Divertor heat load distribution measurements with infrared thermography in the LHD helical divertor

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 165; p. 112235
• Main Authors: Hayashi, Y., Kobayashi, M., Mukai, K., Masuzaki, S., Murase, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-04-2021
• Subjects: Divertor; Finite element analysis; Heat flux; IR thermography; Finite element analysis; Heat flux; Divertor; IR thermography
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112235

•Divertor heat flux was evaluated by IR thermography and finite element method for the helical divertor configuration in LHD.•Temperature distribution inside the divertor component was discussed in detail by the 3D analysis.•Comprehensive study such as the comparison with magnetic footprint and Langmuir probes are conducted.
We evaluated the two dimensional (2D) distribution of the divertor heat flux in LHD. The Infrared (IR) thermography was performed to measure the surface temperature at a divertor plate. The 3D heat conduction equation was solved using the finite element method (FEM) by taking into account the practical divertor geometry including the heat sink behind the graphite tile and the cooling system. The FEM analysis successfully reconstructs heat load distribution from the measured temperature pattern. Significant difference was found between the temperature and the heat load patterns. The FEM analysis shows that the highest heat deposition is observed at the strike line with 5–10 MWm−2 of ∼ 10 mm width in NBI heated discharge. In addition to the strike line there is also found the lower heat deposition region of ∼ 1 MW m−2 with wide channel width ∼ 30 mm. The detailed heat transport analysis inside the divertor components shows that the heat transport process is different between the strike line and the other region due to the heat channel width and to the divertor component structure. The comparison between the heat flux obtained by the thermography and that by the Langmuir probes shows reasonable agreement, except that the peak value of the heat load is higher in the IR thermography than in the Langmuir probe. By relaxing the assumption that electron temperature, Te, equal to be ion temperature, Ti, in the sheath model for the Langmuir probe analysis, the agreement becomes better for the case with Ti > Te.