Fidelity of reduced and realistic electron mass ratio multi-scale gyrokinetic simulations of tokamak discharges

Abstract

The first study using multi-scale (coupled ITG/TEM/ETG) gyrokinetic simulations at both reduced and realistic electron mass ratios, μ = (mD/me).5 = 20.0, 40.0 and 60.0, has been performed on a standard, Alcator C-Mod, L-mode discharge. Ion-scale (kθρs ∼ 1.0) and multi-scale (up to kθρe ∼ 0.8) gyrokinetic simulations are compared at different simulated mass ratios to investigate the fidelity of reduced electron mass ratio, multi-scale simulation through direct comparison with realistic mass ratio, multi-scale simulation. Detailed description of both the numerical setup and the turbulent scales required to obtain meaningful coupled ITG/TEM/ETG simulation is presented. Significant high-k driven (TEM/ETG) heat flux is found to exist at scales of approximately kθρe ∼ 0.1 at all mass ratios but can only be obtained by simulation capturing turbulence up to kθρe ∼ 1.0. At slightly reduced mass ratio, μ = 40.0, qualitative agreement with realistic mass simulation can be obtained in the studied discharge, consistent with intuition obtained from linear stability analysis. However, realistic electron mass is required for any robust quantitative comparison with experimental heat fluxes for the condition studied, as significant differences are observed at even slightly reduced electron mass ratio. The details of this numerical study are presented to provide a basis for future studies utilizing coupled ITG/TEM/ETG gyrokinetic simulation.