International workshop MoD-PMI

MoD-PMI 2015

International workshop on Models and Data for Plasma-Material Interaction in Fusion Devices

25-27 May 2015 - Aix-Marseille Université - Site St. Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo 13001 Marseille (France)

Scientific scope

The 2015 International Workshop on Models and Data for Plasma-Material Interaction (MoD-PMI 2015) is organized in cooperation with IAEA; it is intended to bring together researchers from the areas of fusion energy and materials science to review advances in modeling of processes relevant to plasma-wall interaction in fusion devices. The workshop aims to provide a bridge between fundamental computations and interpretation of experimental data; it will address a variety of processes spanning a wide range of scales including erosion, transport and trapping of hydrogen and helium in the wall, changes in the material microstructure, composition and morphology.

Indeed, the ultimate goal of numerical simulation would be to build a model that is global enough to capture the behavior of a material under fusion conditions and can ‘predict’ changes of the material thermo-mechanical properties under prolonged operation times. Within this idyllic picture, the MoD-PMI workshop goal is to produce such a roadmap in which the current modeling methods deployed are identified, and the evolution needed to go the step further are established. The computational focus in the meeting emphasizes fundamental aspects at the nanometer scale to improve the predictive capability of multi-scale approaches. Not being exhaustive, appropriate computational methods include electronic structure calculations based on quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics, (kinetic) Monte-Carlo simulations and rate-equation theory.

The MoD-PMI workshop might also define new experiments to be made or new analyses tools to be deployed to help clarify some of the physics. Experiments can also provide data for validation of computations and inspiration for new computational endeavors. Important experimental approaches include thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS), permeation experiments, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and other microscopies like STM and AFM.

Participants with an experimental background should return from the conference with a richer understanding of the computational methods that are used and the range of validity of the computational data that are produced. Participants with a theoretical background should obtain guidance about new work that is most needed to improve understanding of plasma-material interaction processes. The conference format is meant to encourage new collaborations on computational studies of plasma-material interaction in fusion devices.