The use of electromagnetic particle-in-cell codes in accelerator applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eppley, K.

1988-12-01

The techniques developed for the numerical simulation of plasmas have numerous applications relevant to accelerators. The operation of many accelerator components involves transients, interactions between beams and rf fields, and internal plasma oscillations. These effects produce non-linear behavior which can be represented accurately by particle in cell (PIC) simulations. We will give a very brief overview of the algorithms used in PIC Codes. We will examine the range of parameters over which they are useful. We will discuss the factors which determine whether a two or three dimensional simulation is most appropriate. PIC codes have been applied to a wide variety of diverse problems, spanning many of the systems in a linear accelerator. We will present a number of practical examples of the application of these codes to areas such as guns, bunchers, rf sources, beam transport, emittance growth and final focus. 8 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

Auxiliary plasma heating and fueling models for use in particle simulation codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Procassini, R.J.; Cohen, B.I.

1989-01-01

Computational models of a radiofrequency (RF) heating system and neutral-beam injector are presented. These physics packages, when incorporated into a particle simulation code allow one to simulate the auxiliary heating and fueling of fusion plasmas. The RF-heating package is based upon a quasilinear diffusion equation which describes the slow evolution of the heated particle distribution. The neutral-beam injector package models the charge exchange and impact ionization processes which transfer energy and particles from the beam to the background plasma. Particle simulations of an RF-heated and a neutral-beam-heated simple-mirror plasma are presented. 8 refs., 5 figs

PIConGPU - How to build one of the fastest GPU particle-in-cell codes in the world

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burau, Heiko; Debus, Alexander; Helm, Anton; Huebl, Axel; Kluge, Thomas; Widera, Rene; Bussmann, Michael; Schramm, Ulrich; Cowan, Thomas [HZDR, Dresden (Germany); Juckeland, Guido; Nagel, Wolfgang [TU Dresden (Germany); ZIH, Dresden (Germany); Schmitt, Felix [NVIDIA (United States)

2013-07-01

We present the algorithmic building blocks of PIConGPU, one of the fastest implementations of the particle-in-cell algortihm on GPU clusters. PIConGPU is a highly-scalable, 3D3V electromagnetic PIC code that is used in laser plasma and astrophysical plasma simulations.

Particle-in-cell plasma simulation codes on the connection machine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walker, D.W.

1991-01-01

Methods for implementing three-dimensional, electromagnetic, relativistic PIC plasma simulation codes on the Connection Machine (CM-2) are discussed. The gather and scatter phases of the PIC algorithm involve indirect indexing of data, which results in a large amount of communication on the CM-2. Different data decompositions are described that seek to reduce the amount of communication while maintaining good load balance. These methods require the particles to be spatially sorted at the start of each time step, which introduced another form of overhead. The different methods are implemented in CM Fortran on the CM-2 and compared. It was found that the general router is slow in performing the communication in the gather and scatter steps, which precludes an efficient CM Fortran implementation. An alternative method that uses PARIS calls and the NEWS communication network to pipeline data along the axes of the VP set is suggested as a more efficient algorithm

Studies of Particle Wake Potentials in Plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Ian; Graziani, Frank; Glosli, James; Strozzi, David; Surh, Michael; Richards, David; Decyk, Viktor; Mori, Warren

2011-10-01

Fast Ignition studies require a detailed understanding of electron scattering, stopping, and energy deposition in plasmas with variable values for the number of particles within a Debye sphere. Presently there is disagreement in the literature concerning the proper description of these processes. Developing and validating proper descriptions requires studying the processes using first-principle electrostatic simulations and possibly including magnetic fields. We are using the particle-particle particle-mesh (PPPM) code ddcMD and the particle-in-cell (PIC) code BEPS to perform these simulations. As a starting point in our study, we examine the wake of a particle passing through a plasma in 3D electrostatic simulations performed with ddcMD and with BEPS using various cell sizes. In this poster, we compare the wakes we observe in these simulations with each other and predictions from Vlasov theory. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by UCLA under Grant DE-FG52-09NA29552.

Apar-T: code, validation, and physical interpretation of particle-in-cell results

Science.gov (United States)

Melzani, Mickaël; Winisdoerffer, Christophe; Walder, Rolf; Folini, Doris; Favre, Jean M.; Krastanov, Stefan; Messmer, Peter

2013-10-01

We present the parallel particle-in-cell (PIC) code Apar-T and, more importantly, address the fundamental question of the relations between the PIC model, the Vlasov-Maxwell theory, and real plasmas. First, we present four validation tests: spectra from simulations of thermal plasmas, linear growth rates of the relativistic tearing instability and of the filamentation instability, and nonlinear filamentation merging phase. For the filamentation instability we show that the effective growth rates measured on the total energy can differ by more than 50% from the linear cold predictions and from the fastest modes of the simulation. We link these discrepancies to the superparticle number per cell and to the level of field fluctuations. Second, we detail a new method for initial loading of Maxwell-Jüttner particle distributions with relativistic bulk velocity and relativistic temperature, and explain why the traditional method with individual particle boosting fails. The formulation of the relativistic Harris equilibrium is generalized to arbitrary temperature and mass ratios. Both are required for the tearing instability setup. Third, we turn to the key point of this paper and scrutinize the question of what description of (weakly coupled) physical plasmas is obtained by PIC models. These models rely on two building blocks: coarse-graining, i.e., grouping of the order of p ~ 1010 real particles into a single computer superparticle, and field storage on a grid with its subsequent finite superparticle size. We introduce the notion of coarse-graining dependent quantities, i.e., quantities depending on p. They derive from the PIC plasma parameter ΛPIC, which we show to behave as ΛPIC ∝ 1/p. We explore two important implications. One is that PIC collision- and fluctuation-induced thermalization times are expected to scale with the number of superparticles per grid cell, and thus to be a factor p ~ 1010 smaller than in real plasmas, a fact that we confirm with

BOA, Beam Optics Analyzer A Particle-In-Cell Code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bui, Thuc

2007-01-01

The program was tasked with implementing time dependent analysis of charges particles into an existing finite element code with adaptive meshing, called Beam Optics Analyzer (BOA). BOA was initially funded by a DOE Phase II program to use the finite element method with adaptive meshing to track particles in unstructured meshes. It uses modern programming techniques, state-of-the-art data structures, so that new methods, features and capabilities are easily added and maintained. This Phase II program was funded to implement plasma simulations in BOA and extend its capabilities to model thermal electrons, secondary emissions, self magnetic field and implement a more comprehensive post-processing and feature-rich GUI. The program was successful in implementing thermal electrons, secondary emissions, and self magnetic field calculations. The BOA GUI was also upgraded significantly, and CCR is receiving interest from the microwave tube and semiconductor equipment industry for the code. Implementation of PIC analysis was partially successful. Computational resource requirements for modeling more than 2000 particles begin to exceed the capability of most readily available computers. Modern plasma analysis typically requires modeling of approximately 2 million particles or more. The problem is that tracking many particles in an unstructured mesh that is adapting becomes inefficient. In particular memory requirements become excessive. This probably makes particle tracking in unstructured meshes currently unfeasible with commonly available computer resources. Consequently, Calabazas Creek Research, Inc. is exploring hybrid codes where the electromagnetic fields are solved on the unstructured, adaptive mesh while particles are tracked on a fixed mesh. Efficient interpolation routines should be able to transfer information between nodes of the two meshes. If successfully developed, this could provide high accuracy and reasonable computational efficiency.

Electrostatic plasma simulation by Particle-In-Cell method using ANACONDA package

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blandón, J S; Grisales, J P; Riascos, H

2017-01-01

Electrostatic plasma is the most representative and basic case in plasma physics field. One of its main characteristics is its ideal behavior, since it is assumed be in thermal equilibrium state. Through this assumption, it is possible to study various complex phenomena such as plasma oscillations, waves, instabilities or damping. Likewise, computational simulation of this specific plasma is the first step to analyze physics mechanisms on plasmas, which are not at equilibrium state, and hence plasma is not ideal. Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method is widely used because of its precision for this kind of cases. This work, presents PIC method implementation to simulate electrostatic plasma by Python, using ANACONDA packages. The code has been corroborated comparing previous theoretical results for three specific phenomena in cold plasmas: oscillations, Two-Stream instability (TSI) and Landau Damping(LD). Finally, parameters and results are discussed. (paper)

Deploying electromagnetic particle-in-cell (EM-PIC) codes on Xeon Phi accelerators boards

Science.gov (United States)

Fonseca, Ricardo

2014-10-01

The complexity of the phenomena involved in several relevant plasma physics scenarios, where highly nonlinear and kinetic processes dominate, makes purely theoretical descriptions impossible. Further understanding of these scenarios requires detailed numerical modeling, but fully relativistic particle-in-cell codes such as OSIRIS are computationally intensive. The quest towards Exaflop computer systems has lead to the development of HPC systems based on add-on accelerator cards, such as GPGPUs and more recently the Xeon Phi accelerators that power the current number 1 system in the world. These cards, also referred to as Intel Many Integrated Core Architecture (MIC) offer peak theoretical performances of >1 TFlop/s for general purpose calculations in a single board, and are receiving significant attention as an attractive alternative to CPUs for plasma modeling. In this work we report on our efforts towards the deployment of an EM-PIC code on a Xeon Phi architecture system. We will focus on the parallelization and vectorization strategies followed, and present a detailed performance evaluation of code performance in comparison with the CPU code.

Particle-in-cell plasma simulations of the modified two-stream instability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Schlegel

1994-08-01

Full Text Available We model the modified two-stream plasma instability occurring in the ionospheric E-region using a 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell code. Compared to previous similar work we concentrate on simulated quantities that can easily be measured in the real ionosphere by coherent radars or rockets, such as the Doppler velocity, the backscattered power, backscattered spectra, aspect angle behaviour and electron temperature enhancement. Despite using a relatively small simulation model, we obtain remarkably good agreement between actual observed and simulated plasma parameters. The advantage of such a small system is that we were able to perform (other than in previous related work many simulation runs with different sets of input parameters, thus studying the unstable plasma under various conditions.

First experience with particle-in-cell plasma physics code on ARM-based HPC systems

Science.gov (United States)

Sáez, Xavier; Soba, Alejandro; Sánchez, Edilberto; Mantsinen, Mervi; Mateo, Sergi; Cela, José M.; Castejón, Francisco

2015-09-01

In this work, we will explore the feasibility of porting a Particle-in-cell code (EUTERPE) to an ARM multi-core platform from the Mont-Blanc project. The used prototype is based on a system-on-chip Samsung Exynos 5 with an integrated GPU. It is the first prototype that could be used for High-Performance Computing (HPC), since it supports double precision and parallel programming languages.

An EDDY/particle-in-cell simulation of erosion of plasma facing walls bombarded by a collisional plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inai, Kensuke; Ohya, Kaoru

2011-01-01

To investigate the erosion of a plasma-facing wall intersecting an oblique magnetic field, we performed a kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of magnetized plasma, in which collision processes between charged and neutral particles were taken into account. Sheath formation and local physical quantities, such as the incident angle and energy distributions of plasma ions at the wall, were examined at a plasma density of 10 18 m -3 , a temperature of 10 eV, and a magnetic field strength of 5 T. The erosion rate of a carbon wall was calculated using the ion-solid interaction code EDDY. At a high neutral density (>10 20 m -3 ), the impact energy of the ions dropped below the threshold for physical sputtering, so that the sputtering yield was drastically decreased and wall erosion was strongly suppressed. Sputter erosion was also suppressed when the angle of the magnetic field with respect to the surface normal was sufficiently large. (author)

Optimization of Particle-in-Cell Codes on RISC Processors

Science.gov (United States)

Decyk, Viktor K.; Karmesin, Steve Roy; Boer, Aeint de; Liewer, Paulette C.

1996-01-01

General strategies are developed to optimize particle-cell-codes written in Fortran for RISC processors which are commonly used on massively parallel computers. These strategies include data reorganization to improve cache utilization and code reorganization to improve efficiency of arithmetic pipelines.

Synthetic radiation diagnostics in PIConGPU. Integrating spectral detectors into particle-in-cell codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pausch, Richard; Burau, Heiko; Huebl, Axel; Steiniger, Klaus [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany); Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany); Debus, Alexander; Widera, Rene; Bussmann, Michael [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany)

2016-07-01

We present the in-situ far field radiation diagnostics in the particle-in-cell code PIConGPU. It was developed to close the gap between simulated plasma dynamics and radiation observed in laser plasma experiments. Its predictive capabilities, both qualitative and quantitative, have been tested against analytical models. Now, we apply this synthetic spectral diagnostics to investigate plasma dynamics in laser wakefield acceleration, laser foil irradiation and plasma instabilities. Our method is based on the far field approximation of the Lienard-Wiechert potential and allows predicting both coherent and incoherent radiation spectrally from infrared to X-rays. Its capability to resolve the radiation polarization and to determine the temporal and spatial origin of the radiation enables us to correlate specific spectral signatures with characteristic dynamics in the plasma. Furthermore, its direct integration into the highly-scalable GPU framework of PIConGPU allows computing radiation spectra for thousands of frequencies, hundreds of detector positions and billions of particles efficiently. In this talk we will demonstrate these capabilities on resent simulations of laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and high harmonics generation during target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA).

Electromagnetic particle in cell modeling of the plasma focus: Current sheath formation and lift off

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seng, Y. S.; Lee, P.; Rawat, R. S.

2014-01-01

The shaping and formation of the current sheath takes place in the breakdown phase of a plasma focus device and critically controls the device performance. Electrostatic particle in cell codes, with magnetic effects ignored, have been used to model the breakdown phase. This Letter reports the successful development and implementation of an electromagnetic particle in cell (EMPIC) code, including magnetic effects self-consistently, to simulate the breakdown phase; from the ionization, localization and gliding discharge along the insulator to the time instant of current sheath lift off. The magnetic field was found to be appreciable from the time the current sheath came into contact with the anode with increased local current, initiating the voltage breakdown of the device as a result

Molecular Dynamic Studies of Particle Wake Potentials in Plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Ian; Graziani, Frank; Glosli, James; Strozzi, David; Surh, Michael; Richards, David; Decyk, Viktor; Mori, Warren

2010-11-01

Fast Ignition studies require a detailed understanding of electron scattering, stopping, and energy deposition in plasmas with variable values for the number of particles within a Debye sphere. Presently there is disagreement in the literature concerning the proper description of these processes. Developing and validating proper descriptions requires studying the processes using first-principle electrostatic simulations and possibly including magnetic fields. We are using the particle-particle particle-mesh (P^3M) code ddcMD to perform these simulations. As a starting point in our study, we examined the wake of a particle passing through a plasma. In this poster, we compare the wake observed in 3D ddcMD simulations with that predicted by Vlasov theory and those observed in the electrostatic PIC code BEPS where the cell size was reduced to .03λD.

Study on Characteristics of Constricted DC Plasma Using Particle-In-Cell Simulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jo, Jong Gap; Park, Yeong Shin; Hwang, Yong Seok

2010-01-01

In dc glow discharge, when anode size is smaller than cathode, very small and bright plasma ball occurs in front of anode. This plasma is called constricted dc plasma and characterized by a high plasma density in positive glow, so called plasma ball, compared to the conventional dc plasma. For the reason, this plasma is utilized to ion or electron beam sources since the beam currents are enhanced by the dense anode glow. However, correlations between characteristics of the plasma (plasma density, electron temperature and space potential) and discharge conditions (anode size, discharge voltage, discharge current, pressure) have been a little investigated definitely clear in previous study because of the trouble of a diagnosis. The plasma ball which is the most essential part of the constricted plasma is too small to diagnose precisely without disturbing plasma. Therefore, we tried to analyze the constricted plasma through computer simulation with Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code. In this study, simulation result of constricted dc plasma as well as conventional dc glow discharge will be addressed and compared with each others

Particle In Cell Codes on Highly Parallel Architectures

Science.gov (United States)

Tableman, Adam

2014-10-01

We describe strategies and examples of Particle-In-Cell Codes running on Nvidia GPU and Intel Phi architectures. This includes basic implementations in skeletons codes and full-scale development versions (encompassing 1D, 2D, and 3D codes) in Osiris. Both the similarities and differences between Intel's and Nvidia's hardware will be examined. Work supported by grants NSF ACI 1339893, DOE DE SC 000849, DOE DE SC 0008316, DOE DE NA 0001833, and DOE DE FC02 04ER 54780.

Particle-in-cell simulations of Hall plasma thrusters

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Rodrigo; Ferreira, Jose Leonardo; Martins, Alexandre

2016-07-01

Hall plasma thrusters can be modelled using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In these simulations, the plasma is described by a set of equations which represent a coupled system of charged particles and electromagnetic fields. The fields are computed using a spatial grid (i.e., a discretization in space), whereas the particles can move continuously in space. Briefly, the particle and fields dynamics are computed as follows. First, forces due to electric and magnetic fields are employed to calculate the velocities and positions of particles. Next, the velocities and positions of particles are used to compute the charge and current densities at discrete positions in space. Finally, these densities are used to solve the electromagnetic field equations in the grid, which are interpolated at the position of the particles to obtain the acting forces, and restart this cycle. We will present numerical simulations using software for PIC simulations to study turbulence, wave and instabilities that arise in Hall plasma thrusters. We have sucessfully reproduced a numerical simulation of a SPT-100 Hall thruster using a two-dimensional (2D) model. In addition, we are developing a 2D model of a cylindrical Hall thruster. The results of these simulations will contribute to improve the performance of plasma thrusters to be used in Cubesats satellites currenty in development at the Plasma Laboratory at University of Brasília.

First experience with particle-in-cell plasma physics code on ARM-based HPC systems

OpenAIRE

Sáez, Xavier; Soba, Alejandro; Sánchez, Edilberto; Mantsinen, Mervi; Mateo, Sergio; Cela, José M.; Castejón, Francisco

2015-01-01

In this work, we will explore the feasibility of porting a Particle-in-cell code (EUTERPE) to an ARM multi-core platform from the Mont-Blanc project. The used prototype is based on a system-on-chip Samsung Exynos 5 with an integrated GPU. It is the first prototype that could be used for High-Performance Computing (HPC), since it supports double precision and parallel programming languages. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Com- munity's Seventh...

Enhanced stopping of macro-particles in particle-in-cell simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

May, J.; Tonge, J.; Ellis, I.; Mori, W. B.; Fiuza, F.; Fonseca, R. A.; Silva, L. O.; Ren, C.

2014-01-01

We derive an equation for energy transfer from relativistic charged particles to a cold background plasma appropriate for finite-size particles that are used in particle-in-cell simulation codes. Expressions for one-, two-, and three-dimensional particles are presented, with special attention given to the two-dimensional case. This energy transfer is due to the electric field of the wake set up in the background plasma by the relativistic particle. The enhanced stopping is dependent on the q 2 /m, where q is the charge and m is the mass of the relativistic particle, and therefore simulation macro-particles with large charge but identical q/m will stop more rapidly. The stopping power also depends on the effective particle shape of the macro-particle. These conclusions are verified in particle-in-cell simulations. We present 2D simulations of test particles, relaxation of high-energy tails, and integrated fast ignition simulations showing that the enhanced drag on macro-particles may adversely affect the results of these simulations in a wide range of high-energy density plasma scenarios. We also describe a particle splitting algorithm which can potentially overcome this problem and show its effect in controlling the stopping of macro-particles

Dynamic load balancing in a concurrent plasma PIC code on the JPL/Caltech Mark III hypercube

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liewer, P.C.; Leaver, E.W.; Decyk, V.K.; Dawson, J.M.

1990-01-01

Dynamic load balancing has been implemented in a concurrent one-dimensional electromagnetic plasma particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code using a method which adds very little overhead to the parallel code. In PIC codes, the orbits of many interacting plasma electrons and ions are followed as an initial value problem as the particles move in electromagnetic fields calculated self-consistently from the particle motions. The code was implemented using the GCPIC algorithm in which the particles are divided among processors by partitioning the spatial domain of the simulation. The problem is load-balanced by partitioning the spatial domain so that each partition has approximately the same number of particles. During the simulation, the partitions are dynamically recreated as the spatial distribution of the particles changes in order to maintain processor load balance

Concurrent particle-in-cell plasma simulation on a multi-transputer parallel computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khare, A.N.; Jethra, A.; Patel, Kartik

1992-01-01

This report describes the parallelization of a Particle-in-Cell (PIC) plasma simulation code on a multi-transputer parallel computer. The algorithm used in the parallelization of the PIC method is described. The decomposition schemes related to the distribution of the particles among the processors are discussed. The implementation of the algorithm on a transputer network connected as a torus is presented. The solutions of the problems related to global communication of data are presented in the form of a set of generalized communication functions. The performance of the program as a function of data size and the number of transputers show that the implementation is scalable and represents an effective way of achieving high performance at acceptable cost. (author). 11 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs., appendices

Collisional particle-in-cell modeling for energy transport accompanied by atomic processes in dense plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mishra, R.; Beg, F. N. [Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego, California 92093 (United States); Leblanc, P.; Sentoku, Y. [Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557 (United States); Wei, M. S. [General Atomics, San Diego, California 92121 (United States)

2013-07-15

Fully relativistic collisional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code, PICLS, has been developed to study extreme energy density conditions produced in intense laser-solid interaction. Recent extensions to PICLS, such as the implementation of dynamic ionization, binary collisions in a partially ionized plasma, and radiative losses, enhance the efficacy of simulating intense laser plasma interaction and subsequent energy transport in resistive media. Different ionization models are introduced and benchmarked against each other to check the suitability of the model. The atomic physics models are critical to determine the energy deposition and transport in dense plasmas, especially when they consist of high Z (atomic number) materials. Finally we demonstrate the electron transport simulations to show the importance of target material on fast electron dynamics.

Parallel treatment of simulation particles in particle-in-cell codes on SUPRENUM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seldner, D.

1990-02-01

This report contains the program documentation and description of the program package 2D-PLAS, which has been developed at the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe in the Institute for Data Processing in Technology (IDT) under the auspices of the BMFT. 2D-PLAS is a parallel program version of the treatment of the simulation particles of the two-dimensional stationary particle-in-cell code BFCPIC which has been developed at the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe. This parallel version has been designed for the parallel computer SUPRENUM. (orig.) [de

Particle-in-cell Simulations of Raman Laser Amplification in Preformed Plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, Daniel S.; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

2003-01-01

Two critical issues in the amplification of laser pulses by backward Raman scattering in plasma slabs are the saturation mechanism of the amplification effect (which determines the maximum attainable output intensity of a Raman amplifier) and the optimal plasma density for amplification. Previous investigations [V.M. Malkin, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 82 (22):4448-4451, 1999] identified forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities of the amplifying seed as the likely saturation mechanisms and lead to an estimated unfocused output intensities of 10 17 W/cm 2 . The optimal density for amplification is determined by the competing constraints of minimizing the plasma density so as to minimize the growth rate of the instabilities leading to saturation but also maintaining the plasma sufficiently dense that the driven Langmuir wave responsible for backscattering does not break prematurely. Here, particle-in-cell code are simulations presented which verify that saturation of backward Raman amplification does occur at intensities of ∼10 17 W/cm 2 by forward Raman scattering and modulational instabilities. The optimal density for amplification in a plasma with the representative temperature of T(sub)e = 200 eV is also shown in these simulations to be intermediate between the cold plasma wave-breaking density and the density limit found by assuming a water bag electron distribution function

Parallelization Issues and Particle-In Codes.

Science.gov (United States)

Elster, Anne Cathrine

1994-01-01

the simulation may lead to further improvements. For example, in the case of mean particle drift, it is often advantageous to partition the grid primarily along the direction of the drift. The particle-in-cell codes for this study were tested using physical parameters, which lead to predictable phenomena including plasma oscillations and two-stream instabilities. An overview of the most central references related to parallel particle codes is also given.

High-fidelity plasma codes for burn physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooley, James [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Graziani, Frank [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Marinak, Marty [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Murillo, Michael [Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

2016-10-19

Accurate predictions of equation of state (EOS), ionic and electronic transport properties are of critical importance for high-energy-density plasma science. Transport coefficients inform radiation-hydrodynamic codes and impact diagnostic interpretation, which in turn impacts our understanding of the development of instabilities, the overall energy balance of burning plasmas, and the efficacy of self-heating from charged-particle stopping. Important processes include thermal and electrical conduction, electron-ion coupling, inter-diffusion, ion viscosity, and charged particle stopping. However, uncertainties in these coefficients are not well established. Fundamental plasma science codes, also called high-fidelity plasma codes, are a relatively recent computational tool that augments both experimental data and theoretical foundations of transport coefficients. This paper addresses the current status of HFPC codes and their future development, and the potential impact they play in improving the predictive capability of the multi-physics hydrodynamic codes used in HED design.

New electromagnetic particle simulation code for the analysis of spacecraft-plasma interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyake, Yohei; Usui, Hideyuki

2009-01-01

A novel particle simulation code, the electromagnetic spacecraft environment simulator (EMSES), has been developed for the self-consistent analysis of spacecraft-plasma interactions on the full electromagnetic (EM) basis. EMSES includes several boundary treatments carefully coded for both longitudinal and transverse electric fields to satisfy perfect conductive surface conditions. For the longitudinal component, the following are considered: (1) the surface charge accumulation caused by impinging or emitted particles and (2) the surface charge redistribution, such that the surface becomes an equipotential. For item (1), a special treatment has been adopted for the current density calculated around the spacecraft surface, so that the charge accumulation occurs exactly on the surface. As a result, (1) is realized automatically in the updates of the charge density and the electric field through the current density. Item (2) is achieved by applying the capacity matrix method. Meanwhile, the transverse electric field is simply set to zero for components defined inside and tangential to the spacecraft surfaces. This paper also presents the validation of EMSES by performing test simulations for spacecraft charging and peculiar EM wave modes in a plasma sheath.

A high-order particle-in-cell method for low density plasma flow and the simulation of gyrotron resonator devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stock, Andreas

2013-01-01

of its huge computational demand and the thereby resulting long calculation time. Using the presented high-order discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme on high-performance-computers, this thesis demonstrates for the first time that full-wave and transient research- and design-simulations of gyrotron resonators with high mode-indices can be efficiently performed. For benchmark issues the developed discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme is verified with a 30 GHz resonant cavity and the results are compared to the SELFT code, which is a state-of-the-art design code for resonators. The discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme is used to simulate the resonator of the 1 MW, 140 GHz, TE(28,8)-mode gyrotron, used for plasma heating of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion-reactor. Due to the huge number of degrees of freedom and particles, this type of simulation can only be performed on high-performance-computers with enough memory and computational power. Hence, the discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell code is improved by a new parallelization approach for the high-order shape-function deposition method on unstructured grids, allowing for a high-order coupling between the particles and the electromagnetic field. To further improve the discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell code, a multi-rate time-stepping method, based on an Adams-Bashforth approach, for the hyperbolic divergence cleaning is developed and verified. This new approach considers the different time scales occurring in the hyperbolic divergence cleaning allowing for a more efficient time-stepping-algorithm then standard time-stepping-schemes. A rule for the construction of arbitrary-order multi-rate time-stepping methods has been derived. The presented simulations provide new physical insights to the complex particle-field-interaction appearing in gyrotrons. The discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme can be used to analyse transient phenomena, such as beam-miss-alignment, mode competition

A high-order particle-in-cell method for low density plasma flow and the simulation of gyrotron resonator devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stock, Andreas

2013-04-26

of its huge computational demand and the thereby resulting long calculation time. Using the presented high-order discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme on high-performance-computers, this thesis demonstrates for the first time that full-wave and transient research- and design-simulations of gyrotron resonators with high mode-indices can be efficiently performed. For benchmark issues the developed discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme is verified with a 30 GHz resonant cavity and the results are compared to the SELFT code, which is a state-of-the-art design code for resonators. The discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme is used to simulate the resonator of the 1 MW, 140 GHz, TE(28,8)-mode gyrotron, used for plasma heating of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion-reactor. Due to the huge number of degrees of freedom and particles, this type of simulation can only be performed on high-performance-computers with enough memory and computational power. Hence, the discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell code is improved by a new parallelization approach for the high-order shape-function deposition method on unstructured grids, allowing for a high-order coupling between the particles and the electromagnetic field. To further improve the discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell code, a multi-rate time-stepping method, based on an Adams-Bashforth approach, for the hyperbolic divergence cleaning is developed and verified. This new approach considers the different time scales occurring in the hyperbolic divergence cleaning allowing for a more efficient time-stepping-algorithm then standard time-stepping-schemes. A rule for the construction of arbitrary-order multi-rate time-stepping methods has been derived. The presented simulations provide new physical insights to the complex particle-field-interaction appearing in gyrotrons. The discontinuous Galerkin Particle-in-Cell scheme can be used to analyse transient phenomena, such as beam-miss-alignment, mode competition

Parallel pic plasma simulation through particle decomposition techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briguglio, S.; Vlad, G.; Di Martino, B.; Naples, Univ. 'Federico II'

1998-02-01

Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are among the major candidates to yield a satisfactory description of the detail of kinetic effects, such as the resonant wave-particle interaction, relevant in determining the transport mechanism in magnetically confined plasmas. A significant improvement of the simulation performance of such codes con be expected from parallelization, e.g., by distributing the particle population among several parallel processors. Parallelization of a hybrid magnetohydrodynamic-gyrokinetic code has been accomplished within the High Performance Fortran (HPF) framework, and tested on the IBM SP2 parallel system, using a 'particle decomposition' technique. The adopted technique requires a moderate effort in porting the code in parallel form and results in intrinsic load balancing and modest inter processor communication. The performance tests obtained confirm the hypothesis of high effectiveness of the strategy, if targeted towards moderately parallel architectures. Optimal use of resources is also discussed with reference to a specific physics problem [it

Plasma and BIAS Modeling: Self-Consistent Electrostatic Particle-in-Cell with Low-Density Argon Plasma for TiC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jürgen Geiser

2011-01-01

processes. In this paper we present a new model taken into account a self-consistent electrostatic-particle in cell model with low density Argon plasma. The collision model are based of Monte Carlo simulations is discussed for DC sputtering in lower pressure regimes. In order to simulate transport phenomena within sputtering processes realistically, a spatial and temporal knowledge of the plasma density and electrostatic field configuration is needed. Due to relatively low plasma densities, continuum fluid equations are not applicable. We propose instead a Particle-in-cell (PIC method, which allows the study of plasma behavior by computing the trajectories of finite-size particles under the action of an external and self-consistent electric field defined in a grid of points.

Survey of particle codes in the Magnetic Fusion Energy Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-12-01

In the spring of 1976, the Fusion Plasma Theory Branch of the Division of Magnetic Fusion Energy conducted a survey of all the physics computer codes being supported at that time. The purpose of that survey was to allow DMFE to prepare a description of the codes for distribution to the plasma physics community. This document is the first of several planned and covers those types of codes which treat the plasma as a group of particles

Multi-grid Particle-in-cell Simulations of Plasma Microturbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewandowski, J.L.V.

2003-01-01

A new scheme to accurately retain kinetic electron effects in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for the case of electrostatic drift waves is presented. The splitting scheme, which is based on exact separation between adiabatic and on adiabatic electron responses, is shown to yield more accurate linear growth rates than the standard df scheme. The linear and nonlinear elliptic problems that arise in the splitting scheme are solved using a multi-grid solver. The multi-grid particle-in-cell approach offers an attractive path, both from the physics and numerical points of view, to simulate kinetic electron dynamics in global toroidal plasmas

Modeling an emittance-dominated elliptical sheet beam with a 212-dimensional particle-in-cell code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carlsten, Bruce E.

2005-01-01

Modeling a 3-dimensional (3-D) elliptical beam with a 212-D particle-in-cell (PIC) code requires a reduction in the beam parameters. The 212-D PIC code can only model the center slice of the sheet beam, but that can still provide useful information about the beam transport and distribution evolution, even if the beam is emittance dominated. The reduction of beam parameters and resulting interpretation of the simulation is straightforward, but not trivial. In this paper, we describe the beam parameter reduction and emittance issues related to the initial beam distribution. As a numerical example, we use the case of a sheet beam designed for use with a planar traveling-wave amplifier for high power generator for RF ranging from 95 to 300GHz [Carlsten et al., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 33 (2005) 85]. These numerical techniques also apply to modeling high-energy elliptical bunches in RF accelerators

The effects of particle recycling on the divertor plasma: A particle-in-cell with Monte Carlo collision simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Mingyu; Sang, Chaofeng; Sun, Zhenyue; Hu, Wanpeng; Wang, Dezhen

2018-05-01

A Particle-In-Cell (PIC) with Monte Carlo Collision (MCC) model is applied to study the effects of particle recycling on divertor plasma in the present work. The simulation domain is the scrape-off layer of the tokamak in one-dimension along the magnetic field line. At the divertor plate, the reflected deuterium atoms (D) and thermally released deuterium molecules (D2) are considered. The collisions between the plasma particles (e and D+) and recycled neutral particles (D and D2) are described by the MCC method. It is found that the recycled neutral particles have a great impact on divertor plasma. The effects of different collisions on the plasma are simulated and discussed. Moreover, the impacts of target materials on the plasma are simulated by comparing the divertor with Carbon (C) and Tungsten (W) targets. The simulation results show that the energy and momentum losses of the C target are larger than those of the W target in the divertor region even without considering the impurity particles, whereas the W target has a more remarkable influence on the core plasma.

Computer simulation of phenomena in plasma via particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alves, M.V.; Bittencourt, J.A.

1988-06-01

The method of plasma computer simulation via particles has become an efficient tool to investigate the time and spatial evolution of various physical phenomena in plasmas. This method is based on the study of the individual plasma particle motions interacting with one another and with the externally applied fields. Although fairly simple, it allows a non-linear analysis of complex plasma physical phenomena and to obtain diagnostics even for regions of the system where experimental measurements would be difficult to make. In this report, a general view of the electrostatic one-dimensional computer code ES1, originally developed by A. Bruce Langdon, is presented. The main mathematical artifice in this code is the use of a spatial grid in which various plasma particles are represented by ''superparticles'', using a given shape function. The principal characteristics of the model, the approximations made and the mathematical methods used to solve the equations involved, are described. The specification of the input parameters which characterize the system, the initial conditions and the graphic diagnostics which can be utilized, are also described. Results are presented illustrating graphically the behavior of the plasma oscillations, the two-stream instability and the beam-plasma instability. (author) [pt

Particle-in-Cell Modeling of Magnetized Argon Plasma Flow Through Small Mechanical Apertures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adam B. Sefkow and Samuel A. Cohen

2009-04-09

Motivated by observations of supersonic argon-ion flow generated by linear helicon-heated plasma devices, a three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code is used to study whether stationary electrostatic layers form near mechanical apertures intersecting the flow of magnetized plasma. By self-consistently evaluating the temporal evolution of the plasma in the vicinity of the aperture, the PIC simulations characterize the roles of the imposed aperture and applied magnetic field on ion acceleration. The PIC model includes ionization of a background neutral-argon population by thermal and superthermal electrons, the latter found upstream of the aperture. Near the aperture, a transition from a collisional to a collisionless regime occurs. Perturbations of density and potential, with mm wavelengths and consistent with ion acoustic waves, propagate axially. An ion acceleration region of length ~ 200-300 λD,e forms at the location of the aperture and is found to be an electrostatic double layer, with axially-separated regions of net positive and negative charge. Reducing the aperture diameter or increasing its length increases the double layer strength.

Particle-in-Cell Modeling of Magnetized Argon Plasma Flow Through Small Mechanical Apertures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sefkow, Adam B.; Cohen, Samuel A.

2009-01-01

Motivated by observations of supersonic argon-ion flow generated by linear helicon-heated plasma devices, a three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code is used to study whether stationary electrostatic layers form near mechanical apertures intersecting the flow of magnetized plasma. By self-consistently evaluating the temporal evolution of the plasma in the vicinity of the aperture, the PIC simulations characterize the roles of the imposed aperture and applied magnetic field on ion acceleration. The PIC model includes ionization of a background neutral-argon population by thermal and superthermal electrons, the latter found upstream of the aperture. Near the aperture, a transition from a collisional to a collisionless regime occurs. Perturbations of density and potential, with mm wavelengths and consistent with ion acoustic waves, propagate axially. An ion acceleration region of length ∼ 200-300 λ D,e forms at the location of the aperture and is found to be an electrostatic double layer, with axially-separated regions of net positive and negative charge. Reducing the aperture diameter or increasing its length increases the double layer strength

Development of 2D particle-in-cell code to simulate high current, low ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abstract. A code for 2D space-charge dominated beam dynamics study in beam trans- port lines is developed. The code is used for particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of z-uniform beam in a channel containing solenoids and drift space. It can also simulate a transport line where quadrupoles are used for focusing the beam.

