Side-conditioned axisymmetric equilibria with incompressible flows
Abstract
Axisymmetric equilibria with incompressible flows of arbitrary direction are studied in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics under a variety of physically relevant side conditions consisting, for example, in that the plasma temperature or the magnetic field modulus are uniform on magnetic surfaces. To this end a set of pertinent nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are transformed to quasilinear ODEs and the respective initial value problem is solved numerically with appropriately determined initial values near the magnetic axis. Several equilibrium configurations are then constructed surface by surface. It turns out that in addition to the usual configurations with a magnetic axis, the non-field aligned flow results to novel toroidal shell equilibria in which the plasma is confined within a couple of magnetic surfaces. In addition, the flow affects the elongation and triangularity of the magnetic surfaces and opens up the possibility of changing the magnetic field topology by creating double toroidal shell-like configurations.
- Publication:
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Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- June 2008
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0704.1758
- Bibcode:
- 2008JPlPh..74..327T
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Plasma Physics
- E-Print:
- 19 pages, 1 table, 6 figures