Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : In present fusion devices, the H-mode is the most promising operational regime. It is characterized by a very hot core and a much colder edge. This is due to the presence of an edge transport barrier. In this thin zone located at the edge of the plasma, the turbulent flux is strongly reduced. However, this barrier is unstable and exhibits quasi-periodic relaxation oscillations. In this work, we study the control of these relaxations by resonant magnetic perturbations. We perform 3D turbulence simulations to investigate the influence of these magnetic perturbations (MP) on the barrier relaxations. In particular, we present two configurations created respectively by a multiple harmonic MP and a single harmonic MP. We find that stabilization of the relaxation oscillations can be achieved with both single and multiple harmonic MP. However, with the single harmonic MP, the energy confinement is always degraded whereas with the multiple harmonic MP, the confinement can be maintained. The different competing mechanisms at the origin of these results will be discussed. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.