Full-discharge simulations of the TCV tokamak using the Fenix flight simulator

The goal of this work is to develop a simulator for the TCV tokamak that self-consistently includes transport and equilibrium while taking the plant control systems into account. To achieve this, we adapted the Fenix flight simulator that was originally developed for ASDEX Upgrade for use on TCV. The MEQ-FGE free boundary equilibrium code that is widely used for TCV analysis as well as the TCV magnetic controller were coupled to this framework. In addition, a reduced transport model drawing inspiration from earlier RAPTOR modelling for TCV was implemented. Applying this simulator to discharges in the TCV database shows a good agreement of both kinetic and magnetic results with experimental measurements. In particular, it is illustrated how the shape controller is expected to stabilise discharges and it is found that details of the kinetic profiles can be important for the shape and the stability of the equilibrium. This work paves the way to using Fenix for discharge preparation and validation as well as controller development and validation for TCV.