1. Kinetic modeling of neutral transport for a continuum gyrokinetic code
- Author
-
Bernard, T. N., Halpern, F. D., Francisquez, M., Mandell, N. R., Juno, J., Hammett, G. W., Hakim, A., Wilkie, G., and Guterl, J.
- Subjects
Physics - Plasma Physics - Abstract
We present the first-of-its-kind coupling of a continuum full-f gyrokinetic turbulence model with a 6D continuum model for kinetic neutrals, carried out using the Gkeyll code. Our objective is to improve the first-principles understanding of the role of neutrals in plasma fueling, detachment, and their interaction with edge plasma profiles and turbulence statistics. Our model includes only atomic hydrogen and incorporates electron-impact ionization, charge exchange, and wall recycling. These features have been successfully verified with analytical predictions and benchmarked with the DEGAS2 Monte Carlo neutral code. We carry out simulations for a scrape-off layer (SOL) with simplified geometry and NSTX parameters. We compare these results to a baseline simulation without neutrals and find that neutral interactions reduce the normalized density fluctuation levels and associated skewness and kurtosis, while increasing auto-correlation times. A flatter density profile is also observed, similar to the SOL density shoulder formation in experimental scenarios with high fueling.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF