Finite pedestal width formation from early L-H transition stage with a strong edge safety-factor dependence through the resistive ballooning mode

An approximate modeling of the low- to high-confinement (L-H) transition dynamics is given using the method, similar to that by Hinton et al. Phys. Fluid B 5, 1281 (1993), but considering more explicitly the L-mode edge turbulence which is here assumed to be dominated by the resistive ballooning mode (RBM) near the separatrix, while the ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode in the inner edge–core region. It is shown that the L-H transition can then be initiated from an inner edge near the ITG-RBM transition point with a finite width. Especially, this width is found to have a strong edge safety-factor or poloidal field dependence, similar to that shown by the EPED1 model. Meanwhile, unlike the pedestal width, the H-mode threshold power appears to be much less sensitive to the edge safety-factor, in qualitative agreement with the observed weak dependence of the threshold power on plasma current (IP). From an additional brief check, these dependences on IP are also found to be quite different from the behavior of other parameters (ion mass, toroidal field, plasma density, and effective Z-number) where the threshold power depends relatively strongly while the initial width depends somewhat weakly on most of them, except the effective Z-number.