Abstract Details
Abstracts
Author: Matthew T. Beidler
Requested Type: Poster
Submitted: 2026-03-12 10:46:45
Co-authors: E.Endeve, D.L.Stefanski, M.R.Cianciosa, M.O.Delchini, C.D.Hauck
Contact Info:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
USA
Abstract Text:
Assessment of fusion reactor concepts requires high-fidelity electromagnetic coupling between the plasma and engineering components of the first wall, blanket, and structural supports. Existing numerical codes struggle to resolve 3D geometries for these components when scaling simulations on heterogeneous computing systems. Addressing these challenges requires combining expertise in plasma physics, applied mathematics, and software engineering. This work leverages internal and DOE SciDAC investments in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s VERTEX multiphysics framework [1]. Built on the Trilinos numerical library developed under the Exascale Computing Project, VERTEX utilizes Kokkos for native GPU interoperability and Exodus format for CAD integration in structured and unstructured meshing. Ongoing development focuses on modular physics extensions and flexible combinations of model elements. Current implementation efforts include liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and multimaterial models for blanket and structural analysis. The framework is being extended to incorporate a visco-resistive, compressible plasma MHD model with viscous regularization and magnetic divergence cleaning. Complementing the fluid description is the development of a multispecies transport model for electrons, deuterium ions, and deuterium neutrals incorporating Coulomb collisions, ionization, recombination, and charge exchange. For initialization across tokamak, stellarator, and linear configurations, the framework is integrating a general MHD equilibrium solver using MHD energy minimization from SIESTA [2]. All physics models are accompanied by unit testing and community-developed verification problems to ensure VERTEX is a reliable tool for large-scale simulations of fusion devices.
[1] Delchini, M. O., et al., "ORNL/VERTEX-CFD: vertex-cfd-v1.0.0-alpha," v1.0.0, Zenodo, Feb. 2025. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.14907174
[2] S.P. Hirshman, et al., Phys. Plasmas 18 062504 (2011)
Characterization: 4.0
Comments: