The modeling of a Tokamak plasma discharge, from first principles to a flight simulator

Abstract

Abstract A newly developed tool to simulate a tokamak full--discharge is presented. The tokamak "flight--simulator" Fenix couples the tokamak control system with a fast and reduced plasma model, yet realistic enough to take into account several of the plasma non--linearities. Distinguishing feature of this modeling tool is that it only requires the Pulse Schedule (PS) as input to the simulator. The output is a virtual realization of the full discharge, which time traces can then be used to judge if the PS satisfies control/physics goals or needs to be revised. This tool is thought for routine use in the control--room before each pulse is performed, but can also be used off--line to correct PS in advance, or to develop and validate reduced models, control schemes, and in general the simulation framework.