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Microinstability Analysis
A program of analysis for linear microinstabilities in tokamaks is well developed in the PPPL Theory Department. This program employs a linear eigenfrequency-eigenfunction computer code called the FULL code to calculate linear growth rates and real frequencies for kinetic instabilities such as the toroidal drift mode (trapped-particle ion temperature gradient mode) and the kinetic MHD ballooning mode, in realistic toroidal geometry. This calculation includes all of the kinetic effects which are important for instabilities with perpendicular wavelengths of the order of the ion gyroradius, including trapped-particle effects, transit and bounce and magnetic drift frequency resonance effects (Landau damping or inverse damping), collisions, and finite Larmor radius effects, for all included species.
This code has recently been extended to include a rotation model which assesses the effects of ExB rotation on these microinstabilities [G. Rewoldt, et al, Phys. Plasmas 5, 1815 (1998)]. The FULL code with its extended rotation model is being applied to tokamaks such as TFTR, DIII-D, JT-60U, JET, and NSTX, thus allowing comparisons between the microinstability properties of these different tokamaks.The code is also being extended to non-axisymmetric geometry in order to examine the corresponding instabilities in stellarators [G. Rewoldt, et al, Report PPPL-3354 (1999), to be published in Phys. Plasmas].
Email Gregory Rewoldt for more information on Microinstability Analysis.
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