The dimensionless scaling of ELMy H-mode confinement

This article describes the use of dimensionless analysis in the study of energy confinement in ELMy H-mode tokamak plasmas, with a focus on the use of dedicated dimensionless parameter experiments. This work has involved a strong collaboration between many machines and countries. The experiments have demonstrated that such analysis is indeed valid, and have given important information on the scaling of the characteristic turbulent length, the separation of electrostatic and electromagnetic transport regimes, and the effects of collisionality on plasma transport. They have also provided a method for scaling existing experiments to next step machines, such as ITER, and have suggested the possibility of enhanced performance at high normalised pressure. To cite this article: D.C. McDonald, C. R. Physique 7 (2006).