Home

Meeting Announcement

Conference Program

List of Abstracts

Important Dates

Conference Topics

Submission of Abstracts (Closed)

Pre-Registration (Closed)

Accommodation

Directions and Map

Venue and Social Events

Program Committee

Tourist Information

Workshop Announcement

The 21st US Transport Taskforce Workshop will take place at the the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder, Colorado USA from Tuesday, March 25 to Friday, March 28, 2008.

Purpose:
The ultimate goal of the work of the Transport Task Force is a
predictive understanding of plasma transport leading, in the end, to
transport control. As we have pointed out previously, to achieve
success in transport science, it is essential to characterize local
fluctuations and transport in toroidal plasmas, to understand the basic
mechanisms responsible for transport, and ultimately, to control these
transport processes. These goals must be pursued in multiple areas,
including ion thermal transport, electron thermal transport, particle
transport, momentum transport, and the physics of the H mode and
edge pedestal. Demonstrating our understanding requires multiple,
successful, quantitative tests of theory, simulation and modelling
using experiments in fusion-relevant plasmas.

The TTF management has decided to make predictive understanding of
transport a major theme of the upcoming TTF meeting. Accordingly, as
part of their coverage of recent results in a given subject area,
those giving presentations at the meeting should also discuss how
these results contribute to the overall goal of predictive
understanding. Furthermore, each presentation should include some
discussion of the next step(s) which need to be taken to make progress
towards the goal. For example, based on the results presented,
relevant questions might include:

What aspects of the theory or experiment require improvement?

Do the present suite of simulation and/or modeling codes properly
embody the theory?

What are the best ways that we can experimentally test the theory and
the codes?

Format of Meeting:
We will continue the meeting format developed over the past several
years. There will be plenary sessions on the
first day of the meeting, March 25. The remainder of the meeting will
be organized around presentations in the various working groups. A
summary session will be held on Friday morning, March 28. The meeting
will conclude at noon on Friday.

Call for Abstracts:
Interested persons should submit an abstract to the workshop containing details of work related to the working group topics which are listed below.

Workshop Working Groups:
Each working group includes both theory and experiment, with the
ultimate goal being tests of theory, simulations and models against
experiment. In addition, diagnostic needs and novel diagnostic ideas
for a given area are also included in the scope of each working group.
The reality of the ITER project provides extra impetus for work on
burning plasma transport issues relevant to each of the working
groups.

A. Core Working Group (D. Newman, C. Greenfield)
The core working group covers transport issues from the center of the
plasma to the top of the H-mode edge pedestal. Topic include:
- Electron and ion thermal transport
- Particle transport
- Momentum transport and generation
- Profile/ transport control/modification issues (e.g role of
rotation, sources, plasma shape, etc.)
- Formation, control and dynamics of Internal Transport Barriers
- Core-edge interface (the edge as a dynamic boundary for the core)
- Physics of transport structures (e.g. zonal flows, streamers, avalanches)
- High performance and burning plasmas (ie steady state, bootstrap
dominated etc)

B. Edge Physics Working Group (R. Groebner, R. Moyer)
The Edge Physics group covers transport physics in the region just
inside and outside the last closed flux surface, with emphasis on
H-mode plasmas. Topics of interest include:
- Physics of H-mode pedestal structure
- Pedestal Transport, sources and sinks
- Transport induced by ELMs and other edge MHD activity
- Transport in the scrape-off layer
- Mechanism for L-H transition

C. Fast Particle Working Group (B. Breizman)
- Study of fast-particle-drive instabilities
- Assessment of fast particle effects on burning plasma performance
(e.g. ITER)
- Fast particle diagnostics in burning plasmas
- MHD spectroscopy
- Theory and simulation of nonlinear wave-particle interactions
- Interpreation of fast particle data from present experiments and projections for burning plasma

D. Momentum Transport and the Origins of Spontaneous Rotation
(P.H. Diamond, T.S. Hahm, J. Rice)
This working group was being created in 2007 to provide increased focus on plasma rotation, which influences transport in a number of ways. Important topics for the 2008 meeting include:
- Toroidal momentum transport, especially non-diffusive mechanisms,
off-diagonal contributions, etc.
- Cross coupling between particle transport and momentum transport
- Influence of edge plasma properties on spontaneous rotation and momentum transport
- Poloidal momentum transport in low collisionality plasmas
- Integrative modelling of spontaneous rotation

E. Verification and Validation Working Group (P.W. Terry, W. Nevins)
The Verification and Validation Group has been charged with examining
verification and validation (V&V) as it has been defined and structured
generally and in other scientific fields, and with formulating V&V procedures and practices applicable to the range of numerical modeling activities within the US fusion program, taking into consideration the goals, expectations and desired outcomes of different modeling activities, and resource limitations that are likely to apply to verification and validation. Verification and validation was discussed at a town hall meeting at last year's TTF as part of an effort to examine the state of the art of experiment/model comparison, to confront and seek solutions to particular challenges in performing validation in fusion, and to begin forging consensus about what validation in fusion should be and should accomplish. The town hall meeting was organized by a focused task group that this year seeks to broaden its base and help formulate ideas for validation campaigns involving experiment, modeling, and theory. It is hoped that these efforts will evolve into a cross cutting working group that interacts in the other TTF working group sessions to advance validation as a common exercise in physics, and meets less frequently to handle technical issues specific to verification and validation.

Important Dates:
Following is information on important dates:

Submission of Abstracts:
Since abstracts will be made available on the web site prior to the meeting, it
is recommended that the following guidlines be used for abstract submission:

Page size: Letter size (8.5x11 inches) or A4 (297mm by 210mm),
vertical orientation

Margins 25mm left, right and bottom margins. Top margin 30mm.

Suggested Lay-out (recommended font is Times)
(a) Title: single-spaced 14-point size Times Font, bold
(b) Authors: single-spaced 14-point size Times Font
(c) Affiliation: single-spaced 12-point size Times Font
(d) Text: 1.5 space 12-point size Times Font
(e) Length: one page

Abstracts need to be sent as PDF files (This is mandatory)
The name of the PDF file should be according to the following format:
“Topic Letter-author first name initialauthor last name.pdf”
example: C-JSmith.pdf

The abstract should also be sent electronically to the following e-mail address:
ttf-2008fusion.gat.com with subject heading
“Abstract:name of attached PDF file”
example: Abstract:C-JSmith.pdF

Pre-registration:
Participants can pre-register by Febuary 10, 2008 Click here to pre-register.

Accommodation:
A special discounted conference rate has been arranged with the Bahia Resort Hotel which can be found at: Millennium Harvest House

Participants are strongly advised to make their reservations as soon as possible as there are a limited number of rooms at the special rate and also because April is a busy period for San Diego.

Program Committee:

TTF Exectutive Committee

Keith Burrell (Chair) burrellfusion.gat.com

Pat Diamond (Vice-Chair) pdiamonducsd.edu

Boris Breizman breizmanmail.utexas.edu

Nikolai Gorelenkov ngorelenpppl.gov

Chuck Greenfield greenfielfusion.gat.com

Rich Groebner groebnerfusion.gat.com

Jon Kinsey kinseyfusion.gat.com

Bill Nevins nevinsllnl.gov

David Newman ffdenuaf.edu

David Mikkelsen dmikkelsenpppl.gov

Rick Moyer moyerfusion.gat.com

Paul Terry pwterrywisc.edu