Transport des poussières dans les tokamaks

Les nombreux avantages que présenteraient la fusion thermonucléaire, en particulier la configuration tokamak, en font un candidat idéal en vue de la transition énergétique. Cependant, un certain nombre de difficultés technologiques et physiques restent à résoudre avant que l'étape d'une centrale électrique à fusion puisse voir le jour. La production de poussières est l'une des principales difficultés rencontrées dans les tokamaks. Ces petites particules composées de matériaux présents dans les parois de la machine sont créées par l'érosion de ces parois par le plasma dans lequel les réactions de fusion doivent avoir lieu. Les poussières peuvent être transportées dans le plasma et y libérer de grandes quantités d'impuretés, ce qui a pour conséquence de baisser les performances de la machine (en augmentant les pertes radiatives et en créant des instabilités), et qui peut mettre en danger les composants face au plasma. Dans le but de comprendre le transport de ces poussières, des expériences d'injection sont réalisées sur le tokamak coréen \KSTAR. Les trajectoires des poussières dans le plasma sont observées par des caméras rapides et sont extraites des films à l'aide de routines de traitement d'images. Un code numérique implémentant les derniers modèles d'interactions plasma-poussières est développé, et des comparaisons avec les données expérimentales sont faites, confirmant la tendance générale de ces modèles à la sous-estimation de la longueur des trajectoires des poussières. Des pistes d'amélioration sont présentées. Concernant les sources et puits de poussières, l'accent est porté sur l'adhésion et remise en suspension de particules sur les parois de la machine.Thermonuclear fusion could play an important role amongst the numerous alternative energy sources, especially though the tokamak configuration. It could be a prime candidate for the energy transition, owing to its significant advantages (fuel abundance, low amount of wastes generated, low risks of accidents). However, a certain amount of technological and physical challenges require solving before any fusion power plant can be built. Dust production is one of the major difficulties encountered in tokamaks. These small particles, made out of wall material, are created by erosion of the plasma-facing components by the plasma, where the fusion reactions occur. Dust particles can be transported in the plasma, thereby unleashing large amounts of impurities, which in turn reduces the plasma performances (by raising radiative losses and generating instabilities) and can even jeopardize plasma-facing components. Aiming to understand dust transport, injection experiments are performed on the Korean tokamak \KSTAR. Trajectories are recorded on film via fast cameras and are extracted by image processing routines. A numerical tool implementing the latest models for dust-plasma interactions is developed, and comparisons with experimental data is made, confirming the overall tendency of these models to underestimate the trajectory lengths. Leads of improvements are presented. Concerning dust sources and sinks, the focus is made on dust adhesion and resuspension of dust on the machine walls

Hyperdiffusion of dust particles in a turbulent tokamak plasma

The effect of plasma turbulence on the trajectories of dust particles is investigated for the first time. The dynamics of dust particles is computed using the ad-hoc developed Dust Injection Simulator code, using a 3D turbulent plasma background computed with the TOKAM3X code. As a result, the evolution of the particle trajectories is governed by the ion drag force, and the shape of the trajectory is set by the Stokes number $St\propto a_d/n_0$, with $a_d$ the dust radius and $n_0$ the density at the separatrix. The plasma turbulence is observed to scatter the dust particles, exhibiting a hyperdiffusive regime in all cases. The amplitude of the turbulent spread of the trajectories $\Delta r^2$ is shown to depend on the ratio $Ku/St$, with $Ku\propto u_{rms}$ the Kubo number and $u_{rms}$ the fluctuation level of the plasma flow. These results are compared with a simple analytical model, predicting $\Delta r^2\propto (Ku/St)^2t^3$, or $\Delta r^2\propto (u_{rms}n_0/a_d)^2t^3$. As the dust is heated by the plasma fluxes, thermionic emission sets the dust charge, originally negative, to slightly positive values. This results in a substantial reduction of the ion drag force through the suppression of its Coulomb scattering component. The dust grain inertia is then no longer negligible, and drives the transition from a hyperdiffusive regime towards a ballistic one.This work is supported by the U.S. Department Of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-09CH11466 with Princeton University, and was granted access to the HPC resources of CINES, under the allocations A00505066912 and A00705066912 made by GENCI

Adhesion of tungsten particles on rough tungsten surfaces using Atomic Force Microscopy

International audienceAdhesion forces between tungsten spherical microparticles and tungsten substrates with different roughnesses have been measured using the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) colloidal probe technique. Mean roughnesses of the tungsten substrates were measured by AFM and were ranked in three categories i.e. nanoscale, sub-microscale and microscale roughnesses. Experimental Hamaker constant of 37 ± 3.5 × 10 −20 J has been obtained using a spherical tungsten particle of 10.5 µm in radius and a tungsten substrate with nanoscale root-mean-square roughness of rms = 11.5 nm. It was shown that larger roughness of the order rms = 712 nm induces a two order of magnitude decrease on the adhesion of tungsten microparticles compared to a smooth tungsten surface with nanoscale roughness. Comparison with the van der Waals-based adhesion force model of Rabinovich which integrates the roughness of surfaces showed good agreement with experimental pull-off forces even when roughness of the substrate is close to the micrometer range. In such case, measurements have shown that dependency of adhesion force with particle size (in the micrometer range) has a secondary influence compared to the roughness of surfaces