Analysis of power balance and divertor asymmetries in MAST-U using SOLPS-ITER

Power balance, and inner/outer and upper/lower divertors asymmetries have been studied using SOLPS-ITER simulations based on MAST-U experimental data with Conventional, Elongated and Super-X divertor configurations, including resistive bolometry and infrared video bolometry (IRVB), as well as the standard upstream and downstream diagnostics.

Spherical tokamaks (STs) present unique challenges and opportunities in the area of particle and power exhaust, exacerbated due to their more compact sizes. Therefore, substantial efforts are underway in STs to determine the limits in these regimes, including at MAST-U which provides access to the Super-X advanced divertor configuration.

In addition to the SOLPS-ITER simulations fully based on experimental data, a set of simulations with experimentally inferred transport coefficients, with and without ExB and diamagnetic drifts, consisting of density and power scans, high field side vs low field side gas puff locations, and multiple plasma currents and toroidal fields have been used for code experimentation to uncover trends around the experimental parameter space.