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Author: Chris Hansen
Requested Type: Poster
Submitted: 2017-03-15 13:20:42

Co-authors: T. Benedett, D. Sutherland, J. Levesque, D. Boyle, T. Jarboe

Contact Info:
University of Washington
146 W 75th St, Apt 5B
New York, NY   10023
United States

Abstract Text:
The PSI-Tet 3D extended MHD code enables the simulation of plasma dynamics in experimentally accurate geometry. Plasma quantities are discretized using a high order finite element method on unstructured tetrahedral grids that may be generated directly from CAD models. The code uses an implicit centered time advance with non-linear solves accomplished through a multigrid preconditioned matrix-free Newton-Krylov method. A novel finite element discretization of the magnetic field is also employed, based on vector valued finite elements, that controls magnetic divergence error and enables magnetic boundary conditions that act separately on longitudinal and solenoidal subspaces. Several code development efforts and experimental applications will be presented: 1) The implementation and testing of an interacting dynamic plasma-neutral model [1] in PSI-Tet. Application of this work to simulations of spheromak decay in the HIT-SI experiment will be presented. 2) Implementation of domain dependent physics for modeling MHD plasmas coupled to vacuum and/or solid conducting regions (resistive walls) capable of closely matching experimental geometries. Application of this model to resistive wall effects on linear and non-linear mode evolution in the HBT-EP tokamak will be presented. 3) Validation studies of the HIT-SI experiment with self-consistent modeling of plasma dynamics in the helicity injectors. Experimentally consistent injector forcing is enabled by unique magnetic boundary conditions supported by PSI-Tet. 4) Equilibrium development for simulations of LTX plasmas in the presence of large non-axisymmetric eddy currents. Equilibria are created using PSI-Tri, which is a 2D code based on PSI-Tet for axisymmetric equilibrium reconstruction. Study of 3D eddy current patterns in LTX using thick and thin wall models of the experiment will also be presented. Work supported by DOE.
Refs: [1]- E. Meier, U. Shumlak,  Phys. Plasmas 19, 072508 (2012)

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