Impact of geodesic curvature on zonal flow generation in magnetically confined plasmas

Abstract

The impact of magnetic geometry on zonal-flow generation in ion temperature gradient driven turbulence is investigated by means of linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations. The modulation of geodesic curvature on various configurations has revealed amplification of the zonal-flow intensity in relatively smaller geodesic curvature. Based on these findings, a nonlinear proxy model for explorations of a novel magnetic geometry to activate the zonal-flow dynamics is proposed.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Geodesic curvature dependence of residual ZF level.
• Figure 2: Time evolution of (a)relative zonal-flow intensity $\Lambda_{\mathrm{zf} }$ and (b)turbulent transport diffusivity.
• Figure 3: $\mathcal{K}_{\mathrm{g} }$ dependence of relative zonal-flow intensity $\Lambda_{\mathrm{zf} }$.