On detachment asymmetry and stability

Abstract

Three issues related to the physics of divertor detachment are analyzed in detail: the criteria for the onset of complete divertor detachment, the role of neutrals in “symmetryzation” of detachment in the inner and outer divertors, and the transition to divertor detachment. The results of comprehensive 2D numerical simulations with the SOLPS4.3 package are compared with some experimental data and predictions based on simplified analytical models. It is shown that it is the ratio of the upstream plasma pressure to the specific power flux entering the recycling region that controls the local onset of detachment on a specific flux tube. Pup/qreclycl≥(Pup/qreclycl)crit remains the valid criterion also in the presence of seeded impurity, if the impurity radiation and hydrogen recycling regions are spatially separated. Detailed analysis indicates that the reverse plasma flow forming on the most heat loaded flux tubes in the outer divertor under the influence of the neutrals coming from the deeply detached inner divertor plays the key role in the detachment “symmetryzation” and allows the outer divertor to reach the detached regime. Finally, it is demonstrated that a gradual increase of the perpendicular heat transport in the edge plasma during transition to the detached regime can make this transition bifurcation-like.