Controlling Fusion Plasmas: Electromagnetic Wave Effects Center for Simulation of Wave-Plasma Interactions (CSWPI) Understanding and predicting electromagnetic wave processess in fusion-relevant plasmas Paul Bonoli (project webpage) Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The world community has joined together to construct ITER, the next scientific and engineering step on the path towards the development of a safe and economically attractive controlled fusion energy source. This device is designed to produce burning plasma conditions for the first time ever in a man-made laboratory plasma. The power to drive the ITER plasma to the burning regime will be supplied primarily with a combination of externally supplied power from radio frequency waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) and the injection of energetic ions from either negative ion or neutral beam injection (NINB/NBI) sources, in addition to internally-generated Ohmic heating from the induced plasma current that also serves to create the magnetic equilibrium for the discharge. Since the success of the ITER project depends critically on the ability to create and maintain burning plasma conditions, it is absolutely necessary to have physics-based models that can accurately simulate the RF processes that affect the dynamical evolution of the ITER discharge.

The Center for Simulation of Wave-Plasma Interactions takes advantage of high performance, massively parallel computing platforms to develop a predictive simulation capability in three distinct areas: First for ICRF antenna-edge coupling processes in order to understand the linear coupling between a 3D antenna structure and plasma, nonlinear parasitic loss mechanisms such as RF sheath formation and parametric decay instability (PDI), and the excitation of surface waves and coaxial modes and their interaction with the 3D geometry and structure of the SOL and vacuum vessel. Second the Center works on the development of a predictive simulation capability for core heating and current drive processes in burning plasma, including a complete microscopic description of the interaction of ICRF and lower hybrid (LH) waves with energetic particles produced by the RF itself and with energetic ions produced by fusion reactions and neutral beam injection. Third, we work on combing the antenna – edge and the core heating / current drive simulation capabilities into a fully integrated model. This activity requires an extensive program of code verification and validation (V&V) and code algorithm refinement and improvement. This core to edge RF description will be ideal for providing macroscopic and microscopic source information needed by MHD and transport codes in fully integrated modeling activities such as the Fusion Simulation Project (FSP) and Focused Integration Initiatives (FII’s).

The work carried out in the CSWPI, dealing with multi-physics issues, strong non-linearity, and involving much more intense verification and validation requires even greater use of both capacity and capability high performance computing.

Science Application: Fusion Science

Project Title: Center for Simulation of Wave-Plasma Interactions (CSWPI)

Principal Investigator: Paul Bonoli
Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Webpage: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/fed/scidacrf/

Participating Institutions and Co-Investigators:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Paul Bonoli (PI), J.C. Wright
CompX - R.W. Harvey
General Atomics - M. Choi
Lodestar - D.A. D'Ippolito, J.R. Myra
Tech-X Corporation - D.N. Smithe
Oak Ridge National Laboratory - D.B. Batchelor, L.A. Berry, E.F. Jaeger
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory - C.K. Phillips, E. Valeo
IPP-Garching - M. Brambilla, R. Bilato
Politecnico di Torino - V. Lancellotti, R. Maggiora

Funding Partners: Office of Science — Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Office of Fusion Energy Sciences

Budget and Duration: Approximately $1.0 million per year for three years (Science Application Partnership is three years) ¹

Other SciDAC fusion efforts