Parametric scaling of power exhaust in EU-DEMO alternative divertor simulations

TL;DR

This study compares the Lengyel model with SOLPS-ITER simulations for EU-DEMO's divertor power exhaust, revealing significant differences in impurity radiation predictions and emphasizing the importance of additional heat dissipation mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that the Lengyel model overpredicts argon requirements and highlights the role of cross-field transport in divertor heat dissipation, challenging standard modeling assumptions.

Findings

Lengyel model overpredicts argon needs by a factor of 5-10.

Cross-field transport reduces argon radiation role by 2-3 times.

SOLPS-ITER shows additional heat dissipation mechanisms beyond argon radiation.

Abstract

Investigations of parametric scaling of power exhaust in the alternative divertor configuration (ADC) SOLPS-ITER simulation database of the EU-DEMO are conducted and compared to predictions based on the Lengyel model. The Lengyel model overpredicts the necessary argon concentrations for LFS divertor detachment by about a factor of 5-10 relative to the SOLPS-ITER simulations. Therefore, while the Lengyel model predicts that plasmas with accetable divertor heat loads in EU-DEMO would exceed the tolerable upstream impurity concentrations by a large margin, there are several SOLPS-ITER solutions within an acceptable operational space. The SOLPS-ITER simulations indicate that, unlike assumed by the standard Lengyel model, there are significant heat dissipation mechanisms other than argon radiation, such as cross-field transport, that reduce the role of argon radiation by a factor of 2 to 3. Furthermore, the Lengyel model assumes that the radiation front is powered by parallel heat conduction only, which tends to lead to a narrow radiation front as the radiative efficiency increases strongly with reducing thermal conductivity. As a result, the radiative volume and total impurity radiation are suppressed for a given impurity concentration. However, the SOLPS-ITER simulations indicate that other mechanisms, such as cross-field transport, can compete with parallel heat conduction within the radiative front and increase the radiative volume. Due to these findings, usage of the standard Lengyel model for analyzing scaling between divertor conditions and configurations for devices such as EU-DEMO is strongly discouraged.