Assessment of carbon net erosion/deposition at the divertor of W7-X

Abstract

• The net carbon erosion rate at the W7-X divertor is calculated using an analytical erosion model. • Experimentally determined plasma parameters from several discharges and experimental surface roughnesses were used for the calculations. • According to the calculations, during the operational phase OP 1.2a carbon erosion at the strike line was dominated by chemical erosion by oxygen. • Boronizations decreased the oxygen impurity concentration in operational phase OP 1.2b by 1-2 orders of magnitude. This resulted in a decrease of the carbon erosion rate by a factor of about five according to the calculations and in good agreement with experimental values. The net carbon erosion rate at the divertor strike line of W7-X was determined experimentally during the operational phases OP 1.2a and OP 1.2b [M. Mayer et al. Phys. Scr. T171 (2020) 014035; M. Mayer et al., Nuclear Fusion 62 (2022) 126049]. OP 1.2a was characterized by high concentrations of oxygen and a very high net carbon erosion rate. The oxygen concentration decreased by 1-2 orders of magnitude in OP 1.2b due to boronizations, and the experimentally observed erosion rate decreased by a factor of 5-6. The carbon erosion rate at the W7-X divertor is calculated using an analytical erosion model taking physical and chemical erosion by hydrogen, carbon and oxygen impact into account. Experimentally determined plasma parameters from several discharges and experimental surface roughnesses were used for the simulations. The calculated erosion rates for the selected discharges are in reasonable agreement with the experimental values. According to the calculations, during OP 1.2a carbon erosion at the strike line was dominated by chemical erosion by oxygen. The decrease of the oxygen impurity concentration in OP 1.2b decreased the carbon erosion rate by a factor of about five, which is in good agreement with the experimental values. During OP 1.2b carbon erosion was dominated by sputtering by incident hydrogen and carbon ions. The surface morphology has a profound influence on the net carbon erosion rate and develops during a campaign by erosion/deposition phenomena. Plasma-exposed surfaces get smoother with plasma exposure time, which can result in an increase of the erosion yield.