The antennas presently developed for ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) heating of the ITER plasma consist of a tightly packed array of a large number of radiating straps, in order to deliver a high power density without exceeding radio-frequency voltage standoffs. A recently developed three-dimensional electromagnetic commercial software has enabled important progress in the coupling analysis and optimization of such demanding systems. Approximations allowing these codes to convincingly model the effect of antenna loading by a magnetized plasma are discussed. It is shown that, for the purpose of antenna design calculations, a slab of ordinary dielectric with a high relative permittivity, KD, of the order of (c/VA)2, where VA is the plasma Alfvén velocity, can reproduce the main features of wave reflection and refraction by the plasma edge. Multi-layered dielectrics permit more refined approximations. The numerical application of the approximation is illustrated by a simulation of the JET 'A2' ICRF arrays, which fairly qualitatively reproduces the experimental frequency dependence of the coupling resistance. The same loading approximation is applied to the design of realistic experimental test-bed conditions for antenna prototypes or mock-ups, using water as a means of creating plasma-relevant antenna loading. Application to a scaled mockup of the ITER antenna is briefly presented.
Conceptual study of an ICRH traveling-wave antenna system for low-coupling conditions as expected in DEMO