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Simulating energetic ions and enhanced fusion rates from ion-cyclotron resonance heating with a full-wave/Fokker–Planck model

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0204671· OSTI ID:2567663

Reproducing fast-ion enhanced fusion rates from ion-cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) in tokamaks requires the self-consistent coupling of a full-wave solver and a Fokker–Planck solver, which evolves multiple simultaneously resonant ion species. We introduce a new self-consistent model that iterates the TORIC full-wave solver with the CQL3D Fokker–Planck solver using the integrated plasma simulator (IPS). This model evolves the bounce-averaged ion distribution functions in both parallel and perpendicular velocity-space with a quasilinear radio frequency (RF) diffusion operator valid in the ion finite Larmor radius (FLR) limit and the RF electric fields with the resultant non-Maxwellian FLR dielectric tensor. This produces non-Maxwellian ICRH simulations that are fully self-consistent, fast, and interoperable with integrated modeling frameworks, such as TRANSP/GACODE/IPS-FASTRAN. We demonstrate our model's capabilities by validating it against experimental data in Alcator C-Mod. We then perform the first RF heating simulations of SPARC using self-consistent non-Maxwellian ion distributions to investigate the potential to enhance fusion rates using ion cyclotron resonance heating generated fast ions.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; FG02-91ER54109; SC0018090
OSTI ID:
2567663
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2578526
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 31; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of PhysicsCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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