Robustness of high-$\beta$ W7-X plasmas against ideal ballooning instability

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Robustness of high-$\beta$ W7-X plasmas against ideal ballooning instability
المؤلفون: Zhou, Yao, Aleynikova, K., Liu, Chang, Ferraro, N. M.
سنة النشر: 2024
المجموعة: Physics (Other)
مصطلحات موضوعية: Physics - Plasma Physics
الوصف: To examine the robustness of the designed 5% $\beta$-limit for high-performance operation in the W7-X stellarator, we undertake nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of pressure-driven instabilities using the M3D-$C^1$ code. Consistent with linear analyses, ideal ballooning instabilities occur as $\beta$ exceeds 5% in the standard configuration. Nonetheless, the modes saturate nonlinearly at relatively low levels without triggering large-scale crashes, even though confinement degradation worsens as $\beta$ increases. In contrast, in an alternative configuration with nearly zero magnetic shear, ideal interchange modes induce a pressure crash at $\beta= 1\%$. These results suggest that the standard W7-X configuration might have a soft $\beta$-limit that is fairly immune to major MHD events, and that interchange instabilities tend to be more detrimental than ideal ballooning in stellarators.
Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures
نوع الوثيقة: Working Paper
URL الوصول: http://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01966
رقم الأكسشن: edsarx.2404.01966
قاعدة البيانات: arXiv