An H-mode edge pedestal plasma transport benchmarking exercise was undertaken for a single DIII-D pedestal. Transport modelling codes used include 1.5D interpretive (ONETWO, GTEDGE), 1.5D predictive (ASTRA) and 2D ones (SOLPS, UEDGE). The particular DIII-D discharge considered is 98889, which has a typical low density pedestal. Profiles for the edge plasma are obtained from Thomson and charge-exchange recombination data averaged over the last 20% of the average 33.53 ms repetition time between type I edge localized modes. The modelled density of recycled neutrals is largest in the divertor X-point region and causes the edge plasma source rate to vary by a factor ∼10 2 on the separatrix. Modelled poloidal variations in the densities and temperatures on flux surfaces are small on all flux surfaces up to within about 2.6 mm (ρ N > 0.99) of the mid-plane separatrix. For the assumed Fick's-diffusion-type laws, the radial heat and density fluxes vary poloidally by factors of 2-3 in the pedestal region; they are largest on the outboard mid-plane where flux surfaces are compressed and local radial gradients are largest. Convective heat flows are found to be small fractions of the electron (10%) and ion (25%) heat flows in this pedestal. Appropriately averaging the transport fluxes yields interpretive 1.5D effective diffusivities that are smallest near the mid-point of the pedestal. Their 'transport barrier' minima are about 0.3 (electron heat), 0.15 (ion heat) and 0.035 (density) m 2 s −1. Electron heat transport is found to be best characterized by electron-temperaturegradient-induced transport at the pedestal top and paleoclassical transport throughout the pedestal. The effective ion heat diffusivity in the pedestal has a different profile from the neoclassical prediction and may be smaller than it. The very small effective density diffusivity may be the result of an inward pinch flow nearly balancing a diffusive outward radial density flux. The inward ion pinch velocity and density diffusion coefficient are determined by a new interpretive analysis technique that uses information from the force balance (momentum conservation) equations; the paleoclassical transport model provides a plausible explanation of these new results. Finally, the measurements and additional modelling needed to facilitate better pedestal plasma transport modelling are discussed.

A study of the effect of local magnetic shear on the drift wave stability is presented. The eigenvalue problem for the drift wave equation is solved numerically in fully three-dimensional stellarator plasma using the ballooning mode formalism. It is found that negative local magnetic shear has a stabilizing effect on the drift wave instability and positive local shear is destabilizing. This is in agreement with the effect of negative global magnetic shear in tokamaks and also agrees with the simple estimates. As a consequence the highly unstable modes found on a specific magnetic surface are localized in the region of positive local magnetic shear.

The derivation of Multi-Mode anomalous transport module version 8.1 (MMM8.1) is presented. The MMM8.1 module is advanced, relative to MMM7.1, by the inclusion of peeling modes, dependence of turbulence correlation length on flow shear, electromagnetic effects in the toroidal momentum diffusivity, and the option to compute poloidal momentum diffusivity. The MMM8.1 model includes a model for ion temperature gradient, trapped electron, kinetic ballooning, peeling, collisionless and collision dominated magnetohydrodynamics modes as well as model for electron temperature gradient modes, and a model for drift resistive inertial ballooning modes. In the derivation of the MMM8.1 module, effects of collisions, fast ion and impurity dilution, non-circular flux surfaces, finite beta, and Shafranov shift are included. The MMM8.1 is used to compute thermal, particle, toroidal, and poloidal angular momentum transports. The fluid approach which underlies the derivation of MMM8.1 is expected to reliably predict, on an energy transport time scale, the evolution of temperature, density, and momentum profiles in plasma discharges for a wide range of plasma conditions. V C 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.

The impact of adiabatic electrons on drift-wave turbulence, modeled by the Hasegawa–Wakatani equations, is studied using information length. Information length is a novel theoretical method for measuring distances between statistical states represented by different probability distribution functions (PDFs) along the path of a system and represents the total number of statistically different states that a system evolves through in time. Specifically, the time-dependent PDFs of turbulent fluctuations for a given adiabatic index A are computed. The changes in fluctuation statistics are then quantified in time by using information length. The numerical results provide time traces exhibiting intermittent plasma dynamics, and such behavior is identified by a rapid change in the information length. The effects of A are discussed.

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