Simulation of Plasma Disruption Induced Melting and Vaporization by Ion or Electron Beam

The exact amount of vaporization losses and melt layer thickness resulting from a plasma disruption are very important to fusion reactor design and lifetime. Experiments using ion or electron beams to simulate the disruption effects have different environments than the actual disruption conditions in fusion reactors. A model has been developed to accurately simulate the beam-target interactions so that the results from such experiments can be meaningful and useful to reactor design. This model includes a two dimensional solution of the heat conduction equation with moving boundaries. It is found that the vaporization and melting of the sample strongly depends on the characteristics of the beam spatial distribution, beam diameter, and on the power-time variation of the beam.