Description
Understanding the mechanisms that drive and saturate turbulence in tokamaks is fundamental to reliably predicting transport in future fusion reactors. To this end, the synergy between theory and experiment is essential. Rigorous code validation against experimental data from current devices is a crucial step in assessing simulation fidelity and guiding model improvements, ultimately paving the way for more accurate predictions of plasma performance and wall loads.
Building upon the TCV-X21 validation exercise conducted at the TCV tokamak [1], a dedicated, highly diagnosed L-mode scenario was developed at ASDEX Upgrade. This scenario serves as a reference for edge plasma simulations, specifically targeting the validation of the turbulence codes GRILLIX and GENE-X, as well as the mean-field transport code SOLPS-ITER. The discharges were executed in a lower-single-null configuration with a toroidal magnetic field of $B_t = -2.5$ T and a plasma current of $I_p = 0.8$ MA in stationary conditions to maximize the statistical quality of the diagnostic data.
This contribution discusses the objectives of this L-mode code validation task at ASDEX Upgrade and presents the comprehensive experimental dataset that will serve as input for the simulations and challenge their predictive fidelity. The goal is to broaden the scope of TCV-X21 by systematically comparing not only mean profiles and fluctuation amplitudes but also structure sizes, wavenumbers, cross-phases, dispersion relations, and correlation times, extending the effort in [2] towards the scrape-off layer.