Alexander Pletzer

Nonlinear simulation studies of tokamaks and STs

The multilevel physics, massively parallel plasma simulation code, M3D has been used to study spherical toris (STs) and tokamaks. The magnitude of outboard shift of density profiles relative to electron temperature profiles seen in NSTX under strong toroidal flow is explained. Internal reconnection events in ST discharges can be classified depending on the crash mechanism, just as in tokamak discharges; a sawtooth crash, disruption due to stochasticity, or high-β disruption. Toroidal shear flow can reduce linear growth of internal kink. It has a strong stabilizing effect nonlinearly and causes mode saturation if its profile is maintained, e.g. through a fast momentum source. Normally, however, the flow profile itself flattens during the reconnection process, allowing a complete reconnection to occur. In some cases, the maximum density and pressure spontaneously occur inside the island and cause mode saturation. Gyrokinetic hot particle/MHD hybrid studies of NSTX show the effects of fluid compression on a fast-ion driven n = 1 mode. MHD studies of recent tokamak experiments with a central current hole indicate that the current clamping is due to sawtooth-like crashes, but with n = 0.

FACETS A Framework for Parallel Coupling of Fusion Components

Coupling separately developed codes offers an attractive method for increasing the accuracy and fidelity of the computational models. Examples include the earth sciences and fusion integrated modeling. This paper describes the Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations (FACETS).

Concurrent, parallel, multiphysics coupling in the FACETS project

FACETS (Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations), is now in its third year. The FACETS team has developed a framework for concurrent coupling of parallel computational physics for use on Leadership Class Facilities (LCFs). In the course of the last year, FACETS has tackled many of the difficult problems of moving to parallel, integrated modeling by developing algorithms for coupled systems, extracting legacy applications as components, modifying them to run on LCFs, and improving the performance of all components. The development of FACETS abides by rigorous engineering standards, including cross platform build and test systems, with the latter covering regression, performance, and visualization. In addition, FACETS has demonstrated the ability to incorporate full turbulence computations for the highest fidelity transport computations. Early indications are that the framework, using such computations, scales to multiple tens of thousands of processors. These accomplishments were a result of an interdisciplinary collaboration among computational physics, computer scientists and applied mathematicians on the team.

MHD simulations with resistive wall and magnetic separatrix

Abstract A number of problems in resistive MHD magnetic fusion simulations describe plasmas with three regions: the core, the halo region, and the resistive boundary. Treating these problems requires maintenance of an adequate resistivity contrast between the core and halo. This can be helped by the presence of a magnetic separatrix, which in any case is required for reasons of realistic modeling. An appropriate mesh generation capability is also needed to include the halo region when a separatrix is present. Finally a resistive wall boundary condition is required, to allow both two dimensional and three dimensional magnetic perturbations to penetrate the wall. Preliminary work is presented on halo current simulations in ITER. The first step is the study of VDE (vertical displacement event) instabilities. The growth rate is consistent with scaling inversely proportional to the resistive wall penetration time. The simulations have resistivity proportional to the −3/2 power of the temperature. Simulations have been done with resistivity contrast between the plasma core and wall of 1000 times, to model the vacuum region between the core and resistive shell. Some 3D simulations are shown of disruptions competing with VDEs. Toroidal peaking factors are up to about 3.

First results from core-edge parallel composition in the FACETS project

FACETS (Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations), now in its second year, has achieved its first coupled core-edge transport simulations. In the process, a number of accompanying accomplishments were achieved. These include a new parallel core component, a new wall component, improvements in edge and source components, and the framework for coupling all of this together. These accomplishments were a result of an interdisciplinary collaboration among computational physics, computer scientists, and applied mathematicians on the team.

Introducing FACETS, the Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations

The FACETS (Framework Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations) project began in January 2007 with the goal of providing core to wall transport modeling of a tokamak fusion reactor. This involves coupling previously separate computations for the core, edge, and wall regions. Such a coupling is primarily through connection regions of lower dimensionality. The project has started developing a component-based coupling framework to bring together models for each of these regions. In the first year, the core model will be a 1 ½ dimensional model (1D transport across flux surfaces coupled to a 2D equilibrium) with fixed equilibrium. The initial edge model will be the fluid model, UEDGE, but inclusion of kinetic models is planned for the out years. The project also has an embedded Scientific Application Partnership that is examining embedding a full-scale turbulence model for obtaining the crosssurface fluxes into a core transport code.

Exposing Fortran Derived Types to C and Other Languages

When building large scientific codes, you might have to mix different programming languages. The authors show how to bridge the interoperability gap between Fortran 90/95 and C, and from C to other languages, with working code examples.

Compact cell-centered discretization stencils at fine-coarse block structured grid interfaces

Different strategies for coupling fine-coarse grid patches are explored in the context of the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method. We show that applying linear interpolation to fill in the fine grid ghost values can produce a finite volume stencil of comparable accuracy to quadratic interpolation provided the cell volumes are adjusted. The volume of fine cells expands whereas the volume of neighboring coarse cells contracts. The amount by which the cells contract/expand depends on whether the interface is a face, an edge, or a corner. It is shown that quadratic or better interpolation is required when the conductivity is spatially varying, anisotropic, the refinement ratio is other than two, or when the fine-coarse interface is concave.

Coupled core-edge simulations of H-mode buildup using the Fusion Application for Core-Edge Transport Simulations (FACETS) code

Coupled simulations of core and edge transport in the DIII-D shot number 118897, after the L-H transition but before the first edge localized mode (ELM), are presented. For the plasma core transport, a set of one dimensional transport equations are solved using the FACETS:Core solver. The fluxes in this region are calculated using the GLF23 anomalous transport model and Chang-Hinton neoclassical model. For the plasma edge transport, two-dimensional transport equations are solved using the UEDGE code. Fluxes in the edge region use static diffusivity profiles based on an interpretive analysis of the experimental profiles. Simulations are used to study the range of validity of the selected models and sensitivity to neutral fueling. It has been demonstrated that the increase of neutral influx to the level that exceeds the level of neutral influx obtained from analysis simulations with the UEDGE code by a factor of two results in increased plasma density pedestal heights and plasma density levels in the scrape...

Stress Tests of Transport Models Using FACETS Code

The confinement of H‐mode plasmas strongly depends on the H‐mode pedestal structure. The pedestal provides the boundary conditions for the hot core tokamak region and determines the stability properties of the plasma edge. The structure of H‐mode pedestal depends on many factors such as heating of the plasma core, neutral fueling, recycling and density and thermal transport. It is important to elucidate the primary mechanisms that are responsible for the pedestal structure in order to optimize the tokamak performance, and avoid disruptions and large scale instabilities such as neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) and edge localized modes (ELMs). In this study, the FACETS code is used to test several models for anomalous, paleoclassical and neoclassical transport in the plasma edge of tokamaks. The FACETS code is a new whole‐device integrated modeling code that advances plasma profiles in time using a selection of transport models and models for heating and particle sources. The simulation results are compared ...