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Progress on and plans for DK4D: a time-dependent, axisymmetric drift-kinetic equation solver

Author: Brendan C. Lyons
Requested Type: Poster Only
Submitted: 2015-01-20 14:47:34

Co-authors: S.C.Jardin, J.J. Ramos

Contact Info:
Oak Ridge Associated Universities
PO Box 117
Oak Ridge, Tennessee   37831
USA

Abstract Text:
The DK4D code solves a set of time-dependent drift-kinetic equations (DKEs) for the non-Maxwellian part of the electron and ion distribution functions using the full, linearized Fokker-Planck-Landau collision operator. The plasma is taken to be axisymmetric and to have finite collisionality. Each DKE is derived with a Chapman-Enskog-like formulation such that the resulting non-Maxwellian part of the distribution function carries no net density, parallel momentum, or kinetic energy. Rather, these quantities are contained within the background Maxwellians and are evolved by an appropriate set of extended magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. Recent progress on DK4D as well as short-term plans will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to the close coupling of the DKEs to appropriate MHD temperature equations, which allows for the proper calculation of the parallel heat flux in magnetic configurations with evolving temperature profiles. Furthermore, we will discuss ongoing efforts to couple DK4D to the MHD time-evolution code M3D-C1. This includes reading M3D-C1 magnetic configurations into DK4D, calculating the steady-state distribution function for M3D-C1 equilibria, and adding the collisional friction force and pressure anisotropies calculated by DK4D to the M3D-C1 Ohm’s law.

This work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Postdoctoral Research Program and DE-FG02-95ER54309 and DE-AC02-09CH11466.

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