Impact of nonlinear 3D equilibrium response on edge topology and divertor heat load in Wendelstein 7-X

Abstract

The impact of the 3D equilibrium response on the plasma edge topology is studied. In Wendelstein 7-X, the island divertor concept is used to assess scenarios for quasi-steady-state operation. However, the boundary islands necessary for the island divertor are strongly susceptible to plasma beta and toroidal current density effects because of the low magnetic shear. The edge magnetic topology for quasi-steady-state operation scenarios is calculated with the HINT-code to study the accompanying changes of the magnetic field structures. Two magnetic configurations have been selected, which had been investigated in self consistent neoclassical transport simulations for low bootstrap current but which use the alternative natural island chains to the standard iota value of 1 (ιb = 5/5, periodicity), namely, at high-iota (ιb = 5/4) and at low-iota (ιb = 5/6). For the high-iota configuration, the boundary islands are robust but the stochasticity around them is enhanced with beta. The addition of toroidal current densities enhances the stochasticity further. The increased stochasticity changes the footprints on in-vessel components with a direct impact on the corresponding heat loads. In the low-iota configuration the boundary islands used for the island divertor are dislocated radially due to the low shear and even show healing effects, i.e. the island width vanishes. In the latter case the plasma changes from divertor to limiter operation. To realize the predicted high-performance quasi-steady-state operation of the transport simulations, further adjustments of the magnetic configuration may be necessary to achieve a proper divertor compatibility of the scenarios.