Validation of the linear ideal magnetohydrodynamic model of three-dimensional tokamak equilibria

Abstract

The first quantitative comparison of linear ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory with external magnetic measurements of the nonaxisymmetric plasma perturbation driven by external long-wavelength magnetic fields in high-temperature tokamak plasmas is presented. The comparison yields good (within 20%) agreement for plasma pressures up to ∼75% of the ideal stability limit calculated without a conducting wall. For higher plasma pressures, the ideal MHD model tends to overestimate the perturbed field indicating the increasing importance of stabilizing nonideal effects. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.