Nirmal Bisai

In this work, we investigate the nonlinear dynamics of isolated current-carrying edge-localized mode (ELM) filaments using a reduced electromagnetic fluid model in slab geometry. Numerical simulations show that unidirectional parallel current significantly suppresses radial filament velocity and reduces the outward propagation velocity by weakening the curvature-driven interchange force. The reduction in radial velocity is found to follow a modified scaling relation, demonstrating that increasing current progressively weakens outward filament propagation. Analysis of the vorticity equation shows that the electromagnetic current source changes from a dipolar structure to a remarkable spiral pattern, and overcomes the conventional curvature drive in the nonlinear phase. This current-driven source directly imprints its topology on the vorticity field, resulting in spiral vorticity, enhanced angular momentum, increased rotational energy, and localized shear layers. The filament, therefore, undergoes a transition from a conventional propagating state to a rotationally self-organized electromagnetic structure. These findings demonstrate that parallel current acts as an effective electromagnetic vorticity source and provides new insight into the nonlinear dynamics of ELM filaments in tokamak edge plasmas.

Edge-localized-mode (ELM) filaments are crucial for cross field transport at the tokamak edge; yet, their dynamics is often analyzed using the cold-ion approximation, despite experimental data indicating Ti∼Te. This study employs a normalized three-dimensional fluid model to investigate the influence of finite ion temperature on the dynamics of unidirectional current-carrying ELM-like filaments. We demonstrate that increasing ion temperature substantially alters filament propagation and interaction, resulting in a delay of filament merging despite an increase in total kinetic energy due to a stronger pressure-gradient drive. The examination of single-filament dynamics indicates that finite ion temperature generates asymmetric potential structures, strong poloidal flows, and persistent rotational motion, which channel kinetic energy from radial propagation into vortical dynamics. A comprehensive examination of the ion-to-electron temperature ratio reveals a distinct transition from radially dominated to rotation-dominated behavior as the ion temperature increases. These results provide a unified physical explanation for reduced radial transport and delayed merging in the warm-ion domain, emphasizing the necessity of incorporating ion temperature effects in the modeling of ELM filament dynamics and edge plasma transport.

The effect of ion-neutral collisions on the dynamics of potential edge biasing in a tokamak plasma is studied. Under the influence of such collisions the ions and electrons drift differently thereby creating a non-ambipolar mechanism that impacts the radial electric field created by the biasing. This is similar to the effect of electron and ion mobilities that has been investigated in the past (Shankar et al 2024 Nucl. Fusion 64 076041). In this work, we carry out a consolidated investigation of the edge biasing dynamics in the presence of both ion-neutral collisions and electron/ion mobility contributions. Our detailed numerical simulations of an extended set of model equations reveal that both these contributions permit a different level of turbulence to exist. However, the extent of their individual impacts and influence on the spectral characteristics of the turbulence differ as a function of the plasma parameters. We present a detailed analysis of the physical origin of the stabilizing contribution due to ion-neutral collisions, followed by a comparison with similar effects arising from electron/ion mobility contributions. The practical implications of our findings for edge control in low-temperature tokamaks are discussed.

We report on a model study of the merging of two electromagnetically interacting blobs, which have unidirectional currents and are located in the tokamak edge region in a high beta plasma. Unlike the conventional plasma blobs with dipolar currents that originate from resistive drift/interchange plasma turbulence, these unidirectional filamentary blobs arise from edge-localized mode ejection events. Two such blobs can interact strongly in the edge region to merge with each other in the poloidal direction. Our detailed simulations reveal that the blobs rotate about each other during the merging process and the merging occurs with a rate of acceleration in the poloidal direction that is directly proportional to the square of the current density of the blobs and inversely proportional to its density. We also derive an analytic condition for two poloidally separated plasma blobs to merge poloidally without a significant movement in the radial direction. Numerical simulations support this analytical condition. The separation distance between two high current density blobs is also seen to exhibit a sloshing behavior. For a given blob radius and density, the radial velocity during merging decreases with the strength of the unidirectional current density.

