Development of a free-boundary tokamak equilibrium solver for advanced study of tokamak equilibria

A free-boundary Tokamak equilibrium solver (TES), developed for advanced study of tokamak equilibra, is described with two distinctive features. One is a generalized method to resolve the intrinsic axisymmetric instability, which is encountered in all equilibrium calculations with a freeboundary condition. The other is an extension to deal with a new divertor geometry such as snowflake or X divertors. For validations, the uniqueness of a solution is confirmed by the independence of variations in the computational domain, the mathematical correctness and accuracy of equilibrium profiles are checked by using a direct comparison with an analytic equilibrium known as a generalized Solov’ev equilibrium, and the governing force balance relation is tested by examining the intrinsic axisymmetric instabilities. As an application of an advanced equilibrium study, a snow-flake divertor configuration that requires a second-order zero of the poloidal magnetic flux is discussed in the circumstance of the Korea superconducting tokamak advanced research (KSTAR) coil system.