Electromagnetic ''particle-in-cell'' plasma simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langdon, A.B.

1985-01-01

''PIC'' simulation tracks particles through electromagnetic fields calculated self-consistently from the charge and current densities of the particles themselves, external sources, and boundaries. Already used extensively in plasma physics, such simulations have become useful in the design of accelerators and their r.f. sources. 5 refs

Response of plasma facing components in Tokamaks due to intense energy deposition using Particle-In-Cell (PIC) methods

Science.gov (United States)

Genco, Filippo

complex dynamics problems involving distorted plasma hydrodynamic problems and plasma physics. The PIC method solves the hydrodynamic equations solving all field equations tracking at the same time "sample particles" or pseudo-particles (representative of the much more numerous real ones) as the move under the influence of diffusion or magnetic force. The superior behavior of the PIC techniques over the more classical Lagrangian finite difference methods stands in the fact that detailed information about the particles are available at all times as well as mass and momentum transport values are constantly provided. This allows with a relative small number of particles to well describe the behavior of plasma even in presence of highly distorted flows without losing accuracy. The radiation transport equation is solved at each time step calculating for each cell the opacity and emissivity coefficients. Photon radiation continuum and line fluxes are also calculated per the entire domain and provide useful information for the entire energetic calculation of the system which in the end provides the total values of erosion and lifetime of the target material. In this thesis, a new code named HEIGHTS-PIC code has been created and modified using a new approach of the PIC technique to solve the three physics problems involved integrating each of them as a continuum providing insight on the plasma behavior, evolution along time and physical understanding of the very complex phenomena taking place. The results produced with the models are compared with the well-known and benchmarked HEIGHTS package and also with existing experimental results especially produced in Russia at the TRINITI facility. Comparisons with LASER experiments are also discussed.

Ordered particles versus ordered pointers in the hybrid ordered plasma simulation (HOPS) code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.V.; Shumaker, D.E.

1993-01-01

From a computational standpoint, particle simulation calculations for plasmas have not adapted well to the transitions from scalar to vector processing nor from serial to parallel environments. They have suffered from inordinate and excessive accessing of computer memory and have been hobbled by relatively inefficient gather-scatter constructs resulting from the use of indirect indexing. Lastly, the many-to-one mapping characteristic of the deposition phase has made it difficult to perform this in parallel. The authors' code sorts and reorders the particles in a spatial order. This allows them to greatly reduce the memory references, to run in directly indexed vector mode, and to employ domain decomposition to achieve parallelization. The field model solves pre-maxwell equations by interatively implicit methods. The OSOP (Ordered Storage Ordered Processing) version of HOPS keeps the particle tables ordered by rebuilding them after each particle pushing phase. Alternatively, the RSOP (Random Storage Ordered Processing) version keeps a table of pointers ordered by rebuilding them. Although OSOP is somewhat faster than RSOP in tests on vector-parallel machines, it is not clear this advantage will carry over to massively parallel computers

Energetic particle physics with applications in fusion and space plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng, C.Z.

1997-01-01

Energetic particle physics is the study of the effects of energetic particles on collective electromagnetic (EM) instabilities and energetic particle transport in plasmas. Anomalously large energetic particle transport is often caused by low frequency MHD instabilities, which are driven by these energetic particles in the presence of a much denser background of thermal particles. The theory of collective energetic particle phenomena studies complex wave-particle interactions in which particle kinetic physics involving small spatial and fast temporal scales can strongly affect the MHD structure and long-time behavior of plasmas. The difficulty of modeling kinetic-MHD multiscale coupling processes stems from the disparate scales which are traditionally analyzed separately: the macroscale MHD phenomena are studied using the fluid MHD framework, while microscale kinetic phenomena are best described by complicated kinetic theories. The authors have developed a kinetic-MHD model that properly incorporates major particle kinetic effects into the MHD fluid description. For tokamak plasmas a nonvariational kinetic-MHD stability code, the NOVA-K code, has been successfully developed and applied to study problems such as the excitation of fishbone and Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAE) and the sawtooth stabilization by energetic ions in tokamaks. In space plasmas the authors have employed the kinetic-MHD model to study the energetic particle effects on the ballooning-mirror instability which explains the multisatellite observation of the stability and field-aligned structure of compressional Pc 5 waves in the magnetospheric ring current plasma

Simulation of high-energy particle production through sausage and kink instabilities in pinched plasma discharges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haruki, Takayuki; Yousefi, Hamid Reza; Masugata, Katsumi; Sakai, Jun-Ichi; Mizuguchi, Yusuke; Makino, Nao; Ito, Hiroaki

2006-01-01

In an experimental plasma, high-energy particles were observed by using a plasma focus device, to obtain energies of a few hundred keV for electrons, up to MeV for ions. In order to study the mechanism of high-energy particle production in pinched plasma discharges, a numerical simulation was introduced. By use of a three-dimensional relativistic and fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell code, the dynamics of a Z-pinch plasma, thought to be unstable against sausage and kink instabilities, are investigated. In this work, the development of sausage and kink instabilities and subsequent high-energy particle production are shown. In the model used here, cylindrically distributed electrons and ions are driven by an external electric field. The driven particles spontaneously produce a current, which begins to pinch by the Lorentz force. Initially the pinched current is unstable against a sausage instability, and then becomes unstable against a kink instability. As a result high-energy particles are observed

Neutral particle transport modeling with a reflective source in the plasma edge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valenti, M.E.

1992-01-01

A reflective source term is incorporated into the Boltzmann neutral particle transport equation to account for boundary reflection. This reflective neutral model is integrated over a uniform axis and subsequently discretized. The discrete two-dimensional equations are solved iteratively with a computer code. The results of the reflective neutral model computer code are benchmarked with the neutral particle transport code ONEDANT. The benchmark process demonstrates the validity of the reflective neutral model. The reflective neutral model is coupled to the Braams plasma particle and energy transport code. The coupled system generates self-consistent plasma edge transport solutions. These solutions, which utilize the transport equation are similar to solutions which utilize simple plasma edge neutral models when high recycle divertors are modeled. In the high recycle mode, the high electron density at the divertor plate reduces the mean free path of plate neutrals. Hence, the similarity in results. It is concluded that simple neutral models are sufficient for the analysis of high recycle power reactor edge plasmas. Low recycle edge plasmas were not examined

Load management strategy for Particle-In-Cell simulations in high energy particle acceleration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beck, A., E-mail: beck@llr.in2p3.fr [Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet, École polytechnique, CNRS-IN2P3, Palaiseau 91128 (France); Frederiksen, J.T. [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 København Ø (Denmark); Dérouillat, J. [CEA, Maison de La Simulation, 91400 Saclay (France)

2016-09-01

In the wake of the intense effort made for the experimental CILEX project, numerical simulation campaigns have been carried out in order to finalize the design of the facility and to identify optimal laser and plasma parameters. These simulations bring, of course, important insight into the fundamental physics at play. As a by-product, they also characterize the quality of our theoretical and numerical models. In this paper, we compare the results given by different codes and point out algorithmic limitations both in terms of physical accuracy and computational performances. These limitations are illustrated in the context of electron laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). The main limitation we identify in state-of-the-art Particle-In-Cell (PIC) codes is computational load imbalance. We propose an innovative algorithm to deal with this specific issue as well as milestones towards a modern, accurate high-performance PIC code for high energy particle acceleration.

A methodology for the rigorous verification of plasma simulation codes

Science.gov (United States)

Riva, Fabio

2016-10-01

The methodology used to assess the reliability of numerical simulation codes constitutes the Verification and Validation (V&V) procedure. V&V is composed by two separate tasks: the verification, which is a mathematical issue targeted to assess that the physical model is correctly solved, and the validation, which determines the consistency of the code results, and therefore of the physical model, with experimental data. In the present talk we focus our attention on the verification, which in turn is composed by the code verification, targeted to assess that a physical model is correctly implemented in a simulation code, and the solution verification, that quantifies the numerical error affecting a simulation. Bridging the gap between plasma physics and other scientific domains, we introduced for the first time in our domain a rigorous methodology for the code verification, based on the method of manufactured solutions, as well as a solution verification based on the Richardson extrapolation. This methodology was applied to GBS, a three-dimensional fluid code based on a finite difference scheme, used to investigate the plasma turbulence in basic plasma physics experiments and in the tokamak scrape-off layer. Overcoming the difficulty of dealing with a numerical method intrinsically affected by statistical noise, we have now generalized the rigorous verification methodology to simulation codes based on the particle-in-cell algorithm, which are employed to solve Vlasov equation in the investigation of a number of plasma physics phenomena.

Plasma-particle interaction effects in induction plasma modelling under dense loading conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Proulx, P.; Mostaghimi, J.; Boulos, M.

1983-07-01

The injection of solid particles or aerosol droplets in the fire-ball of an inductively coupled plasma can substantially perturb the plasma and even quench it under high loading conditions. This can be mainly attributed to the local cooling of the plasma by the particles or their vapour cloud, combined with the possible change of the thermodynamic and transport properties of the plasma in the presence of the particle vapour. This paper reports the state-of-the-art in the mathematical modelling of the induction plasma. A particle-in-cell model is used in order to combine the continuum approach for the calculation of the flow, temperature and concentration fields in the plasma, with the stochastic single particle approach, for the calculation of the particle trajectories and temperature histories. Results are given for an argon induction plasma under atmospheric pressure in which fine copper particles are centrally injected in the coil region of the discharge

A 3D gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulation of fusion plasma microturbulence on parallel computers

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, T. J.

1992-12-01

One of the grand challenge problems now supported by HPCC is the Numerical Tokamak Project. A goal of this project is the study of low-frequency micro-instabilities in tokamak plasmas, which are believed to cause energy loss via turbulent thermal transport across the magnetic field lines. An important tool in this study is gyrokinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. Gyrokinetic, as opposed to fully-kinetic, methods are particularly well suited to the task because they are optimized to study the frequency and wavelength domain of the microinstabilities. Furthermore, many researchers now employ low-noise delta(f) methods to greatly reduce statistical noise by modelling only the perturbation of the gyrokinetic distribution function from a fixed background, not the entire distribution function. In spite of the increased efficiency of these improved algorithms over conventional PIC algorithms, gyrokinetic PIC simulations of tokamak micro-turbulence are still highly demanding of computer power--even fully-vectorized codes on vector supercomputers. For this reason, we have worked for several years to redevelop these codes on massively parallel computers. We have developed 3D gyrokinetic PIC simulation codes for SIMD and MIMD parallel processors, using control-parallel, data-parallel, and domain-decomposition message-passing (DDMP) programming paradigms. This poster summarizes our earlier work on codes for the Connection Machine and BBN TC2000 and our development of a generic DDMP code for distributed-memory parallel machines. We discuss the memory-access issues which are of key importance in writing parallel PIC codes, with special emphasis on issues peculiar to gyrokinetic PIC. We outline the domain decompositions in our new DDMP code and discuss the interplay of different domain decompositions suited for the particle-pushing and field-solution components of the PIC algorithm.

Development of a relativistic Particle In Cell code PARTDYN for linear accelerator beam transport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Phadte, D., E-mail: deepraj@rrcat.gov.in [LPD, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452013 (India); Patidar, C.B.; Pal, M.K. [MAASD, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore (India)

2017-04-11

A relativistic Particle In Cell (PIC) code PARTDYN is developed for the beam dynamics simulation of z-continuous and bunched beams. The code is implemented in MATLAB using its MEX functionality which allows both ease of development as well higher performance similar to a compiled language like C. The beam dynamics calculations carried out by the code are compared with analytical results and with other well developed codes like PARMELA and BEAMPATH. The effect of finite number of simulation particles on the emittance growth of intense beams has been studied. Corrections to the RF cavity field expressions were incorporated in the code so that the fields could be calculated correctly. The deviations of the beam dynamics results between PARTDYN and BEAMPATH for a cavity driven in zero-mode have been discussed. The beam dynamics studies of the Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) using PARTDYN have been presented.

The Accurate Particle Tracer Code

OpenAIRE

Wang, Yulei; Liu, Jian; Qin, Hong; Yu, Zhi

2016-01-01

The Accurate Particle Tracer (APT) code is designed for large-scale particle simulations on dynamical systems. Based on a large variety of advanced geometric algorithms, APT possesses long-term numerical accuracy and stability, which are critical for solving multi-scale and non-linear problems. Under the well-designed integrated and modularized framework, APT serves as a universal platform for researchers from different fields, such as plasma physics, accelerator physics, space science, fusio...

Final Report for grant ER54958, 'Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Turbulent Transport in Burning Plasmas'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decyk, Viktor K.

2011-01-01

widely used in plasma modeling in DOE, not only in areas in fusion energy as exemplified by GTC, but in high energy physics, plasma accelerators, ICF, and other areas. In 2010, about 12% of the INCITE grants in DOE were devoted to PIC codes. We began by developing a simple 2D electrostatic PIC code for the NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU based on one of the codes from the UPIC Framework. The major new feature of this code was the implementation of a streaming algorithm, where the two major data elements (particles and fields) are read only once each time step with an optimal memory access pattern (unit stride). To achieve this, particles need to be ordered by cell and we developed a particle reordering scheme that worked effectively on this hardware. The first results used global memory only and achieved a speedup of 13 compared to a 2.67 GHz Intel Nehalem processor, and were published in the ICAP conference proceedings in 2009. In the next version, we parameterized the code to make it adaptable to different architectures. The reordering algorithm was generalized to allow more than one grid per sorting cell and more than one sorting cell per thread. We also added support for shared memory. The four tunable parameters were defined as follows: lth, the number of tightly coupled threads, ngpx and ngpy, the number of grids in a sorting cell, and ngpt, the number of sorting cells assigned to a thread. Increasing the number of grids per sorting cell reduced the cost of particle reordering, but it could increase the particle processing time because more shared memory was required. For the NVIDIA C1060, the optimal parameters were lth=32, ngpx=2, ngpy=3, ngpt = 1. Speedups of 15-25 were obtained compared to the Intel Nehalem, depending on plasma temperature. Details about the algorithm and performance results were published in 2011. The electrostatic PIC code was very simple, with low computational intensity (few floating point operations per memory access). Codes with higher

The dynamics of low-β plasma clouds as simulated by a three-dimensional, electromagnetic particle code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neubert, T.; Miller, R.H.; Buneman, O.; Nishikawa, K.I.

1992-01-01

The dynamics of low-β plasma clouds moving perpendicular to an ambient magnetic field in vacuum and in a background plasma is simulated by means of a three-dimensional, electromagnetic, and relativistic particle simulation code. The simulations show the formation of the space charge sheaths at the sides of the cloud with the associated polarization electric field which facilitate the cross-field propagation, as well as the sheaths at the front and rear end of the cloud caused by the larger ion Larmor radius, which allows ions to move ahead and lag behind the electrons as they gyrate. Results on the cloud dynamics and electromagnetic radiation include the following: (1) In a background plasma, electron and ion sheaths expand along the magnetic field at the same rate, whereas in vacuum the electron sheath expands much faster than the ion sheath. (2) Sheath electrons are accelerated up to relativistic energies. This result indicates that artificial plasma clouds released in the ionosphere or magnetosphere may generate optical emissions (aurora) as energetic sheath electrons scatter in the upper atmosphere. (3) The expansion of the electron sheaths is analogous to the ejection of high-intensity electron beams from spacecraft. (4) Second-order and higher-order sheaths are formed which extend out into the ambient plasma. (5) Formation of the sheaths and the polarization field reduces the forward momentum of the cloud. (6) The coherent component of the particle gyromotion is damped in time as the particles establish a forward directed drift velocity. (7) The coherent particle gyrations generate electromagnetic radiation

A survey of elementary plasma instabilities and ECH wave noise properties relevant to plasma sounding by means of particle in cell simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dieckmann, M.E.

1999-01-01

In this work the emission of high amplitude wave packets into a plasma is examined. The plasma is modelled by an 1 1/2D electromagnetic and relativistic particle in cell code. The antenna is modelled by applying forced electrostatic field oscillations to a subset of the simulation grid cells. The emitted wave packets are followed in space and time. It is investigated how the wave packets are affected by instabilities. The detected instabilities affecting ECH waves have been identified as wave decay, nonlinear damping due to trapping and modulational instabilities. These instabilities have been discussed with hindsight to the plasma sounding experiment. A plasma sounder is an experiment emitting short wave packets into the ambient plasma and then it listens to the response. The assumption that the emitted waves are linear waves then allows to determine the plasma magnetic field strength, the electron density and possibly the electron thermal velocity from the response spectrum. The impact of the non-linear instabilities on the plasma wave response spectrum provided by a sounder have been predicted in this work and the predictions have been shown to match a wide range of experimental observations. A dependence of the instabilities on the simulation noise levels, for example the dependence of the wave interaction time in a wave decay on the noise electric field amplitudes, required it to investigate the simulation noise properties (spectral distribution) and to compare it to real plasma thermal noise. It has also been examined how a finite length antenna would filter the simulation noise. (author)

Canonical momenta and numerical instabilities in particle codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Godfrey, B.B.

1975-01-01

A set of warm plasma dispersion relations appropriate to a large class of electromagnetic plasma simulation codes is derived. The numerical Cherenkov instability is shown by analytic and numerical analysis of these dispersion relations to be the most significant nonphysical effect involving transverse electromagnetic waves. The instability arises due to a spurious phase shift between resonant particles and light waves, caused by a basic incompatibility between the Lagrangian treatment of particle positions and the Eulerian treatment of particle velocities characteristic of most PIC--CIC algorithms. It is demonstrated that, through the use of canonical momentum, this mismatch is alleviated sufficiently to completely eliminate the Cherenkov instability. Collateral effects on simulation accuracy and on other numerical instabilities appear to be minor

Physics options in the plasma code VOA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eltgroth, P.G.

1976-06-01

A two dimensional relativistic plasma physics code has been modified to accomodate general electromagnetic boundary conditions and various approximations of basic physics. The code can treat internal conductors and insulators, imposed electromagnetic fields, the effects of external circuitry and non-equilibrium starting conditions. Particle dynamics options include a full microscopic treatment, fully relaxed electrons, a low frequency electron approximation and a combination of approximations for specified zones. Electromagnetic options include the full wave treatment, an electrostatic approximation and two varieties of magnetohydrodynamic approximations in specified zones

VOA: a 2-d plasma physics code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eltgroth, P.G.

1975-12-01

A 2-dimensional relativistic plasma physics code was written and tested. The non-thermal components of the particle distribution functions are represented by expansion into moments in momentum space. These moments are computed directly from numerical equations. Currently three species are included - electrons, ions and ''beam electrons''. The computer code runs on either the 7600 or STAR machines at LLL. Both the physics and the operation of the code are discussed

A 3D Monte Carlo code for plasma transport in island divertors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng, Y.; Sardei, F.; Kisslinger, J.; Grigull, P.

1997-01-01

A fully 3D self-consistent Monte Carlo code EMC3 (edge Monte Carlo 3D) for modelling the plasma transport in island divertors has been developed. In a first step, the code solves a simplified version of the 3D time-independent plasma fluid equations. Coupled to the neutral transport code EIRENE, the EMC3 code has been used to study the particle, energy and neutral transport in W7-AS island divertor configurations. First results are compared with data from different diagnostics (Langmuir probes, H α cameras and thermography). (orig.)

A Generalized Weight-Based Particle-In-Cell Simulation Scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, W.W.; Jenkins, T.G.; Ethier, S.

2010-01-01

A generalized weight-based particle simulation scheme suitable for simulating magnetized plasmas, where the zeroth-order inhomogeneity is important, is presented. The scheme is an extension of the perturbative simulation schemes developed earlier for particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The new scheme is designed to simulate both the perturbed distribution ((delta)f) and the full distribution (full-F) within the same code. The development is based on the concept of multiscale expansion, which separates the scale lengths of the background inhomogeneity from those associated with the perturbed distributions. The potential advantage for such an arrangement is to minimize the particle noise by using (delta)f in the linear stage stage of the simulation, while retaining the flexibility of a full-F capability in the fully nonlinear stage of the development when signals associated with plasma turbulence are at a much higher level than those from the intrinsic particle noise.

Low frequency, electrodynamic simulation of kinetic plasmas with the DArwin Direct Implicit Particle-In-Cell (DADIPIC) method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gibbons, M.R.

1995-06-01

This dissertation describes a new algorithm for simulating low frequency, kinetic phenomena in plasmas. DArwin Direct Implicit Particle-in-Cell (DADIPIC), as its name implies, is a combination of the Darwin and direct implicit methods. One of the difficulties in simulating plasmas lies in the enormous disparity between the fundamental scale lengths of a plasma and the scale lengths of the phenomena of interest. The objective is to create models which can ignore the fundamental constraints without eliminating relevant plasma properties. Over the past twenty years several PIC methods have been investigated for overcoming the constraints on explicit electrodynamic PIC. These models eliminate selected high frequency plasma phenomena while retaining kinetic phenomena at low frequency. This dissertation shows that the combination of Darwin and Direct Implicit allows them to operate better than they have been shown to operate in the past. Through the Darwin method the hyperbolic Maxwell's equations are reformulated into a set of elliptic equations. Propagating light waves do not exist in the formulation so the Courant constraint on the time step is eliminated. The Direct Implicit method is applied only to the electrostatic field with the result that electrostatic plasma oscillations do not have to be resolved for stability. With the elimination of these constraints spatial and temporal discretization can be much larger than that possible with explicit, electrodynamic PIC. The code functions in a two dimensional Cartesian region and has been implemented with all components of the particle velocities, the E-field, and the B-field. Internal structures, conductors or dielectrics, may be placed in the simulation region, can be set at desired potentials, and driven with specified currents

Simulating Coupling Complexity in Space Plasmas: First Results from a new code

Science.gov (United States)

Kryukov, I.; Zank, G. P.; Pogorelov, N. V.; Raeder, J.; Ciardo, G.; Florinski, V. A.; Heerikhuisen, J.; Li, G.; Petrini, F.; Shematovich, V. I.; Winske, D.; Shaikh, D.; Webb, G. M.; Yee, H. M.

2005-12-01

The development of codes that embrace 'coupling complexity' via the self-consistent incorporation of multiple physical scales and multiple physical processes in models has been identified by the NRC Decadal Survey in Solar and Space Physics as a crucial necessary development in simulation/modeling technology for the coming decade. The National Science Foundation, through its Information Technology Research (ITR) Program, is supporting our efforts to develop a new class of computational code for plasmas and neutral gases that integrates multiple scales and multiple physical processes and descriptions. We are developing a highly modular, parallelized, scalable code that incorporates multiple scales by synthesizing 3 simulation technologies: 1) Computational fluid dynamics (hydrodynamics or magneto-hydrodynamics-MHD) for the large-scale plasma; 2) direct Monte Carlo simulation of atoms/neutral gas, and 3) transport code solvers to model highly energetic particle distributions. We are constructing the code so that a fourth simulation technology, hybrid simulations for microscale structures and particle distributions, can be incorporated in future work, but for the present, this aspect will be addressed at a test-particle level. This synthesis we will provide a computational tool that will advance our understanding of the physics of neutral and charged gases enormously. Besides making major advances in basic plasma physics and neutral gas problems, this project will address 3 Grand Challenge space physics problems that reflect our research interests: 1) To develop a temporal global heliospheric model which includes the interaction of solar and interstellar plasma with neutral populations (hydrogen, helium, etc., and dust), test-particle kinetic pickup ion acceleration at the termination shock, anomalous cosmic ray production, interaction with galactic cosmic rays, while incorporating the time variability of the solar wind and the solar cycle. 2) To develop a coronal

Integrated transport code system for a multicomponent plasma in a gas dynamic trap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anikeev, A.V.; Karpushov, A.N.; Noak, K.; Strogalova, S.L.

2000-01-01

This report is focused on the development of the theoretical and numerical models of multicomponent high-β plasma confinement and transport in the gas-dynamic trap (GDT). In order to simulate the plasma behavior in the GDT as well as that in the GDT-based neutron source the Integrated Transport Code System is developed from existing stand-alone codes calculating the target plasma, the fast ions and the neutral gas in the GDT. The code system considers the full dependence of the transport phenomena on space, time, energy and angle variables as well as the interactions between the particle fields [ru

Relationship Between Particle and Plasma Properties and Coating Characteristics of Samaria-Doped Ceria Prepared by Atmospheric Plasma Spraying for Use in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Science.gov (United States)

Cuglietta, Mark; Kesler, Olivera

2012-06-01

Samaria-doped ceria (SDC) has become a promising material for the fabrication of high-performance, intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In this study, the in-flight characteristics, such as particle velocity and surface temperature, of spray-dried SDC agglomerates were measured and correlated to the resulting microstructures of SDC coatings fabricated using atmospheric plasma spraying, a manufacturing technique with the capability of producing full cells in minutes. Plasmas containing argon, nitrogen and hydrogen led to particle surface temperatures higher than those in plasmas containing only argon and nitrogen. A threshold temperature for the successful deposition of SDC on porous stainless steel substrates was calculated to be 2570 °C. Coating porosity was found to be linked to average particle temperature, suggesting that plasma conditions leading to lower particle temperatures may be most suitable for fabricating porous SOFC electrode layers.

Object-Oriented Parallel Particle-in-Cell Code for Beam Dynamics Simulation in Linear Accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qiang, J.; Ryne, R.D.; Habib, S.; Decky, V.

1999-01-01

In this paper, we present an object-oriented three-dimensional parallel particle-in-cell code for beam dynamics simulation in linear accelerators. A two-dimensional parallel domain decomposition approach is employed within a message passing programming paradigm along with a dynamic load balancing. Implementing object-oriented software design provides the code with better maintainability, reusability, and extensibility compared with conventional structure based code. This also helps to encapsulate the details of communications syntax. Performance tests on SGI/Cray T3E-900 and SGI Origin 2000 machines show good scalability of the object-oriented code. Some important features of this code also include employing symplectic integration with linear maps of external focusing elements and using z as the independent variable, typical in accelerators. A successful application was done to simulate beam transport through three superconducting sections in the APT linac design

External circuit integration with electromagnetic particle in cell modeling of plasma focus devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seng, Y. S.; Lee, P.; Rawat, R. S.

2015-01-01

The pinch performance of a plasma focus (PF) device is sensitive to the physical conditions of the breakdown phase. It is therefore essential to model and study the initial phase in order to optimize device performance. An external circuit is self consistently coupled to the electromagnetic particle in cell code to model the breakdown and initial lift phase of the United Nations University/International Centre for Theoretical Physics (UNU-ICTP) plasma focus device. Gas breakdown during the breakdown phase is simulated successfully, following a drop in the applied voltage across the device and a concurrent substantial rise in the circuit current. As a result, the plasma becomes magnetized, with the growing value of the magnetic field over time leading to the gradual lift off of the well formed current sheath into the axial acceleration phase. This lifting off, with simultaneous outward sheath motion along the anode and vertical cathode, and the strong magnetic fields in the current sheath region, was demonstrated in this work, and hence validates our method of coupling the external circuit to PF devices. Our method produces voltage waveforms that are qualitatively similar to the observed experimental voltage profiles of the UNU-ICTP device. Values of the mean electron energy before and after voltage breakdown turned out to be different, with the values after breakdown being much lower. In both cases, the electron energy density function turned out to be non-Maxwellian

Particle-in-cell Simulations of Raman Laser Amplification in Ionizing Plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, Daniel S.; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

2003-01-01

By using the amplifying laser pulse in a plasma-based backward Raman laser amplifier to generate the plasma by photo-ionization of a gas simultaneous with the amplification process, possible instabilities of the pumping laser pulse can be avoided. Particle-in-cell simulations are used to study this amplification mechanism, and earlier results using more elementary models of the Raman interaction are verified [D.S. Clark and N.J. Fisch, Phys. Plasmas, 9 (6): 2772-2780, 2002]. The effects (unique to amplification in ionizing plasmas and not included in previous simulations) of blue-shifting of the pump and seed laser pulses and the generation of a wake are observed not significantly to impact the amplification process. As expected theoretically, the peak output intensity is found to be limited to I ∼ 10 17 W/cm 2 by forward Raman scattering of the amplifying seed. The integrity of the ionization front of the seed pulse against the development of a possible transverse modulation instability is also demonstrated

Study of the L-mode tokamak plasma “shortfall” with local and global nonlinear gyrokinetic δf particle-in-cell simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chowdhury, J.; Wan, Weigang; Chen, Yang; Parker, Scott E. [Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309 (United States); Groebner, Richard J. [General Atomics, Post Office Box 85068, San Diego, California 92186 (United States); Holland, C. [University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); Howard, N. T. [Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States)

2014-11-15

The δ f particle-in-cell code GEM is used to study the transport “shortfall” problem of gyrokinetic simulations. In local simulations, the GEM results confirm the previously reported simulation results of DIII-D [Holland et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 052301 (2009)] and Alcator C-Mod [Howard et al., Nucl. Fusion 53, 123011 (2013)] tokamaks with the continuum code GYRO. Namely, for DIII-D the simulations closely predict the ion heat flux at the core, while substantially underpredict transport towards the edge; while for Alcator C-Mod, the simulations show agreement with the experimental values of ion heat flux, at least within the range of experimental error. Global simulations are carried out for DIII-D L-mode plasmas to study the effect of edge turbulence on the outer core ion heat transport. The edge turbulence enhances the outer core ion heat transport through turbulence spreading. However, this edge turbulence spreading effect is not enough to explain the transport underprediction.

Plasmator. A numerical code for simulation of plasma transport in Tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guasp, J.

1979-01-01

Plasmator is a flexible monodimensional numerical code for plasma transport in Tokamaks of circular cross-section, it allows neutral particle transport and impurity effects. The code leaves a total freedom in the analytical form of transport coefficients. It has been writen in Fortran-V for the UNIVAC-1100/80 from JEN and allows for the possibility of graphics for radial profiles and temporal evolution of the main plasma magnitudes, as well in three-dimensional as in two-dimensional representation either on a Calcomp plotter or in the printer. (author)

Particle Transport in ECRH Plasmas of the TJ-II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vargas, V. I.; Lopez-Bruna, D.; Estrada, T.; Guasp, J.; Reynolds, J. M.; Velasco, J. L.; Herranz, J.

2007-01-01

We present a systematic study of particle transport in ECRH plasmas of TJ-II with different densities. The goal is to fi nd particle confinement time and electron diffusivity dependence with line-averaged density. The experimental information consists of electron temperature profiles, T e (Thomson Scattering TS) and electron density, n e , (TS and reflectometry) and measured puffing data in stationary discharges. The profile of the electron source, Se, was obtained by the 3D Monte-Carlo code EIRENE. The analysis of particle balance has been done by linking the results of the code EIRENE with the results of a model that reproduces ECRH plasmas in stationary conditions. In the range of densities studied (0.58 ≤n e > (10 1 9m - 3) ≤0.80) there are two regions of confinement separated by a threshold density, e > ∼0.65 10 1 9m - 3. Below this threshold density the particle confinement time is low, and vice versa. This is reflected in the effective diffusivity, D e , which in the range of validity of this study, 0.5 e are flat for ≥0,63(10 1 9m - 3). (Author) 35 refs

TMRBAR: a code to calculate plasma parameters for tandem-mirror reactors operating in the MARS mode

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, R.B.

1983-01-01

The purpose of this report is to document the plasma power balance model currently used by LLNL to calculate steady state operating points for tandem mirror reactors. The code developed from this model, TMRBAR, has been used to predict the performance and define supplementary heating requirements for drivers used in the Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS) and for the Fusion Power Demonstration (FPD) study. The equations solved included particle and energy balance for central cell and end cell species, quasineutrality at several cardinal points in the end cell region, as well as calculations of volumes, densities and average energies based on given constraints of beta profiles and fusion power output. Alpha particle ash is treated self-consistently, but no other impurity species is treated

Density Dependence of Particle Transport in ECH Plasmas of the TJ-II Stellarator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vargas, V. I.; Lopez-Bruna, D.; Guasp, J.; Herranz, J.; Estrada, T.; Medina, F.; Ochando, M.A.; Velasco, J.L.; Reynolds, J.M.; Ferreira, J.A.; Tafalla, D.; Castejon, F.; Salas, A.

2009-05-21

We present the experimental dependence of particle transport on average density in electron cyclotron heated (ECH) hydrogen plasmas of the TJ-II stellarator. The results are based on: (I) electron density and temperature data from Thomson Scattering and reflectometry diagnostics; (II) a transport model that reproduces the particle density profiles in steady state; and (III) Eirene, a code for neutrals transport that calculates the particle source in the plasma from the particle confinement time and the appropriate geometry of the machine/plasma. After estimating an effective particle diffusivity and the particle confinement time, a threshold density separating qualitatively and quantitatively different plasma transport regimes is found. The poor confinement times found below the threshold are coincident with the presence of ECH-induced fast electron losses and a positive radial electric field all over the plasma. (Author) 40 refs.

Particle acceleration in near critical density plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu, Y.J.; Kong, Q.; Kawata, S.; Izumiyama, T.; Nagashima, T.

2013-01-01

Charged particle acceleration schemes driven by ultra intense laser and near critical density plasma interactions are presented. They include electron acceleration in a plasma channel, ion acceleration by the Coulomb explosion and high energy electron beam driven ion acceleration. It is found that under the near critical density plasma both ions and electrons are accelerated with a high acceleration gradient. The electron beam containing a large charge quantity is accelerated well with 23 GeV/cm. The collimated ion bunch reaches 1 GeV. The investigations and discussions are based on 2.5D PIC (particle-in-cell) simulations. (author)

PLASMA ENERGETIC PARTICLES SIMULATION CENTER (PEPSC)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berk, Herbert L.

2014-05-23

The main effort of the Texas group was to develop theoretical and simplified numerical models to understand chirping phenomena often seen for Alfven and geodesic acoustic waves in experimental plasmas such as D-III-D, NSTX and JET. Its main numerical effort was to modify the AEGIS code, which was originally developed as an eigenvalue solver. To apply to the chirping problem this code has to be able to treat the linear response to the continuum and the response of the plasma to external drive or to an internal drive that comes from the formation of phase space chirping structures. The theoretical underpinning of this investigation still needed to be more fully developed to understand how to best formulate the theoretical problem. Considerable progress was made on this front by B.N. Breizman and his collaborators and a new reduced model was developed by H. L. Berk and his PhD student, G. Wang which can be uses as simplified model to describe chirping in a large aspect ratio tokamak. This final report will concentrate on these two directions that were developed as well as results that were found in the work with the AEGIS code and in the progress in developing a novel quasi-linear formulation for a description of Alfvenic modes destabilized by energetic particles, such as alpha particles in a burning plasma.

Numerical code to determine the particle trapping region in the LISA machine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azevedo, M.T. de; Raposo, C.C. de; Tomimura, A.

1984-01-01

A numerical code is constructed to determine the trapping region in machine like LISA. The variable magnetic field is two deimensional and is coupled to the Runge-Kutta through the Tchebichev polynomial. Various particle orbits including particle interactions were analysed. Beside this, a strong electric field is introduced to see the possible effects happening inside the plasma. (Author) [pt

Recent advances in neutral particle transport methods and codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azmy, Y.Y.

1996-01-01

An overview of ORNL's three-dimensional neutral particle transport code, TORT, is presented. Special features of the code that make it invaluable for large applications are summarized for the prospective user. Advanced capabilities currently under development and installation in the production release of TORT are discussed; they include: multitasking on Cray platforms running the UNICOS operating system; Adjacent cell Preconditioning acceleration scheme; and graphics codes for displaying computed quantities such as the flux. Further developments for TORT and its companion codes to enhance its present capabilities, as well as expand its range of applications are disucssed. Speculation on the next generation of neutron particle transport codes at ORNL, especially regarding unstructured grids and high order spatial approximations, are also mentioned

Particle-in-cell modeling of laser Thomson scattering in low-density plasmas at elevated laser intensities

Science.gov (United States)

Powis, Andrew T.; Shneider, Mikhail N.

