Study of heat flux deposition in the Tore Supra Tokamak

Accurate measurements of heat loads on internal tokamak components is essential for protection of the device during steady state operation. The optimisation of experimental scenarios also requires an in depth understanding of the physical mechanisms governing the heat flux deposition on the walls. The objective of this study is a detailed characterisation of the heat flux to plasma facing components (PFC) of the Tore Supra tokamak. The power deposited onto Tore Supra PFCs is calculated using an inverse method, which is applied to both the temperature maps measured by infrared thermography and to the enthalpy signals from calorimetry. The derived experimental heat flux maps calculated on the toroidal pumped limiter (TPL) are then compared with theoretical heat flux density distributions from a standard SOL-model. They are two experimental observations that are not consistent with the model: significant heat flux outside the theoretical wetted area, and heat load peaking close to the tangency point between the TPL and the last closed field surface (LCFS). An experimental analysis for several discharges with variable security factors q is made. In the area consistent with the theoretical predictions, this parametric study shows a clear dependence between the heat flux length λq (estimated in the SOL (scrape-off layer) from the IR measurements) and the magnetic configuration. We observe that the spreading of heat fluxes on the component is compensated by a reduction of the power decay length λq in the SOL when q decreases. On the other hand, in the area where the derived experimental heat loads are not consistent with the theoretical predictions, we observe that the spreading of heat fluxes outside the theoretical boundary increases when q decreases, and is thus not counterbalanced. (author)