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Title: Extended MHD modeling of nonlinear instabilities in fusion and space plasmas

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1228752· OSTI ID:1228752
 [1]
  1. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)

A number of different sub-projects where pursued within this DOE early career project. The primary focus was on using fully nonlinear, curvilinear, extended MHD simulations of instabilities with applications to fusion and space plasmas. In particular, we performed comprehensive studies of the dynamics of the double tearing mode in different regimes and confi gurations, using Cartesian and cyclindrical geometry and investigating both linear and non-linear dynamics. In addition to traditional extended MHD involving Hall term and electron pressure gradient, we also employed a new multi-fluid moment model, which shows great promise to incorporate kinetic effects, in particular off-diagonal elements of the pressure tensor, in a fluid model, which is naturally computationally much cheaper than fully kinetic particle or Vlasov simulations. We used our Vlasov code for detailed studies of how weak collisions effect plasma echos. In addition, we have played an important supporting role working with the PPPL theory group around Will Fox and Amitava Bhattacharjee on providing simulation support for HED plasma experiments performed at high-powered laser facilities like OMEGA-EP in Rochester, NY. This project has support a great number of computational advances in our fluid and kinetic plasma models, and has been crucial to winning multiple INCITE computer time awards that supported our computational modeling.

Research Organization:
Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
PNNL
DOE Contract Number:
SC0006670
OSTI ID:
1228752
Report Number(s):
DOE-UNH-06670; TRN: US1801765
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English