Jarrod Leddy

Hermes : Global plasma edge fluid turbulence simulations

The transport of heat and particles in the relatively collisional edge regions of magnetically confined plasmas is a scientifically challenging and technologically important problem. Understanding and predicting this transport requires the self-consistent evolution of plasma fluctuations, global profiles and flows, but the numerical tools capable of doing this in realistic (diverted) geometry are only now being developed. Here a 5-field reduced 2-fluid plasma model for the study of instabilities and turbulence in magnetised plasmas is presented, built on the BOUT++ framework. This cold ion model allows the evolution of global profiles, electric fields and flows on transport timescales, with flux-driven cross-field transport determined self-consistently by electromagnetic turbulence. Developments in the model formulation and numerical implementation are described, and simulations are performed in poloidally limited and diverted tokamak configurations.

Influence of plasma turbulence on microwave propagation

It is not fully understood how electromagnetic waves propagate through plasma density fluctuations when the size of the fluctuations is comparable with the wavelength of the incident radiation. In this paper, the perturbing effect of a turbulent plasma density layer on a traversing microwave beam is simulated with full-wave simulations. The deterioration of the microwave beam is calculated as a function of the characteristic turbulence structure size, the turbulence amplitude, the depth of the interaction zone and the size of the waist of the incident beam. The maximum scattering is observed for a structure size on the order of half the vacuum wavelength. The scattering and beam broadening was found to increase linearly with the depth of the turbulence layer and quadratically with the fluctuation strength. Consequences for experiments and 3D effects are considered.

A novel flexible field-aligned coordinate system for tokamak edge plasma simulation

Abstract Tokamak plasmas are confined by a magnetic field that limits the particle and heat transport perpendicular to the field. Parallel to the field the ionised particles can move freely, so to obtain confinement the field lines are “closed” (i.e. form closed surfaces of constant poloidal flux) in the core of a tokamak. Towards, the edge, however, the field lines intersect physical surfaces, leading to interaction between neutral and ionised particles, and the potential melting of the material surface. Simulation of this interaction is important for predicting the performance and lifetime of future tokamak devices such as ITER. Field-aligned coordinates are commonly used in the simulation of tokamak plasmas due to the geometry and magnetic topology of the system. However, these coordinates are limited in the geometry they allow in the poloidal plane due to orthogonality requirements. A novel 3D coordinate system is proposed herein that relaxes this constraint so that any arbitrary, smoothly varying geometry can be matched in the poloidal plane while maintaining a field-aligned coordinate. This system is implemented in BOUT++ and tested for accuracy using the method of manufactured solutions. A MAST edge cross-section is simulated using a fluid plasma model and the results show expected behaviour for density, temperature, and velocity. Finally, simulations of an isolated divertor leg are conducted with and without neutrals to demonstrate the ion-neutral interaction near the divertor plate and the corresponding beneficial decrease in plasma temperature.

On the validity of drift-reduced fluid models for tokamak plasma simulation

Drift-reduced plasma fluid models are commonly used in plasma physics for analytic studies and simulations, so the validity of such models must be verified for the regions of parameter space in which tokamak plasmas exist. By deriving and comparing the linear dispersion relations for the drift-wave instability for both a drift-reduced model and a full-velocity model, the importance of the physics lost with the drift-reduction is examined. This analysis is generalised for typical tokamak parameter spaces and is then applied directly to JET data. It is found that drift-reduced models are generally more applicable to the edge plasma ( 30% error) particularly at mid-radius. The effect of drift-wave mode number and wavelength also play a key role in determining the accuracy of drift-reduced models.

Intrinsic suppression of turbulence in linear plasma devices

Plasma turbulence is the dominant transport mechanism for heat and particles in magnetized plasmas in linear devices and tokamaks, so the study of turbulence is important in limiting and controlling this transport. Linear devices provide an axial magnetic field that serves to confine a plasma in cylindrical geometry as it travels along the magnetic field from the source to the strike point. Due to perpendicular transport, the plasma density and temperature have a roughly Gaussian radial profile with gradients that drive instabilities, such as resistive drift-waves and Kelvin-Helmholtz. If unstable, these instabilities cause perturbations to grow resulting in saturated turbulence, increasing the cross-field transport of heat and particles. When the plasma emerges from the source, there is a time,

Influence of density fluctuations on the O–X mode conversion and on microwave propagation

\tau_{\parallel}

Simulation of the interaction between plasma turbulence and neutrals in linear devices

, that describes the lifetime of the plasma based on parallel velocity and length of the device. As the plasma moves down the device, it also moves azimuthally according to

The deteriorating effect of plasma density fluctuations on microwave beam quality

E\times B

Resolving ECRH deposition broadening due to edge turbulence in DIII-D by heat deposition measurement

and diamagnetic velocities. There is a balance point in these parallel and perpendicular times that sets the stabilisation threshold. We simulate plasmas with a variety of parallel lengths and magnetic fields to vary the parallel and perpendicular lifetimes, respectively, and find that there is a clear correlation between the saturated RMS density perturbation level and the balance between these lifetimes. The threshold of marginal stability is seen to exist where

Resolving ECRH deposition broadening due to edge turbulence in DIII-D by 3D full-wave simulations

\tau_{\parallel}\approx11\tau_{\perp}