Implicit and conservative difference scheme for the Fokker-Planck equation

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Journal of Computational Physics; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1006/jcph.1994.1101· OSTI ID:7197294

Epperlein, E M ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)

An implicit and fully conservative finite-difference scheme is proposed for solving the Fokker-Planck equation for Coulomb collision between isotropically distributed like particles in a spatially homogeneous plasma. The scheme extends the standard Chang-Cooper method by providing not only number density conservation, but also energy conservation. As a result, time steps much larger than the thermal collision time can be used to stably and accurately simulate plasmas far from thermal equilibrium. Such a relaxation in time-step constraint has allowed for the successful implementation of the new scheme in multidimensional transport Fokker-Planck codes, with resulting increase in computational efficiency. 12 refs., 7 figs.

• DOE Contract Number: FC03-92SF19460
• OSTI ID: 7197294
• Journal Information: Journal of Computational Physics; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics; (United States) Vol. 112:2; ISSN JCTPAH; ISSN 0021-9991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

663600* -- Radiation Physics-- (1992-)
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
CALCULATION METHODS
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
ITERATIVE METHODS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SIMULATION