Extensive research is ongoing to achieve net-positive controlled fusion energy through magnetic confinement. However, several physics and engineering challenges remain unresolved. One such challenge is the acceleration of electrons to relativistic speeds. If a sufficiently large concentration of these relativistic electrons are formed it could cause significant damage to the reactor structure. One proposed solution to this issue is the injection of a mixture of a noble gas and Deuterium to control the cooling of the plasma and prevent significant amounts of relativistic electrons to form. The aim of this thesis is to test a newly integrated method in the numerical framework DREAM for modeling the injection of material into the plasma, and determine if the model is able to recreate experimental observations. This was done by integrating the new injection method and analyzing the simulation outputs. Multiple scans of free parameters were conducted to optimize matching with experimental data. After extensive analysis and tuning of certain parameters, the results showed that the dynamic injection model is able to capture the trends in experimental observations, and verified some assumptions and observations made in previous works. The results also provide a foundation for further research into the impact of simulation parameters associated with the new injection method, and offers insights for potential improvements in the numerical framework.
Enderborg et al. (Wed,) studied this question.