Modelling of magnetic fusion plasmas: from fluid to kinetic description: kinetic MHD
This lecture will present a short overview on kinetic MHD. The advantages and drawbacks of kinetic versus fluid modelling will be summarized. Various techniques to implement kinetic effects in the fluid description will be introduced with increasing complexity: bi-fluid effects, gyroaverage fields, Landau closures. Hybrid formulations, which combine fluid and kinetic approaches will be presented. It will be shown that these formulations raise several difficulties, including inconsistent ordering and choice of representation. The non linear dynamics of an internal kink mode in a tokamak will be used as a test bed for the various formulations. It will be shown that bi-fluid effects can explain to some extent fast plasma relaxations (reconnection), but cannot address kinetic instabilities due to energetic particles. Some results of hybrid codes will be shown. Recent developments and perspectives will be given in conclusion.