2018-05-01

Incoherent Thomson scattering is a non-intrusive technique commonly used for measuring local plasma density. Within low-density, low-temperature plasmas and for sufficient laser intensity, the laser may perturb the local electron density via the ponderomotive force, causing the diagnostic to become intrusive and leading to erroneous results. A theoretical model for this effect is validated numerically via kinetic simulations of a quasi-neutral plasma using the particle-in-cell technique.

Stochastic plasma heating by electrostatic waves: a comparison between a particle-in-cell simulation and a laboratory experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fivaz, M.; Fasoli, A.; Appert, K.; Trans, T.M.; Tran, M.Q.; Skiff, F.

1993-08-01

Dynamical chaos is produced by the interaction between plasma particles and two electrostatic waves. Experiments performed in a linear magnetized plasma and a 1D particle-in-cell simulation agree qualitatively: above a threshold wave amplitude, ion stochastic diffusion and heating occur on a fast time scale. Self-consistency appears to limit the extent of the heating process. (author) 5 figs., 18 refs

Particle-in-Cell Code BEAMPATH for Beam Dynamics Simulations in Linear Accelerators and Beamlines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batygin, Y.

2004-01-01

A code library BEAMPATH for 2 - dimensional and 3 - dimensional space charge dominated beam dynamics study in linear particle accelerators and beam transport lines is developed. The program is used for particle-in-cell simulation of axial-symmetric, quadrupole-symmetric and z-uniform beams in a channel containing RF gaps, radio-frequency quadrupoles, multipole lenses, solenoids and bending magnets. The programming method includes hierarchical program design using program-independent modules and a flexible combination of modules to provide the most effective version of the structure for every specific case of simulation. Numerical techniques as well as the results of beam dynamics studies are presented

Particle-in-Cell Code BEAMPATH for Beam Dynamics Simulations in Linear Accelerators and Beamlines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Batygin, Y.

2004-10-28

A code library BEAMPATH for 2 - dimensional and 3 - dimensional space charge dominated beam dynamics study in linear particle accelerators and beam transport lines is developed. The program is used for particle-in-cell simulation of axial-symmetric, quadrupole-symmetric and z-uniform beams in a channel containing RF gaps, radio-frequency quadrupoles, multipole lenses, solenoids and bending magnets. The programming method includes hierarchical program design using program-independent modules and a flexible combination of modules to provide the most effective version of the structure for every specific case of simulation. Numerical techniques as well as the results of beam dynamics studies are presented.

Macroscale implicit electromagnetic particle simulation of magnetized plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, Motohiko.

1988-01-01

An electromagnetic and multi-dimensional macroscale particle simulation code (MACROS) is presented which enables us to make a large time and spatial scale kinetic simulation of magnetized plasmas. Particle ions, finite mass electrons with the guiding-center approximation and a complete set of Maxwell equations are employed. Implicit field-particle coupled equations are derived in which a time-decentered (slightly backward) finite differential scheme is used to achieve stability for large time and spatial scales. It is shown analytically that the present simulation scheme suppresses high frequency electromagnetic waves and that it accurately reproduces low frequency waves in the plasma. These properties are verified by numerical examination of eigenmodes in a 2-D thermal equilibrium plasma and by that of the kinetic Alfven wave. (author)

BALDUR: a one-dimensional plasma transport code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singer, C.E.; Post, D.E.; Mikkelsen, D.R.

1986-07-01

The purpose of BALDUR is to calculate the evolution of plasma parameters in an MHD equilibrium which can be approximated by concentric circular flux surfaces. Transport of up to six species of ionized particles, of electron and ion energy, and of poloidal magnetic flux is computed. A wide variety of source terms are calculated including those due to neutral gas, fusion, and auxiliary heating. The code is primarily designed for modeling tokamak plasmas but could be adapted to other toroidal confinement systems

Fully implicit Particle-in-cell algorithms for multiscale plasma simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chacon, Luis [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2015-07-16

The outline of the paper is as follows: Particle-in-cell (PIC) methods for fully ionized collisionless plasmas, explicit vs. implicit PIC, 1D ES implicit PIC (charge and energy conservation, moment-based acceleration), and generalization to Multi-D EM PIC: Vlasov-Darwin model (review and motivation for Darwin model, conservation properties (energy, charge, and canonical momenta), and numerical benchmarks). The author demonstrates a fully implicit, fully nonlinear, multidimensional PIC formulation that features exact local charge conservation (via a novel particle mover strategy), exact global energy conservation (no particle self-heating or self-cooling), adaptive particle orbit integrator to control errors in momentum conservation, and canonical momenta (EM-PIC only, reduced dimensionality). The approach is free of numerical instabilities: ω_peΔt >> 1, and Δx >> λ_D. It requires many fewer dofs (vs. explicit PIC) for comparable accuracy in challenging problems. Significant CPU gains (vs explicit PIC) have been demonstrated. The method has much potential for efficiency gains vs. explicit in long-time-scale applications. Moment-based acceleration is effective in minimizing N_FE, leading to an optimal algorithm.

A parallel 3D particle-in-cell code with dynamic load balancing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolfheimer, Felix; Gjonaj, Erion; Weiland, Thomas

2006-01-01

A parallel 3D electrostatic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code including an algorithm for modelling Space Charge Limited (SCL) emission [E. Gjonaj, T. Weiland, 3D-modeling of space-charge-limited electron emission. A charge conserving algorithm, Proceedings of the 11th Biennial IEEE Conference on Electromagnetic Field Computation, 2004] is presented. A domain decomposition technique based on orthogonal recursive bisection is used to parallelize the computation on a distributed memory environment of clustered workstations. For problems with a highly nonuniform and time dependent distribution of particles, e.g., bunch dynamics, a dynamic load balancing between the processes is needed to preserve the parallel performance. The algorithm for the detection of a load imbalance and the redistribution of the tasks among the processes is based on a weight function criterion, where the weight of a cell measures the computational load associated with it. The algorithm is studied with two examples. In the first example, multiple electron bunches as occurring in the S-DALINAC [A. Richter, Operational experience at the S-DALINAC, Proceedings of the Fifth European Particle Accelerator Conference, 1996] accelerator are simulated in the absence of space charge fields. In the second example, the SCL emission and electron trajectories in an electron gun are simulated

A parallel 3D particle-in-cell code with dynamic load balancing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wolfheimer, Felix [Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Institut fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder, Schlossgartenstr.8, 64283 Darmstadt (Germany)]. E-mail: wolfheimer@temf.de; Gjonaj, Erion [Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Institut fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder, Schlossgartenstr.8, 64283 Darmstadt (Germany); Weiland, Thomas [Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Institut fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder, Schlossgartenstr.8, 64283 Darmstadt (Germany)

2006-03-01

A parallel 3D electrostatic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code including an algorithm for modelling Space Charge Limited (SCL) emission [E. Gjonaj, T. Weiland, 3D-modeling of space-charge-limited electron emission. A charge conserving algorithm, Proceedings of the 11th Biennial IEEE Conference on Electromagnetic Field Computation, 2004] is presented. A domain decomposition technique based on orthogonal recursive bisection is used to parallelize the computation on a distributed memory environment of clustered workstations. For problems with a highly nonuniform and time dependent distribution of particles, e.g., bunch dynamics, a dynamic load balancing between the processes is needed to preserve the parallel performance. The algorithm for the detection of a load imbalance and the redistribution of the tasks among the processes is based on a weight function criterion, where the weight of a cell measures the computational load associated with it. The algorithm is studied with two examples. In the first example, multiple electron bunches as occurring in the S-DALINAC [A. Richter, Operational experience at the S-DALINAC, Proceedings of the Fifth European Particle Accelerator Conference, 1996] accelerator are simulated in the absence of space charge fields. In the second example, the SCL emission and electron trajectories in an electron gun are simulated.

A collision model in plasma particle simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Yanyun; Chang Wenwei; Yin Yan; Yue Zongwu; Cao Lihua; Liu Daqing

2000-01-01

In order to offset the collisional effects reduced by using finite-size particles, β particle clouds are used in particle simulation codes (β is the ratio of charge or mass of modeling particles to real ones). The method of impulse approximation (strait line orbit approximation) is used to analyze the scattering cross section of β particle clouds plasmas. The authors can obtain the relation of the value of a and β and scattering cross section (a is the radius of β particle cloud). By using this relation the authors can determine the value of a and β so that the collisional effects of the modeling system is correspondent with the real one. The authors can also adjust the values of a and β so that the authors can enhance or reduce the collisional effects fictitiously. The results of simulation are in good agreement with the theoretical ones

Scattering of electromagnetic waves into plasma oscillations via plasma particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, A.T.; Dawson, J.M.

1975-01-01

A plasma subjected to an intense electromagnetic wave can exhibit a large number of parametric instabilities. An interesting example which has received little attention is the decay of the electromagnetic wave into a plasma oscillation with the excess energy and momentum being carried off by electrons. This process has been simulated on a one-and-two-halves dimensional electromagnetic code. The incident electromagnetic wave had a frequency near the plasma frequency so that decay into a plasma oscillation and a backscattered electromagnetic wave was excluded. As expected, the threshold for this instability was very large , so it is unlikely that this instability is competitive in most laser plasmas. Nevertheless, the physical mechanism involved provides a means for absorption of laser light and acceleration of particles in a plasma containing large amplitude plasma oscillations

New methods in plasma simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mason, R.J.

1990-01-01

The development of implicit methods of particle-in-cell (PIC) computer simulation in recent years, and their merger with older hybrid methods have created a new arsenal of simulation techniques for the treatment of complex practical problems in plasma physics. The new implicit hybrid codes are aimed at transitional problems that lie somewhere between the long time scale, high density regime associated with MHD modeling, and the short time scale, low density regime appropriate to PIC particle-in-cell techniques. This transitional regime arises in ICF coronal plasmas, in pulsed power plasma switches, in Z-pinches, and in foil implosions. Here, we outline how such a merger of implicit and hybrid methods has been carried out, specifically in the ANTHEM computer code, and demonstrate the utility of implicit hybrid simulation in applications. 25 refs., 5 figs

Use of a hybrid code for global-scale plasma simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swift, D.W.

1996-01-01

This paper presents a demonstration of the use of a hybrid code to model the Earth's magnetosphere on a global scale. The typical hybrid code calculates the interaction of fully kinetic ions and a massless electron fluid with the magnetic field. This code also includes a fluid ion component to approximate the cold ionospheric plasma that spatially overlaps with the discrete particle component. Other innovative features of the code include a numerically generated curvilinear coordinate system and subcycling of the magnetic field update to the particle push. These innovations allow the code to accommodate disparate time and distance scales. The demonstration is a simulation of the noon meridian plane of the magnetosphere. The code exhibits the formation of fast and slow-mode shocks and tearing reconnection at the magnetopause. New results include particle acceleration in the cusp and nearly field aligned currents linking the cusp and polar ionosphere. The paper also describes a density depletion instability and measures to avoid it. 27 refs., 4 figs

Novel methods in the Particle-In-Cell accelerator Code-Framework Warp

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vay, J-L [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Grote, D. P. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Cohen, R. H. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Friedman, A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2012-12-26

The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) Code-Framework Warp is being developed by the Heavy Ion Fusion Science Virtual National Laboratory (HIFS-VNL) to guide the development of accelerators that can deliver beams suitable for high-energy density experiments and implosion of inertial fusion capsules. It is also applied in various areas outside the Heavy Ion Fusion program to the study and design of existing and next-generation high-energy accelerators, including the study of electron cloud effects and laser wakefield acceleration for example. This study presents an overview of Warp's capabilities, summarizing recent original numerical methods that were developed by the HIFS-VNL (including PIC with adaptive mesh refinement, a large-timestep 'drift-Lorentz' mover for arbitrarily magnetized species, a relativistic Lorentz invariant leapfrog particle pusher, simulations in Lorentz-boosted frames, an electromagnetic solver with tunable numerical dispersion and efficient stride-based digital filtering), with special emphasis on the description of the mesh refinement capability. In addition, selected examples of the applications of the methods to the abovementioned fields are given.

Fully non-linear multi-species Fokker-Planck-Landau collisions for gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulations of fusion plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Hager, Robert; Yoon, E. S.; Ku, S.; D'Azevedo, E. F.; Worley, P. H.; Chang, C. S.

2015-11-01

We describe the implementation, and application of a time-dependent, fully nonlinear multi-species Fokker-Planck-Landau collision operator based on the single-species work of Yoon and Chang [Phys. Plasmas 21, 032503 (2014)] in the full-function gyrokinetic particle-in-cell codes XGC1 [Ku et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 115021 (2009)] and XGCa. XGC simulations include the pedestal and scrape-off layer, where significant deviations of the particle distribution function from a Maxwellian can occur. Thus, in order to describe collisional effects on neoclassical and turbulence physics accurately, the use of a non-linear collision operator is a necessity. Our collision operator is based on a finite volume method using the velocity-space distribution functions sampled from the marker particles. Since the same fine configuration space mesh is used for collisions and the Poisson solver, the workload due to collisions can be comparable to or larger than the workload due to particle motion. We demonstrate that computing time spent on collisions can be kept affordable by applying advanced parallelization strategies while conserving mass, momentum, and energy to reasonable accuracy. We also show results of production scale XGCa simulations in the H-mode pedestal and compare to conventional theory. Work supported by US DOE OFES and OASCR.

Plume expansion of a laser-induced plasma studied with the particle-in-cell method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellegaard, O.; Nedelea, T.; Schou, Jørgen

2002-01-01

energy as well as electron energy. We have estimated the time constant for energy transfer between the electrons and the ions. The scaling of these processes is given by a single parameter determined by the Debye length obtained from the electron density in the plasma outside the surface. (C) 2002......The initial stage of laser-induced plasma plume expansion from a solid in vacuum and the effect of the Coulomb field have been studied. We have performed a one-dimensional numerical calculation by mapping the charge on a computational grid according to the particle-in-cell (PIC) method of Birdsall...... et al. It is assumed that the particle ablation from a surface with a fixed temperature takes place as a pulse, i.e. within a finite period of time. A number of characteristic quantities for the plasma plume are compared with similar data for expansion of neutrals as well as fluid models: Density...

Porting plasma physics simulation codes to modern computing architectures using the libmrc framework

Science.gov (United States)

Germaschewski, Kai; Abbott, Stephen

2015-11-01

Available computing power has continued to grow exponentially even after single-core performance satured in the last decade. The increase has since been driven by more parallelism, both using more cores and having more parallelism in each core, e.g. in GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi. Adapting existing plasma physics codes is challenging, in particular as there is no single programming model that covers current and future architectures. We will introduce the open-source libmrc framework that has been used to modularize and port three plasma physics codes: The extended MHD code MRCv3 with implicit time integration and curvilinear grids; the OpenGGCM global magnetosphere model; and the particle-in-cell code PSC. libmrc consolidates basic functionality needed for simulations based on structured grids (I/O, load balancing, time integrators), and also introduces a parallel object model that makes it possible to maintain multiple implementations of computational kernels, on e.g. conventional processors and GPUs. It handles data layout conversions and enables us to port performance-critical parts of a code to a new architecture step-by-step, while the rest of the code can remain unchanged. We will show examples of the performance gains and some physics applications.

Modeling of Particle Transport on Channels and Gaps Exposed to Plasma Fluxes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nieto-Perez, Martin

2008-01-01

Many problems in particle transport in fusion devices involve the transport of plasma or eroded particles through channels or gaps, such as in the case of trying to assess damage to delicate optical diagnostics collecting light through a slit or determining the deposition and codeposition on the gaps between tiles of plasma-facing components. A dynamic-composition Monte Carlo code in the spirit of TRIDYN, previously developed to study composition changes on optical mirrors subject to ion bombardment, has been upgraded to include motion of particles through a volume defined by sets of plane surfaces. Particles sputtered or reflected from the walls of the channel/gap can be tracked as well, allowing the calculation of wall impurity transport, either back to the plasma (for the case of a gap) or to components separated from the plasma by a channel/slit (for the case of optical diagnostics). Two examples of the code application to particle transport in fusion devices will be presented in this work: one will evaluate the erosion/impurity deposition rate on a mirror separated from a plasma source by a slit; the other case will look at the enhanced emission of tile material in the region of the gap between two tiles

Study of neutral particle behavior and particle confinement in JT-60U

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takenaga, Hidenobu; Shimizu, Katsuhiro; Asakura, Nobuyuki; Shimada, Michiya; Kikuchi, Mitsuru; Tsuji-Iio, Shunji; Uchino, Kiichiro; Muraoka, Katsunori.

1995-07-01

In order to understand the particle confinement properties in JT-60U, the particle confinement time was estimated through analyses of the neutral particle behavior. First, the neutral particle transport simulation code DEGAS using a Monte-Carlo technique was combined with the simple divertor code for calculating the edge plasma parameters, and was developed to calculate under the experimental conditions in JT-60U. Then, the charged particle source in the main plasma due to the ionization of the neutral particles was evaluated from the analyses of the neutral particle penetration to the main plasma based on results of the simulation code and measurements of D α emission intensities. Finally, the particle confinement time was estimated from the analysis of particle balance. The analyses were performed systematically for the L-mode plasma and H-mode plasma of JT-60U, and a data base of the particle confinement time was obtained. The dependence of the particle confinement time on the plasma parameters and the relationship between the properties of the particle confinement and the energy confinement were examined. (author)

A one-dimensional transport code for the simulation of D-T burning tokamak plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tone, Tatsuzo; Maki, Koichi; Kasai, Masao; Nishida, Hidetsugu

1980-11-01

A one-dimensional transport code for D-T burning tokamak plasma has been developed, which simulates the spatial behavior of fuel ions(D, T), alpha particles, impurities, temperatures of ions and electrons, plasma current, neutrals, heating of alpha and injected beam particles. The basic transport equations are represented by one generalized equation so that the improvement of models and the addition of new equations may be easily made. A model of burn control using a variable toroidal field ripple is employed. This report describes in detail the simulation model, numerical method and the usage of the code. Some typical examples to which the code has been applied are presented. (author)

A One-Dimensional Particle-in-Cell Model of Plasma Build-Up in Vacuum Arcs

CERN Document Server

Timko, H; Kovermann, J; Taborelli, M; Nordlund, K; Descoeudres, A; Schneider, R; Calatroni, S; Matyash, K; Wuensch, W; Hansen, A; Grudiev, A

2011-01-01

Understanding the mechanism of plasma build-up in vacuum arcs is essential in many fields of physics. A one-dimensional particle-in-cell computer simulation model is presented, which models the plasma developing from a field emitter tip under electrical breakdown conditions, taking into account the relevant physical phenomena. As a starting point, only an external electric field and an initial enhancement factor of the tip are assumed. General requirements for plasma formation have been identified and formulated in terms of the initial local field and a critical neutral density. The dependence of plasma build-up on tip melting current, the evaporation rate of neutrals and external circuit time constant has been investigated for copper and simulations imply that arcing involves melting currents around 0.5-1 A/mu m(2),evaporation of neutrals to electron field emission ratios in the regime 0.01 - 0.05, plasma build-up timescales in the order of similar to 1 - 10 ns and two different regimes depending on initial ...

Global Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Mercury's Magnetosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Schriver, D.; Travnicek, P. M.; Lapenta, G.; Amaya, J.; Gonzalez, D.; Richard, R. L.; Berchem, J.; Hellinger, P.

2017-12-01

Spacecraft observations of Mercury's magnetosphere have shown that kinetic ion and electron particle effects play a major role in the transport, acceleration, and loss of plasma within the magnetospheric system. Kinetic processes include reconnection, the breakdown of particle adiabaticity and wave-particle interactions. Because of the vast range in spatial scales involved in magnetospheric dynamics, from local electron Debye length scales ( meters) to solar wind/planetary magnetic scale lengths (tens to hundreds of planetary radii), fully self-consistent kinetic simulations of a global planetary magnetosphere remain challenging. Most global simulations of Earth's and other planet's magnetosphere are carried out using MHD, enhanced MHD (e.g., Hall MHD), hybrid, or a combination of MHD and particle in cell (PIC) simulations. Here, 3D kinetic self-consistent hybrid (ion particle, electron fluid) and full PIC (ion and electron particle) simulations of the solar wind interaction with Mercury's magnetosphere are carried out. Using the implicit PIC and hybrid simulations, Mercury's relatively small, but highly kinetic magnetosphere will be examined to determine how the self-consistent inclusion of electrons affects magnetic reconnection, particle transport and acceleration of plasma at Mercury. Also the spatial and energy profiles of precipitating magnetospheric ions and electrons onto Mercury's surface, which can strongly affect the regolith in terms of space weathering and particle outflow, will be examined with the PIC and hybrid codes. MESSENGER spacecraft observations are used both to initiate and validate the global kinetic simulations to achieve a deeper understanding of the role kinetic physics play in magnetospheric dynamics.

Merging for Particle-Mesh Complex Particle Kinetic Modeling of the Multiple Plasma Beams

Science.gov (United States)

Lipatov, Alexander S.

2011-01-01

We suggest a merging procedure for the Particle-Mesh Complex Particle Kinetic (PMCPK) method in case of inter-penetrating flow (multiple plasma beams). We examine the standard particle-in-cell (PIC) and the PMCPK methods in the case of particle acceleration by shock surfing for a wide range of the control numerical parameters. The plasma dynamics is described by a hybrid (particle-ion-fluid-electron) model. Note that one may need a mesh if modeling with the computation of an electromagnetic field. Our calculations use specified, time-independent electromagnetic fields for the shock, rather than self-consistently generated fields. While a particle-mesh method is a well-verified approach, the CPK method seems to be a good approach for multiscale modeling that includes multiple regions with various particle/fluid plasma behavior. However, the CPK method is still in need of a verification for studying the basic plasma phenomena: particle heating and acceleration by collisionless shocks, magnetic field reconnection, beam dynamics, etc.

Novel fragmentation model for pulverized coal particles gasification in low temperature air thermal plasma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jovanović Rastko D.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available New system for start-up and flame support based on coal gasification by low temperature air thermal plasma is planned to supplement current heavy oil system in Serbian thermal power plants in order to decrease air pollutions emission and operational costs. Locally introduced plasma thermal energy heats up and ignites entrained coal particles, thus starting chain process which releases heat energy from gasified coal particles inside burner channel. Important stages during particle combustion, such as particle devolatilisation and char combustion, are described with satisfying accuracy in existing commercial CFD codes that are extensively used as powerful tool for pulverized coal combustion and gasification modeling. However, during plasma coal gasification, high plasma temperature induces strong thermal stresses inside interacting coal particles. These stresses lead to “thermal shock” and extensive particle fragmentation during which coal particles with initial size of 50-100 m disintegrate into fragments of at most 5-10 m. This intensifies volatile release by a factor 3-4 and substantially accelerates the oxidation of combustible matter. Particle fragmentation, due to its small size and thus limited influence on combustion process is commonly neglected in modelling. The main focus of this work is to suggest novel approach to pulverized coal gasification under high temperature conditions and to implement it into commercial comprehensive code ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. Proposed model was validated against experimental data obtained in newly built pilot scale D.C plasma burner test facility. Newly developed model showed very good agreement with experimental results with relative error less than 10%, while the standard built-in gasification model had error up to 25%.

Microfluidic CODES: a scalable multiplexed electronic sensor for orthogonal detection of particles in microfluidic channels.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ruxiu; Wang, Ningquan; Kamili, Farhan; Sarioglu, A Fatih

2016-04-21

Numerous biophysical and biochemical assays rely on spatial manipulation of particles/cells as they are processed on lab-on-a-chip devices. Analysis of spatially distributed particles on these devices typically requires microscopy negating the cost and size advantages of microfluidic assays. In this paper, we introduce a scalable electronic sensor technology, called microfluidic CODES, that utilizes resistive pulse sensing to orthogonally detect particles in multiple microfluidic channels from a single electrical output. Combining the techniques from telecommunications and microfluidics, we route three coplanar electrodes on a glass substrate to create multiple Coulter counters producing distinct orthogonal digital codes when they detect particles. We specifically design a digital code set using the mathematical principles of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) telecommunication networks and can decode signals from different microfluidic channels with >90% accuracy through computation even if these signals overlap. As a proof of principle, we use this technology to detect human ovarian cancer cells in four different microfluidic channels fabricated using soft lithography. Microfluidic CODES offers a simple, all-electronic interface that is well suited to create integrated, low-cost lab-on-a-chip devices for cell- or particle-based assays in resource-limited settings.

Optimization of the particle pusher in a diode simulation code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Theimer, M.M.; Quintenz, J.P.

1979-09-01

The particle pusher in Sandia's particle-in-cell diode simulation code has been rewritten to reduce the required run time of a typical simulation. The resulting new version of the code has been found to run up to three times as fast as the original with comparable accuracy. The cost of this optimization was an increase in storage requirements of about 15%. The new version has also been written to run efficiently on a CRAY-1 computing system. Steps taken to affect this reduced run time are described. Various test cases are detailed

Particle-in-cell simulations of fast magnetic field penetration into plasmas due to the Hall electric field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swanekamp, S.B.; Grossmann, J.M.; Fruchtman, A.; Oliver, B.V.; Ottinger, P.F.

1996-01-01

Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to study the penetration of magnetic field into plasmas in the electron-magnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) regime. These simulations represent the first definitive verification of EMHD with a PIC code. When ions are immobile, the PIC results reproduce many aspects of fluid treatments of the problem. However, the PIC results show a speed of penetration that is between 10% and 50% slower than predicted by one-dimensional fluid treatments. In addition, the PIC simulations show the formation of vortices in the electron flow behind the EMHD shock front. The size of these vortices is on the order of the collisionless electron skin depth and is closely coupled to the effects of electron inertia. An energy analysis shows that one-half the energy entering the plasma is stored as magnetic field energy while the other half is shared between internal plasma energy (thermal motion and electron vortices) and electron kinetic energy loss from the volume to the boundaries. The amount of internal plasma energy saturates after an initial transient phase so that late in time the rate that magnetic energy increases in the plasma is the same as the rate at which kinetic energy flows out through the boundaries. When ions are mobile it is observed that axial magnetic field penetration is followed by localized thinning in the ion density. The density thinning is produced by the large electrostatic fields that exist inside the electron vortices which act to reduce the space-charge imbalance necessary to support the vortices. This mechanism may play a role during the opening process of a plasma opening switch. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

A particle-in-cell method for modeling small angle Coulomb collisions in plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, S.E.

1989-01-01

We propose a computational method to self-consistently model small angle collisional effects. This method may be added to standard Particle-In-Cell (PIC) plasma simulations to include collisions, or as an alternative to solving the Fokker-Planck (FP) equation using finite difference methods. The distribution function is represented by a large number of particles. The particle velocities change due to the drag force, and the diffusion in velocity is represented by a random process. This is similar to previous Monte-Carlo methods except we calculate the drag force and diffusion tensor self- consistently. The particles are weighted to a grid in velocity space and associated ''Poisson equations'' are solved for the Rosenbluth potentials. The motivation is to avoid the very time consuming method of Coulomb scattering pair by pair. First the approximation for small angle Coulomb collisions is discussed. Next, the FP-PIC collision method is outlined. Then we show a test of the particle advance modeling an electron beam scattering off a fixed ion background. 4 refs

Beam Dynamics in an Electron Lens with the Warp Particle-in-cell Code

CERN Document Server

Stancari, Giulio; Redaelli, Stefano

2014-01-01

Electron lenses are a mature technique for beam manipulation in colliders and storage rings. In an electron lens, a pulsed, magnetically confined electron beam with a given current-density profile interacts with the circulating beam to obtain the desired effect. Electron lenses were used in the Fermilab Tevatron collider for beam-beam compensation, for abort-gap clearing, and for halo scraping. They will be used in RHIC at BNL for head-on beam-beam compensation, and their application to the Large Hadron Collider for halo control is under development. At Fermilab, electron lenses will be implemented as lattice elements for nonlinear integrable optics. The design of electron lenses requires tools to calculate the kicks and wakefields experienced by the circulating beam. We use the Warp particle-in-cell code to study generation, transport, and evolution of the electron beam. For the first time, a fully 3-dimensional code is used for this purpose.

Particle Transport in ECRH Plasmas of the TJ-II; Transporte de Particulas en Plasmas ECRH del TJ-II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vargas, V. I.; Lopez-Bruna, D.; Estrada, T.; Guasp, J.; Reynolds, J. M.; Velasco, J. L.; Herranz, J.

2007-07-01

We present a systematic study of particle transport in ECRH plasmas of TJ-II with different densities. The goal is to fi nd particle confinement time and electron diffusivity dependence with line-averaged density. The experimental information consists of electron temperature profiles, T{sub e} (Thomson Scattering TS) and electron density, n{sub e}, (TS and reflectometry) and measured puffing data in stationary discharges. The profile of the electron source, Se, was obtained by the 3D Monte-Carlo code EIRENE. The analysis of particle balance has been done by linking the results of the code EIRENE with the results of a model that reproduces ECRH plasmas in stationary conditions. In the range of densities studied (0.58 {<=}n{sub e}> (10{sup 1}9m{sup -}3) {<=}0.80) there are two regions of confinement separated by a threshold density, {approx}0.65 10{sup 1}9m{sup -}3. Below this threshold density the particle confinement time is low, and vice versa. This is reflected in the effective diffusivity, D{sub e}, which in the range of validity of this study, 0.5 <{rho}<0.9 being {rho} normalized plasma radius, decreased significantly above the threshold density. The profiles of D{sub e} are flat for {>=}0,63(10{sup 1}9m{sup -}3). (Author) 35 refs.

Dusty-Plasma Particle Accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, John E.

2005-01-01

A dusty-plasma apparatus is being investigated as means of accelerating nanometer- and micrometer-sized particles. Applications for the dusty-plasma particle accelerators fall into two classes: Simulation of a variety of rapidly moving dust particles and micrometeoroids in outer-space environments that include micrometeoroid streams, comet tails, planetary rings, and nebulae and Deposition or implantation of nanoparticles on substrates for diverse industrial purposes that could include hardening, increasing thermal insulation, altering optical properties, and/or increasing permittivities of substrate materials. Relative to prior apparatuses used for similar applications, dusty-plasma particle accelerators offer such potential advantages as smaller size, lower cost, less complexity, and increased particle flux densities. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator exploits the fact that an isolated particle immersed in plasma acquires a net electric charge that depends on the relative mobilities of electrons and ions. Typically, a particle that is immersed in a low-temperature, partially ionized gas, wherein the average kinetic energy of electrons exceeds that of ions, causes the particle to become negatively charged. The particle can then be accelerated by applying an appropriate electric field. A dusty-plasma particle accelerator (see figure) includes a plasma source such as a radio-frequency induction discharge apparatus containing (1) a shallow cup with a biasable electrode to hold the particles to be accelerated and (2) a holder for the substrate on which the particles are to impinge. Depending on the specific design, a pair of electrostatic-acceleration grids between the substrate and discharge plasma can be used to both collimate and further accelerate particles exiting the particle holder. Once exposed to the discharge plasma, the particles in the cup quickly acquire a negative charge. Application of a negative voltage pulse to the biasable electrode results in the

Numerical simulation of neutral particle evolution in the plasma of a Tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mercier, C.; Werkoff, F.

1976-11-01

A numerical code previously described is used to simulate the evolution of neutral particles in a cylindrical plasma. The influence of the incoming neutral energy on their repartition inside the plasma is briefly studied. The flux of the neutrals emitted by the plasma and hitting the wall is given as a function of the energy. The effect of various plasma parameters on the apparent value of the ion temperature obtained by analyzing the emitted neutral spectrum in a given direction is also studied [fr

Plasma simulation by macroscale, electromagnetic particle code and its application to current-drive by relativistic electron beam injection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, M.; Sato, T.

1985-01-01

A new implicit macroscale electromagnetic particle simulation code (MARC) which allows a large scale length and a time step in multi-dimensions is described. Finite mass electrons and ions are used with relativistic version of the equation of motion. The electromagnetic fields are solved by using a complete set of Maxwell equations. For time integration of the field equations, a decentered (backward) finite differencing scheme is employed with the predictor - corrector method for small noise and super-stability. It is shown both in analytical and numerical ways that the present scheme efficiently suppresses high frequency electrostatic and electromagnetic waves in a plasma, and that it accurately reproduces low frequency waves such as ion acoustic waves, Alfven waves and fast magnetosonic waves. The present numerical scheme has currently been coded in three dimensions for application to a new tokamak current-drive method by means of relativistic electron beam injection. Some remarks of the proper macroscale code application is presented in this paper

Review of particle-in-cell modeling for the extraction region of large negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion

Science.gov (United States)

Wünderlich, D.; Mochalskyy, S.; Montellano, I. M.; Revel, A.

2018-05-01

Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are used since the early 1960s for calculating self-consistently the motion of charged particles in plasmas, taking into account external electric and magnetic fields as well as the fields created by the particles itself. Due to the used very small time steps (in the order of the inverse plasma frequency) and mesh size, the computational requirements can be very high and they drastically increase with increasing plasma density and size of the calculation domain. Thus, usually small computational domains and/or reduced dimensionality are used. In the last years, the available central processing unit (CPU) power strongly increased. Together with a massive parallelization of the codes, it is now possible to describe in 3D the extraction of charged particles from a plasma, using calculation domains with an edge length of several centimeters, consisting of one extraction aperture, the plasma in direct vicinity of the aperture, and a part of the extraction system. Large negative hydrogen or deuterium ion sources are essential parts of the neutral beam injection (NBI) system in future fusion devices like the international fusion experiment ITER and the demonstration reactor (DEMO). For ITER NBI RF driven sources with a source area of 0.9 × 1.9 m2 and 1280 extraction apertures will be used. The extraction of negative ions is accompanied by the co-extraction of electrons which are deflected onto an electron dump. Typically, the maximum negative extracted ion current is limited by the amount and the temporal instability of the co-extracted electrons, especially for operation in deuterium. Different PIC codes are available for the extraction region of large driven negative ion sources for fusion. Additionally, some effort is ongoing in developing codes that describe in a simplified manner (coarser mesh or reduced dimensionality) the plasma of the whole ion source. The presentation first gives a brief overview of the current status of the ion

Particle-in-cell simulations of plasma opening switch with external magnetic field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Yulan; Zeng Zhengzhong; Sun Fengju

2003-01-01

Fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations are performed to study the effects of an external magnetic field on coaxial plasma opening switch (POS). The simulation results show that POS opening performance can be significantly improved only when external longitudinal magnetic field coils are placed at the cathode side, and an additional azimuthal magnetic field is effective whether the central electrode is of positive or negative polarity. Voltage multiplication coefficient K rises with the additional magnetic field increasing till the electron current is completely magnetically insulated during the opening of POS

Particle-in-cell simulations of high energy electron production by intense laser pulses in underdense plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Susumu, Kato; Eisuke, Miura; Kazuyoshi, Koyama; Mitsumori, Tanimoto; Masahiro, Adachi

2004-01-01

The propagation of intense laser pulses and the generation of high energy electrons from underdense plasmas are investigated using two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When the ratio of the laser power to the critical power of relativistic self-focusing gets the optimal value, the laser pulse propagates in a steady way and electrons have maximum energies. (author)

Particle-in-cell simulations of high energy electron production by intense laser pulses in underdense plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Susumu, Kato; Eisuke, Miura; Kazuyoshi, Koyama [National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki (Japan); Mitsumori, Tanimoto [Meisei Univ., Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Hino, Tokyo (Japan); Masahiro, Adachi [Hiroshima Univ., Graduate school of Advanced Science of Matter, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima (Japan)

2004-07-01

The propagation of intense laser pulses and the generation of high energy electrons from underdense plasmas are investigated using two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When the ratio of the laser power to the critical power of relativistic self-focusing gets the optimal value, the laser pulse propagates in a steady way and electrons have maximum energies. (author)

Kinetic Simulations of Plasma Energization and Particle Acceleration in Interacting Magnetic Flux Ropes

Science.gov (United States)

Du, S.; Guo, F.; Zank, G. P.; Li, X.; Stanier, A.

