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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Gonzalez, JAuthor

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January 8, 2026
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Article
Hybrid Gold

Fluid, kinetic and hybrid approaches for neutral and trace ion edge transport modelling in fusion devices

Publicated to: NUCLEAR FUSION. 62 (8): 086051- - 2022-08-01 62(8), DOI: 10.1088/1741-4326/ac3fe8

Authors:

Borodin, D, V; Schluck, F; Wiesen, S; Harting, D; Boerner, P; Brezinsek, S; Dekeyser, W; Carli, S; Blommaert, M; Van Uytven, W; Baelmans, M; Mortier, B; Samaey, G; Marandet, Y; Genesio, P; Bufferand, H; Westerhof, E; Gonzalez, J; Groth, M; Holm, A; Horsten, N; Leggate, H J
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Affiliations

Aalto Univ, Dept Appl Phys, Espoo, Finland - Author
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, PIIM, F-13013 Marseille, France - Author
CEA, IRFM, F-13108 St Paul Les Durance, France - Author
DIFFER Dutch Inst Fundamental Energy Res, Partner Trilateral Euregio Cluster, De Zaale 20, NL-5612 AJ Eindhoven, Netherlands - Author
Dublin City Univ, Natl Ctr Plasma Sci & Technol, Glasnevin Dublin 9, Ireland - Author
Forschungszentrum Julich, Inst Energie & Klimaforsch Plasmaphys, Partner Trilateral Euregio Cluster TEC, D-52425 Julich, Germany - Author
Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Comp Sci, Celestijnenlaan 200A, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium - Author
Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Mech Engn, Celestijnenlaan 300, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium - Author
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Abstract

Neutral gas physics and neutral interactions with the plasma are key aspects of edge plasma and divertor physics in a fusion reactor including the detachment phenomenon often seen as key to dealing with the power exhaust challenges. A full physics description of the neutral gas dynamics requires a 6D kinetic approach, potentially time dependent, where the details of the wall geometry play a substantial role, to the extent that, e.g., the subdivertor region has to be included. The Monte Carlo (MC) approach used for about 30 years in EIRENE (Reiter et al 2005 Fusion Sci. Technol. 47 172-86), is well suited to solve these types of complex problems. Indeed, the MC approach allows simulating the 6D kinetic equation without having to store the velocity distribution on a 6D grid, at the cost of introducing statistical noise. MC also provides very good flexibility in terms of geometry and atomic and molecular (A&M) processes. However, it becomes computationally extremely demanding in high-collisional regions (HCRs) as anticipated in ITER and DEMO. Parallelization on particles helps reducing the simulation wall clock time, but to provide speed-up in situations where single trajectories potentially involve a very large number of A&M events, it is important to derive a hierarchy of models in terms of accuracy and to clearly identify for what type of physics issues they provide reliable answers. It was demonstrated that advanced fluid neutral models are very accurate in HCRs, and at least an order of magnitude faster than fully kinetic simulations. Based on these fluid models, three hybrid fluid-kinetic approaches are introduced: a spatially hybrid technique, a micro-macro hybrid method, and an asymptotic-preserving MC scheme, to combine the efficiency of a fluid model with the accuracy of a kinetic description. In addition, A&M ions involved in the edge plasma chemistry can also be treated kinetically within the MC solver, opening the way for further hybridisation by enabling kinetic impurity ion transport calculations. This paper aims to give an overview of methods mentioned and suggests the most prospective combinations to be developed.
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Keywords

Affordable and clean energyCode performanceDesignDivertorEdge and divertor plasmaEirene codeFluid-kinetic hybridisationImplementationMonte carloNeutralsPhysicsPlasmaSolps-iterTransport simulations

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal NUCLEAR FUSION due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Condensed Matter Physics. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 3.47. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.27 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-24, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 23
  • Scopus: 25
  • Google Scholar: 36
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-24:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 9.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 9 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/93147/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 26
  • Downloads: 21
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 7 - Affordable and clean energy, with a probability of 60% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; Finland; France; Germany; Netherlands; United Kingdom.

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Awards linked to the item

The paper presents a joint effort within the EUROfusion Theory and Advanced Simulation Coordination (E-TASC), task 'NGM' 2019-2020 and the related O-EIRENE HLST project. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. W. Van Uytven is funded by a PhD fellowship of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Parts of the work were supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) under project Grant G078316N.
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