Exponentially growing tearing modes in Rijnhuizen Tokamak Project plasmas

• Author(s): Francisco José Batista Salzedas ; F.C. Schuller ; A.A.M. Oomens ; RTP Team
• Date: 2002
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10216/23182
• Origin: Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
• Subject(s): Ciências Físicas; Física; Mecânica clássica; Dinâmica de fluidos; Física do plasma
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The local measurement of the island width w, around the resonant surface, allowed a direct test of the extended Rutherford model [P. H. Rutherford, PPPL Report-2277 (1985)], describing the evolution of radiation-induced tearing modes prior to disruptions of tokamak plasmas. It is found that this model accounts very well for the observed exponential growth and supports radiation losses as being the main driving mechanism. The model implies that the effective perpendicular electron heat conductivity in the island is smaller than the global one. Comparison of the local measurements of w with the magnetic perturbed field showed that w1/2 was valid for widths up to 18% of the minor radius.