Origin and nature of the emissive sheath surrounding hot tungsten tokamak surfaces

Abstract

The accurate description of the emitted current that escapes from hot tungsten surfaces is essential for reliable predictions of the macroscopic deformation due to melt motion induced by fast transient events. A comprehensive analytical electron emission model is developed and its implementation in the particle-in-cell 2D3V code SPICE2 is discussed. The properties of emissive sheaths of present tokamaks, where thermionic emission is strongly suppressed by space-charge effects and by prompt re-deposition, are reviewed for arbitrary magnetic field inclination angles. The unique characteristics of emissive sheaths that emerge during ITER ELMs, where weakly impeded thermionic emission is coupled with field emission and competes with electron-induced emission, are revealed. The first ITER simulations are reported for normal inclinations.

Keywords

• Tungsten
• Thermionic emission
• Secondary electron emission
• Virtual cathode
• Schottky effect
• Melt motion