Effects of toroidal plasma current on divertor power depositions on Wendelstein 7-X

Abstract

The paper presents experimental observations and simulations for the effects of toroidal plasma current on divertor power depositions on W7-X. With increasing toroidal current accompanying changes in the island geometry result in a sweep of the strike line and a redistribution of the heat flux footprints. Good agreement between experiments, which partly used electron cyclotron current drive to generate an additional toroidal current contribution, and modelling using field line tracing in vacuum magnetic fields including an ad-hoc toroidal current on the magnetic axis is found for both standard and low-iota magnetic configurations.