Effect of toroidal rotation on impurity transport in tokamak improved confinement

Abstract

The centrifugal force effects from toroidal rotation in improved confinement plasmas are analyzed on high-Z impurities in tokamaks. Tungsten (W) transport simulations are performed using the impurity transport code developed in the integrated code TASK. The geometric factors PA and PB are introduced into the neoclassical transport coefficients to include the effects of the toroidal rotation, which come from poloidal asymmetry in the high-Z impurity profiles. Inward neoclassical particle pinch driven by the main ion density gradient is enhanced by the poloidal asymmetry to be the dominant mechanism for W accumulation in the plasma central region. Simulations with experimental plasma profiles show good agreement with the experimental results and first-principle simulation results in the H-mode. In the hybrid mode and advanced mode, the impurity accumulation is enhanced in the internal transport barrier (ITB) regions. The condition to suppress impurity accumulation is investigated by calculating dependencies on the toroidal rotation velocity and ITB position. The neoclassical transport is sufficiently small with the prospected ITER condition of the Mach number of main ions Mi ∼ 0.1. The impurity transport inside the ITB is strongly influenced by competition between the density peaking effect and the temperature screening effect, and the present simulations show suppression of the impurity accumulation with the outer ITB position to improve the plasma performance, due to the relatively larger temperature gradient of the main ion.