On the interplay between interchange turbulence and sheared flows

Abstract

The presence and the position of an X-point, namely, if the ion diamagnetic drift points toward it or not, strongly impact the edge plasma rotation in tokamaks. In the absence of kinetic effects such as magnetic ripple or ion orbit loss, the shape of the velocity profile results from the balance between neoclassical predictions and turbulent flow generation. In this contribution, we derive a reduced model of turbulence plunged in a shear flow. This model is based on (1) a description of the impact of a sheared flow on the interchange turbulence and (2) a prediction of the poloidal momentum generated by the turbulence. It includes the effects of both the magnetic topology and the finite shear layer width. The model is verified against 2D non-linear flux-driven simulations. Finally, the model predictions of the edge rotation resulting from the equilibrium between the neoclassical prediction and the poloidal momentum generation by the turbulence are invoked to describe the observations from experiment managed in the WEST tokamak. It points out the important role of the magnetic shear in the turbulence tilting and in the flow generation.