Modelling of mitigation of the power divertor loading for the EU DEMO through Ar injection

Fabio Subba, Leena Aho-Mantila, David Coster, Giorgio Maddaluno, Giuseppe F. Nallo, Bernard Sieglin, Ronald Wenninger, Roberto Zanino

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this paper we present a computational study on the divertor heat load mitigation through impurity injection for the EU DEMO. The study is performed by means of the SOLPS5.1 code. The power crossing the separatrix is considered fixed and corresponding to H-mode operation, whereas the machine operating condition is defined by the outboard mid-plane upstream electron density and the impurity level. The selected impurity for this study is Ar, based on its high radiation efficiency at SOL characteristic temperatures. We consider a conventional vertical target geometry for the EU DEMO and monitor target conditions for different operational points, considering as acceptability criteria the target electron temperature (≤5 eV to provide sufficiently low W sputtering rate) and the peak heat flux (below 5-10 MW m-2 to guarantee safe steady-state cooling conditions). Our simulations suggest that, neglecting the radiated power deposition on the plate, it is possible to satisfy the desired constraints. However, this requires an upstream density of the order of at least 50% of the Greenwald limit and a sufficiently high argon fraction. Furthermore, if the radiated power deposition is taken into account, the peak heat flux on the outer plate could not be reduced below 15 MW m-2 in these simulations. As these simulations do not take into account neutron loading, they strongly indicate that the vertical target divertor solution with a radiative front distributed along the divertor leg has a very marginal operational space in an EU DEMO sized reactor.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number035013
    JournalPlasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
    Volume60
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 5 Feb 2018
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under grant agreement No. 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

    Keywords

    • demo
    • divertor protection
    • modelling
    • radiative scenarios
    • SOLPS
    • tokamak

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