D. Brida

3D simulations of gas puff effects on edge density and ICRF coupling in ASDEX Upgrade

In recent experiments, a local gas puff was found to be an effective way to tailor the scrape-off layer (SOL) density and improve the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) power coupling in tokamaks. In order to quantitatively reproduce these experiments, to understand the corresponding physics and to optimize the gas valve positions and rates, simulations were carried out with the 3D edge plasma transport code EMC3-EIRENE in ASDEX Upgrade. An inter-ELM phase of an H-mode discharge with a moderate gas puff rate (1.2 x 10(22) electrons s(-1)) is used in our simulations. We simulated cases with gas puff in the lower divertor, the outer mid-plane and the top of the machine while keeping other conditions the same. Compared with the lower divertor gas puff, the outer mid-plane gas puff can increase the local density in front of the antennas most effectively, while a toroidally uniform but significantly smaller enhancement is found for the top gas puff. Good agreement between our simulations and experiments is obtained. With further simulations, the mechanisms of SOL density tailoring via local gas puffing and the strategies of gas puff optimization are discussed in the paper.

Simulations of gas puff effects on edge density and ICRF coupling in ASDEX upgrade using EMC3-Eirene

Simulations were carried out with the 3D plasma transport code EMC3-EIRENE, to study the deuterium gas (D2) puff effects on edge density and the coupling of Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency (ICRF) power in ASDEX Upgrade. Firstly we simulated an inter-ELM phase of an H-mode discharge with a moderate (1.2 × 1022 electrons/s) lower divertor gas puff. Then we changed the gas source positions to the mid-plane or top of machine while keeping other conditions the same. Cases with different mid-plane or top gas valves are investigated. Our simulations indicate that compared to lower divertor gas puffing, the mid-plane gas puff can enhance the local density in front of the antennas most effectively, while a rather global (toroidally uniform) but significantly smaller enhancement is found for top gas puffing. Our results show quantitative agreement with the experiments.

Three dimensional boundary displacement due to stable ideal kink modes excited by external n=2 magnetic perturbations

In low-collisionality scenarios exhibiting mitigation of edge localized mode (ELMs), stable ideal kink modes at the edge are excited by externally applied magnetic perturbation (MP)-fields. In ASDEX Upgrade these modes can cause three-dimensional (3D) boundary displacements up to the centimeter range. These displacements have been measured using toroidally localized high resolution diagnostics and rigidly rotating MP-fields with various applied poloidal mode spectra. These measurements are compared to non-linear 3D ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibria calculated by VMEC. Comprehensive comparisons have been conducted, which consider for instance plasma movements due to the position control system, attenuation due to internal conductors and changes in the edge pressure profiles. VMEC accurately reproduces the amplitude of the displacement and its dependencies on the applied poloidal mode spectra. Quantitative agreement is found around the low field side (LFS) midplane. The response at the plasma top is qualitatively compared. The measured and predicted displacements at the plasma top maximize when the applied spectra is optimized for ELM-mitigation. The predictions from the vacuum modeling generally fails to describe the displacement at the LFS midplane as well as at the plasma top. When the applied mode spectra is set to maximize the displacement, VMEC and the measurements clearly surpass the predictions from the vacuum modeling by a factor of four. Minor disagreements between VMEC and the measurements are discussed. This study underlines the importance of the stable ideal kink modes at the edge for the 3D boundary displacement in scenarios relevant for ELM-mitigation.