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Higher-order particle representation for particle-in-cell simulations

Journal Article · · Journal of Computational Physics
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. University of Warwick, (United Kingdom)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. Univ. of York (United Kingdom)
  4. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Oxford (United Kingdom). Diamond Light Source, Ltd.
  5. Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston (United Kingdom)
  6. Univ. of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In this paper we present an alternative approach to the representation of simulation particles for unstructured electrostatic and electromagnetic PIC simulations. In our modified PIC algorithm we represent particles as having a smooth shape function limited by some specified finite radius, r0. A unique feature of our approach is the representation of this shape by surrounding simulation particles with a set of virtual particles with delta shape, with fixed offsets and weights derived from Gaussian quadrature rules and the value of r0. As the virtual particles are purely computational, they provide the additional benefit of increasing the arithmetic intensity of traditionally memory bound particle kernels. The modified algorithm is implemented within Sandia National Laboratories' unstructured EMPIRE-PIC code, for electrostatic and electromagnetic simulations, using periodic boundary conditions. We show results for a representative set of benchmark problems, including electron orbit, a transverse electromagnetic wave propagating through a plasma, numerical heating, and a plasma slab expansion. In this work, good error reduction across all of the chosen problems is achieved as the particles are made progressively smoother, with the optimal particle radius appearing to be problem-dependent.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; CDK0724; NA0003525
OSTI ID:
1781531
Report Number(s):
SAND-2019-12095J; 680144
Journal Information:
Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 435; ISSN 0021-9991
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Particle-in-cell
High-order
Unstructured
Particle representation
Shape function