Analysis of anomalous transport with temporal fractional transport equations in a bounded domain

Anomalous transport in magnetically confined plasmas is investigated using temporal fractional transport equations.The use of temporal fractional transport equations means that the order of the partial derivative with respect to time is a fraction. In this case, the Caputo fractional derivative relative to time is utilized, because it preserves the form of the initial conditions. A numerical calculation reveals that the fractional order of the temporal derivative α(α ∈(0, 1), sub-diffusive regime) controls the diffusion rate. The temporal fractional derivative is related to the fact that the evolution of a physical quantity is affected by its past history, depending on what are termed memory effects. The magnitude of α is a measure of such memory effects. When α decreases, so does the rate of particle diffusion due to memory effects. As a result,if a system initially has a density profile without a source, then the smaller the α is, the more slowly the density profile approaches zero. When a source is added, due to the balance of the diffusion and fueling processes, the system reaches a steady state and the density profile does not evolve. As α decreases, the time required for the system to reach a steady state increases. In magnetically confined plasmas, the temporal fractional transport model can be applied to off-axis heating processes. Moreover, it is found that the memory effects reduce the rate of energy conduction and hollow temperature profiles can be sustained for a longer time in sub-diffusion processes than in ordinary diffusion processes.

Analysis of anomalous transport based on radial fractional diffusion equation

Anomalous transport in magnetically confined plasmas is investigated by radial fractional transport equations.It is shown that for fractional transport models,hollow density profiles are formed and uphill transports can be observed regardless of whether the fractional diffusion coefficients(FDCs)are radially dependent or not.When a radially dependent FDC<D_(α)(r)1 is imposed,compared with the case under=D_(α)(r)1.0,it is observed that the position of the peak of the density profile is closer to the core.Further,it is found that when FDCs at the positions of source injections increase,the peak values of density profiles decrease.The non-local effect becomes significant as the order of fractional derivative a 1 and causes the uphill transport.However,as a 2,the fractional diffusion model returns to the standard model governed by Fick’s law.