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Grid and particle hydrodynamics: Beyond hydrodynamics via fluid element particle-in-cell

Journal Article · · Journal of Computational Physics
;  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

A new plasma/fluid transport algorithm is presented that combines and retains the strengths of the particle and hydrodynamic methods. By including internal velocity characteristics of area particles within each finite size macro-particle (FSP), a redundancy is introduced in the representation of the real particle distribution that is recovered by the superposition of these macro-particles. This redundancy is exploited by merging particles that sufficiently overlap in parameter space. The internal velocity distribution is exploited by allowing the distribution with each FSP to evolve hydrodynamically. In turn the evolution establishes the partitioning of moments into central and expansion particles. Such aggressive increases in the number of individual FSPs probe for emerging features. If interesting features fail to materialize, aggressive merging provides particle economy. The objective is to economically recover details of the particle distribution necessary for accurate collisions. GaPH promises to accomplish this mission without squandering computational resources in uninteresting regions of phase space. This paper reports collisionless GaPH test results that compare well with analytic solutions that initially contain large gradients.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48; AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
653496
Journal Information:
Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 144; ISSN JCTPAH; ISSN 0021-9991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English