TIME-DEPENDENT NEUTRAL GAS-TRANSPORT IN TOKAMAK EDGE PLASMAS

The effects of neutral particles on the edge plasma conditions play a key role in divertor and limiter physics. In computational models they are usually treated in steady state approximation (instantaneous relaxation). However, the characteristic transport time scale is comparable to the ion acustic time scale. Thus neutral atoms relax to their steady state distributions much slower than electron temperature profiles along the fieldlines are established. A computational assessment of divertor or limiter dynamics requires ultimately an extension to time dependent algorithms. The numerical procedure in the EIRENE Monte Carlo code is presented. A first numerical study of ELM's in the ASDEX-Upgrade divertor plasma has been carried out and the results are briefly discussed.