Physics models and user's guide for the neutral beam module of the SUPERCODE

Abstract

This report contains a description of the neutral beam heating and current drive module Beams, that was developed at Georgia Tech for the SUPERCODE, the new systems and operations code for the ITER EDA. The NB module calculates profiles of the neutral beam deposition, fast ion pressure, beam heating power, and neutral beam driven current density. It also computes global parameters such as current drive efficiencies, beam shinethrough, fast beam ion beta, and the fusion power and neutron production due to beam-plasma interactions. The most important consideration during the development of this module was to make it compute normally fast without compromising physical accuracy. We believe that through careful selection of physical models and optimized coding, these conflicting requirements have been largely met. As a result, the SUPERCODE has now the ability to perform self-consistent calculations involving NB heating and current drive. This capability is very important for the study of sub-ignited, hybrid, or steady-state ITER and post-TFIR reactor operating scenarios. It is also the first time that a systems code has had such capabilities, usually found only in 1-1/2D plasma transport codes.