Time evolution of tokamak plasmas in the presence of 3D conducting structures

This paper presents a method for the simulation of the time evolution of fu sion plasmas in the presence of eddy currents induced in nonmagnetic 3D str uctures. The plasma is assumed to be 2D axisymmetric. The interaction betwe en the plasma and the external currents is assumed to occur via the magneti c field averaged through the toroidal angle. The average poloidal held is c omputed by means of a 2D axisymmetric differential FEM formulation in terms of the poloidal magnetic flux. The 3D induced currents are calculated via an integral edge-element formulation in terms of a two-component current de nsity vector potential, The method is also applied to derive a linearized p lasma response model for the control of the plasma current position and sha pe in the presence of 3D conducting structures.