Temperature and Current Density Profile Prediction in NSTX Discharges

C. Wilson, T. Rafiq, J. Weiland, E. Schuster

Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS)

Spokane, WA, USA, October 17-21, 2022

The new physics-based Multi-Mode anomalous transport module (MMM) is implemented as a component in the integrated modeling code TRANSP. The MMM module consists of a combination of theory-based transport models that are used to predict the evolution of electron and ion temperatures, electron density, and toroidal and poloidal rotation profiles in tokamak plasmas. A combination of models is required to account for the various physical phenomena that contribute to transport in various radial regions of a plasma discharge. This study predicts the time evolution of current density, electron, and ion temperature profiles in discharges with low and high collisionality. The role of electron-scale turbulence in these predictions is studied by varying electron density and temperature profiles. The equilibrium is computed using the TEQ module. Neoclassical transport is calculated using the Chang-Hinton module. NBI heating current drive is obtained using the NUBEAM module. The latest version of MMM includes a new electron temperature gradient mode model as well as updated component models, which include the physics of ion temperature gradient modes, trapped electron modes, peeling and kinetic ballooning modes, drift Alfven modes, microtearing modes, ideal MHD, and drift resistive inertial ballooning modes.

*Supported by the US DoE Grant DE-SC0013977 and DOE DE-SC0021385.