Neutral gas modelling Ben Dudson 1 1 York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK BOUT++ Workshop 16 th September 2014 Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (1 of 13)
Outline Neutral gas and plasma turbulence Neutral gas physics: Cross-sections and mean free paths Typical length-scales Approaches used in BOUT++ Discussion Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (2 of 13)
Neutrals and plasma turbulence (1/2) 2D transport codes include molecular and atomic physics Essential for e.g. divertor physics, detachment 3D turbulence codes have typically assumed fully ionised, single ion species plasma Strong motivations for including neutral gas physics in 3D code: 1 Effect of neutrals on turbulence Sources and sinks of density and momentum Damping from ion-neutral interactions Electron-neutral interaction may have more complex effect on drift-wave stability Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (3 of 13)
Neutrals and plasma turbulence (2/2) 2 Effect of turbulence on neutrals Ion-neutral cross-sections are strongly nonlinear: n σv n σv Neutral gas profiles affected by fluctuations 2D ITER simulations with and without synthetic fluctuations 1 Caused by hardening of CX neutral spectrum 1 S.Mekkaoui Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (4 of 13)
Neutral gas processes Several processes involved: Charge Exchange (CX) H + H + H + + H Ionisation (electron impact) H + e 2e + H + Also produces radiation through excitation Recombination has several pathways: Radiative recombination: e + H + H + hν Three-body recombination: e + e + H + e + H Negative-ion mediated recombination (MAR): e + H 2 H 2 H + H H + + H H + H Ion-conversion mediated recombination (MAR): H + + H 2 H + H 2 + e + H 2 + H + H 1 EIRENE: http://www.eirene.de/ 2 KN1D: http://www.psfc.mit.edu/ labombard/kn1d Source Info.html Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (5 of 13)
Interaction cross-sections 10-13 10-14 Analytic forms used for ionisation, recombination, and charge exchange cross sections 2 Rate <σv > [m 3 s 1 ] 10-15 10-16 10-17 10-18 10-19 10-20 Ionisation Recombination (n = 10 18 m 3 ) Recombination (n = 10 20 m 3 ) Recombination (n = 10 22 m 3 ) Charge exchange 10-21 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Electron temperature [ev] 1 Thanks to Eva Havlickova, CCFE Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (6 of 13)
Interaction mean free paths 10 20 Charge exchange mean free path Mean free paths shown for a 300K (0.025eV) neutral gas atom using a crude analytical model for cross-sections Often a 3.5 ev Frank-Condon energy is assumed instead Charge exchange results in a population of fast neutrals, which can have much longer m.f.p. Electron density [m 3 ] Electron density [m 3 ] 10 19 10 18 10 17 1mm 1cm 10cm 1m 10 16 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 Temperature [ev] 10 20 10 19 10 18 10 17 10m Ionisation mean free path 10cm 1cm 1mm 1m 10 16 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 Temperature [ev] Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (7 of 13)
BOUT++ neutral models Three approaches being followed to neutral modelling 1 Simple drag model for CX in LAPD 1 2 Fluid modelling 2 Valid for short mean-free-path interactions Conputationally lower cost than Montecarlo methods 3 Montecarlo modelling Can be applied when m.f.p is long Much more expensive computationally, but parallelises very well Coupling to EIRENE Currently testing in linear geometry 3 1 P.Popovich, M.V.Umansky, T.A.Carter and B.Friedman arxiv:1005.2418 (2010) 2 Z.H.Wang, X.Q.Xu, T.Y.Xia, T.D.Rognlien Nucl. Fusion 2013 3 S.Mekkaoui et al. PSI conference 2014 Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (8 of 13)
Simple model Sensitivity of turbulence to neutral gas studied in LAPD simulations 1 Treat charge-exchange as a sink of vorticity with ion-neutral collision rate ν in 10 3 Ω ci t ω =... ν in ω 1 P.Popovich, M.V.Umansky, T.A.Carter and B.Friedman arxiv:1005.2418 (2010) Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (9 of 13)
Fluid neutral model Fluid model developed 1 which takes into account dissociation and ionisation: H 2 2H 0 2H + + 2e and charge-e Currently models neutrals along a 1D beam (SMBI). Provides a source of density for fuelling 1 Z.H.Wang, X.Q.Xu, T.Y.Xia, T.D.Rognlien Nucl. Fusion 2013 Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (10 of 13)
Ongoing work with neutral fluid models 1D modelling of detachment fronts At high density (low divertor temperature), volume recombination can detach plasma from the target plates Ionisation-recombination front can move upstream Stability and control of this front is essential Time t = 2.505800e-03 s 20 15 10 5 0 5 Plasma density Neutral density 10 Plasma temperature Plasma sink 15 0 5 10 15 20 25 Length [m] Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (11 of 13)
Ongoing work with neutral fluid models 1D modelling of detachment fronts At high density (low divertor temperature), volume recombination can detach plasma from the target plates Ionisation-recombination front can move upstream Stability and control of this front is essential 2D modelling of plasma turbulence - neutral gas interactions Diffusive model for neutral gas So far low power cases small variation in density Plasma temperature [ev] 0 50 100 150 200 250 0 50 100 150 200 250 Neutral temperature [ev] 0 50 100 150 200 28 24 20 16 12 8 4 3.2 2.8 2.4 2.0 1.6 1.2 0.8 0.4 0 50 100 150 200 250 Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (11 of 13) 250
BOUT++ / EIRENE coupling Work ongoing to couple BOUT++ to EIRENE Starting in linear geometry (LAPD, PSI-2, Magnum-PSI) Technical coupling completed. Both codes run in parallel (MPI), passing data in memory Initial turbulence simulations beginning Some issues related to initialisation transients Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (12 of 13)
Summary Simple models used in BOUT++ to study broad trends Fluid models can be run for long times relatively cheaply A kinetic treatment is probably needed Need to capture changes in neutral energy spectrum Mean-free-paths can be comparable to turbulent scales Ongoing work with BOUT++ and EIRENE 3 3 S.Mekkaoui, EFDA fellowship 2014. Poster at PSI 2014 Ben Dudson, University of York BOUT++ Workshop 2014 (13 of 13)