Study of Heat Flux Threshold and Perturbation Effect on Transport Barrier Formation Based on Bifurcation Model

Full text: Formation of transport barrier in fusion plasma is studied using a simple one-field bistable S-curve bifurcation model. This model is characterized by an S-line with two stable branches corresponding to the low (L) and high (H) confinement modes, connected by an unstable branch. Assumptions used in this model are such that the reduction in anomalous transport is caused by vE velocity shear effect and also this velocity shear is proportional to pressure gradient. In this study, analytical and numerical approaches are used to obtain necessary conditions for transport barrier formation, i.e. the ratio of anomalous over neoclassical coefficients and heat flux thresholds which must be exceeded. Several profiles of heat sources are considered in this work including constant, Gaussian, and hyperbolic tangent forms. Moreover, the effect of perturbation in heat flux is investigated with respect to transport barrier formation