2017-12-01

The interaction between magnetic flux ropes has been suggested as a process that leads to efficient plasma energization and particle acceleration (e.g., Drake et al. 2013; Zank et al. 2014). However, the underlying plasma dynamics and acceleration mechanisms are subject to examination of numerical simulations. As a first step of this effort, we carry out 2D fully kinetic simulations using the VPIC code to study the plasma energization and particle acceleration during coalescence of two magnetic flux ropes. Our analysis shows that the reconnection electric field and compression effect are important in plasma energization. The results may help understand the energization process associated with magnetic flux ropes frequently observed in the solar wind near the heliospheric current sheet.

Axisymmetric particle-in-cell simulations of diamagnetic-cavity formation in vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gisler, G.

1989-01-01

Axisymmetric simulations of the expansion of a hot plasma suddenly introduced into a vacuum containing a weak magnetic field were performed using an electromagnetic particle-in-cell code. Both uniform and gradient fields have been used, with the simulation axis along the principle field direction. The formation of a diamagnetic cavity requires an initial plasma β > 1; as the expansion proceeds, β diminishes, and the field eventually recovers. The maximum spatial extent of the cavity and its duration can be obtained from simple dynamical considerations. Field-aligned ion acceleration behind the electron front is observed in all field geometries and strengths. In the case of expansion into a divergent field, the plasma is found to move down the field gradient by ambipolar diffusion. These simulations are relevant to active release experiments in the Earth's magnetosphere, to pellet ablation experiments, and to the naturally occurring diamagnetic bubbles observed at the Earth's foreshock

Extensions of the 3-dimensional plasma transport code E3D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Runov, A.; Schneider, R.; Kasilov, S.; Reiter, D.

2004-01-01

One important aspect of modern fusion research is plasma edge physics. Fluid transport codes extending beyond the standard 2-D code packages like B2-Eirene or UEDGE are under development. A 3-dimensional plasma fluid code, E3D, based upon the Multiple Coordinate System Approach and a Monte Carlo integration procedure has been developed for general magnetic configurations including ergodic regions. These local magnetic coordinates lead to a full metric tensor which accurately accounts for all transport terms in the equations. Here, we discuss new computational aspects of the realization of the algorithm. The main limitation to the Monte Carlo code efficiency comes from the restriction on the parallel jump of advancing test particles which must be small compared to the gradient length of the diffusion coefficient. In our problems, the parallel diffusion coefficient depends on both plasma and magnetic field parameters. Usually, the second dependence is much more critical. In order to allow long parallel jumps, this dependence can be eliminated in two steps: first, the longitudinal coordinate x 3 of local magnetic coordinates is modified in such a way that in the new coordinate system the metric determinant and contra-variant components of the magnetic field scale along the magnetic field with powers of the magnetic field module (like in Boozer flux coordinates). Second, specific weights of the test particles are introduced. As a result of increased parallel jump length, the efficiency of the code is about two orders of magnitude better. (copyright 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

A parallel electrostatic Particle-in-Cell method on unstructured tetrahedral grids for large-scale bounded collisionless plasma simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Averkin, Sergey N.; Gatsonis, Nikolaos A.

2018-06-01

An unstructured electrostatic Particle-In-Cell (EUPIC) method is developed on arbitrary tetrahedral grids for simulation of plasmas bounded by arbitrary geometries. The electric potential in EUPIC is obtained on cell vertices from a finite volume Multi-Point Flux Approximation of Gauss' law using the indirect dual cell with Dirichlet, Neumann and external circuit boundary conditions. The resulting matrix equation for the nodal potential is solved with a restarted generalized minimal residual method (GMRES) and an ILU(0) preconditioner algorithm, parallelized using a combination of node coloring and level scheduling approaches. The electric field on vertices is obtained using the gradient theorem applied to the indirect dual cell. The algorithms for injection, particle loading, particle motion, and particle tracking are parallelized for unstructured tetrahedral grids. The algorithms for the potential solver, electric field evaluation, loading, scatter-gather algorithms are verified using analytic solutions for test cases subject to Laplace and Poisson equations. Grid sensitivity analysis examines the L2 and L∞ norms of the relative error in potential, field, and charge density as a function of edge-averaged and volume-averaged cell size. Analysis shows second order of convergence for the potential and first order of convergence for the electric field and charge density. Temporal sensitivity analysis is performed and the momentum and energy conservation properties of the particle integrators in EUPIC are examined. The effects of cell size and timestep on heating, slowing-down and the deflection times are quantified. The heating, slowing-down and the deflection times are found to be almost linearly dependent on number of particles per cell. EUPIC simulations of current collection by cylindrical Langmuir probes in collisionless plasmas show good comparison with previous experimentally validated numerical results. These simulations were also used in a parallelization

Mesh Refinement for Particle-In-Cell Plasma Simulations: Applications to - and benefits for - Heavy-Ion-Fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vay, J.-L.; Colella, P.; McCorquodale, P.; Van Straalen, B.; Friedman, A.; Grote, D.P.

2002-01-01

The numerical simulation of the driving beams in a heavy ion fusion power plant is a challenging task, and simulation of the power plant as a whole, or even of the driver, is not yet possible. Despite the rapid progress in computer power, past and anticipated, one must consider the use of the most advanced numerical techniques, if we are to reach our goal expeditiously. One of the difficulties of these simulations resides in the disparity of scales, in time and in space, which must be resolved. When these disparities are in distinctive zones of the simulation region, a method which has proven to be effective in other areas (e.g., fluid dynamics simulations) is the mesh refinement technique. They discuss the challenges posed by the implementation of this technique into plasma simulations (due to the presence of particles and electromagnetic waves). They will present the prospects for and projected benefits of its application to heavy ion fusion. In particular to the simulation of the ion source and the final beam propagation in the chamber. A collaboration project is under way at LBNL between the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group (ANAG) and the HIF group to couple the Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) library (CHOMBO) developed by the ANAG group to the Particle-In-Cell accelerator code WARP developed by the HIF-VNL. They describe their progress and present their initial findings

Particle-in-cell simulations of the plasma interaction with poloidal gaps in the ITER divertor outer vertical target.

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Komm, Michael; Gunn, J. P.; Dejarnac, Renaud; Pánek, Radomír; Pitts, R.A.; Podolník, Aleš

2017-01-01

Roč. 57, č. 12 (2017), č. článku 126047. ISSN 0029-5515 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA16-14228S; GA MŠk(CZ) 8D15001 Grant - others:Ga MŠk(CZ) LM2015070 Institutional support: RVO:61389021 Keywords : tokamak * plasma * ITER * particle-in-cell * heat loads * monoblock Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics OBOR OECD: Fluids and plasma physics (including surface physics) Impact factor: 3.307, year: 2016 http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1741-4326/aa8a9a/meta

On the numerical dispersion of electromagnetic particle-in-cell code: Finite grid instability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyers, M.D.; Huang, C.-K.; Zeng, Y.; Yi, S.A.; Albright, B.J.

2015-01-01

The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method is widely used in relativistic particle beam and laser plasma modeling. However, the PIC method exhibits numerical instabilities that can render unphysical simulation results or even destroy the simulation. For electromagnetic relativistic beam and plasma modeling, the most relevant numerical instabilities are the finite grid instability and the numerical Cherenkov instability. We review the numerical dispersion relation of the Electromagnetic PIC model. We rigorously derive the faithful 3-D numerical dispersion relation of the PIC model, for a simple, direct current deposition scheme, which does not conserve electric charge exactly. We then specialize to the Yee FDTD scheme. In particular, we clarify the presence of alias modes in an eigenmode analysis of the PIC model, which combines both discrete and continuous variables. The manner in which the PIC model updates and samples the fields and distribution function, together with the temporal and spatial phase factors from solving Maxwell's equations on the Yee grid with the leapfrog scheme, is explicitly accounted for. Numerical solutions to the electrostatic-like modes in the 1-D dispersion relation for a cold drifting plasma are obtained for parameters of interest. In the succeeding analysis, we investigate how the finite grid instability arises from the interaction of the numerical modes admitted in the system and their aliases. The most significant interaction is due critically to the correct representation of the operators in the dispersion relation. We obtain a simple analytic expression for the peak growth rate due to this interaction, which is then verified by simulation. We demonstrate that our analysis is readily extendable to charge conserving models

On the numerical dispersion of electromagnetic particle-in-cell code: Finite grid instability

Science.gov (United States)

Meyers, M. D.; Huang, C.-K.; Zeng, Y.; Yi, S. A.; Albright, B. J.

2015-09-01

The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method is widely used in relativistic particle beam and laser plasma modeling. However, the PIC method exhibits numerical instabilities that can render unphysical simulation results or even destroy the simulation. For electromagnetic relativistic beam and plasma modeling, the most relevant numerical instabilities are the finite grid instability and the numerical Cherenkov instability. We review the numerical dispersion relation of the Electromagnetic PIC model. We rigorously derive the faithful 3-D numerical dispersion relation of the PIC model, for a simple, direct current deposition scheme, which does not conserve electric charge exactly. We then specialize to the Yee FDTD scheme. In particular, we clarify the presence of alias modes in an eigenmode analysis of the PIC model, which combines both discrete and continuous variables. The manner in which the PIC model updates and samples the fields and distribution function, together with the temporal and spatial phase factors from solving Maxwell's equations on the Yee grid with the leapfrog scheme, is explicitly accounted for. Numerical solutions to the electrostatic-like modes in the 1-D dispersion relation for a cold drifting plasma are obtained for parameters of interest. In the succeeding analysis, we investigate how the finite grid instability arises from the interaction of the numerical modes admitted in the system and their aliases. The most significant interaction is due critically to the correct representation of the operators in the dispersion relation. We obtain a simple analytic expression for the peak growth rate due to this interaction, which is then verified by simulation. We demonstrate that our analysis is readily extendable to charge conserving models.

Gyrokinetic Electron and Fully Kinetic Ion Particle Simulation of Collisionless Plasma Dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu Lin; Xueyi Wang; Liu Chen; Zhihong Lin

2009-08-11

Fully kinetic-particle simulations and hybrid simulations have been utilized for decades to investigate various fundamental plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, fast compressional waves, and wave-particle interaction. Nevertheless, due to disparate temporal and spatial scales between electrons and ions, existing fully kinetic-particle codes have to employ either unrealistically high electron-to-ion mass ratio, me/mi, or simulation domain limited to a few or a few ten's of the ion Larmor radii, or/and time much less than the global Alfven time scale in order to accommodate available computing resources. On the other hand, in the hybrid simulation, the ions are treated as fully kinetic particles but the electrons are treated as a massless fluid. The electron kinetic effects, e.g., wave-particle resonances and finite electron Larmor radius effects, are completely missing. Important physics, such as the electron transit time damping of fast compressional waves or the triggering mechanism of magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas is absent in the hybrid codes. Motivated by these considerations and noting that dynamics of interest to us has frequencies lower than the electron gyrofrequency, we planned to develop an innovative particle simulation model, gyrokinetic (GK) electrons and fully kinetic (FK) ions. In the GK-electron and FK-ion (GKe/FKi) particle simulation model, the rapid electron cyclotron motion is removed, while keeping finite electron Larmor radii, realistic me/mi ratio, wave-particle interactions, and off-diagonal components of electron pressure tensor. The computation power can thus be significantly improved over that of the full-particle codes. As planned in the project DE-FG02-05ER54826, we have finished the development of the new GK-electron and FK-ion scheme, finished its benchmark for a uniform plasma in 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D systems against linear waves obtained from analytical theories, and carried out a further convergence

Gyrokinetic Electron and Fully Kinetic Ion Particle Simulation of Collisionless Plasma Dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Yu; Wang, Xueyi; Chen, Liu; Lin, Zhihong

2009-01-01

Fully kinetic-particle simulations and hybrid simulations have been utilized for decades to investigate various fundamental plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, fast compressional waves, and wave-particle interaction. Nevertheless, due to disparate temporal and spatial scales between electrons and ions, existing fully kinetic-particle codes have to employ either unrealistically high electron-to-ion mass ratio, me/mi, or simulation domain limited to a few or a few ten's of the ion Larmor radii, or/and time much less than the global Alfven time scale in order to accommodate available computing resources. On the other hand, in the hybrid simulation, the ions are treated as fully kinetic particles but the electrons are treated as a massless fluid. The electron kinetic effects, e.g., wave-particle resonances and finite electron Larmor radius effects, are completely missing. Important physics, such as the electron transit time damping of fast compressional waves or the triggering mechanism of magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas is absent in the hybrid codes. Motivated by these considerations and noting that dynamics of interest to us has frequencies lower than the electron gyrofrequency, we planned to develop an innovative particle simulation model, gyrokinetic (GK) electrons and fully kinetic (FK) ions. In the GK-electron and FK-ion (GKe/FKi) particle simulation model, the rapid electron cyclotron motion is removed, while keeping finite electron Larmor radii, realistic me/mi ratio, wave-particle interactions, and off-diagonal components of electron pressure tensor. The computation power can thus be significantly improved over that of the full-particle codes. As planned in the project DE-FG02-05ER54826, we have finished the development of the new GK-electron and FK-ion scheme, finished its benchmark for a uniform plasma in 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D systems against linear waves obtained from analytical theories, and carried out a further convergence test

A Fokker-Planck-Landau collision equation solver on two-dimensional velocity grid and its application to particle-in-cell simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoon, E. S.; Chang, C. S., E-mail: cschang@pppl.gov [Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States); Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yuseong-gu, DaeJeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)

2014-03-15

An approximate two-dimensional solver of the nonlinear Fokker-Planck-Landau collision operator has been developed using the assumption that the particle probability distribution function is independent of gyroangle in the limit of strong magnetic field. The isotropic one-dimensional scheme developed for nonlinear Fokker-Planck-Landau equation by Buet and Cordier [J. Comput. Phys. 179, 43 (2002)] and for linear Fokker-Planck-Landau equation by Chang and Cooper [J. Comput. Phys. 6, 1 (1970)] have been modified and extended to two-dimensional nonlinear equation. In addition, a method is suggested to apply the new velocity-grid based collision solver to Lagrangian particle-in-cell simulation by adjusting the weights of marker particles and is applied to a five dimensional particle-in-cell code to calculate the neoclassical ion thermal conductivity in a tokamak plasma. Error verifications show practical aspects of the present scheme for both grid-based and particle-based kinetic codes.

Plasma particle accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dawson, J.M.

1988-01-01

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) will require an 87-kilometer accelerator ring to boost particles to 40 TeV. The SSC's size is due in part to the fact that its operating principle is the same one that has dominated accelerator design for 50 years: it guides particles by means of magnetic fields and propels them by strong electric fields. If one were to build an equally powerful but smaller accelerator, one would need to increase the strength of the guiding and propelling fields. Actually, however, conventional technology may not be able to provide significant increases in field strength. There are two reasons. First, the forces from magnetic fields are becoming greater than the structural forces that hold a magnetic material together; the magnets that produce these fields would themselves be torn apart. Second, the energy from electric fields is reaching the energies that bind electrons to atoms; it would tear electrons from nuclei in the accelerator's support structures. It is the electric field problem that plasma accelerators can overcome. Plasma particle accelerators are based on the principle that particles can be accelerated by the electric fields generated within a plasma. Because the plasma has already been ionized, plasma particle accelerators are not susceptible to electron dissociation. They can in theory sustain accelerating fields thousands of times stronger that conventional technologies. So far two methods for creating plasma waves for accelerators have been proposed and tested: the wakefield and the beat wave. Although promising electric fields have been produced, more research is necessary to determine whether plasma particle accelerators can compete with the existing accelerators. 7 figs

Particle melting and particle/plasma interactions in DC and RF plasmas: a modeling study. (Volumes I and II)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wei, D.Y.C.

1987-01-01

Integral process models were developed to predict particle melting in both DC and RF plasmas. Specifically, a numerical model has been developed to predict the temperature history of particles injected in a low pressure DC plasma jet. The temperature and velocity fields of the plasma jet are predicted as a free jet by solving the parabolized Navier-Stokes equations using a spatial marching scheme. Correction factors were introduced to take into account non continuum effects encountered in the low pressure environment. The plasma jet profiles as well as the particle/plasma interactions under different jet pressure ratios (from underexpanded to overexpanded) were investigated. The flow and temperature fields in the RF plasma torch are calculated using the axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations based on the primitive variables, along with pseudo two-dimensional electromagnetic field equations. Particle trajectories and heat transfer characteristics in both DC and RF plasmas are calculated using predicted plasma jet profiles. Particle melting efficiencies in both DC and RF plasmas are evaluated and compared using model alloy systems. Based on the theoretical considerations, an alternative route of plasma spraying process (hybrid plasma spraying process) is proposed. An evaluation of particle melting in hybrid plasma jets had indicated that further improvement in deposit properties could be made

Gyrokinetic simulation of particle and heat transport in the presence of Wide orbits and strong profile variations in the Edge plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heikkinen, J.A.; Henriksson, S.; Janhunen, S.; Kiviniemi, T.P.; Ogando, F.

2006-01-01

A full f nonlinear 5D gyrokinetic electrostatic particle-in-cell code ELMFIRE using an implicit direct solution method for ion polarization drift and electron parallel velocity response to electric field and its validation are described. The developed code is applied for transport analysis in a tokamak plasma at steep pressure gradient. The role of turbulence and neoclassical equilibrium in determining the flux surface averaged radial electric field component are investigated, as well as the role of the latter in affecting the saturation level of the turbulence. (copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

Experimental benchmark of the NINJA code for application to the Linac4 H- ion source plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Briefi, S.; Mattei, S.; Rauner, D.; Lettry, J.; Tran, M. Q.; Fantz, U.

2017-10-01

For a dedicated performance optimization of negative hydrogen ion sources applied at particle accelerators, a detailed assessment of the plasma processes is required. Due to the compact design of these sources, diagnostic access is typically limited to optical emission spectroscopy yielding only line-of-sight integrated results. In order to allow for a spatially resolved investigation, the electromagnetic particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision code NINJA has been developed for the Linac4 ion source at CERN. This code considers the RF field generated by the ICP coil as well as the external static magnetic fields and calculates self-consistently the resulting discharge properties. NINJA is benchmarked at the diagnostically well accessible lab experiment CHARLIE (Concept studies for Helicon Assisted RF Low pressure Ion sourcEs) at varying RF power and gas pressure. A good general agreement is observed between experiment and simulation although the simulated electron density trends for varying pressure and power as well as the absolute electron temperature values deviate slightly from the measured ones. This can be explained by the assumption of strong inductive coupling in NINJA, whereas the CHARLIE discharges show the characteristics of loosely coupled plasmas. For the Linac4 plasma, this assumption is valid. Accordingly, both the absolute values of the accessible plasma parameters and their trends for varying RF power agree well in measurement and simulation. At varying RF power, the H- current extracted from the Linac4 source peaks at 40 kW. For volume operation, this is perfectly reflected by assessing the processes in front of the extraction aperture based on the simulation results where the highest H- density is obtained for the same power level. In surface operation, the production of negative hydrogen ions at the converter surface can only be considered by specialized beam formation codes, which require plasma parameters as input. It has been demonstrated that

Towards the optimization of a gyrokinetic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code on large-scale hybrid architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohana, N; Lanti, E; Tran, T M; Brunner, S; Hariri, F; Villard, L; Jocksch, A; Gheller, C

2016-01-01

With the aim of enabling state-of-the-art gyrokinetic PIC codes to benefit from the performance of recent multithreaded devices, we developed an application from a platform called the “PIC-engine” [1, 2, 3] embedding simplified basic features of the PIC method. The application solves the gyrokinetic equations in a sheared plasma slab using B-spline finite elements up to fourth order to represent the self-consistent electrostatic field. Preliminary studies of the so-called Particle-In-Fourier (PIF) approach, which uses Fourier modes as basis functions in the periodic dimensions of the system instead of the real-space grid, show that this method can be faster than PIC for simulations with a small number of Fourier modes. Similarly to the PIC-engine, multiple levels of parallelism have been implemented using MPI+OpenMP [2] and MPI+OpenACC [1], the latter exploiting the computational power of GPUs without requiring complete code rewriting. It is shown that sorting particles [3] can lead to performance improvement by increasing data locality and vectorizing grid memory access. Weak scalability tests have been successfully run on the GPU-equipped Cray XC30 Piz Daint (at CSCS) up to 4,096 nodes. The reduced time-to-solution will enable more realistic and thus more computationally intensive simulations of turbulent transport in magnetic fusion devices. (paper)

Plasma wall particle balance in Tore Supra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grisolia, C.; Ghendrih, P.; Pegourie, B.; Grosman, A.

1992-01-01

A comprehensive study of the particle balance between the carbon wall and the plasma is presented. One finds that the effective particle content of the wall which governs the plasma equilibrium density departs from the deposited number of particles. This effect is dominant for the fully desaturated wall. A scaling law of the plasma density in terms of the wall effective particle content has been obtained. Moreover, the experimental data allows to estimate the plasma particle confinement time. Values ranging from 0.2 s to 0.5 s are found depending on the density. An analytical functional dependence of the particle confinement time is obtained

Particle-in-cell simulations of multi-MeV pulsed X-ray induced air plasmas at low pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ribière, M.; D'Almeida, T.; Gaufridy de Dortan, F. de; Maulois, M.; Delbos, C.; Garrigues, A.; Cessenat, O.; Azaïs, B.

2016-01-01

A full kinetic modelling of the charge particles dynamics generated upon the irradiation of an air-filled cavity by a multi-MeV pulsed x-ray is performed. From the calculated radiative source generated by the ASTERIX generator, we calculated the electromagnetic fields generated by x-ray induced air plasmas in a metallic cavity at different pressures. Simulations are carried out based on a Particle-In-Cell interpolation method which uses 3D Maxwell-Vlasov calculations of the constitutive charged species densities of air plasmas at different pressures at equilibrium. The resulting electromagnetic fields within the cavity are calculated for different electron densities up to 4 × 10"1"0" cm"−"3. For each air pressure, we show electronic plasma waves formation followed by Landau damping. As electron density increases, the calculations exhibit space-charged neutralization and return current formation.

The Darwin direct implicit particle-in-cell (DADIPIC) method for simulation of low frequency plasma phenomena

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gibbons, M.R.; Hewett, D.W.

1995-01-01

We describe a new algorithm for simulating low frequency, kinetic phenomena in plasma. Darwin direct implicit particle-in-cell (DADIPIC), as its name implies, is a combination of the Darwin and direct implicit methods. Through the Darwin method the hyperbolic Maxwell's equations are reformulated into a set of elliptic equations. Propagating light waves do not exist in the formulation so the Courant constraint on the time step is eliminated. The direct implicit method is applied only to the electrostatic field with the result that electrostatic plasma oscillations do not have to be resolved for stability. With the elimination of these constraints spatial and temporal discretization can be much larger than that possible with explicit, electrodynamic PIC. We discuss the algorithms for pushing the particles and solving the fields in 2D cartesian geometry. We also detail boundary conditions for conductors and dielectrics. Finally, we present two test cases, electron cyclotron waves and collisionless heating in inductively coupled plasmas. For these test cases DADIPIC shows agreement with analytic kinetic theory and good energy conservation characteristics. 33 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs

DOUBLE code simulations of emissivities of fast neutrals for different plasma observation view-lines of neutral particle analyzers on the COMPASS tokamak

Science.gov (United States)

Mitosinkova, K.; Tomes, M.; Stockel, J.; Varju, J.; Stano, M.

2018-03-01

Neutral particle analyzers (NPA) measure line-integrated energy spectra of fast neutral atoms escaping the tokamak plasma, which are a product of charge-exchange (CX) collisions of plasma ions with background neutrals. They can observe variations in the ion temperature T i of non-thermal fast ions created by additional plasma heating. However, the plasma column which a fast atom has to pass through must be sufficiently short in comparison with the fast atom’s mean-free-path. Tokamak COMPASS is currently equipped with one NPA installed at a tangential mid-plane port. This orientation is optimal for observing non-thermal fast ions. However, in this configuration the signal at energies useful for T i derivation is lost in noise due to the too long fast atoms’ trajectories. Thus, a second NPA is planned to be connected for the purpose of measuring T i. We analyzed different possible view-lines (perpendicular mid-plane, tangential mid-plane, and top view) for the second NPA using the DOUBLE Monte-Carlo code and compared the results with the performance of the present NPA with tangential orientation. The DOUBLE code provides fast-atoms’ emissivity functions along the NPA view-line. The position of the median of these emissivity functions is related to the location from where the measured signal originates. Further, we compared the difference between the real central T i used as a DOUBLE code input and the T iCX derived from the exponential decay of simulated energy spectra. The advantages and disadvantages of each NPA location are discussed.

Application of diffusion theory to the transport of neutral particles in fusion plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasan, M.Z.

1985-01-01

It is shown that the widely held view that diffusion theory can not provide good accuracy for the transport of neutral particles in fusion plasmas is misplaced. In fact, it is shown that multigroup diffusion theory gives quite good accuracy as compared to the transport theory. The reasons for this are elaborated and some of the physical and theoretical reasons which make the multigroup diffusion theory provide good accuracy are explained. Energy dependence must be taken into consideration to obtain a realistic neutral atom distribution in fusion plasmas. There are two reasons for this; presence of either is enough to necessitate an energy dependent treatment. First, the plasma temperature varies spatially, and second, the ratio of charge-exchange to total plasma-neutral interaction cross section (c) is not close to one. A computer code to solve the one-dimensional multigroup diffusion theory in general geometry (slab, cylindrical and spherical) has been written for use on Cray computers, and its results are compared with those from the one-dimensional transport code ANISN to support the above finding. A fast, compact and versatile two-dimensional finite element multigroup diffusion theory code, FINAT, in X-Y and R-Z cylindrical/toroidal geometries has been written for use on CRAY computers. This code has been compared with the two dimensional transport code DOT-4.3. The accuracy is very good, and FENAT runs much faster compared even to DOT-4.3 which is a finite difference code

Parallel Finite Element Particle-In-Cell Code for Simulations of Space-charge Dominated Beam-Cavity Interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Candel, A.; Kabel, A.; Ko, K.; Lee, L.; Li, Z.; Limborg, C.; Ng, C.; Prudencio, E.; Schussman, G.; Uplenchwar, R.

2007-01-01

Over the past years, SLAC's Advanced Computations Department (ACD) has developed the parallel finite element (FE) particle-in-cell code Pic3P (Pic2P) for simulations of beam-cavity interactions dominated by space-charge effects. As opposed to standard space-charge dominated beam transport codes, which are based on the electrostatic approximation, Pic3P (Pic2P) includes space-charge, retardation and boundary effects as it self-consistently solves the complete set of Maxwell-Lorentz equations using higher-order FE methods on conformal meshes. Use of efficient, large-scale parallel processing allows for the modeling of photoinjectors with unprecedented accuracy, aiding the design and operation of the next-generation of accelerator facilities. Applications to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) RF gun are presented

Computer codes in particle transport physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pesic, M.

2004-01-01

Simulation of transport and interaction of various particles in complex media and wide energy range (from 1 MeV up to 1 TeV) is very complicated problem that requires valid model of a real process in nature and appropriate solving tool - computer code and data library. A brief overview of computer codes based on Monte Carlo techniques for simulation of transport and interaction of hadrons and ions in wide energy range in three dimensional (3D) geometry is shown. Firstly, a short attention is paid to underline the approach to the solution of the problem - process in nature - by selection of the appropriate 3D model and corresponding tools - computer codes and cross sections data libraries. Process of data collection and evaluation from experimental measurements and theoretical approach to establishing reliable libraries of evaluated cross sections data is Ion g, difficult and not straightforward activity. For this reason, world reference data centers and specialized ones are acknowledged, together with the currently available, state of art evaluated nuclear data libraries, as the ENDF/B-VI, JEF, JENDL, CENDL, BROND, etc. Codes for experimental and theoretical data evaluations (e.g., SAMMY and GNASH) together with the codes for data processing (e.g., NJOY, PREPRO and GRUCON) are briefly described. Examples of data evaluation and data processing to generate computer usable data libraries are shown. Among numerous and various computer codes developed in transport physics of particles, the most general ones are described only: MCNPX, FLUKA and SHIELD. A short overview of basic application of these codes, physical models implemented with their limitations, energy ranges of particles and types of interactions, is given. General information about the codes covers also programming language, operation system, calculation speed and the code availability. An example of increasing computation speed of running MCNPX code using a MPI cluster compared to the code sequential option

Inductive and electrostatic acceleration in relativistic jet-plasma interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Johnny S T; Noble, Robert J

2006-03-24

We report on the observation of rapid particle acceleration in numerical simulations of relativistic jet-plasma interactions and discuss the underlying mechanisms. The dynamics of a charge-neutral, narrow, electron-positron jet propagating through an unmagnetized electron-ion plasma was investigated using a three-dimensional, electromagnetic, particle-in-cell computer code. The interaction excited magnetic filamentation as well as electrostatic plasma instabilities. In some cases, the longitudinal electric fields generated inductively and electrostatically reached the cold plasma-wave-breaking limit, and the longitudinal momentum of about half the positrons increased by 50% with a maximum gain exceeding a factor of 2 during the simulation period. Particle acceleration via these mechanisms occurred when the criteria for Weibel instability were satisfied.

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of the expansion of a plasma into a rarefied medium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarri, G; Quinn, K; Kourakis, I; Borghesi, M [Centre for Plasma Physics, The Queens University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom); Murphy, G C; Drury, L O C [Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2 (Ireland); Dieckmann, M E; Ynnerman, A [Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linkoeping University, 60174 Norrkoping (Sweden); Bret, A, E-mail: gsarri01@qub.ac.uk [ETSI Industriales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real (Spain)

2011-07-15

The expansion of a dense plasma through a more rarefied ionized medium has been studied by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The initial conditions involve a density jump by a factor of 100, located in the middle of an otherwise equally dense electron-proton plasma with uniform proton and electron temperatures of 10 eV and 1 keV, respectively. Simulations show the creation of a purely electrostatic collisionless shock together with an ion-acoustic soliton tied to its downstream region. The shock front is seen to evolve in filamentary structures consistently with the onset of the ion-ion instability. Meanwhile, an un-magnetized drift instability is triggered in the core part of the dense plasma. Such results explain recent experimental laser-plasma experiments, carried out in similar conditions, and are of intrinsic relevance to non-relativistic shock scenarios in the solar and astrophysical systems.

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of the expansion of a plasma into a rarefied medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sarri, G; Quinn, K; Kourakis, I; Borghesi, M; Murphy, G C; Drury, L O C; Dieckmann, M E; Ynnerman, A; Bret, A

2011-01-01

The expansion of a dense plasma through a more rarefied ionized medium has been studied by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The initial conditions involve a density jump by a factor of 100, located in the middle of an otherwise equally dense electron-proton plasma with uniform proton and electron temperatures of 10 eV and 1 keV, respectively. Simulations show the creation of a purely electrostatic collisionless shock together with an ion-acoustic soliton tied to its downstream region. The shock front is seen to evolve in filamentary structures consistently with the onset of the ion-ion instability. Meanwhile, an un-magnetized drift instability is triggered in the core part of the dense plasma. Such results explain recent experimental laser-plasma experiments, carried out in similar conditions, and are of intrinsic relevance to non-relativistic shock scenarios in the solar and astrophysical systems.

From particles to plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Dam, J.W.

1989-01-01

The title of this book, From Particles to Plasmas, has more than one meaning. First, it reflects how the scientific career of Marshall Rosenbluth has evolved, beginning in the field of elementary particle physics and extending into his major area of plasma physics. Secondly, it is meant to suggest the wide spectrum of subject matters addressed in the individual lectures, ranging from numerical simulation and space physics and accelerators to various subfields in the physics of plasmas. In the third place, the title is a reference to the way in which the theoretical description of plasmas is often constructed, namely starting from the motion of single particles and then incorporating collective effects. Most of the contributions in this book do concern various aspects of fusion plasma physics, which is the field in which most of Marshall Rosenbluth's scientific contributions have been and are being made. In this field his eminence and authority are indicated by the sobriquet pope of plasma physics that is often applied to him

Plasma based charged-particle accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bingham, R; Mendonca, J T; Shukla, P K

2004-01-01

Studies of charged-particle acceleration processes remain one of the most important areas of research in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas. In this paper, we present the underlying physics and the present status of high gradient and high energy plasma accelerators. We will focus on the acceleration of charged particles to relativistic energies by plasma waves that are created by intense laser and particle beams. The generation of relativistic plasma waves by intense lasers or electron beams in plasmas is important in the quest for producing ultra-high acceleration gradients for accelerators. With the development of compact short pulse high brightness lasers and electron positron beams, new areas of studies for laser/particle beam-matter interactions is opening up. A number of methods are being pursued vigorously to achieve ultra-high acceleration gradients. These include the plasma beat wave accelerator mechanism, which uses conventional long pulse (∼100 ps) modest intensity lasers (I ∼ 10 14 -10 16 W cm -2 ), the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), which uses the new breed of compact high brightness lasers ( 10 18 W cm -2 , the self-modulated LWFA concept, which combines elements of stimulated Raman forward scattering, and electron acceleration by nonlinear plasma waves excited by relativistic electron and positron bunches. In the ultra-high intensity regime, laser/particle beam-plasma interactions are highly nonlinear and relativistic, leading to new phenomena such as the plasma wakefield excitation for particle acceleration, relativistic self-focusing and guiding of laser beams, high-harmonic generation, acceleration of electrons, positrons, protons and photons. Fields greater than 1 GV cm -1 have been generated with particles being accelerated to 200 MeV over a distance of millimetre. Plasma wakefields driven by positron beams at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center facility have accelerated the tail of the positron beam. In the near future

Plasma Interaction and Energetic Particle Dynamics near Callisto

Science.gov (United States)

Liuzzo, L.; Simon, S.; Feyerabend, M.; Motschmann, U. M.

2017-12-01

Callisto's magnetic environment is characterized by a complex admixture of induction signals from its conducting subsurface ocean, the interaction of corotating Jovian magnetospheric plasma with the moon's ionosphere and induced dipole, and the non-linear coupling between the effects. In contrast to other Galilean moons, ion gyroradii near Callisto are comparable to its size, requiring a kinetic treatment of the interaction region near the moon. Thus, we apply the hybrid simulation code AIKEF to constrain the competing effects of plasma interaction and induction. We determine their influence on the magnetic field signatures measured by Galileo during various Callisto flybys. We use the magnetic field calculated by the model to investigate energetic particle dynamics and their effect on Callisto's environment. From this, we provide a map of global energetic particle precipitation onto Callisto's surface, which may contribute to the generation of its atmosphere.

The TESS [Tandem Experiment Simulation Studies] computer code user's manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Procassini, R.J.

1990-01-01

TESS (Tandem Experiment Simulation Studies) is a one-dimensional, bounded particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code designed to investigate the confinement and transport of plasma in a magnetic mirror device, including tandem mirror configurations. Mirror plasmas may be modeled in a system which includes an applied magnetic field and/or a self-consistent or applied electrostatic potential. The PIC code TESS is similar to the PIC code DIPSI (Direct Implicit Plasma Surface Interactions) which is designed to study plasma transport to and interaction with a solid surface. The codes TESS and DIPSI are direct descendants of the PIC code ES1 that was created by A. B. Langdon. This document provides the user with a brief description of the methods used in the code and a tutorial on the use of the code. 10 refs., 2 tabs

Acceleration of particles in plasmas

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2007-01-01

The accelerating fields in radio-frequency accelerators are limited to roughly 100 MV/m due to material breakdown which occurs on the walls of the structure. In contrast, a plasma, being already ionized, can support electric fields in excess of 100 GV/m. Such high accelerating gradients hold the promise of compact particle accelerators. Plasma acceleration has been an emerging and fast growing field of research in the past two decades. In this series of lectures, we will review the principles of plasma acceleration. We will see how relativistic plasma waves can be excited using an ultra-intense laser or using a particle beam. We will see how these plasma waves can be used to accelerate electrons to high energy in short distances. Throughout the lectures, we will also review recent experimental results. Current laser-plasma experiments throughout the world have shown that monoenergetic electron beams from 100 MeV to 1 GeV can be obtained in distances ranging from the millimetre to the centimetre. Experiments a...

Convergence of lateral dynamic measurements in the plasma membrane of live cells from single particle tracking and STED-FCS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lagerholm, B. Christoffer; Andrade, Débora M.; Clausen, Mathias P.

