Studying fast wave propagation and absorption at any cyclotron harmonic using a 2D finite element area coordinates wave equation solver

Journal Article · Fri Dec 23 00:00:00 EST 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3665001· OSTI ID:21612508

Lerche, Ernesto; Van Eester, Dirk ^[1]

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1. LPP-ERM/KMS, Association Euratom-'Belgian State', TEC Partner, Brussels (Belgium)

Fourier analysis in the poloidal direction is a standard ingredient in present-day 2D wave equation solvers describing radio frequency waves in hot tokamak plasmas. Although a powerful and elegant technique, Fourier analysis has the disadvantage that a large number of modes is needed to describe the field pattern on a magnetic surface if a short wavelength mode exists on any - even very small - subpart of the particle trajectory. The present paper examines the potential of a method that does not suffer from this drawback: a finite element technique relying on simple linear or cubic area base functions that are defined on irregular elementary surfaces of triangular shape. The wave equation is solved in its weak Galerkin variational form and for realistic 2D tokamak geometry, accounting for the toroidal curvature but assuming the toroidal angle is ignorable, allowing to study the wave pattern for each of the independent toroidal modes excited by the antenna individually.The locally uniform full hot plasma dielectric tensor to all orders in finite Larmor radius was adopted. As the main intended application is the study of fast wave behavior (heating and current drive) at arbitrary harmonics, the wave vector complex amplitude appearing in the dielectric tensor is determined through a local dispersion root evaluation. High frequency fast wave propagation and damping is provided as an illustration in view of possible application of this type of current drive in future high density reactor-like tokamaks.

• OSTI ID: 21612508
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1406, Issue 1; Conference: 9. topical conference on radio frequency power in plasmas, Newport (United States), 1-3 Jun 2011; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3665001; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ABSORPTION
ANTENNAS
CURRENT-DRIVE HEATING
DAMPING
DIELECTRIC TENSOR
ECR HEATING
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FOURIER ANALYSIS
HARMONICS
HOT PLASMA
LARMOR RADIUS
MAGNETIC SURFACES
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
TOKAMAK DEVICES
VARIATIONAL METHODS
WAVE EQUATIONS
WAVE PROPAGATION
CALCULATION METHODS
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
CURRENTS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELECTRIC HEATING
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EQUATIONS
EQUIPMENT
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
JOULE HEATING
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OSCILLATIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
RADIATIONS
SORPTION
TENSORS
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES