Characterization of 3D filament dynamics in a MAST SOL flux tube geometry

Abstract

Non-linear simulations of filament propagation in a realistic MAST SOL flux tube geometry using the BOUT++ fluid modelling framework show an isolation of the dynamics of the filament in the divertor region from the midplane region due to three features of the magnetic geometry; the variation of magnetic curvature along the field line, the expansion of the flux tube and strong magnetic shear. Of the three effects, the latter two lead to a midplane ballooning feature of the filament, whilst the former leads to a ballooning around the X-points. In simulations containing all three effects the filament is observed to balloon at the midplane, suggesting that the role of curvature variation is sub-dominant to the flux expansion and magnetic shear. The magnitudes of these effects are all strongest near the X-point which leads to the formation of parallel density gradients. The filaments simulated, which represent filaments in MAST, are identified as resistive ballooning, meaning that their motion is inertially limited, not sheath limited. Parallel density gradients can drive the filament towards a Boltzmann response when the collisionalityof the plasma is low. The results here show that the formation of parallel density gradients is a natural and inevitable consequence of a realistic magnetic geometry and therefore the transition to the Boltzmann response is a consequence of the use of realistic magnetic geometry and does not require initializing specifically varying background profiles as in slab simulations. The filaments studied here are stable to the linear resistive drift-wave instability but are subject to the non-linear effects associated with the Boltzmann response, particularly Boltzmann spinning. The Boltzmann response causes the filament to spin on an axis. In later stages of its evolution a non-linear turbulent state develops where the vorticity evolves into a turbulent eddy field on the same length scale as the parallel current. The transition from interchange motion to the Boltzmann response occurs with increasing temperature through a decrease in collisionality. This is confirmed by measuring the correlation between density and potential perturbations within the filament, which is low in the antisymmetric state associated with the interchange mechanism, but high in the Boltzmann regime. In the Boltzmann regime net radial transport is drastically reduced whilst a small net toroidal transport is observed. This suggests that only a subset of filaments, those driven by the interchange mechanism at the separatrix, can propagate into the far SOL. Filaments in the Boltzmann regime will be confined to the near separatrix region and quickly disperse. It is plausible that filaments in both regimes can contribute to the SOL transport observed in experiment; the former by propagating the filament into the far SOL and the latter by dispersion of the density within the filament.