2017-01-01

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) in combination with the super-resolution imaging method STED (STED-FCS), and single-particle tracking (SPT) are able to directly probe the lateral dynamics of lipids and proteins in the plasma membrane of live cells at spatial scales much below the diff...

Particle-in-cell/accelerator code for space-charge dominated beam simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2012-05-08

Warp is a multidimensional discrete-particle beam simulation program designed to be applicable where the beam space-charge is non-negligible or dominant. It is being developed in a collaboration among LLNL, LBNL and the University of Maryland. It was originally designed and optimized for heave ion fusion accelerator physics studies, but has received use in a broader range of applications, including for example laser wakefield accelerators, e-cloud studies in high enery accelerators, particle traps and other areas. At present it incorporates 3-D, axisymmetric (r,z) planar (x-z) and transverse slice (x,y) descriptions, with both electrostatic and electro-magnetic fields, and a beam envelope model. The code is guilt atop the Python interpreter language.

Energy Conservation Tests of a Coupled Kinetic-kinetic Plasma-neutral Transport Code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stotler, D. P.; Chang, C. S.; Ku, S. H.; Lang, J.; Park, G.

2012-08-29

A Monte Carlo neutral transport routine, based on DEGAS2, has been coupled to the guiding center ion-electron-neutral neoclassical PIC code XGC0 to provide a realistic treatment of neutral atoms and molecules in the tokamak edge plasma. The DEGAS2 routine allows detailed atomic physics and plasma-material interaction processes to be incorporated into these simulations. The spatial pro le of the neutral particle source used in the DEGAS2 routine is determined from the uxes of XGC0 ions to the material surfaces. The kinetic-kinetic plasma-neutral transport capability is demonstrated with example pedestal fueling simulations.

Predictive modelling of the impact of argon injection on H-mode plasmas in JET with the RITM code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Unterberg, B; Kalupin, D; Tokar', M Z; Corrigan, G; Dumortier, P; Huber, A; Jachmich, S; Kempenaars, M; Kreter, A; Messiaen, A M; Monier-Garbet, P; Ongena, J; Puiatti, M E; Valisa, M; Hellermann, M von

2004-01-01

Self-consistent modelling of energy and particle transport of the plasma background and impurities has been performed with the code RITM for argon seeded high density H-mode plasmas in JET. The code can reproduce both the profiles in the plasma core and the structure of the edge pedestal. The impact of argon on core transport is found to be small; in particular, no significant change in confinement is observed in both experimental and modelling results. The same transport model, which has been used to reproduce density peaking in the radiative improved mode in TEXTOR, reveals a flat density profile in Ar seeded JET H-mode plasmas in agreement with the experimental observations. This behaviour is attributed to the rather flat profile of the safety factor in the bulk of H-mode discharges

Particle balance in diverted plasmas in TEXT-U

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rowan, W.L.; Bengtson, R.D.; Bonnin, X.; Edmonds, P.H.; Hurwitz, P.D.; Solano, E.R.; Tsui, H.Y.W.; Uglum, J.R.; Wootton, A.J.

1995-01-01

Tokamak plasmas in an open divertor configuration with the X-point at the inner equator were compared with plasmas limited by an inner toroidal belt. This paper describes and compares the particle balance in these two types of discharge. The plasma parameters n e (r), φ(r), T e (r), n e , and φ were measured in the scrape-off layer and in the plasma periphery at one poloidal location and mapped onto the rest of the plasma by assuming constancy on flux surfaces. Emission from neutral hydrogen was measured throughout the plasma. The particle source and then the global particle confinement were inferred from these measurements using a 3-D neutral transport simulation. The SOL profiles are significantly steeper in the diverted discharge. Both the source measurements and estimates from the SOL profiles indicate significantly better confinement in the diverted discharge. ((orig.))

Particle acceleration during merging-compression plasma start-up in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak

Science.gov (United States)

McClements, K. G.; Allen, J. O.; Chapman, S. C.; Dendy, R. O.; Irvine, S. W. A.; Marshall, O.; Robb, D.; Turnyanskiy, M.; Vann, R. G. L.

2018-02-01

Magnetic reconnection occurred during merging-compression plasma start-up in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST), resulting in the prompt acceleration of substantial numbers of ions and electrons to highly suprathermal energies. Accelerated field-aligned ions (deuterons and protons) were detected using a neutral particle analyser at energies up to about 20 keV during merging in early MAST pulses, while nonthermal electrons have been detected indirectly in more recent pulses through microwave bursts. However no increase in soft x-ray emission was observed until later in the merging phase, by which time strong electron heating had been detected through Thomson scattering measurements. A test-particle code CUEBIT is used to model ion acceleration in the presence of an inductive toroidal electric field with a prescribed spatial profile and temporal evolution based on Hall-MHD simulations of the merging process. The simulations yield particle distributions with properties similar to those observed experimentally, including strong field alignment of the fast ions and the acceleration of protons to higher energies than deuterons. Particle-in-cell modelling of a plasma containing a dilute field-aligned suprathermal electron component suggests that at least some of the microwave bursts can be attributed to the anomalous Doppler instability driven by anisotropic fast electrons, which do not produce measurable enhancements in soft x-ray emission either because they are insufficiently energetic or because the nonthermal bremsstrahlung emissivity during this phase of the pulse is below the detection threshold. There is no evidence of runaway electron acceleration during merging, possibly due to the presence of three-dimensional field perturbations.

Plasma physics via particle simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Birdsall, C.K.

1981-01-01

Plasmas are studied by following the motion of many particles in applied and self fields, analytically, experimentally and computationally. Plasmas for magnetic fusion energy devices are very hot, nearly collisionless and magnetized, with scale lengths of many ion gyroradii and Debye lengths. The analytic studies of such plasmas are very difficult as the plasma is nonuniform, anisotropic and nonlinear. The experimental studies have become very expensive in time and money, as the size, density and temperature approach fusion reactor values. Computational studies using many particles and/or fluids have complemented both theories and experiments for many years and have progressed to fully three dimensional electromagnetic models, albeit with hours of running times on the fastest largest computers. Particle simulation methods are presented in some detail, showing particle advance from acceleration to velocity to position, followed by calculation of the fields from charge and current densities and then further particle advance, and so on. Limitations due to the time stepping and use of a spatial grid are given, to avoid inaccuracies and instabilities. Examples are given for an electrostatic program in one dimension of an orbit averaging program, and for a three dimensional electromagnetic program. Applications of particle simulations of plasmas in magnetic and inertial fusion devices continue to grow, as well as to plasmas and beams in peripheral devices, such as sources, accelerators, and converters. (orig.)

Diagnostics of Particles emitted from a Laser generated Plasma: Experimental Data and Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Giuseppe; Torrisi, Lorenzo

2018-01-01

The charge particle emission form laser-generated plasma was studied experimentally and theoretically using the COMSOL simulation code. The particle acceleration was investigated using two lasers at two different regimes. A Nd:YAG laser, with 3 ns pulse duration and 1010 W/cm2 intensity, when focused on solid target produces a non-equilibrium plasma with average temperature of about 30-50 eV. An Iodine laser with 300 ps pulse duration and 1016 W/cm2 intensity produces plasmas with average temperatures of the order of tens keV. In both cases charge separation occurs and ions and electrons are accelerated at energies of the order of 200 eV and 1 MeV per charge state in the two cases, respectively. The simulation program permits to plot the charge particle trajectories from plasma source in vacuum indicating how they can be deflected by magnetic and electrical fields. The simulation code can be employed to realize suitable permanent magnets and solenoids to deflect ions toward a secondary target or detectors, to focalize ions and electrons, to realize electron traps able to provide significant ion acceleration and to realize efficient spectrometers. In particular it was applied to the study two Thomson parabola spectrometers able to detect ions at low and at high laser intensities. The comparisons between measurements and simulation is presented and discussed.

A Particle-In-Cell approach to particle flux shaping with a surface mask

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Kawamura

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The Particle-In-Cell simulation code PICS has been developed to study plasma in front of a surface with two types of masks, step-type and roof-type. Parameter scans with regard to magnetic field angle, electron density, and mask height were carried out to understand their influence on ion particle flux distribution on a surface. A roof-type mask with a small mask height yields short decay length in the flux distribution which is consistent with that estimated experimentally. A roof-type mask with a large height yields very long decay length and the flux value does not depend on a mask height or an electron density, but rather on a mask length and a biasing voltage of the surface. Mask height also changes the flux distribution apart from the mask because of the shading effect of the mask. Electron density changes the distribution near the mask edge according to the Debye length. Dependence of distribution on parameters are complicated especially for a roof-type mask, and simulation study with various parameters are useful to understand the physical reasons of dependence and also is useful as a tool for experiment studies.

The ZPIC educational code suite

Science.gov (United States)

Calado, R.; Pardal, M.; Ninhos, P.; Helm, A.; Mori, W. B.; Decyk, V. K.; Vieira, J.; Silva, L. O.; Fonseca, R. A.

2017-10-01

Particle-in-Cell (PIC) codes are used in almost all areas of plasma physics, such as fusion energy research, plasma accelerators, space physics, ion propulsion, and plasma processing, and many other areas. In this work, we present the ZPIC educational code suite, a new initiative to foster training in plasma physics using computer simulations. Leveraging on our expertise and experience from the development and use of the OSIRIS PIC code, we have developed a suite of 1D/2D fully relativistic electromagnetic PIC codes, as well as 1D electrostatic. These codes are self-contained and require only a standard laptop/desktop computer with a C compiler to be run. The output files are written in a new file format called ZDF that can be easily read using the supplied routines in a number of languages, such as Python, and IDL. The code suite also includes a number of example problems that can be used to illustrate several textbook and advanced plasma mechanisms, including instructions for parameter space exploration. We also invite contributions to this repository of test problems that will be made freely available to the community provided the input files comply with the format defined by the ZPIC team. The code suite is freely available and hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/zambzamb/zpic. Work partially supported by PICKSC.

Porting the 3D Gyrokinetic Particle-in-cell Code GTC to the CRAY/NEC SX-6 Vector Architecture: Perspectives and Challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ethier, S.; Lin, Z.

2003-01-01

Several years of optimization on the super-scalar architecture has made it more difficult to port the current version of the 3D particle-in-cell code GTC to the CRAY/NEC SX-6 vector architecture. This paper explains the initial work that has been done to port this code to the SX-6 computer and to optimize the most time consuming parts. Early performance results are shown and compared to the same test done on the IBM SP Power 3 and Power 4 machines

A gridding method for object-oriented PIC codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gisler, G.; Peter, W.; Nash, H.; Acquah, J.; Lin, C.; Rine, D.

1993-01-01

A simple, rule-based gridding method for object-oriented PIC codes is described which is not only capable of dealing with complicated structures such as multiply-connected regions, but is also computationally faster than classical gridding techniques. Using, these smart grids, vacant cells (e.g., cells enclosed by conductors) will never have to be stored or calculated, thus avoiding the usual situation of having to zero electromagnetic fields within conductors after valuable cpu time has been spent in calculating the fields within these cells in the first place. This object-oriented gridding technique makes use of encapsulating characteristics of actual physical objects (particles, fields, grids, etc.) in C ++ classes and supporting software reuse of these entities through C ++ class inheritance relations. It has been implemented in the form of a simple two-dimensional plasma particle-in-cell code, and forms the initial effort of an AFOSR research project to develop a flexible software simulation environment for particle-in-cell algorithms based on object-oriented technology

Fly ash particles spheroidization using low temperature plasma energy

Science.gov (United States)

Shekhovtsov, V. V.; Volokitin, O. G.; Kondratyuk, A. A.; Vitske, R. E.

2016-11-01

The paper presents the investigations on producing spherical particles 65-110 μm in size using the energy of low temperature plasma (LTP). These particles are based on flow ash produced by the thermal power plant in Seversk, Tomsk region, Russia. The obtained spherical particles have no defects and are characterized by a smooth exterior surface. The test bench is designed to produce these particles. With due regard for plasma temperature field distribution, it is shown that the transition of fly ash particles to a state of viscous flow occurs at 20 mm distance from the plasma jet. The X-ray phase analysis is carried out for the both original state of fly ash powders and the particles obtained. This analysis shows that fly ash contains 56.23 wt.% SiO2; 20.61 wt.% Al2O3 and 17.55 wt.% Fe2O3 phases that mostly contribute to the integral (experimental) intensity of the diffraction maximum. The LTP treatment results in a complex redistribution of the amorphous phase amount in the obtained spherical particles, including the reduction of O2Si, phase, increase of O22Al20 and Fe2O3 phases and change in Al, O density of O22Al20 chemical unit cell.

Nonlinear Plasma Waves Excitation by Intense Ion Beams in Background Plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaganovich, Igor D.; Startsev, Edward A.; Davidson, Ronald C.

2004-01-01

Plasma neutralization of an intense ion pulse is of interest for many applications, including plasma lenses, heavy ion fusion, cosmic ray propagation, etc. An analytical electron fluid model has been developed to describe the plasma response to a propagating ion beam. The model predicts very good charge neutralization during quasi-steady-state propagation, provided the beam pulse duration τ b is much longer than the electron plasma period 2π/ω p , where ω p = (4πe 2 n p /m) 1/2 is the electron plasma frequency and n p is the background plasma density. In the opposite limit, the beam pulse excites large-amplitude plasma waves. If the beam density is larger than the background plasma density, the plasma waves break. Theoretical predictions are compared with the results of calculations utilizing a particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The cold electron fluid results agree well with the PIC simulations for ion beam propagation through a background plasma. The reduced fluid description derived in this paper can provide an important benchmark for numerical codes and yield scaling relations for different beam and plasma parameters. The visualization of numerical simulation data shows complex collective phenomena during beam entry and exit from the plasma

Nonlinear plasma waves excitation by intense ion beams in background plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaganovich, Igor D.; Startsev, Edward A.; Davidson, Ronald C.

2004-01-01

Plasma neutralization of an intense ion pulse is of interest for many applications, including plasma lenses, heavy ion fusion, cosmic ray propagation, etc. An analytical electron fluid model has been developed to describe the plasma response to a propagating ion beam. The model predicts very good charge neutralization during quasi-steady-state propagation, provided the beam pulse duration τ b is much longer than the electron plasma period 2π/ω p , where ω p =(4πe 2 n p /m) 1/2 is the electron plasma frequency, and n p is the background plasma density. In the opposite limit, the beam pulse excites large-amplitude plasma waves. If the beam density is larger than the background plasma density, the plasma waves break. Theoretical predictions are compared with the results of calculations utilizing a particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The cold electron fluid results agree well with the PIC simulations for ion beam propagation through a background plasma. The reduced fluid description derived in this paper can provide an important benchmark for numerical codes and yield scaling relations for different beam and plasma parameters. The visualization of numerical simulation data shows complex collective phenomena during beam entry and exit from the plasma

Charged particle and photon acceleration by wakefield plasma waves in non-uniform plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bulanov, S.V.; Kirsanov, V.I.; Sakharov, A.S.; Pegoraro, F.

1993-01-01

We discuss the acceleration of charged particles and the upshift of the frequency of short wave packets of laser radiation. The acceleration and the upshift are caused by wake plasma waves excited by a strong laser pulse in a non-uniform plasma. We show that unlimited acceleration of charged particles is possible for specific spatial dependencies of the plasma density. In this unlimited acceleration regime, particles have a fixed phase relationship with respect to the plasma wave, while their energy increases with time. When the wave breaking limit is approached and surpassed, the efficiency of the acceleration of the charged particles and of the frequency upshift of the photons can be increased significantly. (author) 3 refs

Particle behavior in an ECR plasma etch tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blain, M.G.; Tipton, G.D.; Holber, W.M.; Westerfield, P.L.; Maxwell, K.L.

1993-01-01

Sources of particles in a close-coupled electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) polysilicon plasma etch source include flaking of films deposited on chamber surfaces, and shedding of material from electrostatic wafer chucks. A large, episodic increase in the number of particles added to a wafer in a clean system is observed more frequently for a plasma-on than for a gas-only source condition. For polymer forming process conditions, particles were added to wafers by a polymer film which was observed to fracture and flake away from chamber surfaces. The presence of a plasma, especially when rf bias is applied to the wafer, caused more particles to be ejected from the walls and added to wafers than the gas-only condition; however, no significant influence was observed with different microwave powers. A study of effect of electrode temperatures on particles added showed that thermophoretic forces are not significant for this ECR configuration. Particles originating from the electrostatic chuck were observed to be deposited on wafers in much larger numbers in the presence of the plasma as compared to gas-only conditions

Global Hybrid Simulations of Energetic Particle-driven Modes in Toroidal Plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, G.Y.; Breslau, J.; Fredrickson, E.; Park, W.; Strauss, H.R.

2004-01-01

Global hybrid simulations of energetic particle-driven MHD modes have been carried out for tokamaks and spherical tokamaks using the hybrid code M3D. The numerical results for the National Spherical Tokamak Experiments (NSTX) show that Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes are excited by beam ions with their frequencies consistent with the experimental observations. Nonlinear simulations indicate that the n=2 mode frequency chirps down as the mode moves out radially. For ITER, it is shown that the alpha-particle effects are strongly stabilizing for internal kink mode when central safety factor q(0) is sufficiently close to unity. However, the elongation of ITER plasma shape reduces the stabilization significantly

Two- and three-dimensional magnetoinductive particle codes with guiding center electron motion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geary, J.L.; Tajima, T.; Leboeuf, J.N.; Zaidman, E.G.; Han, J.H.

1986-07-01

A magnetoinductive (Darwin) particle simulation model developed for examining low frequency plasma behavior with large time steps is presented. Electron motion perpendicular to the magnetic field is treated as massless keeping only the guiding center motion. Electron motion parallel to the magnetic field retains full inertial effects as does the ion motion. This model has been implemented in two and three dimensions. Computational tests of the equilibrium properties of the code are compared with linear theory and the fluctuation dissipation theorem. This code has been applied to the problems of Alfven wave resonance heating and twist-kink modes

Towards a realistic plasma simulation code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.V.

1991-06-01

Several new developments in the technology of simulating plasmas, both in particle and fluid models, now allow a stage of synthesis in which many of these advances can be combined into one simulation model. Accuracy and efficiency are the criteria to be satisfied in this quest. We want to build on the following research: 1. the development of the δf method of Barnes. 2. The moving node Galerkin model of Glasser, Miller and Carlson. 3. Particle moving schemes on unstructured grids by Ambrosiano and Bradon. 4. Particle simulations using sorted particles Anderson and Shumaker. Rather than being competing developments,these presumably can be combined into one computational model. We begin by summarizing the physics model for the plasma. The Vlasov equation can be solved as an initial value problem by integrating the plasma distribution function forward in time. 5 refs

Experimental transport analysis code system in JT-60

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirayama, Toshio; Shimizu, Katsuhiro; Tani, Keiji; Shirai, Hiroshi; Kikuchi, Mitsuru

1988-03-01

Transport analysis codes have been developed in order to study confinement properties related to particle and energy balance in ohmically and neutral beam heated plasmas of JT-60. The analysis procedure is divided into three steps as follows: 1) LOOK ; The shape of the plasma boundary is identified with a fast boundary identification code of FBI by using magnetic data, and flux surfaces are calculated with a MHD equilibrium code of SELENE. The diagnostic data are mapped to flux surfaces for neutral beam heating calculation and/or for radial transport analysis. 2) OFMC ; On the basis of transformed data, an orbit following Monte Carlo code of OFMC calculates both profiles of power deposition and particle source of neutral beam injected into a plasma. 3) SCOOP ; In the last stage, a one dimensional transport code of SCOOP solves particle and energy balance for electron and ion, in order to evaluate transport coefficients as well as global parameters such as energy confinement time and the stored energy. The analysis results are provided to a data bank of DARTS that is used to find an overview of important consideration on confinement with a regression analysis code of RAC. (author)

Modelling of neutral particle transport in divertor plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kakizuka, Tomonori; Shimizu, Katsuhiro

1995-01-01

An outline of the modelling of neutral particle transport in the diverter plasma was described in the paper. The characteristic properties of divertor plasma were largely affected by interaction between neutral particles and divertor plasma. Accordingly, the behavior of neutral particle should be investigated quantitatively. Moreover, plasma and neutral gas should be traced consistently in the plasma simulation. There are Monte Carlo modelling and the neutral gas fluid modelling as the transport modelling. The former need long calculation time, but it is able to make the physical process modelling. A ultra-large parallel computer is good for the former. In spite of proposing some kinds of models, the latter has not been established. At the view point of reducing calculation time, a work station is good for the simulation of the latter, although some physical problems have not been solved. On the Monte Carlo method particle modelling, reducing the calculation time and introducing the interaction of particles are important subjects to develop 'the evolutional Monte Carlo Method'. To reduce the calculation time, two new methods: 'Implicit Monte Carlo method' and 'Free-and Diffusive-Motion Hybrid Monte-Carlo method' have been developing. (S.Y.)

Implicit plasma simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langdon, A.B.

1985-01-01

Implicit time integration methods have been used extensively in numerical modelling of slowly varying phenomena in systems that also support rapid variation. Examples include diffusion, hydrodynamics and reaction kinetics. This article discussed implementation of implicit time integration in plasma codes of the ''particle-in-cell'' family, and the benefits to be gained

Thermonuclear Tokamak plasmas in the presence of fusion alpha particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.; Hamnen, H.; Lisak, M.

1988-01-01

In this overview, we have focused on several results of the thermonuclear plasma research pertaining to the alpha particle physics and diagnostics in a fusion tokamak plasma. As regards the discussion of alpha particle effects, two distinct classes of phenomena have been distinguished: the simpler class containing phenomena exhibited by individual alpha particles under the influence of bulk plasma properties and, the more complex class including collective effects which become important for increasing alpha particle density. We have also discussed several possibilities to investigate alpha particle effects by simulation experiments using an equivalent population of highly energetic ions in the plasma. Generally, we find that the present theoretical knowledge on the role of fusion alpha particles in a fusion tokamak plasma is incomplete. There are still uncertainties and partial lack of quantitative results in this area. Consequently, further theoretical work and, as far a possible, simulation experiments are needed to improve the situation. Concerning the alpha particle diagnostics, the various diagnostic techniques and the status of their development have been discussed in two different contexts: the escaping alpha particles and the confined alpha particles in the fusion plasma. A general conclusion is that many of the different diagnostic methods for alpha particle measurements require further major development. (authors)

Low-noise Collision Operators for Particle-in-cell Simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewandowski, J.L.V.

2005-01-01

A new method to implement low-noise collision operators in particle-in-cell simulations is presented. The method is based on the fact that relevant collision operators can be included naturally in the Lagrangian formulation that exemplifies the particle-in-cell simulation method. Numerical simulations show that the momentum and energy conservation properties of the simulated plasma associated with the low-noise collision operator are improved as compared with standard collision algorithms based on random numbers

Destabilizing effect of alpha particles in a Maxwellian plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, M.Y.

1976-01-01

Various plasma waves which are possibly excited by MeV alphas have been investigated. For a delta birth distribution it is found that: a) The right-circularly polarized Alfven wave can be excited. Its growth rate is linearly proportional to the α-particle density. b) The drift Alfven wave is stable against α-particles. c) For a uniform temperature, the plasma wave spectrum changes from three branches with n/sub α/ = 0 to four branches for n/sub α/ not equal to 0 case. d) α-particles can destabilize the ion drift acoustic wave even with uniform temperature. However, the ion acoustic wave appears to be stable against fusion products in a fusion grade plasma. e) If their effect on the background plasma spectrum is neglected, α-particles can excite the electromagnetic cyclotron wave in a range of harmonics (band structure). The growth rate is proportional to the square root of α-particle density. f) If the effect of α-particle on the plasma spectrum is included, we find that electromagnetic cyclotron wave is stable

Recent advances in the modeling of plasmas with the Particle-In-Cell methods

Science.gov (United States)

Vay, Jean-Luc; Lehe, Remi; Vincenti, Henri; Godfrey, Brendan; Lee, Patrick; Haber, Irv

2015-11-01

The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) approach is the method of choice for self-consistent simulations of plasmas from first principles. The fundamentals of the PIC method were established decades ago but improvements or variations are continuously being proposed. We report on several recent advances in PIC related algorithms, including: (a) detailed analysis of the numerical Cherenkov instability and its remediation, (b) analytic pseudo-spectral electromagnetic solvers in Cartesian and cylindrical (with azimuthal modes decomposition) geometries, (c) arbitrary-order finite-difference and generalized pseudo-spectral Maxwell solvers, (d) novel analysis of Maxwell's solvers' stencil variation and truncation, in application to domain decomposition strategies and implementation of Perfectly Matched Layers in high-order and pseudo-spectral solvers. Work supported by US-DOE Contracts DE-AC02-05CH11231 and the US-DOE SciDAC program ComPASS. Used resources of NERSC, supported by US-DOE Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell plasma source ion implantation of a prolate spheroid target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng-Sen, Liu; Hong-Ying, Han; Xiao-Qing, Peng; Ye, Chang; De-Zhen, Wang

2010-01-01

A two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation is used to study the time-dependent evolution of the sheath surrounding a prolate spheroid target during a high voltage pulse in plasma source ion implantation. Our study shows that the potential contour lines pack more closely in the plasma sheath near the vertex of the major axis, i.e. where a thinner sheath is formed, and a non-uniform total ion dose distribution is incident along the surface of the prolate spheroid target due to the focusing of ions by the potential structure. Ion focusing takes place not only at the vertex of the major axis, where dense potential contour lines exist, but also at the vertex of the minor axis, where sparse contour lines exist. This results in two peaks of the received ion dose, locating at the vertices of the major and minor axes of the prolate spheroid target, and an ion dose valley, staying always between the vertices, rather than at the vertex of the minor axis

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell plasma source ion implantation of a prolate spheroid target

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Cheng-Sen; Han, Hong-Ying; Peng, Xiao-Qing; Chang, Ye; Wang, De-Zhen

2010-03-01

A two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation is used to study the time-dependent evolution of the sheath surrounding a prolate spheroid target during a high voltage pulse in plasma source ion implantation. Our study shows that the potential contour lines pack more closely in the plasma sheath near the vertex of the major axis, i.e. where a thinner sheath is formed, and a non-uniform total ion dose distribution is incident along the surface of the prolate spheroid target due to the focusing of ions by the potential structure. Ion focusing takes place not only at the vertex of the major axis, where dense potential contour lines exist, but also at the vertex of the minor axis, where sparse contour lines exist. This results in two peaks of the received ion dose, locating at the vertices of the major and minor axes of the prolate spheroid target, and an ion dose valley, staying always between the vertices, rather than at the vertex of the minor axis.

Particle-in-cell studies of fast-ion slowing-down rates in cool tenuous magnetized plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Eugene S.; Cohen, Samuel A.; Welch, Dale R.

2018-04-01

We report on 3D-3V particle-in-cell simulations of fast-ion energy-loss rates in a cold, weakly-magnetized, weakly-coupled plasma where the electron gyroradius, ρe, is comparable to or less than the Debye length, λDe, and the fast-ion velocity exceeds the electron thermal velocity, a regime in which the electron response may be impeded. These simulations use explicit algorithms, spatially resolve ρe and λDe, and temporally resolve the electron cyclotron and plasma frequencies. For mono-energetic dilute fast ions with isotropic velocity distributions, these scaling studies of the slowing-down time, τs, versus fast-ion charge are in agreement with unmagnetized slowing-down theory; with an applied magnetic field, no consistent anisotropy between τs in the cross-field and field-parallel directions could be resolved. Scaling the fast-ion charge is confirmed as a viable way to reduce the required computational time for each simulation. The implications of these slowing down processes are described for one magnetic-confinement fusion concept, the small, advanced-fuel, field-reversed configuration device.

The influence of laser-particle interaction in laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindner, Helmut; Loper, Kristofer H.; Hahn, David W.; Niemax, Kay

2011-01-01

Particles produced by previous laser shots may have significant influence on the analytical signal in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma (LA-ICP) spectrometry if they remain close to the position of laser sampling. The effects of these particles on the laser-induced breakdown event are demonstrated in several ways. LIBS-experiments were conducted in an ablation cell at atmospheric conditions in argon or air applying a dual-pulse arrangement with orthogonal pre-pulse, i.e., plasma breakdown in a gas generated by a focussed laser beam parallel and close to the sample surface followed by a delayed crossing laser pulse in orthogonal direction which actually ablates material from the sample and produces the LIBS plasma. The optical emission of the LIBS plasma as well as the absorption of the pre-pulse laser was measured. In the presence of particles in the focus of the pre-pulse laser, the plasma breakdown is affected and more energy of the pre-pulse laser is absorbed than without particles. As a result, the analyte line emission from the LIBS plasma of the second laser is enhanced. It is assumed that the enhancement is not only due to an increase of mass ablated by the second laser but also to better atomization and excitation conditions favored by a reduced gas density in the pre-pulse plasma. Higher laser pulse frequencies increase the probability of particle-laser interaction and, therefore, reduce the shot-to-shot line intensity variation as compared to lower particle loadings in the cell. Additional experiments using an aerosol chamber were performed to further quantify the laser absorption by the plasma in dependence on time both with and without the presence of particles. The overall implication of laser-particle interactions for LIBS and LA-ICP-MS/OES are discussed.

The influence of laser-particle interaction in laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma spectrometry

Science.gov (United States)

Lindner, Helmut; Loper, Kristofer H.; Hahn, David W.; Niemax, Kay

2011-02-01

Particles produced by previous laser shots may have significant influence on the analytical signal in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma (LA-ICP) spectrometry if they remain close to the position of laser sampling. The effects of these particles on the laser-induced breakdown event are demonstrated in several ways. LIBS-experiments were conducted in an ablation cell at atmospheric conditions in argon or air applying a dual-pulse arrangement with orthogonal pre-pulse, i.e., plasma breakdown in a gas generated by a focussed laser beam parallel and close to the sample surface followed by a delayed crossing laser pulse in orthogonal direction which actually ablates material from the sample and produces the LIBS plasma. The optical emission of the LIBS plasma as well as the absorption of the pre-pulse laser was measured. In the presence of particles in the focus of the pre-pulse laser, the plasma breakdown is affected and more energy of the pre-pulse laser is absorbed than without particles. As a result, the analyte line emission from the LIBS plasma of the second laser is enhanced. It is assumed that the enhancement is not only due to an increase of mass ablated by the second laser but also to better atomization and excitation conditions favored by a reduced gas density in the pre-pulse plasma. Higher laser pulse frequencies increase the probability of particle-laser interaction and, therefore, reduce the shot-to-shot line intensity variation as compared to lower particle loadings in the cell. Additional experiments using an aerosol chamber were performed to further quantify the laser absorption by the plasma in dependence on time both with and without the presence of particles. The overall implication of laser-particle interactions for LIBS and LA-ICP-MS/OES are discussed.

Wave-particle Interactions in Space and Laboratory Plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

An, Xin

This dissertation presents a study of wave-particle interactions in space and in the laboratory. To be concrete, the excitation of whistler-mode chorus waves in space and in the laboratory is studied in the first part. The relaxation of whistler anisotropy instability relevant to whistler-mode chorus waves in space is examined. Using a linear growth rate analysis and kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, the electron distributions are demonstrated to be well-constrained by the whistler anisotropy instability to a marginal-stability state, consistent with measurements by Van Allen Probes. The electron parallel beta beta ∥e separates the excited whistler waves into two groups: (i) quasi-parallel whistler waves for beta∥e > 0.02 and (ii) oblique whistler waves close to the resonance cone for beta∥e cell simulations. Motivated by the puzzles of chorus waves in space and by their recognized importance, the excitation of whistler-mode chorus waves is studied in the Large Plasma Device by the injection of a helical electron beam into a cold plasma. Incoherent broadband whistler waves similar to magnetospheric hiss are observed in the laboratory plasma. Their mode structures are identified by the phase-correlation technique. It is demonstrated that the waves are excited through a combination of Landau resonance, cyclotron resonance and anomalous cyclotron resonance. To account for the finite size effect of the electron beam, linear unstable eigenmodes of whistler waves are calculated by matching the eigenmode solution at the boundary. It is shown that the perpendicular wave number inside the beam is quantized due to the constraint imposed by the boundary condition. Darwin particle-in-cell simulations are carried out to study the simultaneous excitation of Langmuir and whistler waves in a beam-plasma system. The electron beam is first slowed down and relaxed by the rapidly growing Langmuir wave parallel to the background magnetic field. The tail of the core electrons

Particle modeling of plasmas computational plasma physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dawson, J.M.

1991-01-01

Recently, through the development of supercomputers, a powerful new method for exploring plasmas has emerged; it is computer modeling of plasmas. Such modeling can duplicate many of the complex processes that go on in a plasma and allow scientists to understand what the important processes are. It helps scientists gain an intuition about this complex state of matter. It allows scientists and engineers to explore new ideas on how to use plasma before building costly experiments; it allows them to determine if they are on the right track. It can duplicate the operation of devices and thus reduce the need to build complex and expensive devices for research and development. This is an exciting new endeavor that is in its infancy, but which can play an important role in the scientific and technological competitiveness of the US. There are a wide range of plasma models that are in use. There are particle models, fluid models, hybrid particle fluid models. These can come in many forms, such as explicit models, implicit models, reduced dimensional models, electrostatic models, magnetostatic models, electromagnetic models, and almost an endless variety of other models. Here the author will only discuss particle models. He will give a few examples of the use of such models; these will be taken from work done by the Plasma Modeling Group at UCLA because he is most familiar with work. However, it only gives a small view of the wide range of work being done around the US, or for that matter around the world

3-D electromagnetic plasma particle simulations on the Intel Delta parallel computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, J.; Liewer, P.C.

1994-01-01

A three-dimensional electromagnetic PIC code has been developed on the 512 node Intel Touchstone Delta MIMD parallel computer. This code is based on the General Concurrent PIC algorithm which uses a domain decomposition to divide the computation among the processors. The 3D simulation domain can be partitioned into 1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional sub-domains. Particles must be exchanged between processors as they move among the subdomains. The Intel Delta allows one to use this code for very-large-scale simulations (i.e. over 10 8 particles and 10 6 grid cells). The parallel efficiency of this code is measured, and the overall code performance on the Delta is compared with that on Cray supercomputers. It is shown that their code runs with a high parallel efficiency of ≥ 95% for large size problems. The particle push time achieved is 115 nsecs/particle/time step for 162 million particles on 512 nodes. Comparing with the performance on a single processor Cray C90, this represents a factor of 58 speedup. The code uses a finite-difference leap frog method for field solve which is significantly more efficient than fast fourier transforms on parallel computers. The performance of this code on the 128 node Cray T3D will also be discussed

Performance of particle in cell methods on highly concurrent computational architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adams, M.F.; Ethier, S.; Wichmann, N.

2009-01-01

Particle in cell (PIC) methods are effective in computing Vlasov-Poisson system of equations used in simulations of magnetic fusion plasmas. PIC methods use grid based computations, for solving Poisson's equation or more generally Maxwell's equations, as well as Monte-Carlo type methods to sample the Vlasov equation. The presence of two types of discretizations, deterministic field solves and Monte-Carlo methods for the Vlasov equation, pose challenges in understanding and optimizing performance on today large scale computers which require high levels of concurrency. These challenges arises from the need to optimize two very different types of processes and the interactions between them. Modern cache based high-end computers have very deep memory hierarchies and high degrees of concurrency which must be utilized effectively to achieve good performance. The effective use of these machines requires maximizing concurrency by eliminating serial or redundant work and minimizing global communication. A related issue is minimizing the memory traffic between levels of the memory hierarchy because performance is often limited by the bandwidths and latencies of the memory system. This paper discusses some of the performance issues, particularly in regard to parallelism, of PIC methods. The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) is used for these studies and a new radial grid decomposition is presented and evaluated. Scaling of the code is demonstrated on ITER sized plasmas with up to 16K Cray XT3/4 cores.

