Validation of SOLPS-ITER and EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations for H, D, and T JET ITER-like wall low-confinement mode plasmas
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2025-03
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en
Pages
12
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Nuclear Materials and Energy, Volume 42, pp. 1-12
Abstract
Both experiments and simulations with SOLPS-ITER and EDGE2D-EIRENE show that the onset of detachment for the low-field side (LFS) divertor – defined here as the line-averaged upstream density (〈ne〉edge) at which the plasma flux to the LFS target (ILFS−plate) starts to decrease with increasing 〈ne〉edge – is independent of the isotope mass. However, there are three major simulation-experiment discrepancies: (i) the absolute values of ILFS−plate and the electron density (ne) in the LFS divertor at the onset of detachment are significantly lower in simulations, i.e., approximately a factor of 2 for ILFS−plate and a factor of 3-4 for ne; (ii) the degree of detachment – defined here as the difference between ILFS−plate at the onset of detachment and at an 〈ne〉edge value close to the density limit – is smaller in simulations compared to experiments; and (iii) the experimentally observed larger degree of detachment for D and T plasmas compared to H plasmas cannot be clearly distinguished from the simulation results. There are strong indications that discrepancy (i) is to a large extent caused by neglecting Lyman-opacity effects in our simulations. The simulations predict a similar net volumetric recombination source for all isotopes due to the fact that molecule-activated recombination (MAR) compensates for the reduced electron–ion recombination (EIR) for H, whereas MAR is negligible for D and T. This similar net volumetric recombination source for all isotopes leads to an isotope-independent degree of detachment in simulations. An analysis of the Balmer-α and Balmer-γ emission confirms the underestimate of MAR in simulations (especially for D and T) for the JET metallic wall, which was previously observed for devices with a carbon wall. The underestimate of MAR is an important cause for discrepancy (ii) and the fact that there is a stronger underestimate of MAR for D and T than for H explains discrepancy (iii). Extending the plasma grid to the vessel wall increases ILFS−plate and ne at the onset of detachment by 25%, and the EIR source increases by 80% in detached conditions. Hence, while the extended grid results are closer to the experimental observations, the previously described qualitative discrepancies still persist.Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors
Keywords
Balmer emission, Divertor detachment, Lyman opacity, Plasma edge code validation
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Citation
Horsten, N, Groth, M, Rikala, V P, Lomanowski, B, Meigs, A G, Aleiferis, S, Bonnin, X, Corrigan, G, Dekeyser, W, Futtersack, R, Harting, D, Reiter, D, Solokha, V, Thomas, B, Van den Kerkhof, S, Vervloesem, N & JET Contributors 2025, ' Validation of SOLPS-ITER and EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations for H, D, and T JET ITER-like wall low-confinement mode plasmas ', Nuclear Materials and Energy, vol. 42, 101842, pp. 1-12 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2024.101842