increase in LFFs and enhance Reynolds stresses near the last closed flux surface (LCFS). A stronger radial electric field layer can be formed near the LCFS when magnetic islands are present. The results suggest that magnetic islands can be used as a tool to enhance edge turbulence and flows, edge electric fields, and thus to trigger confinement regime transitions.

Density profiles in pedestal region (H-mode) are measured in HL-2A and the characteristics of the density pedestal are described. Cold particle deposition by Supersonic Molecular Beam Injection (SMBI) within the pedestal is verified. ELM mitigation by SMBI into the H-mode pedestal is demonstrated and the relevant physics is elucidated. The sensitivity of the effect to SMBI pressure and duration are studied. Following SMBI, the ELM frequency increases and ELM amplitude decreases for a finite duration period. Increases in ELM frequency of SMBI ELM f / 0 ELM f 2-3.5 are achieved. This experiment argues that the ELM mitigation results from an increase in Page 2 higher frequency fluctuations and transport events in the pedestal, which are caused by SMBI. These inhibit the occurrence of large transport events which span the entire pedestal width. The observed change in the density pedestal profiles and edge particle flux spectrum with and without SMBI supports this interpretation. An analysis of the experiment and a model shows that ELMs can be mitigated by SMBI with shallow particle penetration into the pedestal.