Magnetohydrodynamics of axisymmetric reactors from the drift-kinetic equation

Abstract

The magnetohydrodynamic drift-kinetic equation has been derived by means of the small-gyroradius expansion. The small-gyroradius expansion derived here employs the magnetohydrodynamic ordering. Using this small-gyroradius expansion, all the relevant transport coefficients are systematically evaluated. These results include both diagonal and cross coefficients for the particle fluxes, heat flux, and electric current. By combining the transport coefficients with appropriate moments of the drift equation, a closed set of equations which accurately summarizes the significance of these equations, in particular with regard to recent axisymmetric reactor experiments, provides an extension of the Chew-Goldberger-Low equations, now valid when the thermal velocity is comparable to the electric drift. The generalized equations may be used to investigate the macroscopic stability theory of doublet plasmas.