Density limit study focusing on the edge plasma parameters in LHD

Abstract

In the Large Helical Device (LHD) experiment, complete detachment takes place when the plasma column shrinks inside the last-closed-flux-surface (LCFS). The density at the LCFS that results in this shrinking corresponds to the maximum LCFS density achievable under the attached condition. The critical LCFS density increases with the square root of the heating power, as is predicted by the conventional density limit scaling for helical plasmas, called the Sudo scaling. High line-averaged electron densities reaching 3 × 1020 m−3, which correspond to ∼3 times as high as the Sudo scaling, have been achieved in the plasmas with strongly peaked density profiles generated by hydrogen ice pellet injection. Even in the pellet-fuelled plasmas, however, the LCFS densities are similar to those in gas-fuelled plasmas with flat density profiles and well reproduced by Sudo scaling with a factor 0.8. According to these observations, Sudo scaling has been reinterpreted as the ‘edge’ density limit scaling. The square root type power dependence in the Sudo scaling has been reconsidered. Instead of a simple power balance between the heating power and the radiation loss, it is deduced by combining the critical LCFS temperature for complete detachment and the electron temperature dependence on the heating power and the electron density. Higher edge density than in the attached plasmas can be sustained in the completely detached plasmas, where the plasma edge shrinks inside the LCFS. The edge density limit scaling is extended for completely detached plasmas by taking into account the shrinking plasma edge.