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Title: Impurities in a non-axisymmetric plasma. Transport and effect on bootstrap current

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4935901· OSTI ID:1227103
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [3]
  1. Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goteborg (Sweden); Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Greifswald (Germany)
  2. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  3. Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Greifswald (Germany)
  4. Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Greifswald (Germany); Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, Stuttgart (Germany)

Impurities cause radiation losses and plasma dilution, and in stellarator plasmas the neoclassical ambipolar radial electric field is often unfavorable for avoiding strong impurity peaking. In this work we use a new continuum drift-kinetic solver, the SFINCS code (the Stellarator Fokker-Planck Iterative Neoclassical Conservative Solver) [M. Landreman et al., Phys. Plasmas 21 (2014) 042503] which employs the full linearized Fokker-Planck-Landau operator, to calculate neoclassical impurity transport coefficients for a Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) magnetic configuration. We compare SFINCS calculations with theoretical asymptotes in the high collisionality limit. We observe and explain a 1/nu-scaling of the inter-species radial transport coefficient at low collisionality, arising due to the field term in the inter-species collision operator, and which is not found with simplified collision models even when momentum correction is applied. However, this type of scaling disappears if a radial electric field is present. We use SFINCS to analyze how the impurity content affects the neoclassical impurity dynamics and the bootstrap current. We show that a change in plasma effective charge Zeff of order unity can affect the bootstrap current enough to cause a deviation in the divertor strike point locations.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-93ER54197; AC02-05CH11231; DEFC0208ER54964; DEFG0293ER54197
OSTI ID:
1227103
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1226677
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 11; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Stellarator Research Opportunities: A Report of the National Stellarator Coordinating Committee journal February 2018
The importance of the classical channel in the impurity transport of optimized stellarators journal July 2019
Flux-surface variations of the electrostatic potential in stellarators: impact on the radial electric field and neoclassical impurity transport journal June 2018
Impact of main ion pressure anisotropy on stellarator impurity transport journal December 2019
The importance of the classical channel in the impurity transport of optimized stellarators text January 2019
Impact of main ion pressure anisotropy on stellarator impurity transport text January 2019