Derivation of the friction and thermal force for SOLPS-ITER multicomponent plasma modeling

Abstract

SOLPS-ITER is a code package for tokamak plasma boundary modeling comprising the B2.5 plasma fluid code and the EIRENE neutral kinetic code. The form of the momentum balance equation, used in the SOLPS-ITER code before version 3.0.6 (and in all previous versions of SOLPS codes), was simplified due to numerical reasons—the electric field term was replaced by the electron gradient pressure term; friction and thermal force terms were derived using the trace impurity assumption. It has now been decided to switch back to the general Braginskii version of this equation. Derivation of the new form of the parallel friction and thermal force terms has been required to allow the use of the general form of the equation and allow more accurate modeling of multicomponent plasmas. The new form is based on the theoretical description of multicomponent plasma derived by V. M. Zhdanov [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 44(10), 2283 (2002)]. In the present paper, a detailed derivation of these terms is presented, and their implementation into the SOLPS-ITER code package is discussed.