Viscosity and confinement in magnetized plasma

Abstract

An alternative to the Braginskii decomposition is proposed, one rooted in treating the viscosity as a scalar quantity in a coordinate-free representation. With appropriate application to the rate-of-shear tensor, one may solve the neoclassical force density equations for its undetermined velocity dependence, as well as the radial and poloidal profiles mentioned in [R. W. Johnson, Phys. Plasmas, under review], using an improved poloidal expansion. The pseudoplastic behavior of magnetized plasma is again obtained, and the high viscosity solution is determined to be physical. A clear relationship between confinement mode and viscosity is observed, indicating a physical origin for transport barriers, pedestals, and other phenomena. The gyroviscous contribution is found to be an effect on the order of one one-thousandth of one percent of the dominant collisional viscosity.