Turbulent impurity transport modeling for Alcator C-Mod

Abstract

AbstractTurbulent particle transport is investigated with a quasilinear theory that is motivated by the boron impurity transport experiments in the Alcator C-Mod. Eigenvalue problems for sets of reduced fluid equations for multi-component plasmas are solved for the self-consistent fluctuating field vectors composed of the electric potential φ, the main ion density δni, the impurity density δnz and the ion temperature fluctuation δTi. For Alcator C-Mod parameters, we investigate two drift wave models: (1) the density-gradient-driven impurity drift wave and (2) the ion-temperature-gradient-driven ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode. Analytic and numerical results for particle transport coefficients are derived and compared with the transport data and the neoclassical theory. We explore the ability of the model to explain impurity density profiles in three confinement regimes: H-mode, I-mode and internal transport barrier (ITB) regime in C-Mod. Related experiments reported on the Large Helical Device are briefly discussed.