Lithium Droplet Transport in Tokamak Edge Plasmas

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Diaw, A., Lore, J. D., Smolentsev, S.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Diaw, A.
Lore, J. D.
Smolentsev, S.
author_facet Diaw, A.
Lore, J. D.
Smolentsev, S.
contents A lithium droplet transport and evaporation model has been developed within the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code OpenEdge. This model integrates gravity, collisional ion drag, orbital-motion-limited charging, energy-balance evaporation, and an anisotropic rocket recoil force using a Strang-split integrator. Validation against analytical drag-gravity solutions and independent RK45 evaporation integration demonstrates relative errors below 0.00001 for droplet radii of 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 mm. Simulations of ensembles containing 100000 droplets, launched from inner and outer divertor surfaces in SOLPS-ITER plasma background for the CAT tokamak reactor concept, indicate that transport outcomes are determined by initial size, velocity, and launch location. Outer-divertor droplets predominantly redeposit locally, whereas inner-divertor droplets reach the low-field-side wall. Smaller droplets lose most of their mass to evaporation before reaching the core, while larger droplets retain their mass and redeposit on nearby tiles. Both one-way and iterative two-way coupling frameworks map the evaporated lithium onto the SOLPS-ITER mesh as volumetric sources, facilitating self-consistent evaluation of lithium droplet impacts on edge-plasma performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_02100
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lithium Droplet Transport in Tokamak Edge Plasmas
Diaw, A.
Lore, J. D.
Smolentsev, S.
Plasma Physics
Computational Physics
A lithium droplet transport and evaporation model has been developed within the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code OpenEdge. This model integrates gravity, collisional ion drag, orbital-motion-limited charging, energy-balance evaporation, and an anisotropic rocket recoil force using a Strang-split integrator. Validation against analytical drag-gravity solutions and independent RK45 evaporation integration demonstrates relative errors below 0.00001 for droplet radii of 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 mm. Simulations of ensembles containing 100000 droplets, launched from inner and outer divertor surfaces in SOLPS-ITER plasma background for the CAT tokamak reactor concept, indicate that transport outcomes are determined by initial size, velocity, and launch location. Outer-divertor droplets predominantly redeposit locally, whereas inner-divertor droplets reach the low-field-side wall. Smaller droplets lose most of their mass to evaporation before reaching the core, while larger droplets retain their mass and redeposit on nearby tiles. Both one-way and iterative two-way coupling frameworks map the evaporated lithium onto the SOLPS-ITER mesh as volumetric sources, facilitating self-consistent evaluation of lithium droplet impacts on edge-plasma performance.
title Lithium Droplet Transport in Tokamak Edge Plasmas
topic Plasma Physics
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02100