A tungsten-wall sputtering model for the plasma start-up simulation in tokamaks

Tungsten (W) is the most probable material for the plasma-facing components of fusion reactors due to its excellent thermal and physical properties. A W-wall sputtering model has been established to simulate the start-up of a tokamak plasma using the 0D simulation code DYON. This model incorporates the revised Bohdansky formula to calculate the sputtering yield and a modified formula for calculating the energy impacting the walls. This formula integrates the temporal behavior of electron and ion temperatures at the plasma edge, which has been partially verified by the Thomson scattering diagnostic data. With the new model in place, predictive simulations were conducted for KSTAR’s Ohmic plasma under two W-wall scenarios: one with the entire wall surface covered by W and the other with 95% coverage of W and 5% coverage of carbon (C). The results indicate that the full-W wall may perform better from the perspective of start-up performance. The disparity can primarily be attributed to impurities generated through sputtering and recycling on the C wall. The validity of this model will be finally confirmed when the Thomson diagnostic system is able to precisely measure the edge electron temperature during plasma start-up.