Magneto-Fluid Dynamics Seminar

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Approach to nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulations in stellarator geometry

Speaker: Yao Zhou, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 905

Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 11 a.m.

Synopsis:

The capability to model the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) evolution of stellarator plasmas is developed by extending the M3D-C1 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-C1. A C1 coordinate mapping connects the logical domain to the non-axisymmetric physical domain, where we use the M3D-C1 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. Preliminary results from physics studies such as simulations of ECCD-induced sawtooth-like crashes on W7-X will also be presented.