Performance of particle in cell methods on highly concurrent computational architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adams, M F; Ethier, S; Wichmann, N

2007-01-01

Particle in cell (PIC) methods are effective in computing Vlasov-Poisson system of equations used in simulations of magnetic fusion plasmas. PIC methods use grid based computations, for solving Poisson's equation or more generally Maxwell's equations, as well as Monte-Carlo type methods to sample the Vlasov equation. The presence of two types of discretizations, deterministic field solves and Monte-Carlo methods for the Vlasov equation, pose challenges in understanding and optimizing performance on today large scale computers which require high levels of concurrency. These challenges arises from the need to optimize two very different types of processes and the interactions between them. Modern cache based high-end computers have very deep memory hierarchies and high degrees of concurrency which must be utilized effectively to achieve good performance. The effective use of these machines requires maximizing concurrency by eliminating serial or redundant work and minimizing global communication. A related issue is minimizing the memory traffic between levels of the memory hierarchy because performance is often limited by the bandwidths and latencies of the memory system. This paper discusses some of the performance issues, particularly in regard to parallelism, of PIC methods. The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) is used for these studies and a new radial grid decomposition is presented and evaluated. Scaling of the code is demonstrated on ITER sized plasmas with up to 16K Cray XT3/4 cores

A three-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell methodology on unstructured Delaunay-Voronoi grids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gatsonis, Nikolaos A.; Spirkin, Anton

2009-01-01

The mathematical formulation and computational implementation of a three-dimensional particle-in-cell methodology on unstructured Delaunay-Voronoi tetrahedral grids is presented. The method allows simulation of plasmas in complex domains and incorporates the duality of the Delaunay-Voronoi in all aspects of the particle-in-cell cycle. Charge assignment and field interpolation weighting schemes of zero- and first-order are formulated based on the theory of long-range constraints. Electric potential and fields are derived from a finite-volume formulation of Gauss' law using the Voronoi-Delaunay dual. Boundary conditions and the algorithms for injection, particle loading, particle motion, and particle tracking are implemented for unstructured Delaunay grids. Error and sensitivity analysis examines the effects of particles/cell, grid scaling, and timestep on the numerical heating, the slowing-down time, and the deflection times. The problem of current collection by cylindrical Langmuir probes in collisionless plasmas is used for validation. Numerical results compare favorably with previous numerical and analytical solutions for a wide range of probe radius to Debye length ratios, probe potentials, and electron to ion temperature ratios. The versatility of the methodology is demonstrated with the simulation of a complex plasma microsensor, a directional micro-retarding potential analyzer that includes a low transparency micro-grid.

Ion drag force on dust grains in the magnetized edge plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matyash, K.; Schneider, R.; Ikkurthi, V.R.; Melzer, A.

2009-01-01

A 3-dimensional Particle-Particle Particle-Mesh (P3M) code [K. Matyash, R. Schneider, F. Taccogna, D. Tskhakaya, J. Nucl. Mater. 363-365 (2007) 458] is applied to simulate a small-size (smaller than a Debye length) spherical dust grain confined in the magnetized plasma near the material wall of a tokamak. Plasma particles (electrons and ions) are treated kinetically (Particle-in-Cell with Monte Carlo Collisions (PIC MCC)), which allows to resolve self-consistently the electrostatic sheath in front of the wall. In order to describe accurately the plasma particles' motion close to the dust grain, the PIC technique is supplemented with Molecular Dynamics (MD), employing an analytic electrostatic potential for the interaction with the dust grain. The charging of a spherical, conducting dust grain confined in the sheath potential close to the wall of a tokamak is simulated. A magnetic field normal to the wall was investigated. The ion drag force resulting from dust grain collisions with the streaming ions is calculated. This force is critical for a realistic description of the dust particle dynamics and transport in fusion plasmas.

Apparatus and method for removing particle species from fusion-plasma-confinement devices

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, G.W.

1981-10-26

In a mirror fusion plasma confinement apparatus, method and apparatus are provided for selectively removing (pumping) trapped low energy (thermal) particle species from the end cell region, without removing the still useful high energy particle species, and without requiring large power input to accomplish the pumping. Perturbation magnets are placed in the thermal barrier region of the end cell region at the turning point characteristic of trapped thermal particles, thus deflecting the thermal particles from their closed trajectory, causing them to drift sufficiently to exit the thermal barrier.

Generating end plug potentials in tandem mirror plasma confinement by heating thermal particles so as to escape low density end stoppering plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, D.E.; Logan, B.G.

The invention provides a method and apparatus for raising the potential of a magnetic mirror cell by pumping charged particles of the opposite sign of the potential desired out of the mirror cell through excitation, with the pumping being done by an externally imposed field at the bounce frequence of the above charged particles. These pumped simple mirror cells then provide end stoppering for a center mirror cell for the tandem mirror plasma confinement apparatus. For the substantially complete pumping case, the end plugs of a tandem mirror can be up to two orders of magnitude lower in density for confining a given center mirror cell plasma than in the case of end plugs without pumping. As a result the decrease in recirculating power required to keep the system going, the technical state of the art required, and the capital cost are all greatly lowered.

An implicit Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knapp, Charles E. [Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2000-05-01

An implicit version of the Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) code SPHINX has been written and is working. In conjunction with the SPHINX code the new implicit code models fluids and solids under a wide range of conditions. SPH codes are Lagrangian, meshless and use particles to model the fluids and solids. The implicit code makes use of the Krylov iterative techniques for solving large linear-systems and a Newton-Raphson method for non-linear corrections. It uses numerical derivatives to construct the Jacobian matrix. It uses sparse techniques to save on memory storage and to reduce the amount of computation. It is believed that this is the first implicit SPH code to use Newton-Krylov techniques, and is also the first implicit SPH code to model solids. A description of SPH and the techniques used in the implicit code are presented. Then, the results of a number of tests cases are discussed, which include a shock tube problem, a Rayleigh-Taylor problem, a breaking dam problem, and a single jet of gas problem. The results are shown to be in very good agreement with analytic solutions, experimental results, and the explicit SPHINX code. In the case of the single jet of gas case it has been demonstrated that the implicit code can do a problem in much shorter time than the explicit code. The problem was, however, very unphysical, but it does demonstrate the potential of the implicit code. It is a first step toward a useful implicit SPH code.

Development of time dependent safety analysis code for plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honda, Takuro; Okazaki, Takashi; Bartels, H.W.; Uckan, N.A.; Seki, Yasushi.

1997-01-01

A safety analysis code SAFALY has been developed to analyze plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors, e.g., a loss of plasma control. The code is a hybrid code comprising a zero-dimensional plasma dynamics and a one-dimensional thermal analysis of in-vessel components. The code evaluates the time evolution of plasma parameters and temperature distributions of in-vessel components. As the plasma-safety interface model, we proposed a robust plasma physics model taking into account updated data for safety assessment. For example, physics safety guidelines for beta limit, density limit and H-L mode confinement transition threshold power, etc. are provided in the model. The model of the in-vessel components are divided into twenty temperature regions in the poloidal direction taking account of radiative heat transfer between each surface of each region. This code can also describe the coolant behavior under hydraulic accidents with the results by hydraulics code and treat vaporization (sublimation) from plasma facing components (PFCs). Furthermore, the code includes the model of impurity transport form PFCs by using a transport probability and a time delay. Quantitative analysis based on the model is possible for a scenario of plasma passive shutdown. We examined the possibility of the code as a safety analysis code for plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors and had a prospect that it would contribute to the safety analysis of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). (author)

Particle transport in JET and TCV-H mode plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maslov, M.

2009-10-01

experimental observations. The simulations were performed with the GS2 code. The parameter dependencies of plasma density gradient, as observed on JET, are a good agreement with those from the simulations over a wide range. The simulations done for the TCV case, which are in a different physics parameter domain, are also in partial agreement with the experiment. Complete agreement is not out of the question, but will remain a goal for the future, when measurements of one of the most important parameters will be available. The good agreement between the experiment and the simulations suggests that the ITG instability may be responsible for the majority of the anomalous inward particle convection observed in tokamaks. Both the simulations and the empirical data extrapolations predicting a peaked density profile in ITER plasma conditions, instead of a flat one, as was assumed during the concept design period. (author)

Kinetic calculation of plasma deposition in castellated tile gaps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dejarnac, R.; Gunn, J.P.

2007-01-01

Plasma-facing divertors and limiters are armoured with castellated tiles to withstand intense heat fluxes. Recent experimental studies show that a non-negligible amount of deuterium is deposited in the gaps between tiles. We present here a numerical study of plasma deposition in this critical region. For this purpose we have developed a particle-in-cell code with realistic boundary conditions determined from kinetic calculations. We find a strong asymmetry of plasma deposition into the gaps. A significant fraction of the plasma influx is expelled from the gap to be deposited on the leading edge of the downstream tile

2D arc-PIC code description: methods and documentation

CERN Document Server

Timko, Helga

2011-01-01

Vacuum discharges are one of the main limiting factors for future linear collider designs such as that of the Compact LInear Collider. To optimize machine efficiency, maintaining the highest feasible accelerating gradient below a certain breakdown rate is desirable; understanding breakdowns can therefore help us to achieve this goal. As a part of ongoing theoretical research on vacuum discharges at the Helsinki Institute of Physics, the build-up of plasma can be investigated through the particle-in-cell method. For this purpose, we have developed the 2D Arc-PIC code introduced here. We present an exhaustive description of the 2D Arc-PIC code in two parts. In the first part, we introduce the particle-in-cell method in general and detail the techniques used in the code. In the second part, we provide a documentation and derivation of the key equations occurring in the code. The code is original work of the author, written in 2010, and is therefore under the copyright of the author. The development of the code h...

Cavitational micro-particles: plasma formation mechanisms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bica, Ioan

2005-01-01

Cavitational micro-particles are a class to which the micro-spheres, the micro-tubes and the octopus-shaped micro-particles belong. The cavitational micro-particles (micro-spheres, micro-tubes and octopus-shaped micro-particles) at an environmental pressure. The micro-spheres, the micro-tubes and the ligaments of the octopus-shaped micro-particles are produced in the argon plasma and are formed of vapors with low values of the molar concentration in comparison with the molar density of the gas and vapor mixture, the first one on the unstable and the last two on the stable movement of the vapors. The ligaments of the octopus-shaped micro-particles are open at the top for well-chosen values of the sub-cooling of the vapor and gas cylinders. The nitrogen in the air favors the formation of pores in the wall of the micro-spheres. In this paper we present the cavitational micro-particles, their production in the plasma and some mechanisms for their formation in the plasma. (author)

The Particle-in-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Software Center

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, W. B.; Decyk, V. K.; Tableman, A.; Fonseca, R. A.; Tsung, F. S.; Hu, Q.; Winjum, B. J.; An, W.; Dalichaouch, T. N.; Davidson, A.; Hildebrand, L.; Joglekar, A.; May, J.; Miller, K.; Touati, M.; Xu, X. L.

2017-10-01

The UCLA Particle-in-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Software Center (PICKSC) aims to support an international community of PIC and plasma kinetic software developers, users, and educators; to increase the use of this software for accelerating the rate of scientific discovery; and to be a repository of knowledge and history for PIC. We discuss progress towards making available and documenting illustrative open-source software programs and distinct production programs; developing and comparing different PIC algorithms; coordinating the development of resources for the educational use of kinetic software; and the outcomes of our first sponsored OSIRIS users workshop. We also welcome input and discussion from anyone interested in using or developing kinetic software, in obtaining access to our codes, in collaborating, in sharing their own software, or in commenting on how PICKSC can better serve the DPP community. Supported by NSF under Grant ACI-1339893 and by the UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education.

Plasma flow driven by fusion-generated alpha particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikuta, Kazunari.

1978-05-01

The confinement of fusion-generated alpha particles will affect the transports of the background plasma particles by the momentum transfer from the energetic alphas. The ions tend to migrate towards the center of plasma (i.e. fuel injection) and electrons towards the plasma periphery. This means the existence of a mechanism which enable to pump out the ashes in the fuel plasma because of the momentum conservation of whole plasma particles. (author)

Tokamak plasma power balance calculation code (TPC code) outline and operation manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujieda, Hirobumi; Murakami, Yoshiki; Sugihara, Masayoshi.

1992-11-01

This report is a detailed description on the TPC code, that calculates the power balance of a tokamak plasma according to the ITER guidelines. The TPC code works on a personal computer (Macintosh or J-3100/ IBM-PC). Using input data such as the plasma shape, toroidal magnetic field, plasma current, electron temperature, electron density, impurities and heating power, TPC code can determine the operation point of the fusion reactor (Ion temperature is assumed to be equal to the electron temperature). Supplied flux (Volt · sec) and burn time are also estimated by coil design parameters. Calculated energy confinement time is compared with various L-mode scaling laws and the confinement enhancement factor (H-factor) is evaluated. Divertor heat load is predicted by using simple scaling models (constant-χ, Bohm-type-χ and JT-60U empirical scaling models). Frequently used data can be stored in a 'device file' and used as the default values. TPC code can generate 2-D mesh data and the POPCON plot is drawn by a contour line plotting program (CONPLT). The operation manual about CONPLT code is also described. (author)

Implicit multi-fluid simulation of interpenetrating plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rambo, P.W.; Denavit, J.

1992-01-01

A one dimensional simulation code for interpenetrating multi-component plasmas is presented. Separate fluid equations for multiple species and the Poisson equation for the electric field are solved implicitly to allow stable accurate solutions over a wide range of the time scale parameters ω p Δt and ν c Δt (ω p is the plasma frequency, ν c a typical collision frequency and Δt the time step). In regions where ω p Δt c Δt p Δt >>1 and/or ν c Δt>>1, the ambipolar and/or diffusion models are recovered. In regions of low collisionality, particles may be created and deleted which are followed using particle and cell techniques combined with scatter and drag due to collisions with the fluids. Applications of this code to interpenetrating laser generated plasmas are presented

A toroidal plasma MHD equilibrium code 'EQUCIR version 1'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ninomiya, Hiromasa; Shinya, Kichiro; Kameari, Akihisa.

1980-10-01

A new free-boundary toroidal MHD equilibrium code ''EQUCIR version 1'' has been developed. The central problems approached by this code is as follows: 1) The magnetic flux distribution of a plasma at equilibrium is determined in the given external field. 2) A set of circuit equations between the plasma and the external conductors are constructed. These circuit equations and the Grad-Shafranov equation are solved self-consistently and the time evolutions of plasma equilibria and currents in external conductors are determined at the same time. 3) The currents in the external conductors are determined so that the plasma cross-section and plasma parameters are to be maintained with desired ones. It is shown that this code is very useful for study of the tokamak plasma equilibria, for design of the poloidal coil system and for investigation of experimental results. (author)

Nonlinear interaction of fast particles with Alfven waves in toroidal plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Candy, J.; Borba, D.; Huysmans, G.T.A.; Kerner, W.; Berk, H.L.

1996-01-01

A numerical algorithm to study the nonlinear, resonant interaction of fast particles with Alfven waves in tokamak geometry has been developed. The scope of the formalism is wide enough to describe the nonlinear evolution of fishbone modes, toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmodes and ellipticity-induced Alfven eigenmodes, driven by both passing and trapped fast ions. When the instability is sufficiently weak, it is known that the wave-particle trapping nonlinearity will lead to mode saturation before wave-wave nonlinearities are appreciable. The spectrum of linear modes can thus be calculated using a magnetohydrodynamic normal-mode code, then nonlinearly evolved in time in an efficient way according to a two-time-scale Lagrangian dynamical wave model. The fast particle kinetic equation, including the effect of orbit nonlinearity arising from the mode perturbation, is simultaneously solved of the deviation, δf = f - f 0 , from an initial analytic distribution f 0 . High statistical resolution allows linear growth rates, frequency shifts, resonance broadening effects, and nonlinear saturation to be calculated quickly and precisely. The results have been applied to an ITER instability scenario. Results show that weakly-damped core-localized modes alone cause negligible alpha transport in ITER-like plasmas--even with growth rates one order of magnitude higher than expected values. However, the possibility of significant transport in reactor-type plasmas due to weakly unstable global modes remains an open question

A Toroidally Symmetric Plasma Simulation code for design of position and shape control on tokamak plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takase, Haruhiko; Senda, Ikuo

1999-01-01

A Toroidally Symmetric Plasma Simulation (TSPS) code has been developed for investigating the position and shape control on tokamak plasmas. The analyses of three-dimensional eddy currents on the conducting components around the plasma and the two-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium are taken into account in this code. The code can analyze the plasma position and shape control during the minor disruption in which the deformation of plasma is not negligible. Using the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) parameters, some examples of calculations are shown in this paper. (author)

Fluctuations and transport in fusion plasmas. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gould, R.W.; Liewer, P.C.

1995-01-01

The energy confinement in tokamaks in thought to be limited by transport caused by plasma turbulence. Three dimensional plasma particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are used to model the turbulent transport in tokamaks to attempt to understand this phenomena so that tokamaks can be made more efficient. Presently, hundreds of hours of Cray time are used to model these experiments and much bigger and longer runs are desired, to model a large tokamak with realistic parameters is beyond the capability of existing sequential supercomputers. Parallel supercomputers might be a cost effect tool for performing such large scale 3D tokamak simulations. The goal of the work was to develop algorithms for performing PIC codes on coarse-grained message passing parallel computers and to evaluate the performance of such parallel computers on PIC codes. This algorithm would be used in a large scale PIC production code such as the UCLA 3D gyrokinetic code

Dust particle charge and screening in the collisional RF plasma sheath

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beckers, J.; Trienekens, D.J.M.; Kroesen, G.M.W.; Sprouse, G.D.

2012-01-01

Once immersed in plasma, a dust particle gathers a highly negative charge due to the net collection of free electrons. In most plasma's on earth and with particle sizes is in the micrometer range, the gravitational force is dominant and consequently the particle ends up within the plasma sheath

Development of a fluid model for DC arc plasma torches and its integration with downstream models of atmospheric plasma spray particle plumes

Science.gov (United States)

Cannamela, Michael J., III

The plasma spray process uses plasma flames to melt micron sized particles of e.g. ceramic and propel the droplets to impinge upon and freeze to the target workpiece, forming a functional coating. Variations in the process arise from many sources, and because sensing of the process is imperfect one is motivated to pursue a modeling approach. This dissertation models the major elements of the process; the torch that produces the plasma flame, the jet of hot plasma issuing from the torch, and the plume of particles conveyed and heated by the jet. The plasma in the torch is modeled by a one-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approach and it is found that the MHD equations can accurately predict the power dissipated in the bulk of the plasma, while special treatment is required in regions near the electrodes. Treatment of the cathode region is eased since it can be de-coupled from the bulk flow. Treatment of the anode region aims to extract the correct amount of power from the plasma. With MHD in the bulk and these special conditions at the electrode boundaries, the net power into the plasma can be matched with experiment. For one simulation of an SG-100 torch operating at 500A, the measured net power was 7.0kW while the computed net power was 7.1kW. Using outlet information from the torch, the impact of plasma arc oscillations on the free jet and on the in-flight particle states is predicted. The model of the plasma jet is validated against the existing LAVA code, and is able to predict the fraction of entrained air in the jet to within 20% of the experimental value. The variations in particle states due to the arc fluctuations are found to be similar in size to variations due to changes in particle injection velocity, and so cannot be neglected when considering particle state distributions. The end result of this work is to make available a complete chain of models for the plasma spray process, from torch input conditions to in-flight particle state.

On the coupling of fields and particles in accelerator and plasma physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geloni, Gianluca; Kocharyan, Vitali; Saldin, Evgeni

2016-10-01

In accelerator and plasma physics it is generally accepted that there is no need to solve the dynamical equations for particles motion in manifestly covariant form, that is by using the coordinate-independent proper time to parameterize particle world-lines in space-time. In other words, in order to describe the dynamical processes in the laboratory frame there is no need to use the laws of relativistic kinematics. It is sufficient to take into account the relativistic dependence of the particles momentum on the velocity in the second Newton's law. Therefore, the coupling of fields and particles is based, on the one hand, on the use of result from particle dynamics treated according to Newton's laws in terms of the relativistic three-momentum and, on the other hand, on the use of Maxwell's equations in standard form. In previous papers we argued that this is a misconception. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail how to calculate the coupling between fields and particles in a correct way and how to develop a new algorithm for a particle tracking code in agreement with the use of Maxwell's equations in their standard form. Advanced textbooks on classical electrodynamics correctly tell us that Maxwell's equations in standard form in the laboratory frame and charged particles are coupled by introducing particles trajectories as projections of particles world-lines onto coordinates of the laboratory frame and by subsequently using the laboratory time to parameterize the trajectory curves. For the first time we showed a difference between conventional and covariant particle tracking results in the laboratory frame. This essential point has never received attention in the physical community. Only the solution of the dynamical equations in covariant form gives the correct coupling between field equations in standard form and particles trajectories in the laboratory frame. We conclude that previous theoretical and simulation results in accelerator and plasma

On the coupling of fields and particles in accelerator and plasma physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geloni, Gianluca [European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Kocharyan, Vitali; Saldin, Evgeni [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)

2016-10-15

In accelerator and plasma physics it is generally accepted that there is no need to solve the dynamical equations for particles motion in manifestly covariant form, that is by using the coordinate-independent proper time to parameterize particle world-lines in space-time. In other words, in order to describe the dynamical processes in the laboratory frame there is no need to use the laws of relativistic kinematics. It is sufficient to take into account the relativistic dependence of the particles momentum on the velocity in the second Newton's law. Therefore, the coupling of fields and particles is based, on the one hand, on the use of result from particle dynamics treated according to Newton's laws in terms of the relativistic three-momentum and, on the other hand, on the use of Maxwell's equations in standard form. In previous papers we argued that this is a misconception. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail how to calculate the coupling between fields and particles in a correct way and how to develop a new algorithm for a particle tracking code in agreement with the use of Maxwell's equations in their standard form. Advanced textbooks on classical electrodynamics correctly tell us that Maxwell's equations in standard form in the laboratory frame and charged particles are coupled by introducing particles trajectories as projections of particles world-lines onto coordinates of the laboratory frame and by subsequently using the laboratory time to parameterize the trajectory curves. For the first time we showed a difference between conventional and covariant particle tracking results in the laboratory frame. This essential point has never received attention in the physical community. Only the solution of the dynamical equations in covariant form gives the correct coupling between field equations in standard form and particles trajectories in the laboratory frame. We conclude that previous theoretical and simulation results in

PHANTOM: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics code

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Daniel J.; Wurster, James; Nixon, Chris; Tricco, Terrence S.; Toupin, Stéven; Pettitt, Alex; Chan, Conrad; Laibe, Guillaume; Glover, Simon; Dobbs, Clare; Nealon, Rebecca; Liptai, David; Worpel, Hauke; Bonnerot, Clément; Dipierro, Giovanni; Ragusa, Enrico; Federrath, Christoph; Iaconi, Roberto; Reichardt, Thomas; Forgan, Duncan; Hutchison, Mark; Constantino, Thomas; Ayliffe, Ben; Mentiplay, Daniel; Hirsh, Kieran; Lodato, Giuseppe

2017-09-01

Phantom is a smoothed particle hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics code focused on stellar, galactic, planetary, and high energy astrophysics. It is modular, and handles sink particles, self-gravity, two fluid and one fluid dust, ISM chemistry and cooling, physical viscosity, non-ideal MHD, and more. Its modular structure makes it easy to add new physics to the code.

Transport of super-thermal particles and their effect on the stability of global modes in fusion plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schneller, Mirjam Simone

2013-01-01

In thermonuclear plasmas, a population of super-thermal particles generated by external heating methods or fusion reactions can lead to the excitation of global instabilities. The transport processes due to nonlinear wave-particle interactions and the consequential particle losses reduce the plasma heating and the efficiency of the fusion reaction rate. Furthermore, these energetic or fast particles may cause severe damages to the wall of the device. This thesis addresses the resonance mechanisms between these energetic particles and global MHD and kinetic MHD waves, employing the hybrid code HAGIS. A systematic investigation of energetic particles resonant with multiple modes (double-resonance) is presented for the first time. The double-resonant mode coupling is modeled for waves with different frequencies in various overlapping scenarios. It is found that, depending on the radial mode distance, double-resonance is able to significantly enhance, both the growth rates and the saturation amplitudes. Small radial mode distances, however can lead to strong nonlinear mode stabilization of a linear dominant mode. For the first time, simulations of experimental conditions in the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device are performed for different plasma equilibria (particularly for different q profiles). An understanding of fast particle behavior for non-monotonic q profiles is important for the development of advanced fusion scenarios. The numerical tool is the extended version of the HAGIS code, which computes the particle motion in the vacuum region between vessel wall in addition to the internal plasma volume. For this thesis, a consistent fast particle distribution function was implemented, to represent the fast particle population generated by the particular heating method (ICRH). Furthermore, HAGIS was extended to use more realistic eigenfunctions, calculated by the gyrokinetic eigenvalue solver LIGKA. One important aim of these simulations is to allow fast ion loss

Transport of super-thermal particles and their effect on the stability of global modes in fusion plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schneller, Mirjam Simone

2013-08-02

In thermonuclear plasmas, a population of super-thermal particles generated by external heating methods or fusion reactions can lead to the excitation of global instabilities. The transport processes due to nonlinear wave-particle interactions and the consequential particle losses reduce the plasma heating and the efficiency of the fusion reaction rate. Furthermore, these energetic or fast particles may cause severe damages to the wall of the device. This thesis addresses the resonance mechanisms between these energetic particles and global MHD and kinetic MHD waves, employing the hybrid code HAGIS. A systematic investigation of energetic particles resonant with multiple modes (double-resonance) is presented for the first time. The double-resonant mode coupling is modeled for waves with different frequencies in various overlapping scenarios. It is found that, depending on the radial mode distance, double-resonance is able to significantly enhance, both the growth rates and the saturation amplitudes. Small radial mode distances, however can lead to strong nonlinear mode stabilization of a linear dominant mode. For the first time, simulations of experimental conditions in the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device are performed for different plasma equilibria (particularly for different q profiles). An understanding of fast particle behavior for non-monotonic q profiles is important for the development of advanced fusion scenarios. The numerical tool is the extended version of the HAGIS code, which computes the particle motion in the vacuum region between vessel wall in addition to the internal plasma volume. For this thesis, a consistent fast particle distribution function was implemented, to represent the fast particle population generated by the particular heating method (ICRH). Furthermore, HAGIS was extended to use more realistic eigenfunctions, calculated by the gyrokinetic eigenvalue solver LIGKA. One important aim of these simulations is to allow fast ion loss

Recycling source terms for edge plasma fluid models and impact on convergence behaviour of the BRAAMS 'B2' code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maddison, G.P.; Reiter, D.

1994-02-01

Predictive simulations of tokamak edge plasmas require the most authentic description of neutral particle recycling sources, not merely the most expedient numerically. Employing a prototypical ITER divertor arrangement under conditions of high recycling, trial calculations with the 'B2' steady-state edge plasma transport code, plus varying approximations or recycling, reveal marked sensitivity of both results and its convergence behaviour to details of sources incorporated. Comprehensive EIRENE Monte Carlo resolution of recycling is implemented by full and so-called 'shot' intermediate cycles between the plasma fluid and statistical neutral particle models. As generally for coupled differencing and stochastic procedures, though, overall convergence properties become more difficult to assess. A pragmatic criterion for the 'B2'/EIRENE code system is proposed to determine its success, proceeding from a stricter condition previously identified for one particular analytic approximation of recycling in 'B2'. Certain procedures are also inferred potentially to improve their convergence further. (orig.)

Thermodynamics of strongly coupled repulsive Yukawa particles in ambient neutralizing plasma: Thermodynamic instability and the possibility of observation in fine particle plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Totsuji, Hiroo

2008-01-01

The thermodynamics is analyzed for a system composed of particles with hard cores, interacting via the repulsive Yukawa potential (Yukawa particulates), and neutralizing ambient (background) plasma. An approximate equation of state is given with proper account of the contribution of ambient plasma and it is shown that there exists a possibility for the total isothermal compressibility of Yukawa particulates and ambient plasma to diverge when the coupling between Yukawa particulates is sufficiently strong. In this case, the system undergoes a transition into separated phases with different densities and we have a critical point for this phase separation. Examples of approximate phase diagrams related to this transition are given. It is emphasized that the critical point can be in the solid phase and we have the possibility to observe a solid-solid phase separation. The applicability of these results to fine particle plasmas is investigated. It is shown that, though the values of the characteristic parameters are semiquantitative due to the effects not described by this model, these phenomena are expected to be observed in fine particle plasmas, when approximately isotropic bulk systems are realized with a very strong coupling between fine particles.

Thermodynamics of strongly coupled repulsive Yukawa particles in ambient neutralizing plasma: Thermodynamic instability and the possibility of observation in fine particle plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Totsuji, Hiroo

2008-07-01

The thermodynamics is analyzed for a system composed of particles with hard cores, interacting via the repulsive Yukawa potential (Yukawa particulates), and neutralizing ambient (background) plasma. An approximate equation of state is given with proper account of the contribution of ambient plasma and it is shown that there exists a possibility for the total isothermal compressibility of Yukawa particulates and ambient plasma to diverge when the coupling between Yukawa particulates is sufficiently strong. In this case, the system undergoes a transition into separated phases with different densities and we have a critical point for this phase separation. Examples of approximate phase diagrams related to this transition are given. It is emphasized that the critical point can be in the solid phase and we have the possibility to observe a solid-solid phase separation. The applicability of these results to fine particle plasmas is investigated. It is shown that, though the values of the characteristic parameters are semiquantitative due to the effects not described by this model, these phenomena are expected to be observed in fine particle plasmas, when approximately isotropic bulk systems are realized with a very strong coupling between fine particles.

Center for Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Turbulent Transport in Burning Plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decyk, Viktor K.

2008-01-01

the GTC code into one flexible and extensible version. To do this, we developed a methodology to implement Design Patterns in Fortran90. Design Patterns are abstract solutions to generic programming problems, which allow one to handle increased complexity. This work was done in collaboration with Henry Gardner, a computer scientist (and former plasma physicist) from the Australian National University. As an example, the Strategy Pattern is being used in GTC to support multiple solvers. This new code is currently being used in the study of energetic particles. A document describing the evolution of the GTC code to this new object-oriented version is available to users of GTC.

Particle acceleration by plasma waves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joshi, C.

2006-01-01

In an advanced particle accelerator particles are driven near by light velocity through ionized gas. Such plasma devices are compact, cost efficient and usable in many fields. Examples are given in detail. (GL)

The relaxation of plasmas with dust particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chutov, Yu.I.; Kravchenko, A.Yu.; Schram, P.P.J.M.

1997-01-01

Various parameters of relaxing plasmas with dust particles including the electron and ion energy distributions function are numerically simulated at various parameters of the dust particles using the PIC method and taking into account the dynamics of the dust particle charge without the assumption about the equilibrium of electrons and ions. Coulomb collisions are taken into account in the framework of the method of stochastic differential equations. The relaxation of bounded plasma clouds expanding into a vacuum as well as the relaxation of a uniform plasma, in which dust particles appear at some initial time, are investigated. The obtained results show that the relaxation of plasmas can be accompanied by a deviation of the ion distribution function from equilibrium as well as a change of the mean energy of electrons and ions because of the dependence of the collection of electrons and ions by dust particles on their energy. (author)

Nongyrotropic particle distributions in space plasmas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. Motschmann

1999-05-01

Full Text Available In nonstationary, strong inhomogeneous or open plasmas particle orbits are rather complicated. If the nonstationary time scale is smaller than the gyration period, if the inhomogeneity scale is smaller than the gyration radius, i.e. at magnetic plasma boundaries, or if the plasma has sources and sinks in phase space, then nongyrotropic distribution functions occur. The stability of such plasma configurations is studied in the framework of linear dispersion theory. In an open plasma nongyrotropy drives unstable waves parallel and perpendicular to the background magnetic field, whereas in the gyrotropic limit the plasma is stable. In nonstationary plasmas nongyrotropy drives perpendicular unstable waves only. Temporal modulation couples a seed mode with its side lobes and thus it renders unstable wave growth more difficult. As an example of an inhomogeneous plasma a magnetic halfspace is discussed. In a layer with thickness of the thermal proton gyroradius a nongyrotropic distribution is formed which may excite unstable parallel and perpendicular propagating waves.Key words. Interplanetary physics (plasma waves and turbulence · Ionosphere (plasma waves and instabilities · Magnetospheric physics (plasma waves and instabilities

Axisymmetrical particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation of narrow gap planar magnetron plasmas. I. Direct current-driven discharge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondo, Shuji; Nanbu, Kenichi

2001-01-01

An axisymmetrical particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation is performed for modeling direct current-driven planar magnetron discharge. The axisymmetrical structure of plasma parameters such as plasma density, electric field, and electron and ion energy is examined in detail. The effects of applied voltage and magnetic field strength on the discharge are also clarified. The model apparatus has a narrow target-anode gap of 20 mm to make the computational time manageable. This resulted in the current densities which are very low compared to actual experimental results for a wider target-anode gap. The current-voltage characteristics show a negative slope in contrast with many experimental results. However, this is understandable from Gu and Lieberman's similarity equation. The negative slope appears to be due to the narrow gap

Comparison of several algorithms of the electric force calculation in particle plasma models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lachnitt, J; Hrach, R

2014-01-01

This work is devoted to plasma modelling using the technique of molecular dynamics. The crucial problem of most such models is the efficient calculation of electric force. This is usually solved by using the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm. However, PIC is an approximative algorithm as it underestimates the short-range interactions of charged particles. We propose a hybrid algorithm which adds these interactions to PIC. Then we include this algorithm in a set of algorithms which we test against each other in a two-dimensional collisionless magnetized plasma model. Besides our hybrid algorithm, this set includes two variants of pure PIC and the direct application of Coulomb's law. We compare particle forces, particle trajectories, total energy conservation and the speed of the algorithms. We find out that the hybrid algorithm can be a good replacement of direct Coulomb's law application (quite accurate and much faster). It is however probably unnecessary to use it in practical 2D models.

Nonlinear effects of energetic particle driven instabilities in tokamaks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bruedgam, Michael

2010-03-25

In a tokamak plasma, a population of superthermal particles generated by heating methods can lead to a destabilization of various MHD modes. Due to nonlinear wave-particle interactions, a consequential fast particle redistribution reduces the plasma heating and can cause severe damages to the wall of the fusion device. In order to describe the wave-particle interaction, the drift-kinetic perturbative HAGIS code is applied which evolves the particle trajectories and the waves nonlinearly. For a simulation speed-up, the 6-d particle phase-space is reduced by the guiding centre approach to a 5-d description. The eigenfunction of the wave is assumed to be invariant, but its amplitude and phase is altered in time. A sophisticated {delta}/f-method is employed to model the change in the fast particle distribution so that numerical noise and the excessive number of simulated Monte-Carlo points are reduced significantly. The original code can only calculate the particle redistribution inside the plasma region. Therefore, a code extension has been developed during this thesis which enlarges the simulation region up to the vessel wall. By means of numerical simulations, this thesis addresses the problem of nonlinear waveparticle interactions in the presence of multiple MHD modes with significantly different eigenfrequencies and the corresponding fast particle transport inside the plasma. In this context, a new coupling mechanism between resonant particles and waves has been identified that leads to enhanced mode amplitudes and fast particle losses. The extension of the code provides for the first time the possibility of a quantitative and qualitative comparison between simulation results and recent measurements in the experiment. The findings of the comparison serve as a validation of both the theoretical model and the interpretation of the experimental results. Thus, a powerful interface tool has been developed for a deeper insight of nonlinear wave-particle interaction

Nonlinear effects of energetic particle driven instabilities in tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruedgam, Michael

2010-01-01

In a tokamak plasma, a population of superthermal particles generated by heating methods can lead to a destabilization of various MHD modes. Due to nonlinear wave-particle interactions, a consequential fast particle redistribution reduces the plasma heating and can cause severe damages to the wall of the fusion device. In order to describe the wave-particle interaction, the drift-kinetic perturbative HAGIS code is applied which evolves the particle trajectories and the waves nonlinearly. For a simulation speed-up, the 6-d particle phase-space is reduced by the guiding centre approach to a 5-d description. The eigenfunction of the wave is assumed to be invariant, but its amplitude and phase is altered in time. A sophisticated δ/f-method is employed to model the change in the fast particle distribution so that numerical noise and the excessive number of simulated Monte-Carlo points are reduced significantly. The original code can only calculate the particle redistribution inside the plasma region. Therefore, a code extension has been developed during this thesis which enlarges the simulation region up to the vessel wall. By means of numerical simulations, this thesis addresses the problem of nonlinear waveparticle interactions in the presence of multiple MHD modes with significantly different eigenfrequencies and the corresponding fast particle transport inside the plasma. In this context, a new coupling mechanism between resonant particles and waves has been identified that leads to enhanced mode amplitudes and fast particle losses. The extension of the code provides for the first time the possibility of a quantitative and qualitative comparison between simulation results and recent measurements in the experiment. The findings of the comparison serve as a validation of both the theoretical model and the interpretation of the experimental results. Thus, a powerful interface tool has been developed for a deeper insight of nonlinear wave-particle interaction. (orig.)

