Comparison of free-streaming ELM formulae to a Vlasov simulation

D. Moulton (1) , W. Fundamenski (2) , Giovanni Manfredi (3) , Sever Adrian Hirstoaga (4, 5) , David Tskhakaya (6)

1 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique
2 Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
3 IPCMS - Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg
4 CALVI - Scientific computation and visualization
5 IRMA - Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée
6 Association EURATOM-ÖAW

The main drawbacks of the original free-streaming equations for edge localised mode transport in the scrape-off layer [W. Fundamenski, R.A. Pitts, Plasma Phys. Control Fusion 48 (2006) 109] are that the plasma potential is not accounted for and that only solutions for ion quantities are considered. In this work, the equations are modified and augmented in order to address these two issues. The new equations are benchmarked against (and justified by) a numerical simulation which solves the Vlasov equation in 1d1v. When the source function due to an edge localised mode is instantaneous, the modified free-streaming 'impulse response' equations agree closely with the Vlasov simulation results. When the source has a finite duration in time, the agreement worsens. However, in all cases the match is encouragingly good, thus justifying the applicability of the free-streaming approach.

Domains: Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]; Analysis of PDEs [math.AP]

D. Moulton, W. Fundamenski, Giovanni Manfredi, Sever Adrian Hirstoaga, David Tskhakaya. Comparison of free-streaming ELM formulae to a Vlasov simulation. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2013, Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Plasma-Surface Interactions in Controlled Fusion Devices, 438, Supplement, pp.S633-S637. ⟨10.1016/j.jnucmat.2013.01.133⟩. ⟨hal-00918414⟩