Research projects (co)funded by the Slovenian Research Agency.
The project aimed at a better thermal control of Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) in fusion reactor using a physics-based simulation. The project goal is to obtain relevant surface temperature is peculiarly challenging due to fully reflective and radiative environment. The long-term goal of such research is then to develop a synthetic diagnostic, a digital twin of infrared measurement in fusion devices able to model all physical phenomenon involved in the temperature estimation of PFCs.
1st year: The modelling of observed thermal scene is based on field line tracing codes able to compute heats loads on plasma facing components from a given plasma scenario. The work allowed comparing two codes (SMARDDA and PFCFLUX) and proving some limitations or inaccuracies between the two codes. This new development allowed the opportunity to improve the computing time, and the visualisation of results.
2nd year: The simulation of infrared image is based on Monte Carlo ray tracing codes. Two ray tracing codes (ANSYS-SPEOS and Raysect) have been benchmarked. ANSYS-SPEOS is a robust commercial ray tracing code but difficult to implement in a multi- platform and open-source software as SMITER. Raysect is an open source ray tracing code. The first comparison between ANSYS-SPEOS and Raysect have shown that the open-source Raysect needs some additional developments for simulating infrared images.
Realisation:
The work was published in several different journals and presented at different conferences. The list of relevant publications is present below:
[1] [L. Kos, R.A. Pitts, G. Simič, M. Brank, H. Anand, W. Arter, SMITER: A field-line tracing environment for ITER, Fusion Engineering and Design,Volume 146, Part B,2019, Pages 1796-1800, ISSN 0920-3796, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.03.037.
[2] Brank M. et al., Assessment of Power Deposition on Plasma Facing Components Inside WEST Tokamak With the Use of Field Line Tracing, NENE Conference 2021 Proceedings, to be published.
[3] Brank M. et al., Thermal Modelling of ITER First Wall, NENE Conference 2019 Proceedings.
[4] Aumeunier M-H et al, Infrared thermography in metallic environments of WEST and ASDEX Upgrade, Nuclear Materials and Energy, 26, 100879, 2021.
[5] Talatizi, C. et al., Inverse Radiation Problem with Infrared Images to Monitor Plasma-Facing Components Temperature in Metallic Fusion Devices. Fusion Engineering and Design https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2020.111867.