Propagation of localized structures in relativistic magnetized electron-positron plasmas using particle-in-cell simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

López, Rodrigo A. [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4070386 (Chile); Muñoz, Víctor [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago (Chile); Viñas, Adolfo F. [Geospace Physics Laboratory, Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States); Valdivia, Juan A. [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago (Chile); Centro para el Desarrollo de la Nanociencia y la Nanotecnología (CEDENNA), Santiago 9170124 (Chile)

2015-09-15

We use a particle-in-cell simulation to study the propagation of localized structures in a magnetized electron-positron plasma with relativistic finite temperature. We use as initial condition for the simulation an envelope soliton solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, derived from the relativistic two fluid equations in the strongly magnetized limit. This envelope soliton turns out not to be a stable solution for the simulation and splits in two localized structures propagating in opposite directions. However, these two localized structures exhibit a soliton-like behavior, as they keep their profile after they collide with each other due to the periodic boundary conditions. We also observe the formation of localized structures in the evolution of a spatially uniform circularly polarized Alfvén wave. In both cases, the localized structures propagate with an amplitude independent velocity.

Propagation of localized structures in relativistic magnetized electron-positron plasmas using particle-in-cell simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

López, Rodrigo A.; Muñoz, Víctor; Viñas, Adolfo F.; Valdivia, Juan A.

2015-01-01

We use a particle-in-cell simulation to study the propagation of localized structures in a magnetized electron-positron plasma with relativistic finite temperature. We use as initial condition for the simulation an envelope soliton solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, derived from the relativistic two fluid equations in the strongly magnetized limit. This envelope soliton turns out not to be a stable solution for the simulation and splits in two localized structures propagating in opposite directions. However, these two localized structures exhibit a soliton-like behavior, as they keep their profile after they collide with each other due to the periodic boundary conditions. We also observe the formation of localized structures in the evolution of a spatially uniform circularly polarized Alfvén wave. In both cases, the localized structures propagate with an amplitude independent velocity

Particle porosity at plasma are spraying of metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petrunichev, V.A.; Koroleva, E.B.; Pushilin, N.P.

1985-01-01

Quantitative dependences of porosity and character of pore distribution in particles of different materials on particle size and composition of atmosphere in a working chamber are studied experimentally as applied to the process of plasma wire sputtering. Wires 1.2 mm in diameter made of tungsten, molybdenum, Kh20N80 alloy, and zirconium served as sputtering materials. It is shown that pore size and character of their distribution in particles of powders obtained by the method of plasma wire sputtering are dependent on sizes of forming particles and determined by conditions of their cooling. Intensive porosity formation is characteristic of wire sputtering in argon plasma with nitrogen additions, but there are critical values of nitrogen concentration in plasma, above which intensive porosity formation in forming particles stops

The three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation analysis of cavity of high power subterahertz pulsed gyrotron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Koyu; Jiang, Weihua

2013-01-01

High power sub-terahertz pulsed gyrotrons for Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostics of fusion plasmas are being developed. The typical target parameters are: output power of 100-200 kW, operation frequency of 300 GHz, and pulsed length > 10 us. In order to support experimental development, numerical simulations were carried out by using Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code MAGIC. The oscillation mode of the electromagnetic radiation was selected as TE_1_5_,_2, for which the beam parameters and cavity dimensions were determined accordingly. The simulation results have showed maximum power of 144 kW at oscillation frequency of 292.80 GHz, with oscillation efficiency of 22.15%. (author)

Investigation of edge plasmas in the anchor cell region of GAMMA 10

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Islam, Khairul; Nakashima, Yousuke; Yatsu, Kiyoshi

2000-01-01

The first results of Langmuir probe measurements at the outer transition region of the anchor cell of GAMMA 10 are given. A probe current asymmetry in vertical direction is found in this region. It is also found that the asymmetry of probe current increases in outward direction and the direction of the asymmetry is independent on movable limiter position. A relation of the plasma asymmetry with the main magnetic field configuration is investigated. Plasma flow through the non-asymmetric magnetic field configuration region is thought to be the source of plasma asymmetry in this region, i.e., ∇B and curvature drifts are responsible for the asymmetry. Possibility of cold plasma formation in the anchor cell region is obtained during plug electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and can be explained with the desorption of particles due to the collision of the drifted out particles with the wall. (author)

Nongyrotropic particle distributions in space plasmas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. Motschmann

Full Text Available In nonstationary, strong inhomogeneous or open plasmas particle orbits are rather complicated. If the nonstationary time scale is smaller than the gyration period, if the inhomogeneity scale is smaller than the gyration radius, i.e. at magnetic plasma boundaries, or if the plasma has sources and sinks in phase space, then nongyrotropic distribution functions occur. The stability of such plasma configurations is studied in the framework of linear dispersion theory. In an open plasma nongyrotropy drives unstable waves parallel and perpendicular to the background magnetic field, whereas in the gyrotropic limit the plasma is stable. In nonstationary plasmas nongyrotropy drives perpendicular unstable waves only. Temporal modulation couples a seed mode with its side lobes and thus it renders unstable wave growth more difficult. As an example of an inhomogeneous plasma a magnetic halfspace is discussed. In a layer with thickness of the thermal proton gyroradius a nongyrotropic distribution is formed which may excite unstable parallel and perpendicular propagating waves.

Key words. Interplanetary physics (plasma waves and turbulence · Ionosphere (plasma waves and instabilities · Magnetospheric physics (plasma waves and instabilities

Anisotropy-Driven Instability in Intense Charged Particle Beams

CERN Document Server

Startsev, Edward; Qin, Hong

2005-01-01

In electrically neutral plasmas with strongly anisotropic distribution functions, free energy is available to drive different collective instabilities such as the electrostatic Harris instability and the transverse electromagnetic Weibel instability. Such anisotropies develop naturally in particle accelerators and may lead to a detoriation of beam quality. We have generalized the analysis of the classical Harris and Weibel instabilities to the case of a one-component intense charged particle beam with anisotropic temperature including the important effects of finite transverse geometry and beam space-charge. For a long costing beam, the delta-f particle-in-cell code BEST and the eighenmode code bEASt have been used to determine detailed 3D stability properties over a wide range of temperature anisotropy and beam intensity. A theoretical model is developed which describes the essential features of the linear stage of these instabilities. Both, the simulations and analytical theory, clearly show that moderately...

Rotating structures in low temperature magnetized plasmas - Insight from particle simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Pierre eBoeuf

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The EXB configuration of various low temperature plasma devices is often responsible for the formation of rotating structures and instabilities leading to anomalous electron transport across the magnetic field. In these devices, electrons are strongly magnetized while ions are weakly or not magnetized and this leads to specific physical phenomena that are not present in fusion plasmas where both electrons and ions are strongly magnetized. In this paper we describe basic phenomena involving rotating plasma structures in simple configurations of low temperature EXB plasma devices on the basis of PIC-MCC (Particle-In-Cell Monte Carlo Collisions simulations. We focus on three examples: rotating electron vortices and rotating spokes in cylindrical magnetrons, and azimuthal electron-cyclotron drift instability in Hall thrusters. The simulations are not intended to give definite answers to the many physics issues related to low temperature EXB plasma devices but are used to illustrate and discuss some of the basic questions that need further studies.

Spectral properties and associated plasma energization by magnetosonic waves in the Earth's magnetosphere: Particle-in-cell simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Jicheng; Gao, Xinliang; Lu, Quanming; Chen, Lunjin; Liu, Xu; Wang, Xueyi; Tao, Xin; Wang, Shui

2017-05-01

In this paper, we perform a 1-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation model consisting of three species, cold electrons, cold ions, and energetic ion ring, to investigate spectral structures of magnetosonic waves excited by ring distribution protons in the Earth's magnetosphere, and dynamics of charged particles during the excitation of magnetosonic waves. As the wave normal angle decreases, the spectral range of excited magnetosonic waves becomes broader with upper frequency limit extending beyond the lower hybrid resonant frequency, and the discrete spectra tends to merge into a continuous one. This dependence on wave normal angle is consistent with the linear theory. The effects of magnetosonic waves on the background cold plasma populations also vary with wave normal angle. For exactly perpendicular magnetosonic waves (parallel wave number k|| = 0), there is no energization in the parallel direction for both background cold protons and electrons due to the negligible fluctuating electric field component in the parallel direction. In contrast, the perpendicular energization of background plasmas is rather significant, where cold protons follow unmagnetized motion while cold electrons follow drift motion due to wave electric fields. For magnetosonic waves with a finite k||, there exists a nonnegligible parallel fluctuating electric field, leading to a significant and rapid energization in the parallel direction for cold electrons. These cold electrons can also be efficiently energized in the perpendicular direction due to the interaction with the magnetosonic wave fields in the perpendicular direction. However, cold protons can be only heated in the perpendicular direction, which is likely caused by the higher-order resonances with magnetosonic waves. The potential impacts of magnetosonic waves on the energization of the background cold plasmas in the Earth's inner magnetosphere are also discussed in this paper.

Correcting for particle size effects on plasma actuator particle image velocimetry measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Masati, A.; Sedwick, R. J.

2018-01-01

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is often used to characterize plasma actuator flow, but particle charging effects are rarely taken into account. A parametric study was conducted to determine the effects of particle size on the velocity results of plasma actuator PIV experiments. Results showed that smaller particles more closely match air flow velocities than larger particles. The measurement uncertainty was quantified by deconvolving the particle image diameter from the correlation diameter. The true air velocity was calculated by linearly extrapolating to the zero-size particle diameter.

Particle-in-cell simulations on spontaneous thermal magnetic field fluctuations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simões, F. J. R. Jr.; Pavan, J. [Instituto de Física e Matemática, UFPel, Pelotas, RS (Brazil); Gaelzer, R.; Ziebell, L. F. [Instituto de Física, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil); Yoon, P. H. [Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)

2013-10-15

In this paper an electromagnetic particle code is used to investigate the spontaneous thermal emission. Specifically we perform particle-in-cell simulations employing a non-relativistic isotropic Maxwellian particle distribution to show that thermal fluctuations are related to the origin of spontaneous magnetic field fluctuation. These thermal fluctuations can become seed for further amplification mechanisms and thus be considered at the origin of the cosmological magnetic field, at microgauss levels. Our numerical results are in accordance with theoretical results presented in the literature.

Artificial cooling due to quiet injection in bounded plasma particle simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawson, W.S.

1988-01-01

An explanation is proposed for an artificial cooling effect seen in electrostatic particle-in-cell plasma simulations. The effect hinges on heat transport from the trapped electrons to fluctuations of the electric field, which are kept at a sub-thermal level through the continuous ''quiet'' injection of passing electrons. Further simulations are done which test and support the explanation. copyright 1988 Academic Press, Inc

Numerical study of extreme-ultra-violet generated plasmas in hydrogen

OpenAIRE

Astakhov, Dmitry

2016-01-01

In this thesis, we present the development and study a numerical model of EUV-induced plasma. Understanding of behavior of low pressure low density plasmas is of industrial relevance, because of their potential use for on-line removal of different forms of contaminations from multilayer mirrors, which will help increase the throughput of EUV lithography. The model is 2D axially symmetric particle-in-cell code, hence it allows the full geometry of an axially symmetric chamber to be taken into...

Alfven waves in dusty plasmas with plasma particles described by anisotropic kappa distributions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galvao, R. A.; Ziebell, L. F. [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15051, CEP: 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); Gaelzer, R. [Instituto de Fisica e Matematica, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Caixa Postal 354-Campus UFPel, CEP: 96010-900 Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); Juli, M. C. de [Centro de Radio-Astronomia e Astrofisica Mackenzie-CRAAM, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Rua da Consolacao 896, CEP: 01302-907 Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo (Brazil)

2012-12-15

We utilize a kinetic description to study the dispersion relation of Alfven waves propagating parallelly to the ambient magnetic field in a dusty plasma, taking into account the fluctuation of the charge of the dust particles, which is due to inelastic collisions with electrons and ions. We consider a plasma in which the velocity distribution functions of the plasma particles are modelled as anisotropic kappa distributions, study the dispersion relation for several combinations of the parameters {kappa}{sub Parallel-To} and {kappa}{sub Up-Tack }, and emphasize the effect of the anisotropy of the distributions on the mode coupling which occurs in a dusty plasma, between waves in the branch of circularly polarized waves and waves in the whistler branch.

Numerical simulation of cathode plasma dynamics in magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thoma, C.; Genoni, T. C.; Welch, D. R.; Rose, D. V.; Clark, R. E.; Miller, C. L.; Stygar, W. A.; Kiefer, M. L.

2015-01-01

A novel algorithm for the simulation of cathode plasmas in particle-in-cell codes is described and applied to investigate cathode plasma evolution in magnetically insulated transmission lines (MITLs). The MITL electron sheath is modeled by a fully kinetic electron species. Electron and ion macroparticles, both modeled as fluid species, form a dense plasma which is initially localized at the cathode surface. Energetic plasma electron particles can be converted to kinetic electrons to resupply the electron flux at the plasma edge (the “effective” cathode). Using this model, we compare results for the time evolution of the cathode plasma and MITL electron flow with a simplified (isothermal) diffusion model. Simulations in 1D show a slow diffusive expansion of the plasma from the cathode surface. But in multiple dimensions, the plasma can expand much more rapidly due to anomalous diffusion caused by an instability due to the strong coupling of a transverse magnetic mode in the electron sheath with the expanding resistive plasma layer

Influence of the RF electrode cleanliness on plasma characteristics and dust-particle generation in methane dusty plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Géraud-Grenier, I.; Desdions, W.; Faubert, F.; Mikikian, M.; Massereau-Guilbaud, V.

2018-01-01

The methane decomposition in a planar RF discharge (13.56 MHz) leads both to a dust-particle generation in the plasma bulk and to a coating growth on the electrodes. Growing dust-particles fall onto the grounded electrode when they are too heavy. Thus, at the end of the experiment, the grounded electrode is covered by a coating and by fallen dust-particles. During the dust-particle growth, the negative DC self-bias voltage (VDC) increases because fewer electrons reach the RF electrode, leading to a more resistive plasma and to changes in the plasma chemical composition. In this paper, the cleanliness influence of the RF electrode on the dust-particle growth, on the plasma characteristics and composition is investigated. A cleanliness electrode is an electrode without coating and dust-particles on its surface at the beginning of the experiment.

Plasma polymer-functionalized silica particles for heavy metals removal.

Science.gov (United States)

Akhavan, Behnam; Jarvis, Karyn; Majewski, Peter

2015-02-25

Highly negatively charged particles were fabricated via an innovative plasma-assisted approach for the removal of heavy metal ions. Thiophene plasma polymerization was used to deposit sulfur-rich films onto silica particles followed by the introduction of oxidized sulfur functionalities, such as sulfonate and sulfonic acid, via water-plasma treatments. Surface chemistry analyses were conducted by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy. Electrokinetic measurements quantified the zeta potentials and isoelectric points (IEPs) of modified particles and indicated significant decreases of zeta potentials and IEPs upon plasma modification of particles. Plasma polymerized thiophene-coated particles treated with water plasma for 10 min exhibited an IEP of less than 3.5. The effectiveness of developed surfaces in the adsorption of heavy metal ions was demonstrated through copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) removal experiments. The removal of metal ions was examined through changing initial pH of solution, removal time, and mass of particles. Increasing the water plasma treatment time to 20 min significantly increased the metal removal efficiency (MRE) of modified particles, whereas further increasing the plasma treatment time reduced the MRE due to the influence of an ablation mechanism. The developed particulate surfaces were capable of removing more than 96.7% of both Cu and Zn ions in 1 h. The combination of plasma polymerization and oxidative plasma treatment is an effective method for the fabrication of new adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals.

Gas and particle velocity measurements in an induction plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lesinski, J.; Gagne, R.; Boulos, M.I.

1981-08-01

Laser doppler anemometry was used for the measurements of the plasma and particle velocity profiles in the coil region of an inductively coupled plasma. Results are reported for a 50 mm ID induction torch operated at atmospheric pressure with argon as the plasma gas. The oscillator frequency was 3 MHz and the power in the coil was varied between 4.6 and 10.5 kW. The gas velocity measurements were made using a fine carbon powder as a tracer (dp approx. = 1 μm). Measurements were also made with larger silicon particles (dp = 33 μm and sigma = 13 μm) centrally injected in the plasma under different operating conditions

Cooperative particle motion in complex (dusty) plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Zhdanov, Sergey; Morfill, Gregor

2014-05-01

Strongly coupled complex (dusty) plasmas give us a unique opportunity to go beyond the limits of continuous media and study various generic processes occurring in liquids or solids at the kinetic level. A particularly interesting and challenging topic is to study dynamic cooperativity at local and intermediate scales. As an important element of self-organization, cooperative particle motion is present in many physical, astrophysical and biological systems. As a rule, cooperative dynamics, bringing to life 'abnormal' effects like enhanced diffusion, self-dragging, or self-propelling of particles, hold aspects of 'strange' kinetics. The synergy effects are also important. Such kind of cooperative behavior was evidenced for string-like formations of colloidal rods, dynamics of mono- and di-vacancies in 2d colloidal crystals. Externally manipulated 'dust molecules' and self-assembled strings in driven 3d particle clusters were other noticeable examples. There is a certain advantage to experiment with complex plasmas merely because these systems are easy to manipulate in a controllable way. We report on the first direct observation of microparticle cooperative movements occurring under natural conditions in a 2d complex plasma.

Particle beams and plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofmann, A.; Messerschmid, E.; Lawson, J.D.

1976-01-01

These lectures present a survey of some of the concepts of plasma physics and look at some situations familiar to particle-accelerator physicists from the point of view of a plasma physicist, with the intention of helping to link together the two fields. At the outset, basic plasma concepts are presented, including definitions of a plasma, characteristic parameters, magnetic pressure and confinement. This is followed by a brief discussion on plasma kinetic theory, non-equilibrium plasma, and the temperature of moving plasmas. Examples deal with beams in the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings as well as with non-steady beams in cyclic accelerators and microwave tubes. In the final chapters, time-varying systems are considered: waves in free space and the effect of cylinder bounds, wave motion in cold stationary plasmas, and waves in plasmas with well-defined streams. The treatment throughout is informal, with emphasis on the essential physical properties of continuous beams in accelerators and storage rings in relation to the corresponding problems in plasma physics and microwave tubes. (Author)

Papa, a Particle Tracing Code in Pascal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haselhoff, E.H.; Haselhoff, Eltjo H.; Ernst, G.J.

1990-01-01

During the design of a 10 ¿m high-gain FEL oscillator (TEUFEL Project) we developed a new particle-tracing code to perform simulations of thermionic- and photo-cathode electron injectors/accelerators. The program allows predictions of current, energy and beam emittance in a user-specified linac

Direct measurements of particle transport in dc glow discharge dusty plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, E. Jr.

2001-01-01

Many recent experiments in dc glow discharge plasmas have shown that clouds of dust particles can be suspended near the biased electrodes. Once formed, the dust clouds have well defined boundaries while particle motion within the clouds can be quite complex. Because the dust particles in the cloud can remain suspended in the plasma for tens of minutes, it implies that the particles have a low diffusive loss rate and follow closed trajectories within the cloud. In the experiments discussed in this paper, direct measurements of the dust particle velocities are made using particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques. From the velocity measurements, a reconstruction of the three-dimensional transport of the dust particles is performed. A qualitative model is developed for the closed motion of the dust particles in a dc glow discharge dusty plasma. (orig.)

A 3d particle simulation code for heavy ion fusion accelerator studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friedman, A.; Bangerter, R.O.; Callahan, D.A.; Grote, D.P.; Langdon, A.B.; Haber, I.

1990-01-01

We describe WARP, a new particle-in-cell code being developed and optimized for ion beam studies in true geometry. We seek to model transport around bends, axial compression with strong focusing, multiple beamlet interaction, and other inherently 3d processes that affect emittance growth. Constraints imposed by memory and running time are severe. Thus, we employ only two 3d field arrays (ρ and φ), and difference φ directly on each particle to get E, rather than interpolating E from three meshes; use of a single 3d array is feasible. A new method for PIC simulation of bent beams follows the beam particles in a family of rotated laboratory frames, thus ''straightening'' the bends. We are also incorporating an envelope calculation, an (r, z) model, and 1d (axial) model within WARP. The BASIS development and run-time system is used, providing a powerful interactive environment in which the user has access to all variables in the code database. 10 refs., 3 figs

Program Package for 3d PIC Model of Plasma Fiber

Science.gov (United States)

Kulhánek, Petr; Břeň, David

2007-08-01

A fully three dimensional Particle in Cell model of the plasma fiber had been developed. The code is written in FORTRAN 95, implementation CVF (Compaq Visual Fortran) under Microsoft Visual Studio user interface. Five particle solvers and two field solvers are included in the model. The solvers have relativistic and non-relativistic variants. The model can deal both with periodical and non-periodical boundary conditions. The mechanism of the surface turbulences generation in the plasma fiber was successfully simulated with the PIC program package.

Development and application of a tree-code in simulation scenarios of the plasma-wall interaction; Entwicklung und Anwendung eines Tree-Codes in Simulationsszenarios der Plasma-Wand-Wechselwirkung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berberich, Benjamin

2012-03-15

Processes in the plasma edge layer of magnetic fusion devices occur on widely disparate length- and time-scales. Also recently developed features in this particular region, such as stochastic magnetic fields, underline the necessity for three dimensional, full-kinetic simulation tools. Contemporary programs often deploy ad hoc assumptions and approximations for microscopic phenomena for which self-consistent ab initio models in principle exist, but are still computationally too expensive or complex to implement. Recently, mesh-free methods have matured into a new class of tools for such first-principles computations which thanks to their geometric flexibility are highly promising for tackling complicated TOKAMAK regions. In this work we have develop the massively parallel Tree-Code PEPC-B (Pretty Efficient Parallel Coulomb solver) into a new tool for plasma material interaction studies. After a brief overview of the working principles of Tree-Codes two main topic groups are addressed: First the leap-frog Boris integration scheme is discussed and its numerical limitations are pointed out. To overcome these limitations the method is enhanced to a guiding-center integrator. As a proof of principal, numerical experiments are conducted reproducing the anticipated drift kinetic aspects of particle orbits. It turns out that this new technique is much less sensitive to large time steps than the original concept was. One major drawback of mesh-free methods which hinders their direct use for plasma-edge simulations is the difficulty in representing solid structures and associated boundary conditions. Therefore, an alternative concept is proposed using charge carrying Wall-Particles, which fits naturally in the mesh-free doctrine. These developments incorporate the second main topic group of this report. To prove the physical correctness of this new idea, a quasi one dimensional plasma-wall interface scenario is chosen. By studying the system with great detail, good agreement

PENTACLE: Parallelized particle-particle particle-tree code for planet formation

Science.gov (United States)

Iwasawa, Masaki; Oshino, Shoichi; Fujii, Michiko S.; Hori, Yasunori

2017-10-01

We have newly developed a parallelized particle-particle particle-tree code for planet formation, PENTACLE, which is a parallelized hybrid N-body integrator executed on a CPU-based (super)computer. PENTACLE uses a fourth-order Hermite algorithm to calculate gravitational interactions between particles within a cut-off radius and a Barnes-Hut tree method for gravity from particles beyond. It also implements an open-source library designed for full automatic parallelization of particle simulations, FDPS (Framework for Developing Particle Simulator), to parallelize a Barnes-Hut tree algorithm for a memory-distributed supercomputer. These allow us to handle 1-10 million particles in a high-resolution N-body simulation on CPU clusters for collisional dynamics, including physical collisions in a planetesimal disc. In this paper, we show the performance and the accuracy of PENTACLE in terms of \\tilde{R}_cut and a time-step Δt. It turns out that the accuracy of a hybrid N-body simulation is controlled through Δ t / \\tilde{R}_cut and Δ t / \\tilde{R}_cut ˜ 0.1 is necessary to simulate accurately the accretion process of a planet for ≥106 yr. For all those interested in large-scale particle simulations, PENTACLE, customized for planet formation, will be freely available from https://github.com/PENTACLE-Team/PENTACLE under the MIT licence.

Metastable states of plasma particles close to a charged surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shavlov, A. V., E-mail: shavlov@ikz.ru [The Institute of the Earth Cryosphere, RAS Siberian branch, 625000, P.O. 1230, Tyumen (Russian Federation); Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, 38, Volodarskogo St., 625000, Tyumen (Russian Federation); Dzhumandzhi, V. A. [The Institute of the Earth Cryosphere, RAS Siberian branch, 625000, P.O. 1230, Tyumen (Russian Federation)

2015-09-15

The free energy of the plasma particles and the charged surface that form an electroneutral system is calculated on the basis of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. It is shown that, owing to correlation of light plasma particles near the charged surface and close to heavy particles of high charge, there can be metastable states in plasma. The corresponding phase charts of metastable states of the separate components of plasma, and plasma as a whole, are constructed. These charts depend on temperature, the charge magnitude, the size of the particles, and the share of the charge of the light carriers out of the total charge of the plasma particles.

Simulation of plasma erosion opening switches

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mason, R.J.; Jones, M.E.

1988-01-01

Recent progress in the modeling of Plasma Erosion Opening Switches is reviewed, and new results from both fluid and particle simulation compared. Three-fluid simulations with the ANTHEM code for switches on the NRL GAMBLE I machine and SNL PBFA II machine have shown strong dependence of the opening dynamics on the anode structure, the threshold for electron emission, on the possible presence of anomalous resistivity, and on advection of the magnetic field with cathode emitted electrons. Simulations with the implicit particle-in-cell code ISIS confirm these observations, but manifest broader current channels---in better agreement with GAMBLE I experimental results. 7 refs., 3 figs

Plasma non-uniformity in a symmetric radiofrequency capacitively-coupled reactor with dielectric side-wall: a two dimensional particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yue; Booth, Jean-Paul; Chabert, Pascal

2018-02-01

A Cartesian-coordinate two-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision (PIC/MCC) plasma simulation code is presented, including a new treatment of charge balance at dielectric boundaries. It is used to simulate an Ar plasma in a symmetric radiofrequency capacitively-coupled parallel-plate reactor with a thick (3.5 cm) dielectric side-wall. The reactor size (12 cm electrode width, 2.5 cm electrode spacing) and frequency (15 MHz) are such that electromagnetic effects can be ignored. The dielectric side-wall effectively shields the plasma from the enhanced electric field at the powered-grounded electrode junction, which has previously been shown to produce locally enhanced plasma density (Dalvie et al 1993 Appl. Phys. Lett. 62 3207-9 Overzet and Hopkins 1993 Appl. Phys. Lett. 63 2484-6 Boeuf and Pitchford 1995 Phys. Rev. E 51 1376-90). Nevertheless, enhanced electron heating is observed in a region adjacent to the dielectric boundary, leading to maxima in ionization rate, plasma density and ion flux to the electrodes in this region, and not at the reactor centre as would otherwise be expected. The axially-integrated electron power deposition peaks closer to the dielectric edge than the electron density. The electron heating components are derived from the PIC/MCC simulations and show that this enhanced electron heating results from increased Ohmic heating in the axial direction as the electron density decreases towards the side-wall. We investigated the validity of different analytical formulas to estimate the Ohmic heating by comparing them to the PIC results. The widespread assumption that a time-averaged momentum transfer frequency, v m , can be used to estimate the momentum change can cause large errors, since it neglects both phase and amplitude information. Furthermore, the classical relationship between the total electron current and the electric field must be used with caution, particularly close to the dielectric edge where the (neglected

Plasma analog of particle-pair production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsidulko, Yu.A.; Berk, H.L.

1996-09-01

It is shown that the plasma axial shear flow instability satisfies the Klein-Gordon equation. The plasma instability is then shown to be analogous to spontaneous particle-pair production when a potential energy is present that is greater than twice the particle rest mass energy. Stability criteria can be inferred based on field theoretical conservation laws

NSPEC - A neutron spectrum code for beam-heated fusion plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheffel, J.

1983-06-01

A 3-dimensional computer code is described, which computes neutron spectra due to beam heating of fusion plasmas. Three types of interactions are considered; thermonuclear of plasma-plasma, beam-plasma and beam-beam interactions. Beam deposition is modelled by the NFREYA code. The applied steady state beam distribution as a function of pitch angle and velocity contains the effects of energy diffusion, friction, angular scattering, charge exchange, electric field and source pitch angle distribution. The neutron spectra, generated by Monte-Carlo methods, are computed with respect to given lines of sight. This enables the code to be used for neutron diagnostics. (author)

Experimental benchmark of kinetic simulations of capacitively coupled plasmas in molecular gases

Science.gov (United States)

Donkó, Z.; Derzsi, A.; Korolov, I.; Hartmann, P.; Brandt, S.; Schulze, J.; Berger, B.; Koepke, M.; Bruneau, B.; Johnson, E.; Lafleur, T.; Booth, J.-P.; Gibson, A. R.; O'Connell, D.; Gans, T.

2018-01-01

We discuss the origin of uncertainties in the results of numerical simulations of low-temperature plasma sources, focusing on capacitively coupled plasmas. These sources can be operated in various gases/gas mixtures, over a wide domain of excitation frequency, voltage, and gas pressure. At low pressures, the non-equilibrium character of the charged particle transport prevails and particle-based simulations become the primary tools for their numerical description. The particle-in-cell method, complemented with Monte Carlo type description of collision processes, is a well-established approach for this purpose. Codes based on this technique have been developed by several authors/groups, and have been benchmarked with each other in some cases. Such benchmarking demonstrates the correctness of the codes, but the underlying physical model remains unvalidated. This is a key point, as this model should ideally account for all important plasma chemical reactions as well as for the plasma-surface interaction via including specific surface reaction coefficients (electron yields, sticking coefficients, etc). In order to test the models rigorously, comparison with experimental ‘benchmark data’ is necessary. Examples will be given regarding the studies of electron power absorption modes in O2, and CF4-Ar discharges, as well as on the effect of modifications of the parameters of certain elementary processes on the computed discharge characteristics in O2 capacitively coupled plasmas.

Effects of background neutral particles on a field-reversed configuration plasma in the translation process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuzawa, Yoshiki; Asai, Tomohiko; Takahashi, Tsutomu; Takahashi, Toshiki

2008-01-01

A field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma was translated into a weakly ionized plasma and the effects of heating and particle buildup of the FRC plasma due to the background neutral particles and plasma injection in the translation process were investigated. Improvement of the particle and poloidal flux confinements and delay of onset of n=2 rotational instability were observed in the translation process. It was found that the internal structure of the plasma pressure (plasma temperature and density) at the separatrix and field null was deformed by the particle injection. FRC plasma translation through the background particles was equivalent to an end-on particle beam injection to the FRC plasma. Particles and energy were supplied during the translation. The results obtained for the phenomena of particle supply and plasma heating were also supported by the results of two-dimensional particle simulation. The effects of background particle injection appear to be a promising process for the regeneration of translation kinetic energy to plasma internal energy

High-Fidelity RF Gun Simulations with the Parallel 3D Finite Element Particle-In-Cell Code Pic3P

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Candel, A; Kabel, A.; Lee, L.; Li, Z.; Limborg, C.; Ng, C.; Schussman, G.; Ko, K.; /SLAC

2009-06-19

SLAC's Advanced Computations Department (ACD) has developed the first parallel Finite Element 3D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code, Pic3P, for simulations of RF guns and other space-charge dominated beam-cavity interactions. Pic3P solves the complete set of Maxwell-Lorentz equations and thus includes space charge, retardation and wakefield effects from first principles. Pic3P uses higher-order Finite Elementmethods on unstructured conformal meshes. A novel scheme for causal adaptive refinement and dynamic load balancing enable unprecedented simulation accuracy, aiding the design and operation of the next generation of accelerator facilities. Application to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) RF gun is presented.

SciDAC Center for Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Turbulent Transport in Burning Plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, Zhihong [Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

2013-12-18

During the first year of the SciDAC gyrokinetic particle simulation (GPS) project, the GPS team (Zhihong Lin, Liu Chen, Yasutaro Nishimura, and Igor Holod) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) studied the tokamak electron transport driven by electron temperature gradient (ETG) turbulence, and by trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence and ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence with kinetic electron effects, extended our studies of ITG turbulence spreading to core-edge coupling. We have developed and optimized an elliptic solver using finite element method (FEM), which enables the implementation of advanced kinetic electron models (split-weight scheme and hybrid model) in the SciDAC GPS production code GTC. The GTC code has been ported and optimized on both scalar and vector parallel computer architectures, and is being transformed into objected-oriented style to facilitate collaborative code development. During this period, the UCI team members presented 11 invited talks at major national and international conferences, published 22 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 10 papers in conference proceedings. The UCI hosted the annual SciDAC Workshop on Plasma Turbulence sponsored by the GPS Center, 2005-2007. The workshop was attended by about fifties US and foreign researchers and financially sponsored several gradual students from MIT, Princeton University, Germany, Switzerland, and Finland. A new SciDAC postdoc, Igor Holod, has arrived at UCI to initiate global particle simulation of magnetohydrodynamics turbulence driven by energetic particle modes. The PI, Z. Lin, has been promoted to the Associate Professor with tenure at UCI.

ORBXYZ: a 3D single-particle orbit code for following charged-particle trajectories in equilibrium magnetic fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, D.V.; Cohen, R.H.; Ferguson, J.R.; Johnston, B.M.; Sharp, C.B.; Willmann, P.A.

1981-01-01

The single particle orbit code, TIBRO, has been modified extensively to improve the interpolation methods used and to allow use of vector potential fields in the simulation of charged particle orbits on a 3D domain. A 3D cubic B-spline algorithm is used to generate spline coefficients used in the interpolation. Smooth and accurate field representations are obtained. When vector potential fields are used, the 3D cubic spline interpolation formula analytically generates the magnetic field used to push the particles. This field has del.BETA = 0 to computer roundoff. When magnetic induction is used the interpolation allows del.BETA does not equal 0, which can lead to significant nonphysical results. Presently the code assumes quadrupole symmetry, but this is not an essential feature of the code and could be easily removed for other applications. Many details pertaining to this code are given on microfiche accompanying this report

Numerical study of melted particles crush metallic substrates and the interaction between particles and a plasma beam in the thermal projection process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kriba, Ilhem; Djebaili, A.

2009-01-01

Plasma spray processes have been widely used to produce high performance coatings of a wide range of materials (metallic, non-metallic, and ceramics), offering protection from, e.g. wear, extreme temperature, chemical attack and environmental corrosion. To obtain good quality coatings, spray parameters must be carefully selected. Due to the large variety in process parameters, it is difficult to optimize the process for each specific coating and substrate combinations. Furthermore modelling the spray process allows a better understanding of the process sequences during thermal spraying. The simulation of coating formation to estimate the process parameters is an important tool to develop new coating structures with defined properties. In this work, the process of plasma sprayed coating has been analyzed by numerical simulation. Commercial code is used to predict the plasma jet characteristics, plasma-particle interaction, and coating formation. Using this model we can obtain coating microstructure and characteristics which form a foundation for further improvement of an advanced ceramic coating build up model

Relativistic modeling capabilities in PERSEUS extended MHD simulation code for HED plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamlin, Nathaniel D., E-mail: nh322@cornell.edu [438 Rhodes Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853 (United States); Seyler, Charles E., E-mail: ces7@cornell.edu [Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853 (United States)

2014-12-15

We discuss the incorporation of relativistic modeling capabilities into the PERSEUS extended MHD simulation code for high-energy-density (HED) plasmas, and present the latest hybrid X-pinch simulation results. The use of fully relativistic equations enables the model to remain self-consistent in simulations of such relativistic phenomena as X-pinches and laser-plasma interactions. By suitable formulation of the relativistic generalized Ohm’s law as an evolution equation, we have reduced the recovery of primitive variables, a major technical challenge in relativistic codes, to a straightforward algebraic computation. Our code recovers expected results in the non-relativistic limit, and reveals new physics in the modeling of electron beam acceleration following an X-pinch. Through the use of a relaxation scheme, relativistic PERSEUS is able to handle nine orders of magnitude in density variation, making it the first fluid code, to our knowledge, that can simulate relativistic HED plasmas.

