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Fully kinetic simulation of coupled plasma and neutral particles in scrape-off layer plasmas of fusion devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1999

O. V. BATISHCHEV
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology PSFC, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Lodestar Research Corporation, Boulder, CO 80301, USA Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny 141700, Russia Keldysh Institute for Applied Mathematics, Moscow 125047, Russia
M. M. SHOUCRI
Affiliation:
Centre Canadien de Fusion Magnétique, Varennes, PQ, Canada J3X 1S1
A. A. BATISHCHEVA
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology PSFC, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
I. P. SHKAROFSKY
Affiliation:
Centre Canadien de Fusion Magnétique, Varennes, PQ, Canada J3X 1S1 MPB Technologies, Pointe Claire, PQ, Canada H9R 1E9

Abstract

Fluid descriptions of plasmas, which are usually applied to a collisional plasma, can only be justified for very small Coulomb Knudsen numbers. However, the scrape-off layer (SOL) plasmas of experimental magnetic confinement fusion devices tend to have operational regimes characterized by a Coulomb Knudsen number around 0.1. In interesting detached regimes of an SOL plasma in a tokamak, when the plasma detaches from the limiters or divertors, this number may increase along with the local plasma gradients. Plasma gradients are also known to increase (and thus drive non-local effects) in inertial confinement fusion. Neutrals, which are being produced owing to plasma recombination at the plasma–divertor interface, may be in a mixed collisional regime as well. Thus simultaneous kinetic treatments of plasma and neutral particles with self-consistent evaluation of boundary conditions at the material walls are required. We present a physical model and a numerical scheme, and discuss results of purely kinetic simulations of plasmas and neutrals for actual conditions in the Alcator C-Mod and Tokamak-de-Varennes experimental tokamaks. Results for both steady-state and transient regimes of SOL plasma flow are presented. Our approach, unlike particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo methods, is free from statistical noise.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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