The effect of non-axisymmetric wall geometry on ¹³C transport in ASDEX Upgrade:Letter

We present the first results of 3D simulations of global 13C transport in ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) indicating that the deposition profile of 13C exhibits toroidal asymmetry in the main chamber. In 2007, the migration of carbon in AUG was studied with a methane (13CH4) injection experiment (A. Hakola et al and the ASDEX Upgrade Team 2010 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 065006). The total amount of deposited 13C was estimated by assuming toroidally symmetric deposition. Remarkably, the total number of deposited atoms was observed to be less than 10% of the number of injected atoms. The experiment has been simulated with the 3D orbit-following Monte Carlo code ASCOT using both a realistic 3D wall geometry of AUG and a 3D magnetic field with toroidal ripple. The simulations indicate that the non-axisymmetric wall geometry causes notable toroidal asymmetry in the deposition profile in the outer (low-field side) midplane region which can provide a partial explanation for the missing carbon inferred from post-mortem analysis of 13C deposition.