Effects of neoclassical toroidal viscosity induced by the intrinsic error fields and toroidal field ripple on the toroidal rotation in tokamaks

Abstract

Effects of neoclassical toroidal viscosity ( NTV) induced by intrinsic error fields and toroidal field ripple on cocurrent toroidal rotation in H-mode tokamak plasmas are investigated. It is expected that large NTV torque can be localized at the edge region through the 1/v-regime in the vicinity of E-r similar to 0 in the cocurrent rotating H-mode plasma. Numerical simulation on toroidal rotation demonstrates that the edge localized NTV torque determined by the intrinsic error fields and toroidal field ripples in the level of most tokamaks can damp the toroidal rotation velocity over the whole region while reducing the toroidal rotation pedestal which is clearly observed in Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research ( KSTAR) tokamak. It is found that the NTV torque changes the toroidal rotation gradient in the pedestal region dramatically, but the toroidal rotation profile in the core region responds rigidly without a change in the gradient. On the other hand, it shows that the NTV torque induced by the intrinsic error fields and toroidal field ripple in the level of the KSTAR tokamak, which are expected to be smaller than most tokamaks by at least one order of magnitude, is negligible in determining the toroidal rotation velocity profile. Experimental observation on the toroidal rotation change by the externally applied nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields on KSTAR also suggests that NTV torque arising from nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields can damp the toroidal rotation over the whole region while diminishing the toroidal rotation pedestal.