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Chin. Phys. B, 2010, Vol. 19(11): 115205    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/19/11/115205
PHYSICS OF GASES, PLASMAS, AND ELECTRIC DISCHARGES Prev   Next  

Finite Larmor radius magnetohydrodynamic analysis of the ballooning modes in tokamaks

Jiang Hai-Bin(蒋海斌), Wang Ai-Ke(王爱科), and Peng Xiao-Dong(彭晓东)
Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
Abstract  In this paper, the effect of finite Larmor radius (FLR) on high n ballooning modes is studied on the basis of FLR magnetohydrodynamic (FLR-MHD) theory. A linear FLR ballooning mode equation is derived in an '$\hat{s}$- \alpha' type equilibrium of circular-flux-surfaces, which is reduced to the ideal ballooning mode equation when the FLR effect is neglected. The present model reproduces some basic features of FLR effects on ballooning mode obtained previously by kinetic ballooning mode theories. That is, the FLR introduces a real frequency into ballooning mode and has a stabilising effect on ballooning modes (e.g., in the case of high magnetic shear $\hat{s}$ ≥ 0.8). In particular, some new properties of FLR effects on ballooning mode are discovered in the present research. Here it is found that in a high magnetic shear region ($\hat{s}$ ≥ 0.8) the critical pressure gradient (αc,FLR ) of ballooning mode is larger than the ideal one (αc,IMHD ) and becomes larger and larger with the increase of FLR parameter b0 . However, in a low magnetic shear region, the FLR ballooning mode is more unstable than the ideal one, and the αc,FLR is much lower than the αc,IMHD . Moreover, the present results indicate that there exist some new weaker instabilities near the second stability boundary (obtained from ideal MHD theory), which means that the second stable region becomes narrow.
Keywords:  ballooning mode      finite Larmor radius effect  
Received:  25 February 2010      Revised:  02 April 2010      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  52.30.Cv (Magnetohydrodynamics (including electron magnetohydrodynamics))  
  52.35.Py (Macroinstabilities (hydromagnetic, e.g., kink, fire-hose, mirror, ballooning, tearing, trapped-particle, flute, Rayleigh-Taylor, etc.))  
  52.35.Vd (Magnetic reconnection)  
  52.55.Fa (Tokamaks, spherical tokamaks)  
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10775040 and 10775043).

Cite this article: 

Jiang Hai-Bin(蒋海斌), Wang Ai-Ke(王爱科), and Peng Xiao-Dong(彭晓东) Finite Larmor radius magnetohydrodynamic analysis of the ballooning modes in tokamaks 2010 Chin. Phys. B 19 115205

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