Simulation of Plasma Flow in the DIII-D Tokamak

Simulation of Plasma Flow in the DIII-D Tokamak
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Total Pages: 7
Release: 1998
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The importance of the parallel flow of primary and impurity ions in the Scrape-Off layer (SOL) of divertor tokamaks has been recognized recently. Impurity accumulation on the closed flux surfaces is determined in part by their parallel flow in the SOL. In turn, the parallel transport of the impurity ions is determined in part by drag from the primary ion flow. Measurement of flow in the DIII-D tokamak has begun recently. We describe initial results of modeling plasma ion flow using the 2-D code UEDGE in this paper. We assume the impurity (carbon) arises from chemical and physical sputtering from the walls surrounding the DIII-D plasma. We include six charge states of carbon in our simulations. We make detailed compaison with a multitude of SOL plasma diagnostics, including the flow measurement, to verify the UEDGE physics model. We begin the paper with a brief description of the plasma and neutral models in the UEDGE code in Section 2. We then present initial results of flow simulations and compare them with experimental measurement in Section 3. We conclude with a discussion of the dominant physics processes identified in the modeling in Section 4.

Kinetic Simulations of Scrape-off Layer Physics in the DIII-D Tokamak

Kinetic Simulations of Scrape-off Layer Physics in the DIII-D Tokamak
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Total Pages: 6
Release: 2016
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Simulations using the fully kinetic code XGCa were undertaken to explore the impact of kinetic effects on scrape-off layer (SOL) physics in DIII-D H-mode plasmas. XGCa is a total-f, gyrokinetic code which self-consistently calculates the axisymmetric electrostatic potential and plasma dynamics, and includes modules for Monte Carlo neutral transport. Fluid simulations are normally used to simulate the SOL, due to its high collisionality. However, depending on plasma conditions, a number of discrepancies have been observed between experiment and leading SOL fluid codes (e.g. SOLPS), including underestimating outer target temperatures, radial electric field in the SOL, parallel ion SOL flows at the low field side, and impurity radiation. Many of these discrepancies may be linked to the fluid treatment, and might be resolved by including kinetic effects in SOL simulations. The XGCa simulation of the DIII-D tokamak in a nominally sheath-limited regime show many noteworthy features in the SOL. The density and ion temperature are higher at the low-field side, indicative of ion orbit loss. The SOL ion Mach flows are at experimentally relevant levels (Mi ~0.5), with similar shapes and poloidal variation as observed in various tokamaks. Surprisingly, the ion Mach flows close to the sheath edge remain subsonic, in contrast to the typical fluid Bohm criterion requiring ion flows to be above sonic at the sheath edge. Related to this are the presence of elevated sheath potentials, e[Delta][Phi]/Te ~ 3-4, over most of the SOL, with regions in the near-SOL close to the separatrix having e[Delta][Phi]/Te> 4. Finally, these two results at the sheath edge are a consequence of non-Maxwellian features in the ions and electrons there.

Controlled Stabilization of Alfvén Eigenmodes in DIII-D and Validation of Theory and Simulations

Controlled Stabilization of Alfvén Eigenmodes in DIII-D and Validation of Theory and Simulations
Author: Shawn Tang
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Total Pages: 123
Release: 2021
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Understanding the interaction between wave excitation and damping is essential in the advancement of research on magnetized plasmas in space, laboratory, and astrophysical settings. Alfv\'en waves can be excited across all of these settings, and in fusion research plasmas such as tokamak plasmas, they are present due to energetic particles from neutral beam injection and fusion reactions. The interplay between wave-particle interaction and damping processes is at the core of understanding wave excitation. \\ In the work presented in this dissertation, an experiment was designed to investigate high frequency Alfv\'en waves excited through Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance with energetic particles from neutral beam injection in the DIII-D tokamak. These waves, compressional (CAE) and global (GAE) Alfv\'en eigenmodes, typically have frequencies close to the ion cyclotron frequency $f_{ci}$; the frequency and amplitude of these modes was measured with the Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) diagnostic. The experiment utilized the unique capability of the DIII-D neutral beams to separately control the energy and injection rate. A parametric scan across many magnetic fields and beam geometries was performed to study the dependencies of these modes on various plasma parameters.\\ An energetic ion density threshold was observed during a discharge in which the voltage of an off-axis co-injecting beam was held constant while the current was ramped down by $40\%$. During this discharge, a spectrum of high frequency AEs at $f=0.58f_{ci}$ was stabilized via a controlled energetic ion density ramp for the first time in a fusion research plasma. This observation demonstrates an important property of resonant AEs: that the growth rate of these waves is set by the balance between fast-ion drive and damping processes. The controlled stabilization of this mode also validates previous simulations done on high frequency AEs in which an instability threshold was observed by varying the beam density without changing the shape of the distribution. \\ The scaling of the amplitude of this wave with the beam injection rate was found to be consistent with predictions for single mode collisional saturation near marginal stability. Analytic theory found that for the observed beam injection rate threshold, the mode was near marginal stability throughout the entire beam ramp. This is notably different from previous simulations of CAEs/GAEs that were in the collisionless regime and often far from marginal stability. \\ Modeling codes such as TRANSP and ORB\_GC were used to model and analyze the fast-ion distribution for this discharge. This analysis found that the modes were likely excited by a high energy subset of the fast-ion population with strong gradients in parallel velocity space. Resonance analysis of this subset of the fast-ion population, in conjunction with considerations from dispersion relations, shows that the mode is likely a shear-polarized GAE. This marks the first identification of a GAE excited through Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance with sub-Alfv\'enic energetic ions, a first in fusion research plasmas.

