Sensitivity of the Boundary Plasma to the Plasma-Material Interface
Abstract
While the sensitivity of the scrape-off layer and divertor plasma to the highly uncertain cross-field transport assumptions is widely recognized, the plasma is also sensitive to the details of the plasma-material interface (PMI) models used as part of comprehensive predictive simulations. Here in this paper, these PMI sensitivities are studied by varying the relevant sub-models within the SOLPS plasma transport code. Two aspects are explored: the sheath model used as a boundary condition in SOLPS, and fast particle reflection rates for ions impinging on a material surface. Both of these have been the study of recent high-fidelity simulation efforts aimed at improving the understanding and prediction of these phenomena. It is found that in both cases quantitative changes to the plasma solution result from modification of the PMI model, with a larger impact in the case of the reflection coefficient variation. Finally, this indicates the necessity to better quantify the uncertainties within the PMI models themselves, and perform thorough sensitivity analysis to propagate these throughout the boundary model; this is especially important for validation against experiment, where the error in the simulation is a critical and less-studied piece of the code-experiment comparison.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1341530
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; AC52-06NA25396
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Fusion Science and Technology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 71; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1536-1055
- Publisher:
- American Nuclear Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; Scrape-off layer; divertor; sheath
Citation Formats
Canik, John M., and Tang, X. -Z. Sensitivity of the Boundary Plasma to the Plasma-Material Interface. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.13182/FST16-124.
Canik, John M., & Tang, X. -Z. Sensitivity of the Boundary Plasma to the Plasma-Material Interface. United States. https://doi.org/10.13182/FST16-124
Canik, John M., and Tang, X. -Z. Sun .
"Sensitivity of the Boundary Plasma to the Plasma-Material Interface". United States. https://doi.org/10.13182/FST16-124. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1341530.
@article{osti_1341530,
title = {Sensitivity of the Boundary Plasma to the Plasma-Material Interface},
author = {Canik, John M. and Tang, X. -Z.},
abstractNote = {While the sensitivity of the scrape-off layer and divertor plasma to the highly uncertain cross-field transport assumptions is widely recognized, the plasma is also sensitive to the details of the plasma-material interface (PMI) models used as part of comprehensive predictive simulations. Here in this paper, these PMI sensitivities are studied by varying the relevant sub-models within the SOLPS plasma transport code. Two aspects are explored: the sheath model used as a boundary condition in SOLPS, and fast particle reflection rates for ions impinging on a material surface. Both of these have been the study of recent high-fidelity simulation efforts aimed at improving the understanding and prediction of these phenomena. It is found that in both cases quantitative changes to the plasma solution result from modification of the PMI model, with a larger impact in the case of the reflection coefficient variation. Finally, this indicates the necessity to better quantify the uncertainties within the PMI models themselves, and perform thorough sensitivity analysis to propagate these throughout the boundary model; this is especially important for validation against experiment, where the error in the simulation is a critical and less-studied piece of the code-experiment comparison.},
doi = {10.13182/FST16-124},
journal = {Fusion Science and Technology},
number = 1,
volume = 71,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Consequences of a reduction of the upstream power SOL width in ITER
journal, July 2013
- Kukushkin, A. S.; Pacher, H. D.; Pacher, G. W.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 438
Obtaining reactor-relevant divertor conditions in tokamaks
journal, April 2011
- Stangeby, P. C.; Leonard, A. W.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 6
Multi-Fluid Modeling of Large Parallel Plasma Flows in the Tokamak Scrape-Off Layer
journal, September 2006
- Pigarov, A. Yu.; Krasheninnikov, S. I.; LaBombard, B.
- Contributions to Plasma Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 7-9
Influence of and ∇B drift terms in 2-D edge/SOL transport simulations
journal, March 1999
- Rognlien, T. D.; Porter, G. D.; Ryutov, D. D.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 266-269
The relation between upstream density and temperature widths in the scrape-off layer and the power width in an attached divertor
journal, November 2010
- Stangeby, P. C.; Canik, J. M.; Whyte, D. G.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 50, Issue 12
Dependence of divertor heat flux widths on heating power, flux expansion, and plasma current in the NSTX
journal, August 2011
- Gray, T. K.; Maingi, R.; Soukhanovskii, V. A.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 415, Issue 1
Plasma–wall transition in an oblique magnetic field
journal, January 1982
- Chodura, R.
- Physics of Fluids, Vol. 25, Issue 9
Sheath energy transmission in a collisional plasma with collisionless sheath
journal, October 2015
- Tang, Xian-Zhu; Guo, Zehua
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 10
Data sets for hydrogen reflection and their use in neutral transport calculations
journal, February 1987
- Eckstein, W.; Heifetz, D. B.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 145-147
Reflection and implantation of low energy helium with tungsten surfaces
journal, April 2014
- Borovikov, Valery; Voter, Arthur F.; Tang, Xian-Zhu
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 447, Issue 1-3
Analysis of a multi-machine database on divertor heat fluxes
journal, May 2012
- Makowski, M. A.; Elder, D.; Gray, T. K.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5
ELM energy scaling in DIII-D
journal, May 2002
- Leonard, A. W.; Groebner, R. J.; Mahdavi, M. A.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 44, Issue 6
Key ITER plasma edge and plasma–material interaction issues
journal, March 2003
- Federici, G.; Andrew, P.; Barabaschi, P.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 313-316
The Multi-Fluid Codes Edgeid and Edge2D: Models and Results
journal, January 1992
- Taroni, A.; Corrigan, G.; Radford, G.
- Contributions to Plasma Physics, Vol. 32, Issue 3-4
Inter-ELM Power Decay Length for JET and ASDEX Upgrade: Measurement and Comparison with Heuristic Drift-Based Model
journal, November 2011
- Eich, T.; Sieglin, B.; Scarabosio, A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 21
Divertor heat flux footprints in EDA H-mode discharges on Alcator C-Mod
journal, August 2011
- LaBombard, B.; Terry, J. L.; Hughes, J. W.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 415, Issue 1
Ultrahigh performance three-dimensional electromagnetic relativistic kinetic plasma simulation
journal, May 2008
- Bowers, K. J.; Albright, B. J.; Yin, L.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 5
Comparison of H-mode plasmas in JET-ILW and JET-C with and without nitrogen seeding
journal, March 2016
- Jaervinen, A. E.; Giroud, C.; Groth, M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 56, Issue 4
Modeling of detachment experiments at DIII-D
journal, August 2015
- Canik, J. M.; Briesemeister, A. R.; Lasnier, C. J.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 463
The EIRENE and B2-EIRENE Codes
journal, February 2005
- Reiter, D.; Baelmans, M.; Börner, P.
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 2
Plasma Edge Physics with B2-Eirene
journal, February 2006
- Schneider, R.; Bonnin, X.; Borrass, K.
- Contributions to Plasma Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 1-2
Works referencing / citing this record:
Plasma Power Recycling at the Divertor Surface
journal, January 2017
- Tang, Xian-Zhu; Guo, Zehua
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 71, Issue 1