An alternative method to mimic mode conversion for ion cyclotron resonance heating

Abstract Ion cyclotron range of frequency waves in hot plasmas exhibit spatial dispersion effects and the wave equation takes the integro-differential form. Under the local plasma model assumption, the wave equation can be simplified to the differential form and adapts to the numerical scheme of the finite element method (FEM). Even though direct absorption of fast waves by ions and electrons can be described well by the local plasma model, linear mode conversion associated with non-local effects is absent. To deal with this issue, an alternative method is put forward in this paper where quasi-electrostatic fluid waves based on the multi-fluid warm plasma model are employed to take the place of ion Bernstein waves in mode conversion. On this basis, an interative fluid-kinetics (INTFLUK) code based on the FEM is developed for full-wave simulation in hot plasmas. Derivation of the wave equations as well as benchmarking of the INTFLUK code against other wave simulation codes are carried out. In both one- and two-dimensional cases, the validity of the INTFLUK code was verified by comparison of the wave field distributions and power deposition. As a useful illustration of the INTFLUK code including the scrape-off layer and a realistic antenna, the influence of the poloidal antenna phasing difference on ion cyclotron resonance heating is analyzed. Finally, it should be noted that the method in this paper has the potential to be extended to the three-dimensional case, which will be considered in the near future.