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In this Master thesis we investigate the influence of pressure anisotropy andincompressible flow of arbitrary direction on the equilibrium properties ofmagnetically confined, axisymmetric toroidal plasmas. The main novelcontribution is the derivation of a pertinent generalised Grad-Shafranovequation. This equation includes six free surface functions and recovers knownGrad-Shafranov-like equations in the literature as well as the usual static,isotropic one. The form of the generalised equation indicates that pressureanisotropy and flow act additively on equilibrium. In addition, two sets ofanalytical solutions, an extended Solovev one with a plasma reaching theseparatrix and an extended Hernegger-Maschke one for a plasma surrounded by afixed boundary possessing an X-point, are constructed, particularly inrelevance to the ITER and NSTX tokamaks. Furthermore, the impacts both ofpressure anisotropy, through an anisotropy function assumed to be uniform onthe magnetic surfaces, and plasma flow, via the variation of an Alfvenic Machfunction, on these equilibria are examined.  It turns out that depending on the maximum value and the shape of ananisotropy function, the anisotropy can act either paramagnetically ordiamagnetically. Also, in most of the cases considered both the anisotropy andthe flow have stronger effects on NSTX equilibria than on ITER ones. Weconjecture that these effects may have an influence on plasma stability andtransport, and play a role in the transitions to the improved confinementregimes in tokamaks.

Axisymmetric equilibria with pressure anisotropy and plasma flow