Velocity-space Resolved Fast-ion Measurements in the DIII-D Tokamak

Velocity-space Resolved Fast-ion Measurements in the DIII-D Tokamak
Author: Christopher Michael Muscatello
Publisher:
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2012
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ISBN: 9781267260550

Superthermal ions in tokamak plasmas play a critical role in heating and current drive, and their confinement within the core of the plasma is crucial for obtaining ignition and sustaining burn in future reactors. At the DIII-D tokamak, a suite of fast-ion measurements is available to diagnose various properties of the superthermal population. This thesis work involves a contribution to DIII-D's fast-ion diagnostic collection: the 2nd generation fast-ion deuterium alpha (2G FIDA) detector. FIDA works on the principle of measuring the light that is emitted from neutralized fast ions that undergo charge exchange events with injected neutral atoms. 2G FIDA complements the other FIDA installations on DIII-D with its unique velocity-space sampling volume. Output from a synthetic diagnostic code (FIDAsim) that predicts FIDA emission levels is compared with measurements from 2G FIDA. We find that, while the predicted and measured shapes of the FIDA spectra agree well, the absolute magnitude of the spectral amplitudes are inconsistent. Results from various FIDAsim trials are presented adjusting several parameters, and it is hypothesized that mischaracterization of the diagnostic neutral beams is a major source of error. Instabilities in tokamaks can cause fast-ion transport. The sawtooth instability is particularly important because the crash phase has been observed to cause reductions up to 50% in the central fast-ion density. Passing ions of all energies are redistributed, but only low energy trapped ions suffer redistribution. The observations are consistent with transport by flux-attachment. Comparisons with theory suggest that the intensity of sawtooth-induced transport depends on the magnitude of toroidal drift. Instabilities characterized by toroidal and poloidal mode numbers and real frequency can coherently interact with energetic particles through mode-particle resonances. During a sawtooth crash, even fast ions whose energies are above the threshold for flux-attachment can experience transport if their orbits satisfy the bounce-precessional resonance condition. On DIII-D, a spatially localized population of beam ions accelerated above the injection energy by ion-cyclotron radio frequency (ICRF) heating is diminished at a sawtooth crash. Furthermore, fast-ion losses concurrent with sawtooth crashes are observed. Calculations show that mode-particle resonances could be responsible. Transport of energetic particles by resonant interactions pertains to many types of instabilities; other examples besides sawteeth will also be presented. Analysis shows that large amplitude modes cause significant resonant transport of fast particles. Even small amplitude modes can resonantly drive transport if multiple harmonics exist.

Ion Cyclotron Emission Due to the Newly-born Fusion Products Induced Fast Alfven Wave Radiative Instabilities in Tokamaks

Ion Cyclotron Emission Due to the Newly-born Fusion Products Induced Fast Alfven Wave Radiative Instabilities in Tokamaks
Author:
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Total Pages: 40
Release: 1995
Genre:
ISBN:

The velocity distribution functions of the newly born (t = 0) charged fusion products of tokamak discharges can be approximated by a monoenergetic ring distribution with a finite v{sub {parallel}} such that v{sub {perpendicular}} ≈ v{sub {parallel}} ≈ v{sub j} where (M{sub j}V{sub j}2/2) = E{sub j}, the directed birth energy of the charged fusion product species j of mass M{sub j}. As the time t progresses these distribution functions will evolve into a Gaussian in velocity with thermal spreadings given by the perpendicular and parallel temperatures T{sub {perpendicular}j}(t) = T{sub {parallel}j}(t) with T{sub j}(t) increasing as t increases and finally reaches an isotropic saturation value of T{sub {perpendicular}j}(t ≈ [tau]{sub j}) = T{sub {parallel}j}(t ≈ [tau]{sub j}) = T{sub j}(t ≈ [tau]{sub j}) ≈ [M{sub j}T{sub d}E{sub j}/(M{sub j} + M)]12, where T{sub d} is the temperature of the background deuterium plasma ions, M is the mass of a triton or a neutron for j = protons and alpha particles, respectively, and [tau]{sub j} ≈ [tau]{sub sj}/4 is the thermalization time of the fusion product species j in the background deuterium plasma and [tau]{sub sj} is the slowing-down time. For times t of the order of [tau]{sub j} their distributions can be approximated by a Gaussian in their total energy. Then for times t ≥ [tau]{sub sj} the velocity distributions of these fusion products will relax towards their appropriate slowing-down distributions. Here the authors will examine the radiative stability of all these distributions. The ion cyclotron emission from energetic ion produced by fusion reactions or neutral beam injection promises to be a useful diagnostic tool.