No Arabic abstract
Because of the large mass differences between electrons and ions, the heat diffusion in electron-ion plasmas exhibits more complex behavior than simple heat diffusion found in typical gas mixtures. In particular, heat is diffused in two distinct, but coupled, channels. Conventional single fluid models neglect the resulting complexity, and can often inaccurately interpret the results of heat pulse experiments. However, by recognizing the sensitivity of the electron temperature evolution to the ion diffusivity, not only can previous experiments be interpreted correctly, but informative simultaneous measurements can be made of both ion and electron heat channels.
We present a way to combine Vlasov and two-fluid codes for the simulation of a collisionless plasma in large domains while keeping full information of the velocity distribution in localized areas of interest. This is made possible by solving the full Vlasov equation in one region while the remaining area is treated by a 5-moment two-fluid code. In such a treatment, the main challenge of coupling kinetic and fluid descriptions is the interchange of physically correct boundary conditions between the different plasma models. In contrast to other treatments, we do not rely on any specific form of the distribution function, e.g. a Maxwellian type. