EFDA-JET-CP(01)02/23

Influence of Electron Heating on Confinement in JET and ASDEX Upgrade Internal Transport Barrier Plasmas

In plasmas with Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs) different observations have been made regarding the effect of electron heating on confinement. Central counter-current drive provided by either Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) in ASDEX Upgrade [1] or by Fast Wave Heating (FWH) in DIII-D [2] to support the negative magnetic shear in Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) heated ITB discharges does not have any detrimental in uence on the plasma confinement. In the case of DIII-D this is partially attributed to the turbulence stabilizing effect of an increase of the E¥B shearing rate due to a reduction of the poloidal magnetic field in the plasma center, caused by the additional bootstrap current of the electron pressure. Although such an explanation is also conceivable for the ASDEX Upgrade case, the stabilizing effect of the additional Shafranov shift seems to be sufficient to compensate the destabilization of the Ion Temperature Gradient (ITG) modes due to the increase of the electron to ion temperature ratio Te /Ti [3]. In contrast, in DIII-D ITB discharges with low or slightly negative central shear the addition of pure ECH or FWH leads to a confinement degradation in both the ion and electron channel [4,5]. In JET a corresponding experiment has been devised to investigate the in uence of electron heating in ITB discharges, using Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) at a low minority concentration to maximize the power fraction going into the electrons. Starting from a negative central shear configuration, produced with off-axis Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) in co-current direction during the current ramp-up phase, plasmas with Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) heating only are compared with combined NBI and ICRH.
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EFDC010223 946.43 Kb