Full f gyrokinetic simulation of plasma edge

Abstract

Understanding the plasma turbulence is of major importance for success of ITER, which is in turn the most important step in the development of fusion en ergy. ELMFIRE is a gyrokinetic plasma simulation code developed to study the dynamics of turbulence and its influence on plasma global behaviour. ELMFIRE c an be used, and has already been used, to understand the physics underlying the formation and development of plasma turbulence and its undesirable effects on plasma confinement.
Of particular importance in the study of plasma confinement is the transition between L and H states, referring to Low and High c onfinement states. Understanding the way to induce an L-H transition in a plasma would lead to an immediate increase of plasma confinement applicable to di fferent plasma devices. The DECI resources obtained for this year have supported simulations where agreement of the simulated plasma poloidal rotation and contemporary synthetic diagnostics with the experimentally measured Doppler reflectometric signal was observed. Further understanding of pedestal transport and its control has been acquired. The diagnostics of turbulent structures has been improved by correlation studies. These calculations have been so far p romising and are now proposed to be continued with more memory-efficient code version (extending the calculations into the SOL region) for longer (and heav ier) simulations to collisional time scale.