Full-f gyrokinetic simulations of hydrogen isotope mixing in tokamak plasmas

Idomura, Yasuhiro   

Hydrogen isotope mixing phenomena in tokamak plasmas are analyzed using global full-f gyrokinetic simulations. Model plasma parameters are chosen based on the hydrogen isotope pellet experiments on JET, in which hydrogen isotope mixing in the time scale of the energy confinement time occurred after injecting deuterium (D) pellets into hydrogen (H) plasmas. Two numerical experiments are conducted using plasma profiles before and after the D pellet injection. In both cases, turbulent fluctuations in the plasma core are characterized by ion temperature gradient driven turbulence, while in the latter case, trapped electron mode turbulence also exists in the outer region. In the former case, the density profile of bulk H ions is kept in a quasi-steady state, and the particle confinement time of bulk H ions is an order of magnitude longer than the energy confinement time. In the latter case, the density profiles of bulk H ions and pellet D ions show transient relaxation in the time scale of the energy confinement time, indicating the fast hydrogen isotope mixing. In the toroidal angular momentum balance, it is found that the hydrogen isotope mixing is driven by the toroidal field stress.