Verification of Pedestal / Edge Gyrokinetics

ORAL

Abstract

There is an increasing imperative to expand the success of gyrokinetics from the core to the edge region, on which the prospects of fusion energy depend, and where both gyrokinetic codes and models are less established. Various groups have used gyrokinetics to explore the role of several MHD and drift-type mechanisms in edge stability and transport. Moreover, recent work predicts a very unfavorable rho* transport scaling associated with the erosion of shear-suppression. The consequences of such a scaling for are profound and therefore must be tested as rigorously as possible. The pedestal / edge system encompasses regions of parameter space foreign to most core parameter regimes and thus demands verification efforts for a range of modeling capabilities including: extreme gradients; electromagnetic effects in regimes close to MHD limits; extreme shaping and geometry; global effects; high levels of ExB shear; and SOL/sheath physics. We will review recent pedestal work with the GENE code and, in this context, discuss some important preliminary targets for verification in the broader community. Specific, simplified benchmark cases will be proposed in order to address some of these important effects.

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Authors

  • David Hatch

    Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Fusion Studies, UT-Austin, University of Texas

  • Mike Kotschenreuther

    Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin

  • Swadesh Mahajan

    Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin

  • Prashant Valanju

    Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin

  • Xing Liu

    Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin

  • Frank Jenko

    University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California - Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, Univ of California - Los Angeles

  • Alejandro Banon Navarro

    University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA

  • Daniel Told

    University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, Univ of California - Los Angeles

  • MJ Pueschel

    UW-Madison, University of Wisconsin, Madison

  • Tobias G\"orler

    Max Planck Institute PP, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

  • Craig Michoski

    ICES, Univeristy of Texas at Austin