Performance improvement conditions and their physical origin in the pulsed poloidal current drive regime of the reversed-field pinch device TPE-RX

摘要

The application of the pulsed poloidal current drive (PPCD) technique in reversed-field pinch (RFP) devices leads to the improvement of the confinement properties of the plasma. In this article the conditions necessary to achieve high PPCD performance in the TPE-RX [Y. Yagi, S. Sekine, H. Sakakita , Fus. Eng. Des. 45, 409 (1999)] RFP device will be shown. One of the key parameters is the component of the electric field parallel to the magnetic field E-parallel to. The positive trend between E-parallel to and the PPCD performance can be explained in terms of reduction of magnetic fluctuations. It will also be shown that important roles are played by the triggering time of the PPCD pulses, the filling pressure of the deuterium gas, and the wall condition. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.