Variational Integration for Ideal MHD with Built-in Advection Equations

Technical Report · Tue Aug 05 04:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1179782· OSTI ID:1179782

Zhou, Yao ^[1]; Qin, Hong ^[2]; Burby, J. W. ^[1]; Bhattacharjee, A. ^[1]

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
2. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China)

Newcomb's Lagrangian for ideal MHD in Lagrangian labeling is discretized using discrete exterior calculus. Variational integrators for ideal MHD are derived thereafter. Besides being symplectic and momentum preserving, the schemes inherit built-in advection equations from Newcomb's formulation, and therefore avoid solving them and the accompanying error and dissipation. We implement the method in 2D and show that numerical reconnection does not take place when singular current sheets are present. We then apply it to studying the dynamics of the ideal coalescence instability with multiple islands. The relaxed equilibrium state with embedded current sheets is obtained numerically.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 1179782
• Report Number(s): PPPL--5053
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Computational Physics
Computer Simulation
Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)