Collisional boundary layer analysis for neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in tokamaks

Abstract

It is demonstrated that the pitch angle integrals in the transport fluxes in the ν regime calculated in K. C. Shang [Phys. Plasmas 10, 1443 (2003)] are divergent as the trapped-circulating boundary is approached. Here, ν is the collision frequency. The origin of this divergence results from the logarithmic dependence in the bounce averaged radial drift velocity. A collisional boundary layer analysis is developed to remove the singularity. The resultant pitch angle integrals now include not only the original physics of the ν regime but also the boundary layer physics. The transport fluxes, caused by the particles inside the boundary layer, scale as ν.