Advanced Auxiliary Fast Ion Heating Schemes in the W7-X stellarator

Improving the fusion performance of fusion devices depends on the fast ion pressure in order to generate the fusion reactions, and thus also on the effectiveness of the auxiliary ion heating methods applied. It is foreseen that the ITER, LHD and Wendelstein 7-X reactors will utilise two main ion heating methods: Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) and Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency (ICRF) heating. The options for NBI are limited by the lack of flexibility due to experimental limitations. ICRF heating, in principle, permits a broad range of scenarios [1-6]. This work utilises the Self ConsistENt Ion Cyclotron (SCENIC) code package to simulate various heating schemes involving both NBI and ICRF (including synergetic 3-ion species RF-NBI heating) in 3D magnetic geometry. Work presented will illustrate the numerical development and application of different advanced heating schemes in the JET and W7-X reactors.