Engineering topics

Boozer, Allen

Publications and source records attributed to Boozer, Allen.

4 records

DOE OSTI2024

Tokamak disruption simulation

UT contribution in this Tokamak Disruption Simulation (TDS) is to develop a parallel high‐order hybridized Discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) methods for large‐s cale MHD simulations. The following are the major goals: 1) Construction of HDG methods for linearized MHD, 2) Rigorous analysis for the HDG formulations for linearized MHD, 3) 2D and 3D simulations to verify the convergent of the HDG methods for linearized MHD, 4) multigrid solvers/preconditioners for HDG formulations, 5) HDG for reconnection problems, 6) Divergence cleaning with HDG, 7) HDG formulations for nonlinear MHD, 8) Picard fixed point HDG approach, 9) IMEX HDG‐DG for nonlinear HDG; 10) parallel large‐scale HDG for linear and nonlinear MHD simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Simulation Center for Runaway Electron Avoidance and Mitigation. Final report

We stand in preparation for ITER with the revelation of a critical need for predictive modeling of runaway electron avoidance and mitigation. It is now widely accepted that a disruption during high current operation could generate multi-MeV runaway electrons which damage the device severely, and threaten the viability of experimental operations. The risk to the mission of ITER is so great, that this predictive capability must be developed via theory and simulation in advance of experimental operations with a thorough validation against present day experiments. The United States is responsible for the design and implementation of the disruption mitigation system on ITER, and in July 2016 the Simulation Center for Runaway Electron Avoidance and Mitigation (SCREAM) was launched by the Department of Energy (DOE), in a joint Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) collaboration, to address this need. It is now critical for the U.S. fusion program to continue support for this dedicated center that is establishing the qualitative and quantitative bases for safe operational scenarios and viable mitigation techniques.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Homoclinic tangles in the DIII-D tokamak from the map equations in natural canonical coordinates*

Trajectories of magnetic field lines are a 1½ degree of freedom Hamiltonian system. The unperturbed separatrix and the perturbed separatrix in a divertor tokamak are fundamentally different. Magnetic asymmetries cause the separatrix to form extremely complicated structures known as homoclinic tangles. After each toroidal circuit, the perturbed separatrix manifolds meet in a fixed poloidal plane and intersect to form homoclinic tangle in order to preserve the topological invariants. This tangle becomes extremely complicated as the magnetic field lines take more and more toroidal turns. This effect is most pronounced near the X-point. The homoclinic tangles of the DIII-D tokamak separatrix from the magnetic perturbation representing the peeling-ballooning modes are studied. The homoclinic tangles can have important implications for the edge physics in divertor tokamaks.

Punjabi, Alkesh↗

DOE OSTI2012

Kink modes and surface currents associated with vertical displacement events

The fast termination phase of a vertical displacement event (VDE) in a tokamak is modeled as a sequence of shrinking equilibria, where the core current profile remains constant so that the safety-factor at the axis, q{sub axis}, remains fixed and the q{sub edge} systematically decreases. At some point, the n = 1 kink mode is destabilized. Kink modes distort the magnetic field lines outside the plasma, and surface currents are required to nullify the normal component of the B-field at the plasma boundary and maintain equilibrium at finite pressure. If the plasma touches a conductor, the current can be transferred to the conductor, and may be measurable by the halo current monitors. This report describes a practical method to model the plasma as it evolves during a VDE, and determine the surface currents, needed to maintain equilibrium. The main results are that the onset conditions for the disruption are that the growth-rate of the n = 1 kink exceeds half the Alfven time and the associated surface current needed to maintain equilibrium exceeds one half of the core plasma current. This occurs when q{sub edge} drops below a low integer, usually 2. Application to NSTX provides favorable comparison with non-axisymmetric halo-current measurements. The model is also applied to ITER and shows that the 2/1 mode is projected to be the most likely cause of the final disruption.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