Studies of dust transport in long pulse plasma discharges in the large helical device

Three-dimensional trajectories of incandescent dust particles in plasmas were observed with stereoscopic fast framing cameras in a large helical device. It proved that the dust is located in the peripheral plasma and most of the dust moves along the magnetic field lines with acceleration in the direction that corresponds to the plasma flow. ICRF heated long pulse plasma discharges were terminated with the release of large amounts of dust from a closed divertor region. After the experimental campaign, the traces of exfoliation of carbon rich mixed-material deposition layers were found in the divertor region. Transport of carbon dust is investigated using a modified dust transport simulation code, which can explain the observed dust trajectories. It also shows that controlling the radius of the dust particles to less than 1 mm is necessary to prevent the plasma termination by penetration of dust for the long pulse discharges. Dust transport simulation including heavy metal dust particles demonstrates that high heating power operation is effective for shielding the main plasma from dust penetration by an enhanced plasma flow effect and a high heat load onto the dust particles in the peripheral plasma. It shows a more powerful penetration characteristic of tungsten dust particles compared to that of carbon and iron dust particles.