Published December 1999 | Version v1
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Dynamics of zonal flows and self-regulating drift-wave turbulence

  • 1. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  • 2. ITER, San Diego Joint Work Site, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  • 3. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
  • 4. Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg (Germany)
  • 5. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan (Canada)

Description

We present a theory of zonal flow - drift wave dynamics. Zonal flows are generated by modulational instability of a drift wave spectrum, and are damped by collisions. Drift waves undergo random shearing-induced refraction, resulting in increased mean square radial wavenumber. Drift waves and zonal flows together form a simple dynamical system, which has a single stable fixed point. In this state, the fluctuation intensity and turbulent diffusivity are ultimately proportional to the collisional zonal flow damping. The implications of these results for transport models is discussed. (author)

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Part of:
Fusion energy 1998. Proceedings. V. 1-4

Additional details

Publishing Information

Imprint Title
Fusion energy 1998. Proceedings. V. 1-4
Imprint Pagination
1721 p.
Journal Issue
no. 1/P
Series
C and S papers series
Journal Page Range
v. 4 p. 1421-1428
ISSN
1563-0153
Report number
IAEA-CSP--1/P

Conference

Title
17. IAEA fusion energy conference
Dates
18-24 Oct 1998
Place
Yokohama (Japan)

Optional Information

Contract/Grant/Project number
Grant FG03-88ER53275
Notes
14 refs
Secondary number(s)
TH--3/1