Modelling of three dimensional equilibrium and stability of MAST plasmas with magnetic perturbations using VMEC and COBRA

Abstract

It is known that magnetic perturbations can mitigate edge localized modes (ELMs) in experiments, for example MAST (Kirk et al 2013 Nucl. Fusion 53 043007). One hypothesis is that the magnetic perturbations cause a three dimensional corrugation of the plasma and this corrugated plasma has different stability properties to peeling-ballooning modes compared to an axisymmetric plasma. It has been shown in an up-down symmetric plasma that magnetic perturbations in tokamaks will break the usual axisymmetry of the plasma causing three dimensional displacements (Chapman et al 2012 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 54 105013). We produce a free boundary three-dimensional equilibrium of a lower single null MAST relevant plasma using VMEC (S P Hirshman and J C Whitson 1983 Phys. Fluids 26 3553). The current and pressure profiles used for the modelling are similar to those deduced from axisymmetric analysis of experimental data with ELMs. We focus on the effect of applying $n=3$ and $n=6$ magnetic perturbations using the RMP coils. A midplane displacement of over $\pm 1$ cm is seen when the full current is applied. The current in the coils is scaned and a linear relationship between coil current and midplane displacement is found. The effect of this non-axisymmetric equilibrium on infinite $n$ ballooning stability is investigated using COBRA (R Sanchez et al 2000 J. Comput. Phys. 161 576-588).