Simulation of dynamic characteristics for ELM filaments on EAST tokamak using BOUT++

To study the dynamic characteristics of filamentary structure during the edge-localized mode (ELM) burst on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak, the BOUT++ six-field two-fluid model is used to simulate the temporal and spatial evolutions of the ELM filaments. In the peak gradient region at the outer mid-plane, the radial speed of filaments is changed frequently and varied from 0.11 km/s to 0.79 km/s, and the poloidal speed oscillates in the range of 0.61–0.85 km/s. The width of the ELM filaments is increased from 7.76 mm to 26.7 mm and grows rapidly to 41.99 mm from t = 0.2717 ms to 0.2831 ms after the start of the burst. After that, the width decreases gradually and stabilizes at 25–30 mm when it comes to the saturation phase. Further research indicates that the filament propagation speed is increased during their outward movement. The width gradually decreases when the filaments move outward, and it is proportional to electron temperature (Te) perturbation. All the results are consistent with the experimental data presented by Chen et al., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 47, 799 (2019).