Reconnection processes and scaling laws in reversed field pinch magnetohydrodynamics

Reversed field pinch (RFP) sustainment is studied in the framework of three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulations. The scaling law for the magnetic fluctuation amplitude with Lundquist number S is δB approx. S-0.22, which can be understood if the basic dynamic processes are governed by current sheet reconnection. Quasi-periodic oscillations are in fact found to be correlated with the presence of localized sheet currents, which for sufficiently large S make the major contribution to the average power dissipated by fluctuations. Special attention is paid to numerical convergence in the simulations. The results are compared with experimental observations. (author). 30 refs, 10 figs