P. U. Lamalle and D. van Eester
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas - Laboratorium voor
Plasmafysica,
EURATOM - Belgian State Association, Trilateral Euregio
Cluster,
Ecole Royale Militaire - Koninklijke Militaire School, B-1000
Brussels, Belgium
Abstract
Models of the radiofrequency (rf) response and of the rf
quasilinear diffusion operator of tokamak plasmas have been derived with
identical approximations; they are under implementation in a full-wave code
and a bounce-averaged quasilinear Fokker-Planck (QLFP) code, respectively.
Combined iterative use of the codes will allow self-consistent simulations
of ICRH in general tokamak geometry, with due account taken of the mutual
influence between the distribution function of the heated species, which is
strongly nonmaxwellian under intense ICRH, and the rf wave pattern. This
first application focuses on the fundamental cyclotron interaction (i.e.
typically on minority heating scenarios), transport across magnetic surfaces
and finite Larmor radius effects currently being neglected. Theory and its
numerical implementation are based on weak Galerkin formulations of
Maxwell's equations and of the QLFP equation. Two particularly attractive
benefits result from this approach: i) the power depositions associated with
each equation are automatically consistent with each other; ii) elementary
building blocks common to the rf response and the QL operator are evaluated
only once, yielding drastic computer time savings.
IAEA 1999