Gyrokinetic simulations of turbulent transport in tokamak plasmas
Doctoral thesis, 2014

With the enormous growth of high performance computing (HPC) over the last few decades, plasma physicists have gained access to a valuable instrument for investigating turbulent plasma behaviour. In this thesis, these tools are utilised for the study of particle transport in fusion devices of the tokamak variety. The transport properties of impurities is a major part of the work. This is of high relevance for the performance and optimisation of magnetic fusion devices. For instance, the possible accumulation of He ash in the core of the reactor plasma will serve to dilute the fuel, thus lowering fusion power. Heavier impurity species, originating from the plasma-facing surfaces, may also accumulate in the core, and wall-impurities of relatively low density may lead to unacceptable energy losses in the form of radiation. In an operational power plant, such as the ITER device, both impurities of low and high charge numbers will be present. This thesis studies turbulent particle transport driven by two different modes of drift wave turbulence: the trapped electron (TE) and ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes. Results for ITG mode driven impurity transport are also compared with experimental results from the Joint European Torus. Principal focus is on the balance of convective and diffusive transport, as quantified by the stationary density gradient of zero flux (“peaking factor”, PF). Quasi- and nonlinear results are obtained using the gyrokinetic code GENE, and compared with results from a computationally efficient multi-fluid model. The results are scalings of PF with the driving background gradients of temperature and density, and other parameters, including plasma shape and sheared toroidal rotation.

fusion

TEM

ITG

tokamaks

e-science

Joint European Torus

turbulence

gyrokinetics

plasma physics

impurity transport

EF
Opponent: Dr. Clarisse Bourdelle

Author

Andreas Skyman

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy

Particle transport in density gradient driven TE mode turbulence

Nuclear Fusion,;Vol. 52(2012)p. 114015-

Journal article

Fluid and gyrokinetic simulations of impurity transport at JET

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion,;Vol. 53(2011)p. 105005-

Journal article

Impurity transport in temperature gradient driven turbulence

Physics of Plasmas,;Vol. 19(2012)p. 032313-

Journal article

Effects of the equilibrium model on impurity transport in tokamaks

Nuclear Fusion,;Vol. 54(2014)p. 013009-

Journal article

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified

Other Physics Topics

Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics

Areas of Advance

Energy

Roots

Basic sciences

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

ISBN

978-91-7385-961-5

Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie

EF

Opponent: Dr. Clarisse Bourdelle

More information

Created

10/6/2017