New algorithm for computing the ablation of hydrogenic pellets in hot plasmas

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Abstract
A method is presented for calculating the evaporation rate of hydrogenic pellets immersed in an unmagnetized plasma with a suprathermal particle component of arbitrary distribution function. The computational procedure is based on hydrodynamic solutions for the expansion of the gaseous cloud, obtained in a previous treatment that considered the effects of thermal particles only. The appropriate heat source terms, derived from the stopping power of the gaseous shield, are worked out for energetic ions produced by neutral beam injection heating. The model predicts 27-cm penetration in a Poloidal Divertor Experiment (PDX) plasma, compared with experimentally measured values in the range of 29 to 32 cm. An application to the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) gives an estimated 21-cm penetration for a 2.5-mm-diam tritium pellet injection at 2000 m/s into a 55-cm-bore plasma heated to a central electron temperature of 4 keV by 34 MW of neutral injection.

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