Fluid and gyrokinetic modelling of particle transport in plasmas with hollow density profiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tegnered, D; Oberparleiter, M; Nordman, H; Strand, P

2016-01-01

Hollow density profiles occur in connection with pellet fuelling and L to H transitions. A positive density gradient could potentially stabilize the turbulence or change the relation between convective and diffusive fluxes, thereby reducing the turbulent transport of particles towards the center, making the fuelling scheme inefficient. In the present work, the particle transport driven by ITG/TE mode turbulence in regions of hollow density profiles is studied by fluid as well as gyrokinetic simulations. The fluid model used, an extended version of the Weiland transport model, Extended Drift Wave Model (EDWM), incorporates an arbitrary number of ion species in a multi-fluid description, and an extended wavelength spectrum. The fluid model, which is fast and hence suitable for use in predictive simulations, is compared to gyrokinetic simulations using the code GENE. Typical tokamak parameters are used based on the Cyclone Base Case. Parameter scans in key plasma parameters like plasma β, R/L T , and magnetic shear are investigated. It is found that β in particular has a stabilizing effect in the negative R/L n region, both nonlinear GENE and EDWM show a decrease in inward flux for negative R/L n and a change of direction from inward to outward for positive R/L n . This might have serious consequences for pellet fuelling of high β plasmas. (paper)

Langmuir probe-based observables for plasma-turbulence code validation and application to the TORPEX basic plasma physics experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ricci, Paolo; Theiler, C.; Fasoli, A.; Furno, I.; Labit, B.; Mueller, S. H.; Podesta, M.; Poli, F. M.

2009-01-01

The methodology for plasma-turbulence code validation is discussed, with focus on the quantities to use for the simulation-experiment comparison, i.e., the validation observables, and application to the TORPEX basic plasma physics experiment [A. Fasoli et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 055902 (2006)]. The considered validation observables are deduced from Langmuir probe measurements and are ordered into a primacy hierarchy, according to the number of model assumptions and to the combinations of measurements needed to form each of them. The lowest levels of the primacy hierarchy correspond to observables that require the lowest number of model assumptions and measurement combinations, such as the statistical and spectral properties of the ion saturation current time trace, while at the highest levels, quantities such as particle transport are considered. The comparison of the observables at the lowest levels in the hierarchy is more stringent than at the highest levels. Examples of the use of the proposed observables are applied to a specific TORPEX plasma configuration characterized by interchange-driven turbulence.

MED101: a laser-plasma simulation code. User guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodgers, P.A.; Rose, S.J.; Rogoyski, A.M.

1989-12-01

Complete details for running the 1-D laser-plasma simulation code MED101 are given including: an explanation of the input parameters, instructions for running on the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory IBM, Atlas Centre Cray X-MP and DEC VAX, and information on three new graphics packages. The code, based on the existing MEDUSA code, is capable of simulating a wide range of laser-produced plasma experiments including the calculation of X-ray laser gain. (author)

Process maps for plasma spray: Part 1: Plasma-particle interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gilmore, Delwyn L.; Neiser, Richard A. Jr.; Wan, Yuepeng; Sampath, Sanjay

2000-01-01

This is the first paper of a two part series based on an integrated study carried out at Sandia National Laboratories and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The aim of the study is to develop a more fundamental understanding of plasma-particle interactions, droplet-substrate interactions, deposit formation dynamics and microstructural development as well as final deposit properties. The purpose is to create models that can be used to link processing to performance. Process maps have been developed for air plasma spray of molybdenum. Experimental work was done to investigate the importance of such spray parameters as gun current, auxiliary gas flow, and powder carrier gas flow. In-flight particle diameters, temperatures, and velocities were measured in various areas of the spray plume. Samples were produced for analysis of microstructures and properties. An empirical model was developed, relating the input parameters to the in-flight particle characteristics. Multi-dimensional numerical simulations of the plasma gas flow field and in-flight particles under different operating conditions were also performed. In addition to the parameters which were experimentally investigated, the effect of particle injection velocity was also considered. The simulation results were found to be in good general agreement with the experimental data

Particle and heavy ion transport code system; PHITS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niita, Koji

2004-01-01

Intermediate and high energy nuclear data are strongly required in design study of many facilities such as accelerator-driven systems, intense pulse spallation neutron sources, and also in medical and space technology. There is, however, few evaluated nuclear data of intermediate and high energy nuclear reactions. Therefore, we have to use some models or systematics for the cross sections, which are essential ingredients of high energy particle and heavy ion transport code to estimate neutron yield, heat deposition and many other quantities of the transport phenomena in materials. We have developed general purpose particle and heavy ion transport Monte Carlo code system, PHITS (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System), based on the NMTC/JAM code by the collaboration of Tohoku University, JAERI and RIST. The PHITS has three important ingredients which enable us to calculate (1) high energy nuclear reactions up to 200 GeV, (2) heavy ion collision and its transport in material, (3) low energy neutron transport based on the evaluated nuclear data. In the PHITS, the cross sections of high energy nuclear reactions are obtained by JAM model. JAM (Jet AA Microscopic Transport Model) is a hadronic cascade model, which explicitly treats all established hadronic states including resonances and all hadron-hadron cross sections parametrized based on the resonance model and string model by fitting the available experimental data. The PHITS can describe the transport of heavy ions and their collisions by making use of JQMD and SPAR code. The JQMD (JAERI Quantum Molecular Dynamics) is a simulation code for nucleus nucleus collisions based on the molecular dynamics. The SPAR code is widely used to calculate the stopping powers and ranges for charged particles and heavy ions. The PHITS has included some part of MCNP4C code, by which the transport of low energy neutron, photon and electron based on the evaluated nuclear data can be described. Furthermore, the high energy nuclear

Managing locality in grand challenge applications: a case study of the gyrokinetic toroidal code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marin, G; Jin, G; Mellor-Crummey, J [Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 (United States)

2008-07-15

Achieving high performance with grand challenge applications on today's large-scale parallel systems requires tailoring applications for the characteristics of the modern microprocessor architectures. As part of the US Department of Energy's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program, we studied and tuned the Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC), a particle-in-cell code for simulating turbulent transport of particles and energy in burning plasma, developed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In this paper, we present a performance study of the application that revealed several opportunities for improving performance by enhancing its data locality. We tuned GTC by performing three kinds of transformations: static data structure reorganization to improve spatial locality, loop nest restructuring for better temporal locality, and dynamic data reordering at run-time to enhance both spatial and temporal reuse. Experimental results show that these changes improve execution time by more than 20% on large parallel systems, including a Cray XT4.

Managing locality in grand challenge applications: a case study of the gyrokinetic toroidal code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marin, G; Jin, G; Mellor-Crummey, J

2008-01-01

Achieving high performance with grand challenge applications on today's large-scale parallel systems requires tailoring applications for the characteristics of the modern microprocessor architectures. As part of the US Department of Energy's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program, we studied and tuned the Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC), a particle-in-cell code for simulating turbulent transport of particles and energy in burning plasma, developed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In this paper, we present a performance study of the application that revealed several opportunities for improving performance by enhancing its data locality. We tuned GTC by performing three kinds of transformations: static data structure reorganization to improve spatial locality, loop nest restructuring for better temporal locality, and dynamic data reordering at run-time to enhance both spatial and temporal reuse. Experimental results show that these changes improve execution time by more than 20% on large parallel systems, including a Cray XT4

Development of fast ignition integrated interconnecting code (FI3) for fast ignition scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagatomo, H.; Johzaki, T.; Mima, K.; Sunahara, A.; Nishihara, K.; Izawa, Y.; Sakagami, H.; Nakao, Y.; Yokota, T.; Taguchi, T.

2005-01-01

The numerical simulation plays an important role in estimating the feasibility and performance of the fast ignition. There are two key issues in numerical analysis for the fast ignition. One is the controlling the implosion dynamics to form a high density core plasma in non-spherical implosion, and the other is heating core plasma efficiency by the short pulse high intense laser. From initial laser irradiation to final fusion burning, all the physics are coupling strongly in any phase, and they must be solved consistently in computational simulation. However, in general, it is impossible to simulate laser plasma interaction and radiation hydrodynamics in a single computational code, without any numerical dissipation, special assumption or conditional treatment. Recently, we have developed 'Fast Ignition Integrated Interconnecting code' (FI 3 ) which consists of collective Particle-in-Cell code, Relativistic Fokker-Planck hydro code, and 2-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics code. And those codes are connecting with each other in data-flow bases. In this paper, we will present detail feature of the FI 3 code, and numerical results of whole process of fast ignition. (author)

A magnetostatic particle code and its application to studies of anomalous current penetration of a plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, A.T.; Pritchett, P.L.; Dawson, J.M.

1976-01-01

A large number of important plasma problems involves self-consistent magnetic fields. For disturbances which propagate slowly compared to the velocity of light, the magnetostatic approximation (Darwin model) suffices. Based on the Darwin model a particle model has been developed to investigate such problems. (GG) [de

On kinetic description of electromagnetic processes in a quantum plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tyshetskiy, Yu.; Vladimirov, S. V.; Kompaneets, R.

2011-01-01

A nonlinear kinetic equation for nonrelativistic quantum plasma with electromagnetic interaction of particles is obtained in the Hartree's mean-field approximation. It is cast in a convenient form of Vlasov-Boltzmann-type equation with ''quantum interference integral'', which allows for relatively straightforward modification of existing classical Vlasov codes to incorporate quantum effects (quantum statistics and quantum interference of overlapping particles wave functions), without changing the bulk of the codes. Such modification (upgrade) of existing Vlasov codes may provide a direct and effective path to numerical simulations of nonlinear electrostatic and electromagnetic phenomena in quantum plasmas, especially of processes where kinetic effects are important (e.g., modulational interactions and stimulated scattering phenomena involving plasma modes at short wavelengths or high-order kinetic modes, dynamical screening and interaction of charges in quantum plasma, etc.) Moreover, numerical approaches involving such modified Vlasov codes would provide a useful basis for theoretical analyses of quantum plasmas, as quantum and classical effects can be easily separated there.

End-to-end plasma bubble PIC simulations on GPUs

Science.gov (United States)

Germaschewski, Kai; Fox, William; Matteucci, Jackson; Bhattacharjee, Amitava

2017-10-01

Accelerator technologies play a crucial role in eventually achieving exascale computing capabilities. The current and upcoming leadership machines at ORNL (Titan and Summit) employ Nvidia GPUs, which provide vast computational power but also need specifically adapted computational kernels to fully exploit them. In this work, we will show end-to-end particle-in-cell simulations of the formation, evolution and coalescence of laser-generated plasma bubbles. This work showcases the GPU capabilities of the PSC particle-in-cell code, which has been adapted for this problem to support particle injection, a heating operator and a collision operator on GPUs.

Species Entropies in the Kinetic Range of Collisionless Plasma Turbulence: Particle-in-cell Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Gary, S. Peter; Zhao, Yinjian; Hughes, R. Scott; Wang, Joseph; Parashar, Tulasi N.

2018-06-01

Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the forward cascade of decaying turbulence in the relatively short-wavelength kinetic range have been carried out as initial-value problems on collisionless, homogeneous, magnetized electron-ion plasma models. The simulations have addressed both whistler turbulence at β i = β e = 0.25 and kinetic Alfvén turbulence at β i = β e = 0.50, computing the species energy dissipation rates as well as the increase of the Boltzmann entropies for both ions and electrons as functions of the initial dimensionless fluctuating magnetic field energy density ε o in the range 0 ≤ ε o ≤ 0.50. This study shows that electron and ion entropies display similar rates of increase and that all four entropy rates increase approximately as ε o , consistent with the assumption that the quasilinear premise is valid for the initial conditions assumed for these simulations. The simulations further predict that the time rates of ion entropy increase should be substantially greater for kinetic Alfvén turbulence than for whistler turbulence.

Two dimensional neutral transport analysis in tokamak plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Katsuhiro; Azumi, Masafumi

1987-02-01

Neutral particle influences the particle and energy balance, and play an important role on sputtering impurity and the charge exchange loss of neutral beam injection. In order to study neutral particle behaviour including the effects of asymmetric source and divertor configuration, the two dimensional neutral transport code has been developed using the Monte-Carlo techniques. This code includes the calculation of the H α radiation intensity based on the collisional-radiation model. The particle confinement time of the joule heated plasma in JT-60 tokamak is evaluated by comparing the calculated H α radiation intensity with the experimental data. The effect of the equilibrium on the neutral density profile in high-β plasma is also investigated. (author)

Tech-X Corporation releases simulation code for solving complex problems in plasma physics : VORPAL code provides a robust environment for simulating plasma processes in high-energy physics, IC fabrications and material processing applications

CERN Multimedia

2005-01-01

Tech-X Corporation releases simulation code for solving complex problems in plasma physics : VORPAL code provides a robust environment for simulating plasma processes in high-energy physics, IC fabrications and material processing applications

Advanced Accelerators: Particle, Photon and Plasma Wave Interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, Ronald L. [Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL (United States)

2017-06-29

The overall objective of this project was to study the acceleration of electrons to very high energies over very short distances based on trapping slowly moving electrons in the fast moving potential wells of large amplitude plasma waves, which have relativistic phase velocities. These relativistic plasma waves, or wakefields, are the basis of table-top accelerators that have been shown to accelerate electrons to the same high energies as kilometer-length linear particle colliders operating using traditional decades-old acceleration techniques. The accelerating electrostatic fields of the relativistic plasma wave accelerators can be as large as GigaVolts/meter, and our goal was to study techniques for remotely measuring these large fields by injecting low energy probe electron beams across the plasma wave and measuring the beam’s deflection. Our method of study was via computer simulations, and these results suggested that the deflection of the probe electron beam was directly proportional to the amplitude of the plasma wave. This is the basis of a proposed diagnostic technique, and numerous studies were performed to determine the effects of changing the electron beam, plasma wave and laser beam parameters. Further simulation studies included copropagating laser beams with the relativistic plasma waves. New interesting results came out of these studies including the prediction that very small scale electron beam bunching occurs, and an anomalous line focusing of the electron beam occurs under certain conditions. These studies were summarized in the dissertation of a graduate student who obtained the Ph.D. in physics. This past research program has motivated ideas for further research to corroborate these results using particle-in-cell simulation tools which will help design a test-of-concept experiment in our laboratory and a scaled up version for testing at a major wakefield accelerator facility.

The acceleration and propagation of energetic particles in turbulent cosmic plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Achterberg, A.

1981-01-01

This thesis concentrates on the acceleration and propagation of energetic particles in turbulent cosmic plasmas. The stochastic acceleration of relativistic electrons by long-wavelength weak magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is considered and a model is discussed that allows the determination of both the electron energy spectrum and the wavenumber spectrum of the magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in a consistent way. The question of second phase acceleration in large solar flares and the precise form of the force exerted on the background plasma when Alfven waves are generated by fast particles are considered. The energy balance in the shock wave acceleration, the propagation of energetic particles in a high β plasma (β>10 2 ) and sheared flow as a possible source of plasma turbulence for a magnetized plasma with field-aligned flow, are discussed. (Auth./C.F.)

XGC developments for a more efficient XGC-GENE code coupling

Science.gov (United States)

Dominski, Julien; Hager, Robert; Ku, Seung-Hoe; Chang, Cs

2017-10-01

In the Exascale Computing Program, the High-Fidelity Whole Device Modeling project initially aims at delivering a tightly-coupled simulation of plasma neoclassical and turbulence dynamics from the core to the edge of the tokamak. To permit such simulations, the gyrokinetic codes GENE and XGC will be coupled together. Numerical efforts are made to improve the numerical schemes agreement in the coupling region. One of the difficulties of coupling those codes together is the incompatibility of their grids. GENE is a continuum grid-based code and XGC is a Particle-In-Cell code using unstructured triangular mesh. A field-aligned filter is thus implemented in XGC. Even if XGC originally had an approximately field-following mesh, this field-aligned filter permits to have a perturbation discretization closer to the one solved in the field-aligned code GENE. Additionally, new XGC gyro-averaging matrices are implemented on a velocity grid adapted to the plasma properties, thus ensuring same accuracy from the core to the edge regions.

Development of high performance particle in cell code for the exascale age

Science.gov (United States)

Lapenta, Giovanni; Amaya, Jorge; Gonzalez, Diego; Deep-Est H2020 Consortium Collaboration

2017-10-01

Magnetized plasmas are most effectively described by magneto-hydrodynamics, MHD, a fluid theory based on describing some fields defined in space: electromagnetic fields, density, velocity and temperature of the plasma. However, microphysics processes need kinetic theory, where statistical distributions of particles are governed by the Boltzmann equation. While fluid models are based on the ordinary space and time, kinetic models require a six dimensional space, called phase space, besides time. The two methods are not separated but rather interact to determine the system evolution. Arriving at a single self-consistent model is the goal of our research. We present a new approach developed with the goal of extending the reach of kinetic models to the fluid scales. Kinetic models are a higher order description and all fluid effects are included in them. However, the cost in terms of computing power is much higher and it has been so far prohibitively expensive to treat space weather events fully kinetically. We have now designed a new method capable of reducing that cost by several orders of magnitude making it possible for kinetic models to study macroscopic systems. H2020 Deep-EST consortium (European Commission).

An arbitrary curvilinear-coordinate method for particle-in-cell modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fichtl, C A; Finn, J M; Cartwright, K L

2012-01-01

A new approach to kinetic simulation of plasmas in complex geometries, based on the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation method, is explored. In the two-dimensional (2D) electrostatic version of our method, called the arbitrary curvilinear-coordinate PIC method, all essential PIC operations are carried out in 2D on a uniform grid on the unit square logical domain, and mapped to a nonuniform boundary-fitted grid on the physical domain. As the resulting logical grid equations of motion are not separable, we have developed an extension of the semi-implicit modified leapfrog integration technique to preserve the symplectic nature of the logical grid particle mover. A generalized, curvilinear-coordinate formulation of Poisson's equations to solve for the electrostatic fields on the uniform logical grid is also developed. By our formulation, we compute the plasma charge density on the logical grid based on the particles' positions on the logical domain. That is, the plasma particles are weighted to the uniform logical grid and the self-consistent mean electrostatic fields obtained from the solution of the logical grid Poisson equation are interpolated to the particle positions on the logical grid. This process eliminates the complexity associated with the weighting and interpolation processes on the nonuniform physical grid and allows us to run the PIC method on arbitrary boundary-fitted meshes. (paper)

Observation of Dust Particle Gyromotion in a Magnetized Dusty Plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Compton, C. S.; Amatucci, W. E.; Gatling, G.; Tejero, E.

2008-11-01

In dusty plasma research, gyromotion of the dust has been difficult to observe experimentally. Previous experiments by Amatucci et al. have shown gyromotion of a single dust particle [1]. This early work was performed with alumina dust that had a size distribution and non-uniformly shaped particles. In the current experiment, evidence of spherical, monodispersed, dust particles exhibiting gyromotion has been observed. Silica particles 0.97 micrometers in diameter are suspended in a DC glow discharge argon plasma. The experiment is performed in the Naval Research Laboratory's DUsty PLasma EXperiment (DUPLEX Jr.). DUPLEX is a 61-cm tall by 46-cm diameter acrylic chamber allowing full 360 degree optical access for diagnostics. The neutral pressure for the experiment is 230 mTorr with a 275 V bias between the circular electrodes. The electrodes have a separation of 4 cm. A strong magnetic field is created by 2 pairs of neodymium iron boride magnets placed above and below the anode and cathode respectively. The resulting field is 1.4 kG. The dust particles are illuminated with a 25 mW, 672 nm laser. Images are captured using an intensified CCD camera and a consumer digital video cassette recorder. Recent evidence of gyromotion of spherical, monodispersed, dust particles will be presented. [1] Amatucci, W.E., et al., Phys. Plasmas, 11, 2097 (2004)

A photonic crystal hydrogel suspension array for the capture of blood cells from whole blood

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Bin; Cai, Yunlang; Shang, Luoran; Wang, Huan; Cheng, Yao; Rong, Fei; Gu, Zhongze; Zhao, Yuanjin

2016-02-01

Diagnosing hematological disorders based on the separation and detection of cells in the patient's blood is a significant challenge. We have developed a novel barcode particle-based suspension array that can simultaneously capture and detect multiple types of blood cells. The barcode particles are polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel inverse opal microcarriers with characteristic reflection peak codes that remain stable during cell capture on their surfaces. The hydrophilic PAAm hydrogel scaffolds of the barcode particles can entrap various plasma proteins to capture different cells in the blood, with little damage to captured cells.Diagnosing hematological disorders based on the separation and detection of cells in the patient's blood is a significant challenge. We have developed a novel barcode particle-based suspension array that can simultaneously capture and detect multiple types of blood cells. The barcode particles are polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel inverse opal microcarriers with characteristic reflection peak codes that remain stable during cell capture on their surfaces. The hydrophilic PAAm hydrogel scaffolds of the barcode particles can entrap various plasma proteins to capture different cells in the blood, with little damage to captured cells. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr06368j

A novel neutron energy spectrum unfolding code using particle swarm optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shahabinejad, H.; Sohrabpour, M.

2017-01-01

A novel neutron Spectrum Deconvolution using Particle Swarm Optimization (SDPSO) code has been developed to unfold the neutron spectrum from a pulse height distribution and a response matrix. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) imitates the bird flocks social behavior to solve complex optimization problems. The results of the SDPSO code have been compared with those of the standard spectra and recently published Two-steps Genetic Algorithm Spectrum Unfolding (TGASU) code. The TGASU code have been previously compared with the other codes such as MAXED, GRAVEL, FERDOR and GAMCD and shown to be more accurate than the previous codes. The results of the SDPSO code have been demonstrated to match well with those of the TGASU code for both under determined and over-determined problems. In addition the SDPSO has been shown to be nearly two times faster than the TGASU code. - Highlights: • Introducing a novel method for neutron spectrum unfolding. • Implementation of a particle swarm optimization code for neutron unfolding. • Comparing results of the PSO code with those of recently published TGASU code. • Match results of the PSO code with those of TGASU code. • Greater convergence rate of implemented PSO code than TGASU code.

Sintering of Fine Particles in Suspension Plasma Sprayed Coatings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leszek Latka

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Suspension plasma spraying is a process that enables the production of finely grained nanometric or submicrometric coatings. The suspensions are formulated with the use of fine powder particles in water or alcohol with some additives. Subsequently, the suspension is injected into plasma jet and the liquid additives evaporate. The remaining fine solids are molten and subsequently agglomerate or remain solid, depending on their trajectory in the plasma jet. The coating’s microstructure results from these two groups of particles arriving on a substrate or previously deposited coating. Previous experimental studies carried out for plasma sprayed titanium oxide and hydroxyapatite coatings enabled us to observe either a finely grained microstructure or, when a different suspension injection mode was used, to distinguish two zones in the microstructure. These two zones correspond to the dense zone formed from well molten particles, and the agglomerated zone formed from fine solid particles that arrive on the substrate in a solid state. The present paper focuses on the experimental and theoretical analysis of the formation process of the agglomerated zone. The experimental section establishes the heat flux supplied to the coating during deposition. In order to achieve this, calorimetric measurements were made by applying experimental conditions simulating the real coatings’ growth. The heat flux was measured to be in the range from 0.08 to 0.5 MW/m2,depending on the experimental conditions. The theoretical section analyzes the sintering during the coating’s growth, which concerns the fine particles arriving on the substrate in the solid state. The models of volume, grain boundary and surface diffusion were analyzed and adapted to the size and chemistry of the grains, temperature and time scales corresponding to the suspension plasma spraying conditions. The model of surface diffusion was found to best describe the sintering during suspension

KC-A Kinectic computer code for investigation of parametric plasma instabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olshansky, V.

1995-07-01

In the frame of a joint research program of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the NationaI Science Center 'Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology' (Kh IPT), Ukraine, and the plasma physics group of the Austrian Research Center Seibersdorf (FZS) a kinetic computer code with the acronym KC for investigation of paramarametric plasma instabilities has been implemented at the computer facilities of FZS as a starting point for further research in this field. This code based on a macroparticle technique is appropriate for studying the evolution of instabilities in a turbulent plasma including saturation. The results can be of interest for heating of tokamaks of the next generation, i.g. ITER. The present report describes the underlying physical models and numerical methods as well as the code structure and how to use the code as a reference of forthcoming joint papers. (author)

Experimental benchmark of non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium plasma atomic physics codes; Validation experimentale des codes de physique atomique des plasmas hors equilibre thermodynamique local

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nagels-Silvert, V

2004-09-15

The main purpose of this thesis is to get experimental data for the testing and validation of atomic physics codes dealing with non-local-thermodynamical-equilibrium plasmas. The first part is dedicated to the spectroscopic study of xenon and krypton plasmas that have been produced by a nanosecond laser pulse interacting with a gas jet. A Thomson scattering diagnostic has allowed us to measure independently plasma parameters such as electron temperature, electron density and the average ionisation state. We have obtained time integrated spectra in the range between 5 and 10 angstroms. We have identified about one hundred xenon rays between 8.6 and 9.6 angstroms via the use of the Relac code. We have discovered unknown rays for the krypton between 5.2 and 7.5 angstroms. In a second experiment we have extended the wavelength range to the X UV domain. The Averroes/Transpec code has been tested in the ranges from 9 to 15 angstroms and from 10 to 130 angstroms, the first range has been well reproduced while the second range requires a more complex data analysis. The second part is dedicated to the spectroscopic study of aluminium, selenium and samarium plasmas in femtosecond operating rate. We have designed an interferometry diagnostic in the frequency domain that has allowed us to measure the expanding speed of the target's backside. Via the use of an adequate isothermal model this parameter has led us to know the plasma electron temperature. Spectra and emission times of various rays from the aluminium and selenium plasmas have been computed satisfactorily with the Averroes/Transpec code coupled with Film and Multif hydrodynamical codes. (A.C.)

Experimental benchmark of non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium plasma atomic physics codes; Validation experimentale des codes de physique atomique des plasmas hors equilibre thermodynamique local

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nagels-Silvert, V

2004-09-15

The main purpose of this thesis is to get experimental data for the testing and validation of atomic physics codes dealing with non-local-thermodynamical-equilibrium plasmas. The first part is dedicated to the spectroscopic study of xenon and krypton plasmas that have been produced by a nanosecond laser pulse interacting with a gas jet. A Thomson scattering diagnostic has allowed us to measure independently plasma parameters such as electron temperature, electron density and the average ionisation state. We have obtained time integrated spectra in the range between 5 and 10 angstroms. We have identified about one hundred xenon rays between 8.6 and 9.6 angstroms via the use of the Relac code. We have discovered unknown rays for the krypton between 5.2 and 7.5 angstroms. In a second experiment we have extended the wavelength range to the X UV domain. The Averroes/Transpec code has been tested in the ranges from 9 to 15 angstroms and from 10 to 130 angstroms, the first range has been well reproduced while the second range requires a more complex data analysis. The second part is dedicated to the spectroscopic study of aluminium, selenium and samarium plasmas in femtosecond operating rate. We have designed an interferometry diagnostic in the frequency domain that has allowed us to measure the expanding speed of the target's backside. Via the use of an adequate isothermal model this parameter has led us to know the plasma electron temperature. Spectra and emission times of various rays from the aluminium and selenium plasmas have been computed satisfactorily with the Averroes/Transpec code coupled with Film and Multif hydrodynamical codes. (A.C.)

Plasma-treated carbonyl iron particles as a dispersed phase in magnetorheological fluids

OpenAIRE

Sedlačík, M.; Pavlínek, V.; Lehocký, M.; Mráček, A.; Grulich, O.; Švrčinová, P. (Petra); Filip, P. (Petr); Vesel, A.

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper is to document suitability of plasma-treated carbonyl iron particles as a dispersed phase in magnetorheological fluids. Surface-modified carbonyl iron particles were prepared via their exposure to 50% argon and 50% octafluorocyclobutane plasma. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used for analysis of chemical bonding states in the surface layer. Plasma-treated particles were adopted for a dispersed phase in magnetorheological (MR) fluids, and the MR behaviour was in...

Charge neutrality of fine particle (dusty) plasmas and fine particle cloud under gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Totsuji, Hiroo, E-mail: totsuji-09@t.okadai.jp

2017-03-11

The enhancement of the charge neutrality due to the existence of fine particles is shown to occur generally under microgravity and in one-dimensional structures under gravity. As an application of the latter, the size and position of fine particle clouds relative to surrounding plasmas are determined under gravity. - Highlights: • In fine particle (dusty) plasmas, the charge neutrality is much enhanced by the existence of fine particles. • The enhancement of charge neutrality generally occurs under microgravity and gravity. • Structure of fine particle clouds under gravity is determined by applying the enhanced charge neutrality.

Implementation of a 3D halo neutral model in the TRANSP code and application to projected NSTX-U plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Medley, S. S.; Liu, D.; Gorelenkova, M. V.; Heidbrink, W. W.; Stagner, L.

2016-02-01

A 3D halo neutral code developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and implemented for analysis using the TRANSP code is applied to projected National Spherical Torus eXperiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U plasmas). The legacy TRANSP code did not handle halo neutrals properly since they were distributed over the plasma volume rather than remaining in the vicinity of the neutral beam footprint as is actually the case. The 3D halo neutral code uses a ‘beam-in-a-box’ model that encompasses both injected beam neutrals and resulting halo neutrals. Upon deposition by charge exchange, a subset of the full, one-half and one-third beam energy components produce first generation halo neutrals that are tracked through successive generations until an ionization event occurs or the descendant halos exit the box. The 3D halo neutral model and neutral particle analyzer (NPA) simulator in the TRANSP code have been benchmarked with the Fast-Ion D-Alpha simulation (FIDAsim) code, which provides Monte Carlo simulations of beam neutral injection, attenuation, halo generation, halo spatial diffusion, and photoemission processes. When using the same atomic physics database, TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations achieve excellent agreement on the spatial profile and magnitude of beam and halo neutral densities and the NPA energy spectrum. The simulations show that the halo neutral density can be comparable to the beam neutral density. These halo neutrals can double the NPA flux, but they have minor effects on the NPA energy spectrum shape. The TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations also suggest that the magnitudes of beam and halo neutral densities are relatively sensitive to the choice of the atomic physics databases.

Implementation of a 3D halo neutral model in the TRANSP code and application to projected NSTX-U plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Medley, S. S. [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Liu, D. [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Gorelenkova, M. V. [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Heidbrink, W. W. [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Stagner, L. [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

2016-01-12

A 3D halo neutral code developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and implemented for analysis using the TRANSP code is applied to projected National Spherical Torus eXperiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U plasmas). The legacy TRANSP code did not handle halo neutrals properly since they were distributed over the plasma volume rather than remaining in the vicinity of the neutral beam footprint as is actually the case. The 3D halo neutral code uses a 'beam-in-a-box' model that encompasses both injected beam neutrals and resulting halo neutrals. Upon deposition by charge exchange, a subset of the full, one-half and one-third beam energy components produce first generation halo neutrals that are tracked through successive generations until an ionization event occurs or the descendant halos exit the box. The 3D halo neutral model and neutral particle analyzer (NPA) simulator in the TRANSP code have been benchmarked with the Fast-Ion D-Alpha simulation (FIDAsim) code, which provides Monte Carlo simulations of beam neutral injection, attenuation, halo generation, halo spatial diffusion, and photoemission processes. When using the same atomic physics database, TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations achieve excellent agreement on the spatial profile and magnitude of beam and halo neutral densities and the NPA energy spectrum. The simulations show that the halo neutral density can be comparable to the beam neutral density. These halo neutrals can double the NPA flux, but they have minor effects on the NPA energy spectrum shape. The TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations also suggest that the magnitudes of beam and halo neutral densities are relatively sensitive to the choice of the atomic physics databases.

Development of particle and heavy ion transport code system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niita, Koji

2004-01-01

Particle and heavy ion transport code system (PHITS) is 3 dimension general purpose Monte Carlo simulation codes for description of transport and reaction of particle and heavy ion in materials. It is developed on the basis of NMTC/JAM for design and safety of J-PARC. What is PHITS, it's physical process, physical models and development process of PHITC code are described. For examples of application, evaluation of neutron optics, cancer treatment by heavy particle ray and cosmic radiation are stated. JAM and JQMD model are used as the physical model. Neutron motion in six polar magnetic field and gravitational field, PHITC simulation of trace of C 12 beam and secondary neutron track of small model of cancer treatment device in HIMAC and neutron flux in Space Shuttle are explained. (S.Y.)

Dynamics of a Brownian particle in a plasma in the long-time limit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dickman, R.; Varley, R.L.

1981-01-01

The velocity autocorrelation function (VAF) of a Brownian particle in a plasma is calculated in the long-time limit. The Brownian particle VAF exhibits the same qualitative behavior as the electron VAF in a one-component plasma: oscillations at the plasma frequency and decay approx. t -3 sup(/) 2 . (orig.)

Blood–plasma separation in Y-shaped bifurcating microfluidic channels: a dissipative particle dynamics simulation study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Xuejin; Karniadakis, George Em; Popel, Aleksander S

2012-01-01

The motion of a suspension of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in a Y-shaped bifurcating microfluidic channel is investigated using a validated low-dimensional RBC model based on dissipative particle dynamics. Specifically, the RBC is represented as a closed torus-like ring of ten colloidal particles, which leads to efficient simulations of blood flow in microcirculation over a wide range of hematocrits. Adaptive no-slip wall boundary conditions were implemented to model hydrodynamic flow within a specific wall structure of diverging three-dimensional microfluidic channels, paying attention to controlling density fluctuations. Plasma skimming and the all-or-nothing phenomenon of RBCs in a bifurcating microfluidic channel have been investigated in our simulations for healthy and diseased blood, including the size of a cell-free layer on the daughter branches. The feed hematocrit level in the parent channel has considerable influence on blood–plasma separation. Compared to the blood–plasma separation efficiencies of healthy RBCs, malaria-infected stiff RBCs (iRBCs) have a tendency to travel into the low flow-rate daughter branch because of their different initial distribution in the parent channel. Our simulation results are consistent with previously published experimental results and theoretical predictions. (paper)

High energy particle transport code NMTC/JAM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niita, K.; Takada, H.; Meigo, S.; Ikeda, Y.

2001-01-01

We have developed a high energy particle transport code NMTC/JAM, which is an upgrade version of NMTC/JAERI97. The available energy range of NMTC/JAM is, in principle, extended to 200 GeV for nucleons and mesons including the high energy nuclear reaction code JAM for the intra-nuclear cascade part. We compare the calculations by NMTC/JAM code with the experimental data of thin and thick targets for proton induced reactions up to several 10 GeV. The results of NMTC/JAM code show excellent agreement with the experimental data. From these code validation, it is concluded that NMTC/JAM is reliable in neutronics optimization study of the high intense spallation neutron utilization facility. (author)

Role of stochastic fluctuations in the charge on macroscopic particles in dusty plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vaulina, O.S.; Nefedov, A.P.; Petrov, O.F.; Khrapak, S.A.

1999-01-01

The currents which charge a macroscopic particle placed in a plasma consist of discrete charges; hence, the charge can undergo random fluctuations about its equilibrium value. These random fluctuations can be described by a simple model which, if the mechanisms for charging of macroscopic particles are known, makes it possible to determine the dependence of the temporal and amplitude characteristics of the fluctuations on the plasma parameters. This model can be used to study the effect of charge fluctuations on the dynamics of the macroscopic particles. The case of so-called plasma-dust crystals (i.e., highly ordered structures which develop because of strong interactions among macroscopic particles) in laboratory gaseous discharge plasmas is considered as an example. The molecular dynamics method shows that, under certain conditions, random fluctuations in the charge can effectively heat a system of macroscopic particles, thereby impeding the ordering process

Particle model of a cylindrical inductively coupled ion source

Science.gov (United States)

Ippolito, N. D.; Taccogna, F.; Minelli, P.; Cavenago, M.; Veltri, P.

2017-08-01