Understanding ion cyclotron harmonic fast wave heating losses in the scrape off layer of tokamak plasmas

Conference · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014

OSTI ID:1172623

Bertelli, N ^[1]; Jaeger, E F; Hosea, J C; Phillips, C K; Berry, L; Bonoli, P T; Gerhardt, S P ^[1]; Green, D; LeBlanc, B ^[1]; Perkins, R J; Ryan, P M; Taylor, G; Valeo, E J; Wilso, J R; Wright, J C

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1. PPPL

Fast waves at harmonics of the ion cyclotron frequency, which have been used successfully on National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), will also play an important role in ITER and are a promising candidate for the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) designs based on spherical torus (ST). Experimental studies of high harmonic fast waves (HHFW) heating on the NSTX have demonstrated that substantial HHFW power loss occurs along the open field lines in the scrape-off layer (SOL), but the mechanism behind the loss is not yet understood. The full wave RF code AORSA, in which the edge plasma beyond the last closed flux surface (LCFS) is included in the solution domain, is applied to specific NSTX discharges in order to predict the effects and possible causes of this power loss. In the studies discussed here, a collisional damping parameter has been implemented in AORSA as a proxy to represent the real, and most likely nonlinear, damping processes. A prediction for the NSTX Upgrade (NSTX-U) experiment, that will begin operation next year, is also presented, indicating a favorable condition for the experiment due to a wider evanescent region in edge density.*Research supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-09CH11466 with Princeton University.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC02-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 1172623
• Report Number(s): PPPL-5035
• Resource Relation: Conference: 41st European Physical Society (EPS) Conference on Plasma Physics, Berlin, June 23 27, 2014.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
heating
ICRF
Ion Cyclotron Waves
Ion Heating
Tokamaks
NSTX
Wave Propagation
RF Heating
Scrape-off Layer (SOL)
Numerical Simulation