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Abstract:

The transition from strong (fluidlike) to nearly marginal (Floquet-type) regimes of ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) driven turbulence is studied in the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X by means of numerical simulations. Close to marginality, extended (along magnetic field lines) linearly unstable modes are dominant, even in the presence of kinetic electrons, and provide a drive that results in finite turbulent transport. A total suppression of turbulence above the linear stability threshold of the ITG modes, commonly present in tokamaks and known as the “Dimits shift,” is not observed. We show that this is mostly due to the peculiar radial structure of marginal turbulence, which is more localized than in the fluid case and therefore less likely to be stabilized by shearing flows.

Abstract:

A novel approach to global gyrokinetic simulation is implemented in the flux-tube code stella. This is done by using a subsidiary expansion of the gyrokinetic equation in the perpendicular scale length of the turbulence, originally derived by Parra and Barnes [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion, 57 054003, 2015], which allows the use of Fourier basis functions while enabling the effect of radial profile variation to be included in a perturbative way. Radial variation of the magnetic geometry is included by utilizing a global extension of the Grad-Shafranov equation and the Miller equilibrium equations which is obtained through Taylor expansion. Radial boundary conditions that employ multiple flux-tube simulations are also developed, serving as a more physically motivated replacement to the conventional Dirichlet radial boundary conditions that are used in global simulation. It is shown that these new boundary conditions eliminate much of the numerical artefacts generated near the radial boundary when expressing a non-periodic function using a spectral basis. We then benchmark the new approach both linearly and non-linearly using a number of standard test cases.

Abstract:

The first experimental campaigns have proven that, due to the optimization of the magnetic configuration with respect to neoclassical transport, the contribution of turbulence is essential to understand and predict the total particle and energy transport in Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X). This has spurred much work on gyrokinetic modelling for the interpretation of the available experimental results and for the preparation of the next campaigns. At the same time, new stellarator gyrokinetic codes have just been or are being developed. It is therefore desirable to have a sufficiently complete, documented and verified set of gyrokinetic simulations in W7-X geometry against which new codes or upgrades of existing codes can be tested and benchmarked. This paper attempts to provide such a set of simulations in the form of a comprehensive benchmark between the recently developed code stella and the well-established code GENE. The benchmark consists of electrostatic gyrokinetic simulations in the W7-X magnetic geometry and includes different flux tubes, linear ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) and trapped-electron-mode stability analyses, computation of linear zonal-flow responses and calculation of ITG-driven heat fluxes.

Abstract:

The heating power to access the high confinement mode (H-mode), PLH, scales approximately inversely with the isotope mass of the main ion plasma species as found in (protonic) hydrogen, deuterium and tritium plasmas in many fusion facilities over the last decades. In first dedicated L–H transition experiments at the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak facility with the ITER-like wall (ILW), the power threshold, PLH, was studied systematically in plasmas of pure tritium and hydrogen–tritium mixtures at a magnetic field of 1.8 T and a plasma current of 1.7 MA in order to assess whether this scaling still holds in a metallic wall device. The measured power thresholds, PLH, in Ohmically heated tritium plasmas agree well with the expected isotope scaling for metallic walls and the lowest power threshold was found in Ohmic phases at low density. The measured power thresholds in ion cyclotron heated plasmas of pure tritium or hydrogen–tritium mixtures are significantly higher than the expected isotope mass scaling due to higher radiation levels. However, when the radiated power is taken into account, the ion cyclotron heated plasmas exhibit similar power thresholds as a neutral beam heated plasma, and are close to the scaling. The tritium plasmas in this study tended to higher electron heating fractions and, when heated with ion cyclotron waves, to relatively higher radiation fractions compared to other isotopes potentially impeding access to sustained H-modes.The authors thank P.A. Schneider, F. Ryter, A. Nielsen, and A. Kappatou for fruitful discussions and for help with data analysis tools. 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 and 2019–2020 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. G. Birkenmeier received funding from the Helmholtz Association under Grant No. VH-NG-1350.Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 27 autors/es: G. Birkenmeier, E.R. Solano, E. Lerche, D. Taylor, D. Gallart, M.J. Mantsinen, E. Delabie, I.S. Carvalho, P. Carvalho, E. Pawelec, J.C. Hillesheim, F. Parra Diaz, C. Silva, S. Aleiferis, J. Bernardo, A. Boboc, D. Douai, E. Litherland-Smith, R. Henriques, K.K. Kirov, C.F. Maggi, J. Mailloux, M. Maslov, F.G. Rimini, S.A. Silburn, P. Sirén, H. Weisen and JET Contributors"Postprint (published version