Divertor Thomson Scattering on Globus-M2 Ermakov, N. V.; Zhiltsov, N. S.; Kurskiev, G. S. ...
Plasma physics reports,
12/2023, Volume:
49, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We present the first Thomson scattering (TS) measurements of electron temperature in the lower divertor of the Globus-M2 tokamak. The divertor TS diagnostics is designed for local measurements of the
...T
e
(
z
,
t
) in the range of 1–100 eV and
n
e
(
z
,
t
) in the range of
m
–3
. Parameters of the probing Nd:YAG laser are as follows 1064 nm/2 J/100 Hz/3 ns. The probing chord is launched vertically at
R
= 24 cm and covers areas of the inner leg, vicinity of separatrix and private flux region. Along probing chord of 110 mm, 9 spatial points were realized. Advanced filter polychromators were used to analyze Thomson scattering spectra.
The Globus-M2 spherical tokamak is the considerably upgraded Globus-M facility. Its technical parameters were increased as much as possible to achieve the promising range of physical parameters ...(sub-fusion temperatures and collisionality of much less than unity). These parameters will be achieved in a compact magnetic configuration similar to that of the Globus-M tokamak, the plasma current and toroidal magnetic field amounting to 0.5 MA and 1 T, respectively. The demand to increase the magnetic field and plasma current in the Globus-M2 resulted in the need for a complete redesign of the electromagnetic system because the plasma equilibrium requirements have changed and the mechanical and thermal loads have considerably increased as compared to the Globus-M. The vacuum vessel and the in-vessel components of the new Globus-M2 tokamak remain the same. Power supplies were upgraded to provide the required currents in the toroidal field coil and the central solenoid. The Globus-M2 tokamak was build up and preliminary tests were carried out. New auxiliary heating systems and diagnostics were developed and installed to be used in future experiments. Fist plasma was achieved at the Globus-M2 in April 2018.
Electron temperature and density spatial distribution dynamics on the Globus-M (R =0.36 m, a=0.24 m, B =0.4 T, I= 0.2 MA) spherical tokamak was investigated during the NBI heating. The key tool of ...this research was the upgraded Thomson scattering diagnostics with variable intervals between probing pulses (20 pulses in total). The scattering points were placed along the major plasma radius from the inner to the outer plasma border (10 points in total). Simulation of the electron transport in the L and H-mode, based on experimentally measured ne(R) Te(R) profiles was carried out using the code ASTRA for the OH and NBI dischargers.
In this paper SOLPS-ITER simulations of Ar and N seeded discharges are presented for H-mode conditions on ASDEX Upgrade and for burning plasmas on ITER. These discharges are additionally compared ...with Ne seeded cases for both tokamaks. It is demonstrated that Ar and N are retained in the divertor, and that the amount of seeded impurity (measured both by the seeding rate in atoms/s and the averaged separatrix density) necessary to achieve the same divertor conditions is lower for Ar than for N. This is attributed to almost the same values of first ionization potential of Ar and N (if compared to e.g. Ne) and to higher Ar radiation efficiency. If the radiated power fraction within the numerical simulation grid is of the order of 50%, which is sufficient to achieve partial detachment at the outer target in both devices, radiation losses from the confined region remain small for Ar seeded ITER cases (about 6% of power from the outer core region included in the SOLPS-ITER computational domain with total volume 135 m3). The fuel dilution by Ar remains lower than that by N and Ne, which corresponds to an Ar averaged separatrix concentration of 0.4%. From the point of view of target power handling, the boundary simulations thus demonstrate that Ar may be a suitable alternative seed impurity on ITER.
The neutral gas shielding model and neutral-gas-plasma shielding model are analyzed qualitatively. The main physical processes that govern the formation of the shielding gas cloud and, consequently, ...the ablation rate are considered. For the neutral gas shielding model, simple formulas relating the ablation rate and cloud parameters to the parameters of the pellet and the background plasma are presented. The estimates of the efficiency of neutral gas shielding and plasma shielding are compared. It is shown that the main portion of the energy flux of the background electrons is released in the plasma cloud. Formulas for the ablation rate and plasma parameters are derived in the neutral-gas-plasma shielding model. The question is discussed as to why the neutral gas shielding model describes well the ablation rate of the pellet material, although it does not take into account the ionization effects and the effects associated with the interaction of ionized particles with the magnetic field. The reason is that the ablation rate depends weakly on the energy flux of hot electrons; as a result, the attenuation of this flux by the electrostatic shielding and plasma shielding has little effect on the ablation rate. This justifies the use of the neutral gas shielding model to estimate the ablation rate (to within a factor of about 2) over a wide range of parameters of the pellet and the background plasma.
•SOLPS-ITER modeling with drifts produces a realistic power scrape-off width.•Magnetic drifts support a realistic scrape-off layer density width.•The temperature width is appropriately bounded by the ...density width.•The power width does not vary as expected with poloidal magnetic field.•The research paves the way for new discoveries in fusion power exhaust physics.
The effects of drifts and associated flows and currents on the width of the parallel heat flux channel (λq) in the tokamak scrape-off layer (SOL) are analyzed using the SOLPS-ITER 2D fluid transport code. Motivation is supplied by Goldston’s heuristic drift (HD) model for λq, which yields the same approximately inverse poloidal magnetic field dependence seen in multi-machine regression. The analysis, focusing on a DIII-D H-mode discharge, reveals HD-like features, including comparable density and temperature fall-off lengths in the SOL, and up-down ion pressure asymmetry that allows net cross-separatrix ion magnetic drift flux to exceed net anomalous ion flux. In experimentally relevant high-recycling cases, scans of both toroidal and poloidal magnetic field (Btor and Bpol) are conducted, showing minimal λq dependence on either component of the field. Insensitivity to Btor is expected, and suggests that SOLPS-ITER is effectively capturing some aspects of HD physics. Absence of λq dependence on Bpol, however, is inconsistent with both the HD model and experimental results. The inconsistency is attributed to strong variation in the parallel Mach number, which violates one of the premises of the HD model.
Impurity radiation from a tokamak plasma Morozov, D. Kh; Baronova, E. O.; Senichenkov, I. Yu
Plasma physics reports,
11/2007, Volume:
33, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In tokamak operating modes, energy balance is often governed by impurity radiation. This is the case near the divertor plates, during impurity pellet injection, during controlled discharge ...disruptions, etc. The calculation of impurity radiation is a fairly involved task (it is sometimes the most difficult part of the general problem) because the radiation power is determined by the distribution of ions over the excited states and by the rate constants of elementary processes of radiation and absorption. The objective of this paper is to summarize in one place all the approximate formulas that would help investigators to describe radiation from the most often encountered impurities in a fairly simple way in their calculations accounting for plasma radiation, without reference to special literature. Simple approximating formulas describing ionization, recombination, and charge-exchange processes, as well as radiative losses from ions with a given charge, are presented for five impurity species: beryllium, carbon, oxygen, neon, and argon. Estimating formulas that allow one to take into account plasma opacity for resonant photons in line impurity radiation are also presented.
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