Characteristics of divertor heat and particle deposition with intrinsic and applied 3-D fields in NSTX H-mode plasmas

J. W. Ahn, J. M. Canik, R. Maingi, T. K. Gray, J. D. Lore, A. G. McLean, J. K. Park, A. L. Roquemore, V. A. Soukhanovskii

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Divertor heat and particle flux profiles are modified by externally imposed non-axisymmetric magnetic perturbations in the National Spherical Torus Experiment. The applied 3-D field causes strike point splitting that is represented as local peaks and valleys in the divertor profiles. The plasma response in an ideal perturbed equilibrium approach was included in the field line tracing by taking account of the B-field generated by the plasma current up to a certain fraction of normalized flux inside the separatrix and being superposed to the vacuum field. The inclusion of this type of plasma response does not significantly affect the location and spacing of the split strike points at the divertor surface. A modest level of divertor profile modification is found to occur even without the application of 3-D fields in certain high triangularity (δ = 0.65-0.8) discharges, with the location of local peaks and valleys same before and after the application. The intrinsic error field from the non-circularity of PF5 coil is known to have primarily n = 3 component in NSTX and was modeled to be included in the vacuum field line tracing. The produced puncture plot of the field line along with the connection length profile shows that the radial location of local peaks agrees well with the measurement, identifying intrinsic error field as a possible source of intrinsic strike point splitting. The radial location of local peaks in the profiles during the triggered ELM by the applied n = 3 field is the same before and after the 3-D field application. This shows that the heat flux from the triggered ELMs appears to follow the imposed n = 3 field structure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S918-S922
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume415
Issue number1 SUPPL
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2011

Funding

This work was funded by the US Department of Energy, Contract Numbers DE-AC05-000R22725, DE-AC52-07NA27344, and DE-AC02-09CH11466.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Characteristics of divertor heat and particle deposition with intrinsic and applied 3-D fields in NSTX H-mode plasmas'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this