The ADITYA upgrade (ADITYA-U), a medium-sized ( R 0 = 75  cm , a = 25  cm ) conventional tokamak facility in India, has been consistently producing experiments findings by using circular and shaped-plasmas. Recognizing the plasma parameters aligning closely with the design parameters of circular limited plasmas, ADITYA-U shifted its focus toward exploring the operational regime for experimentation on saw-tooth and MHD phenomena. Moreover, ADITYA-U has made consistent advancements toward conducting preliminary plasma shaping experiments through the activation of top and bottom divertor coils utilizing hydrogen as well as deuterium fuels. Confinement is improved by a factor of ∼1.5 in D 2 plasmas when compared to H ₂ plasmas of ADITYA-U. Further, ADITYA-U operations emphasize preventing disruptions and runaway electrons (REs) to ensure safe operations for future fusion devices. Significant suppression of REs has been achieved in ADITYA-U with the application of pulsed localized vertical magnetic field (LVF) perturbation, thereby establishing the technique’s independence from the tokamak device. The successful RE mitigation requires a critical threshold of LVF pulse magnitude, which is approximately 1% of the toroidal magnetic field, and a minimum duration of ∼5 ms. Apart from this, several novel findings have been achieved in the ADITYA-U experiments, including the modification of sawtooth duration through gas-puff, the emergence of MHD-induced geodesic acoustic mode-like oscillations, the propagation of fast heat pulses induced by MHD activity, the control of RE dynamics through Gas-puffs, the propagation of pinch-driven cold-pulses, the transport and core accumulations of argon impurities, the mass dependency of plasma toroidal rotation and the detection of ‘RICE’ scaling, as well as the characterization of edge plasma using wall conditioning methods, such as glow discharge cleaning using a combination of Ar-H ₂ mixture, localized wall cleaning by electron cyclotron resonant plasma, and the development of machine learning-based disruption predictions, will be discussed in this paper.

The objectives of NSTX-U research are to reinforce the advantages of STs while addressing the challenges. To extend confinement physics of low-A, high beta plasmas to lower collisionality levels, understanding of the transport mechanisms that set confinement performance and pedestal profiles is being advanced through gyrokinetic simulations, reduced model development, and comparison to NSTX experiment, as well as improved simulation of RF heating. To develop stable non-inductive scenarios needed for steady-state operation, various performance-limiting modes of instability were studied, including MHD, tearing modes, and energetic particle instabilities. Predictive tools were developed, covering disruptions, runaway electrons, equilibrium reconstruction, and control tools. To develop power and particle handling techniques to optimize plasma exhaust in high performance scenarios, innovative lithium-based solutions are being developed to handle the very high heat flux levels that the increased heating power and compact geometry of NSTX-U will produce, and will be seen in future STs. Predictive capabilities accounting for plasma phenomena, like edge harmonic oscillations, ELMs, and blobs, are being tested and improved. In these ways, NSTX-U researchers are advancing the physics understanding of ST plasmas to maximize the benefit that will be gained from further NSTX-U experiments and to increase confidence in projections to future devices.

We present an improved model for the study of edge biasing in a tokamak plasma that incorporates electron and ion mobility contributions. The non-ambipolar nature of the drifts due to the electron/ion mobility terms influences the space charge separation due to edge biasing and affects plasma dynamics in the edge and SOL regions in a significant manner. In contrast to earlier studies, the present model enables simulation studies at higher biasing voltages. The inclusion of mobility enhances/decreases the effect of negative/positive biasing. The radial profiles of plasma density, electron temperature, radial electric field, and its shear for positive as well as negative biasing are investigated as a function of mobility.

In the presence of magnetic curvature and density/pressure inhomogeneity, the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) regions of a tokamak plasma are highly turbulent mainly because of the drift/interchange instability mechanisms. The divergence of ion polarization drift contains the ion diamagnetic drift and E ⃗ × B ⃗ drift velocity to define the plasma vorticity and convection of fluid, which can be approximated in several ways using various combinations of these two drifts. Here, in this work, three different approximations are used to represent three different models and are solved numerically. The numerical results indicate that the basic results of turbulence like radial profiles, radial electric field gradients, fluctuation labels, and Reynolds stress are widely different from the three different models. As these models provide different results, therefore, one must be careful to use these approximations for the description of turbulence. This work may be useful in choosing appropriate approximations to include ion temperature gradients for the turbulence studies on tokamaks/stellarators. The role of gyro-viscosity for plasma turbulence has been identified in this work.