Progress in Investigating HHFW Edge Plasma Interactions in NSTX-U

High Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) heating experiments in NSTX have shown that up to 60% of the injected power can be lost in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) when the fast wave is able to propagate in front of the antenna [Hosea, PoP (2008)]. This poster discusses progress in modeling HHFW propagation and losses in the divertor region using more realistic SOL plasmas in the NSTX-U SOL geometry. Previous models often assume exponentially decaying SOL density and temperature profiles, which may be insufficient to accurately describe the wavefield there. In this work, the temperature profile is first evaluated by solving the anisotropic Spitzer heat conduction equation using a finite element approach in the Petra-M workbench. The 2D axisymmetric functional form is implemented. A density profile is then evaluated by assuming pressure conservation on each flux tube. Current work focuses on investigating the effect of the realistic SOL plasma on the fast wave cutoff layer position and the coaxial mode excitation [Green, PRL (2011)] at different antenna phasing. This model will also be used to evaluate power losses resulting due to elastic electron-ion and electron-neutral collisions in the divertor region.