Impurity Dynamics in Stellarator Plasmas

Yu.Igitkhanov, E.Polunovsky1), C.D.Beidler, K.Yamazaki2)

Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Teilinstitut Greifswald IPP-EURA TOM Association, D-17489, Greifswald, Germany
(1)ITER Central Team, Garshing – Germany,
(2)National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki Gifu 509-5292, Japan

In this paper the impurity behaviour in stellarator plasmas is analysed. For this reason a new stellarator transport code for impurity ions of arbitrary species is developed. The code solves the continuity equations for each ionisation stage of the impurity ions in 1-D geometry for given background plasma profiles and configuration. An analytic description of the neoclassical transport coefficients for impurity ions, based on numerical results from the DKES code and monoenergetic Monte-Carlo calculation is used (C.D. Beidler at al., EPS 1994). The radial impurity flux consists of the diffusive part, proportional to the density gradient and the convective part, which includes the radial electric field and the temperature gradient terms. The impurity temperature is assumed equal to the background ion temperature. For known density and temperature profiles, the radial electric field is determined from the ambipolarity condition. The impurity ions can be in arbitrary neoclassical collisionality regimes, depending on the magnetic configuration, density and temperature profiles of the background plasmas. The impurity source is initially at the plasma edge, where the recycling and the impurity sink at the wall are foreseen. The code can be amended to include anomalous coefficients for impurity ions. The transition between the different charge states is described by the ionisation and recombination balance, using atomic physics data sets from the ADAC database. The helical LHD and the W7-AS type magnetic configurations were considered. Some typical discharges from LHD and discharges from W7-AS with moderate and improved energy confinement have been chosen. The time and space evolution of some light impurity ions have been calculated. It is shown that the stationary impurity distribution, driven by the neo-classical forces is close to the corona distribution, since the neo-classical diffusive time is much higher than the ionisation and recombination time. In the next approximation the spatial distribution is a result of competition between the radial electric field and the thermal force, (which construct a convective flux) and the diffusive term, which flattens the radial impurity distribution. The impurity localisation is determined at the radial position, where the convective flux goes through zero. It is also shown that for typical stellarator discharges there is no temperature screening effect like in the tokamak plasmas.