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Hybrid simulation of NBI fast-ion losses due to the Alfvén eigenmode bursts in the Large Helical Device and the comparison with the fast-ion loss detector measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

R. Seki*
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Toki, Japan
Y. Todo
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, Japan
Y. Suzuki
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Toki, Japan
K. Ogawa
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Toki, Japan
M. Isobe
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Toki, Japan
D. A. Spong
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA
M. Osakabe
Affiliation:
National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Toki, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Toki, Japan
*
†Email address for correspondence: seki.ryohsuke@nifs.ac.jp
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Abstract

The multiphase simulations are conducted with the kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics hybrid code MEGA to investigate the spatial and the velocity distributions of lost fast ions due to the Alfvén eigenmode (AE) bursts in the Large Helical Device plasmas. It is found that fast ions are lost along the divertor region with helical symmetry both before and during the AE burst except for the promptly lost particles. On the other hand, several peaks are present in the spatial distribution of lost fast ions along the divertor region. These peaks along the divertor region can be attributed to the deviation of the fast-ion orbits from the magnetic surfaces due to the grad-B and the curvature drifts. For comparison with the velocity distribution of lost fast ions measured by the fast-ion loss detector (FILD), the ‘numerical FILD’ which solves the Newton–Lorentz equation is constructed in the MEGA code. The velocity distribution of lost fast ions detected by the numerical FILD during AE burst is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental FILD measurements. During the AE burst, fast ions with high energy (100–180 keV) are detected by the numerical FILD, while co-going fast ions lost to the divertor region are the particles with energy lower than 50 keV.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1.(a) Electron temperature and density profiles in the LHD discharge #90090 (b) fast-ion birth locations produced by NB and (c) fast-ion distribution. In panel (a), solid and dashed lines show the temperature and density profiles, respectively. In panel (b), blue points represent the birth points projected onto the equatorial plane. Red lines represent the last closed flux surface and the magnetic axis. In panel (c), the horizontal axis is the parallel velocity normalized by the Alfvén velocity $v_{A}$. The vertical axis is the magnetic moment normalized by $\mu _{A}=m v_{A}^{2}/2B_{\textrm {axis}}$.

Figure 1

Figure 2.Time evolutions of (a) MHD kinetic energy of the fast-ion driven instabilities, (b) stored fast-ion energy and (c) lost power of fast ions. In panels (b,c), the results of the ‘classical calculation’, which are the results of MEGA code without MHD instabilities, are shown together for comparison. In panel (c), vertical axis is the lost power of fast ions normalized by port-through power. The lost power of fast ions does not include the promptly lost particles whose lifetime is less than $50\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {s}$.

Figure 2

Figure 3.Spatial distributions of power density of lost fast ion in (a) the classical phase and (b) the hybrid phase. The horizontal and vertical axes are the toroidal angle and poloidal angle of lost fast-ion location, respectively. Colour represents the power density of lost fast ion ($\textrm {kW}\,\textrm {cm}^{-2}$). The promptly lost particles whose lifetime are less than $50\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {s}$ are not included.

Figure 3

Figure 4.Spatial distributions of increment in the power density of lost fast ions for (a) co-going fast ions and (b) counter-going fast ions. The horizontal and vertical axes are the toroidal angle and poloidal angle of lost fast-ion location, respectively. Colour represents the increment in the power density of lost fast ion ($\textrm {kW}\,\textrm {cm}^{-2}$). In these figures, the spatial distribution of lost fast ions is shown for $0 \leq \phi \leq 2{\rm \pi} /5$ (two helical pitch).

Figure 4

Figure 5.Time evolutions of (a) MHD kinetic energy, (b) mode amplitudes with $m/n=2/1$ and $m/n=1/1$, (c) fast-ion pressure profile variation and (d) fast-ion loss rate during a burst of fast-ion driven instabilities. In panel (c) colour represents the difference of fast-ion pressure from that before the AE burst at $t=37$ ms. In panel (d), fast-ion loss rate does not include the promptly lost particles whose lifetime is less than $50\ \mathrm {\mu }\textrm {s}$.

Figure 5

Figure 6.Model of the numerical FILD for LHD.

Figure 6

Figure 7.Comparison of pitch angle and energy distribution of lost fast ions among (a) MEGA simulation before AE burst, (b) MEGA simulation during AE burst and (c) FILD measurements during AE burst. Colour represents the total energy of the detected fast ions (arbitrary units). The lost fast-ion measurements with FILD shown in panel (c) were published in Ogawa et al. (2012).

Figure 7

Figure 8.Time evolution of the radial deposition profile of (a) fast ions detected by numerical FILD and (b) co-going fast ions lost to the divertor region. Colour represents the number of fast ions (arbitrary units). In panel (c), the radial profile of mode amplitude at the maxima of this AE burst are shown for reference. The hybrid phase of the multiphase simulation is 37 ms–40 ms, and the classical phase where the MHD perturbations are tuned off is 35 ms–37 ms. The AE burst occurs at $t=37.4\ \textrm {ms}$ as shown in figure 5.

Figure 8

Figure 9.Time evolution of energy profile of (a) fast ions detected by the numerical FILD and (b) co-going fast ions lost to the divertor region. Colour represents the number of fast-ions (arbitrary units). The hybrid phase of the multiphase simulation is 37 ms–40 ms, and the classical phase where the MHD perturbations are turned off is 35 ms–37 ms. The AE burst occurs at $t=37.4\ \textrm {ms}$ as shown in figure 5.