Speaker
Matthias Hoelzl
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/I5.J601.pdf
Simulating tokamak edge instabilities: advances and challenges
M. Hoelzl1, G.T.A. Huijsmans2,3, F. Orain1, F.J. Artola4, S. Pamela5, F. Liu2,6, D. van Vugt3,
S. Futatani7, M. Becoulet2, A. Cathey1, K. Lackner1, S. Günter1, MST1 Team*, ASDEX
Upgrade Team1
1
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, Germany 2CEA, IRFM, 13108 Saint-
Paul-Lez-Durance, France 3Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The
Netherlands 4Aix-Marseille University, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France 5CCFE,
Culham Science Centre, UK 6Université Côte dAzur, 06108 Nice Cedex 02, France
7
Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain *H. Meyer et al, Nucl. Fusion
57,102014 (2017)
Large scale magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities are of common interest in
astrophysical, space and fusion plasmas. In all these research fields, the progress in non-
linear MHD simulations has significantly increased the understanding of the observed
phenomena. This talk is devoted to the recent progress in non-linear MHD simulation for
tokamak plasmas. After giving an overview of the most important instabilities in tokamak
plasmas and introducing the JOREK non-linear MHD code used for our studies, we focus
on so-called edge localized modes (ELMs). Such instabilities lead to a periodic expulsion
of energy and particles from the plasma. Uncontrolled ELMs are expected to considerably
deteriorate the life-time of divertor components in ITER.
It is shown how simulations contribute in the effort of pushing forward the fundamental
understanding of ELM physics. Based on recent experimental and simulation advances, the
most important aspects of ELM physics are reviewed. This includes precursor modes,
filament formation, field stochastization, impurity transport, and heat loads onto machine
structures. An overview is also given of ELM control including natural ELM free regimes,
and techniques for ELM pacing, mitigation and suppression.
It will be shown that quantitative agreement of simulations is achieved with many key
experimental observations for ELMs and ELM control. Simulations allow to perform
complementary investigations to the experimental approaches, and are successively
developing the predictive capabilities to establish robust operational scenarios for future
fusion devices. Open challenges will also be addressed.
