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The influence of trapping effects on neutron production in NBI-heated tokamak plasmas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 1997
Abstract
Fast computer codes for evaluating non-thermal velocity distributions are needed in order to carry out routine analysis of neutron signals in plasmas heated by neutral-beam injection (NBI). By neglecting the magnetic field inhomogeneity along a field line, i.e. neglecting trapped-particle effects, calculations of the velocity distribution can be made relatively rapidly. In this paper, we investigate under which circumstances such an approximation is justified. We solve the bounce-averaged Fokker–Planck equation, which includes particle trapping, by expressing the solution in terms of a series of appropriate eigenfunctions of the pitch-angle scattering operator. The eigenfunctions, eigenvalues and time-dependent coefficient functions are calculated numerically. We use the solution for calculating the effect of particle trapping on neutron production for beam-heated deuterium plasmas.
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- 1997 Cambridge University Press
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