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S Benkadda

Publications and source records attributed to S Benkadda.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Impurity pinch from a ratchet process.

A ratchet-type average velocity is shown to appear for test particles moving in a stochastic potential and a magnetic field that is space dependent. This is a possible explanation for impurity behavior in tokamak plasmas.

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Nonlinear dynamics of transport barrier relaxations in tokamak edge plasmas.

A new mechanism for intermittent relaxations of transport barriers is found by using three dimensional fluid turbulence simulations. This mechanism is generic since it only requires a stationary E x B shear flow. It is found here that if the flow shear increases faster than linearly with heating power, the relaxation frequency decreases with power. An analytical study reveals that this nonlinear dynamics is governed by a time delay for effective velocity shear stabilization.

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Transport reduction by rotation shear in tokamak-edge turbulence.

Effects of externally imposed and self-generated poloidal flows on turbulent transport in the edge region of a tokamak are investigated using 3D nonlinear global simulations of resistive pressure-gradient-driven turbulence. Transport reduction is found to be due to synergetic changes in the fluctuation amplitude and in the dephasing of the fluctuations. A scaling of the fluctuation level and turbulent diffusivity with E x B flow shear strength is deduced from these simulations. These scalings agree with recent experimental observations on edge biasing as well as with analytical models.

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Nondiffusive transport in tokamaks: three-dimensional structure of bursts and the role of zonal flows

Large scale transport events are studied in simulations of resistive ballooning turbulence in a tokamak plasma. The spatial structure of the turbulent flux is analyzed, indicating radially elongated structures (streamers) at the low field side which are distorted by magnetic shear at different toroidal positions. The interplay between self-generated zonal flows and transport events is investigated, resulting in significant modifications of the frequency and the amplitude of bursts. The propagation of bursts is studied in the presence of a transport barrier generated by a strong shear flow.

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Proper orthogonal decomposition and galerkin projection for a three-dimensional plasma dynamical system

A general method by which to investigate nonlinear dynamical systems close to a stability threshold is presented. This method combines a proper orthogonal decomposition and a subsequent Galerkin projection. This technique is applied to three-dimensional resistive ballooning plasma fluctuations in a tokamak. The corresponding dynamical system belongs to a large family of convective fluid systems including Rayleigh-Benard convection. A proper orthogonal decomposition of the fluctuating signal obtained by numerical simulation shows that the relevant modes are close to the linear (global) modes. The Galerkin projection provides a low-dimensional system that allows the study of shear flow generation, its subsequent fluctuation reduction, and the evolution to oscillating states.

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Shielding and charging of dust particles in the plasma sheath.

General physical features of the ion particle distribution function in the plasma sheath derived theoretically and observed experimentally are used for describing the dust shielding and charging in the sheath. It is shown that the shielding and charging of dust depend strongly on the degree of anisotropy of the ion distribution function and on the difference in the ion temperatures parallel and antiparallel with respect to the ion flow. Regions of "antishielding" appear both along the ion flow and perpendicular to it. The potential wells can be responsible for the attraction of other dust particles and for the creation of dust aggregates. This effect is related to the change of the sign of the dielectric function in the range of wave vectors corresponding to the strong Landau damping.

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