Parallel heat flow closure for toroidal plasmas

POSTER

Abstract

Analytical and numerical work is done to understand controlled magnetic fusion experiments such as tokamaks, a doughnut-shaped magnetic confinement device that may form the basis of future fusion reactors. In such systems plasma can be described in terms of transport equations obtained from the kinetic equation. We close the density, momentum and energy conservation equations by solving the drift kinetic equation and deriving parallel heat fow closure. A Chapman-Enskog-like approach is adopted where the distribution function is written as the sum of a dynamic Maxwellian and a kinetic distortion, $F$,expanded in Legendre polynomials $P_l (v_\| /v)$. To lowest order, the magnetic moment and total energy of the particles are conserved. In contrast to previous derivations, this work does not bounceaverage when solving the lowest-order drift kinetic equation. In contrast, a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm is used to treat the one-dimensional spatial domain along the magnetic field. This approach allows for parallel acceleration as well as examination of the closures in all collisionality regimes.

Authors

  • Mukta Sharma

  • Andrew Polemi

    Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, High Altitude Observatory, University of Colorado at Boulder, Massachutes Institute of Technology, Utah Valley University, University of New Hampshire, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, University of Montana, Southwest Research Institute, University of Southern California, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SciPrint.org, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Colorado State University, V. Alecsandri College, Bacau, Romania, Colorado School of Mines, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Utah State University, Department of Physics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Brigham Young University - Idaho, University of Arizona, Florida State University, Weber State University, Brigham Young University - Provo, New Mexico State University, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523

  • Andrew Polemi

    Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, High Altitude Observatory, University of Colorado at Boulder, Massachutes Institute of Technology, Utah Valley University, University of New Hampshire, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, University of Montana, Southwest Research Institute, University of Southern California, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SciPrint.org, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Colorado State University, V. Alecsandri College, Bacau, Romania, Colorado School of Mines, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Utah State University, Department of Physics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Brigham Young University - Idaho, University of Arizona, Florida State University, Weber State University, Brigham Young University - Provo, New Mexico State University, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523