SOLPS-ITER Modeling of the Alcator C-Mod Divertor Plasma

Abstract

SOLPS-ITER is a new edge code package that will be developed and maintained at the ITER Organization [X. Bonnin et al., Plasma Fusion Res. 11, 1403102 (2016)], in close collaboration with the wider SOLPS community, and will be used to support the design of the ITER divertor [A.S. Kukushkin et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 86, 2865 (2011)]. In this paper, we report on the first application of the code to the modeling of the Al-cator C-Mod divertor. With its high density, high magnetic field, and strong ITER-like target shaping, C-Mod is of particular interest to ITER in terms of plasma and neutral parameters in the divertor. We show that with a fluid neutral model, we can qualitatively reproduce the observed particle fluxes to inner and outer targets under partially detached conditions. However, simulated electron temperatures in the divertor are much too low. A number of physics and numerical reasons are proposed to resolve this issue and serve as a guideline for further development of the code.