A plasma resistive transport model

A self-consistent study of the slow resistive evolution of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma gives rise to a set of transport equations involving one space variable which require input from the solution of a generalized differential equation obtained from the time-differentiated Grad-Shafranov equation. This generalized differetial equation reduces to an ordinary differential equation with two point boundary conditions in the large-aspect-ratio limit. This non-linear set of coupled transport equations is solved, in this limit, by using a predictor-corrector algorithm with any numerical drift controlled by periodic adjustments from the Grad-Shafranov equation. The model is also used to provide useful insight into the problem of bifurcation of the free boundary Grad-Shafranov equation