Modeling Disruptions with M3D-C1

Disruptions in tokamaks involve large electromagnetic perturbations and displacement of the plasma, rapid mixing, ionization, and radiation from impurities, global changes in magnetic topology, and strong interaction between the plasma current and surrounding conducting structures. We describe significant progress in implementing integrated models to simulate these processes self-consistently in M3D-C1, with the goal of developing validated models for predicting the consequences of disruptions and optimizing disruption mitigation. New capabilities include the inclusion of impurity transport, ionization, recombination, and radiation using the KPRAD coronal model, and the ability to model complex, non-axisymmetric conducting structures outside the plasma. M3D-C1 implements a fully compressible extended-magnetohydrodynamic model of the plasma and open-field line region. Simulations of vertical displacement events with and without disruption mitigation from impurity injection are demonstrated. Prospects for the validation of these models are considered using synthetic flux loop diagnostics and halo current measurements.