UCI Final Report for SciDAC GPS-TTBP (3/1/2008-2/28/2011) Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Turbulent Transport in Burning Plasmas

Technical Report · Fri Mar 25 04:00:00 EDT 2011

OSTI ID:1080327

Lin, Zhihong ^[1]; Chen, Liu ^[2]; Nishimura, Y. ^[2]; Holod, I. ^[2]; Zhang, W. L. ^[2]; Xiao, Y. ^[2]; Deng, W. J. ^[2]; Zhang, H. S. ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Office of Research, University of California Irvine
2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

“We propose to further develop the global, particle-in-cell, gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) for simulations of plasma turbulence and transport, and to advance understanding and our ability to control radial transport of heat, momentum, and particles in magnetically confined plasmas with temperatures up to those required for nuclear fusion power production regimes called burning plasmas. Building on the excellent physics capabilities and high performance computing, GTC will be extensively applied to simulate experimentally relevant parameter regimes including electromagnetic fluctuations, kinetic electrons, multiple ion species, realistic collision operators, and shaped plasmas. Collaborative code development will be pursued to accelerate implementations of new physics capabilities including long time steady state simulation with profile evolution, and core-edge coupling. The new simulation capabilities and access to tera- and petascale computers will allow us to address new physics and parameter regimes important for burning plasma experiments such as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).” Among the three key goals and objectives (code development, comprehensive physics simulation, and core-edge coupling), we have achieved fully the first two goals, namely, 1. “to further develop the global, particle-in-cell, gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) for simulations of plasma turbulence and transport, and to advance understanding and our ability to control radial transport of heat, momentum, and particles in magnetically confined plasmas with temperatures up to those required for nuclear fusion power production regimes called burning plasmas.” 2. “GTC will be extensively applied to simulate experimentally relevant parameter regimes including electromagnetic fluctuations, kinetic electrons, multiple ion species, realistic collision operators, and shaped plasmas.” Regarding the third objective, 3. “Collaborative code development will be pursued to accelerate implementations of new physics capabilities including long time steady state simulation with profile evolution, and core-edge coupling.” While we have productively engaged in collaborative code development and made satisfactory progress on implementing new physics including long time steady state simulation with profile evolution, we have not achieved the goal of core-edge coupling.

• Research Organization: Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-08ER54957
• OSTI ID: 1080327
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER--54957
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY