Simulation of the interaction between plasma turbulence and neutrals in linear devices

TY - JOUR

T1 - Simulation of the interaction between plasma turbulence and neutrals in linear devices

AU - Leddy, Jarrod

AU - Willett, Hannah Victoria

AU - Dudson, Benjamin Daniel

N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2016/11/18

Y1 - 2016/11/18

N2 - The interaction between plasma and neutrals within a tokamak dominates the behaviour of the edge plasma, especially in the divertor region. This area is notquiescent, but has significant perturbations in the density and temperature due to turbulent fluctuations. Investigating the interaction between the neutrals andplasma is important for accurately simulating and understanding processes such as detachment in tokamaks. For simplicity, yet motivated by tokamak edge plasma, we simulate a linear plasma device and compare the sources and sinks due to ionisation, recombination, and charge exchange for cases with and without turbulence. Interestingly, the turbulence systematically strengthens the interaction, creating stronger sources and sinks for the plasma and neutrals. Not only does the strength of the interactions increase, but the location of these processes also changes. The recombination and charge exchange have relatively short mean free paths, so these processes occur on the scale of the eddy fluctuations, while the ionisation is mostly unaffected by the turbulence.

AB - The interaction between plasma and neutrals within a tokamak dominates the behaviour of the edge plasma, especially in the divertor region. This area is notquiescent, but has significant perturbations in the density and temperature due to turbulent fluctuations. Investigating the interaction between the neutrals andplasma is important for accurately simulating and understanding processes such as detachment in tokamaks. For simplicity, yet motivated by tokamak edge plasma, we simulate a linear plasma device and compare the sources and sinks due to ionisation, recombination, and charge exchange for cases with and without turbulence. Interestingly, the turbulence systematically strengthens the interaction, creating stronger sources and sinks for the plasma and neutrals. Not only does the strength of the interactions increase, but the location of these processes also changes. The recombination and charge exchange have relatively short mean free paths, so these processes occur on the scale of the eddy fluctuations, while the ionisation is mostly unaffected by the turbulence.

U2 - 10.1016/j.nme.2016.09.020

DO - 10.1016/j.nme.2016.09.020

M3 - Article

SN - 2352-1791

JO - Nuclear Materials and Energy

JF - Nuclear Materials and Energy

ER -