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DOE OSTI · 1814562

Approach to nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulations in stellarator geometry

Zhou, Yao·Ferraro, N. M.·Jardin, S. C.·Strauss, H. R.
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Abstract

The capability to model the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) evolution of stellarator plasmas is developed by extending the M3D-C 1 code to allow non-axisymmetric domain geometry. We introduce a set of logical coordinates, in which the computational domain is axisymmetric, to utilize the existing finite-element framework of M3D-C 1 . A C 1 coordinate mapping connects the logical domain to the non-axisymmetric physical domain, where we use the M3D-C 1 extended MHD models essentially without modifications. We present several numerical verifications on the implementation of this approach, including simulations of the heating, destabilization, and equilibration of a stellarator plasma with strongly anisotropic thermal conductivity, and of the relaxation of stellarator equilibria to integrable and non-integrable magnetic field configurations in realistic geometries.

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70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGYfinite elementsmegnetohydrodynamicsstellarators

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Zhou, Yao, Ferraro, N. M., Jardin, S. C., Strauss, H. R.. 2021-07-05. Approach to nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulations in stellarator geometry. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326%2Fac0b35

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