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Thesis
Home   /   Thesis   /   Turbulence in the edge plasma of tokamaks in regimes of stiff reactive coupling with neutrals

Turbulence in the edge plasma of tokamaks in regimes of stiff reactive coupling with neutrals

Corpuscular physics and outer space Plasma physics and laser-matter interactions

Abstract

The strategy to manage the extreme heat fluxes to the wall of magnetic fusion reactors relies on the dissipation of the plasma’s energy through interaction with neutral gas present in the edge of the plasma mainly due to the recombination of the plasma in contact with solid materials. The physics at play consists in a balance between plasma transport, dominated by turbulence, and atomic and molecular reactions. The modelling of this extremely non-linear phenomenology is mandatory for the design and operational space definition of future devices like ITER. It requires the use of numerical codes treating self-consistently the related mechanisms, which has not been done to date. IRFM and AMU have co-developed such numerical tool, the SOLEDGE3X-EIRENE code package, which offers the capability to model self-consistently turbulent transport and neutral particles dynamics in 3D realistic geometry. First studies demonstrated that the inclusion of plasma-neutrals interactions in simulations significantly change the self-organization of turbulence and the resulting transport. They also highlighted several specific challenges related to the appearance of long time scales in the system. This PhD project aims at pursuing this work to extend it to regimes of tight coupling between the plasma and neutrals, which are the regimes of interest for future reactors. The work will rely on numerical simulations to be run on world-class High Performance Computers. Their outputs will be analyzed in order to understand the underlying phenomenology and compare it with experimental trends. Depending on the taste and capabilities of the successful candidate, it could also include a numerical (improvement of the code) or an experimental (dedicated experiments on the WEST tokamak or European partner devices) arm.

Laboratory

Institut de recherche sur la fusion par confinement magnétique
Service de Physique des Plasmas de Fusion
Groupe Mesures Physiques Plasma
Aix-Marseille Université
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