Full Orbit Effects Research Articles

Runaway electron transport in stochastic toroidal magnetic fields

In this work, we study the transport and confinement properties of runaway electrons (RE) in the presence of magnetic fields with perturbations producing different levels of stochasticity. We use Kinetic Orbit Runaway Electron Code (KORC) [Carbajal et al., Phys. Plasmas 24, 042512 (2017) and del-Castillo-Negrete et al., Phys. Plasmas 25, 056104 (2018)] for simulating the full-orbit (FO) and guiding-center (GC) dynamics of RE in perturbed magnetic fields that exhibit magnetic islands. We extend previous works on this problem [Wingen et al., Nucl. Fusion 46, 941 (2006); Izzo et al., Nucl. Fusion 51, 063032 (2011); Papp et al., Nucl. Fusion 51, 043004 (2011); V. Izzo and P. Parks, Phys. Plasmas 24, 060705 (2017); and Sommariva et al., Nucl. Fusion 58, 016043 (2018)] by studying in detail full-orbit effects on the RE dynamics. We quantify FO effects on RE transport by performing one-to-one comparisons between FO and GC simulations. It is found that, for the magnetic field configurations considered, GC simulations predict twice the RE losses of FO simulations for 1 MeV and four times the RE losses of FO simulations for 25 MeV. Similarly, we show how different GC and FO dynamics of RE moving around magnetic islands can be, especially in the scenario where the RE Larmor radius is on the order of the size of the magnetic island. We also study the role of rotation of the magnetic islands on RE confinement, and we find that low-frequency toroidal rotation has no observable effect on RE transport in the cases considered. These results shed some light into the potential of avoidance or mitigation mechanisms based on magnetic perturbations.

On the synchrotron emission in kinetic simulations of runaway electrons in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas

Developing avoidance or mitigation strategies of runaway electrons (REs) in magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) plasmas is of crucial importance for the safe operation of ITER. In order to develop these strategies, an accurate diagnostic capability that allows good estimates of the RE distribution function in these plasmas is needed. Synchrotron radiation (SR) of RE in MCF, besides of being one of the main damping mechanisms for RE in the high energy relativistic regime, is routinely used in current MCF experiments to infer the parameters of RE energy and pitch angle distribution functions. In the present paper we address the long standing question about what are the relationships between different REs distribution functions and their corresponding synchrotron emission simultaneously including: full-orbit effects, information of the spectral and angular distribution of SR of each electron, and basic geometric optics of a camera. We study the spatial distribution of the SR on the poloidal plane, and the statistical properties of the expected value of the synchrotron spectra of REs. We observe a strong dependence of the synchrotron emission measured by the camera on the pitch angle distribution of runaways, namely we find that crescent shapes of the spatial distribution of the SR as measured by the camera relate to RE distributions with small pitch angles, while ellipse shapes relate to distributions of runaways with larger the pitch angles. A weak dependence of the synchrotron emission measured by the camera with the RE energy, value of the q-profile at the edge, and the chosen range of wavelengths is observed. Furthermore, we find that oversimplifying the angular dependence of the SR changes the shape of the synchrotron spectra, and overestimates its amplitude by approximately 20 times for avalanching runaways and by approximately 60 times for mono-energetic distributions of runaways.

Space dependent, full orbit effects on runaway electron dynamics in tokamak plasmas

The dynamics of RE (runaway electrons) in fusion plasmas span a wide range of temporal scales, from the fast gyro-motion, ∼10−11 s, to the observational time scales, ∼10−2→1 s. To cope with this scale separation, RE are usually studied within the bounce-average or the guiding center approximations. Although these approximations have yielded valuable insights, a study with predictive capabilities of RE in fusion plasmas calls for the incorporation of full orbit effects in configuration space in the presence of three-dimensional magnetic fields. We present numerical results on this problem using the Kinetic Orbit Runaway electrons Code that follows relativistic electrons in general electric and magnetic fields under the full Lorentz force, collisions, and radiation losses. At relativistic energies, the main energy loss is due to radiation damping, which we incorporate using the Landau-Lifshitz formulation of the Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac force. The main focus is on full orbit effects on synchrotron radiation. It is shown that even in the absence of magnetic field stochasticty, neglecting orbit dynamics can introduce significant errors in the computation of the total radiated power and the synchrotron spectra. The statistics of collisionless (i.e., full orbit induced) pitch angle dispersion, and its key role played on synchrotron radiation, are studied in detail. Numerical results are also presented on the pitch angle dependence of the spatial confinement of RE and on full orbit effects on the competition of electric field acceleration and radiation damping. Finally, full orbit calculations are used to explore the limitations of gyro-averaging in the relativistic regime. To explore the practical impact of the results, DIII-D and ITER-like parameters are used in the simulations.

The effects of resonant magnetic perturbations on fast ion confinement in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak

The effects of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) on the confinement of energetic (neutral beam) ions in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) are assessed experimentally using measurements of neutrons, fusion protons and fast ion Dα (FIDA) light emission. In single null-diverted (SND) MAST pulses with relatively low plasma current (400 kA), the total neutron emission dropped by approximately a factor of two when RMPs with toroidal mode number n = 3 were applied. The measured neutron rate during RMPs was much lower than that calculated using the TRANSP plasma simulation code, even when non-classical (but axisymmetric) ad hoc fast ion transport was taken into account in the latter. Sharp drops in spatially-resolved neutron rates, fusion proton rates and FIDA emission were also observed. First principles-based simulations of RMP-induced fast ion transport in MAST, using the F3D-OFMC code, show similar losses for two alternative representations of the MAST first wall, with and without full orbit effects taken into account; for n = 6 RMPs in a 600 kA plasma, the additional loss of beam power due to the RMPs was found in the simulations to be approximately 11%.

Orbit-following fusion alpha wall load simulation for ITER scenario 4 including full orbit effects

A large population of fusion-born alphas present in ITER scenario 4 is a potential risk to the first wall elements. In this study, the ITER scenario 4 alpha wall loads are estimated using the Monte Carlo orbit-following code ASCOT. To ensure realistic wall load profiles, we have adopted three different methods to record the wall collision points: (i) pure guiding centre tracking, (ii) guiding centre tracking away from the wall and gyro-orbit following close to it and (iii) pure gyro-orbit following. It is found that pure gyro-orbit simulation produces an averaged wall load roughly three times as large as the pure guiding centre wall load while the peak power loads differ roughly by a factor of five.

Ion cyclotron resonance heating with consistent finite orbit widths and anisotropic equilibria

Minority ion cyclotron resonance heating is studied using the self-consistent numerical model SCENIC. This model includes 3D geometries with full shaping and anisotropic pressure effects, warm contributions to the dielectric tensor and full orbit effects. It evolves the equilibrium, wave field and hot particle distribution function iteratively until a self-consistent solution is found. We will show applications to JET-like two-dimensional equilibria with minority heating scenarios. The effects due to different heating locations on the hot particle distribution function, the hot dielectric tensor and the equilibrium will be studied for symmetric wave injection. Finally, the RF-induced particle pinch is investigated using asymmetric wave injection.