Application of the Chebyshev Collocation Method to the types of partial differential equations which occur in plasma physics

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:419676

Cottam, R ^[1]

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1. NYMA, Inc., Brook Park, OH (United States)

A self consistent and sufficiently accurate picture of plasma dynamics emerges from the solution of the coupled set of Maxwell-Vlasov equations. To remove the unobserved velocity space degrees of freedom the coupled momentums of the Vlasov equation are calculated and truncated following certain prescribed rules. This process results in a fluid dynamics description of plasma interactions. In this paper a technique for solving these equations using a modification of the Collocation Method with Chebyshev Polynomials is presented. An outline of the technique is given. The computational region under consideration is broken into subregions in which all functions are presented as a sum of a small number of Chebyshev Polynomials. The PDE under consideration is solved for one time step in each subregion through Runge-Kutta integration. The boundaries of the subregions are then allowed to move by analytically continuing the solution from one region into another. The problem is solved again in each new subregion and the process is continued for as many time steps as needed. In all cases the numerical solution is compared to the analytic solution.

• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 419676
• Report Number(s): CONF-960634--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA SIMULATION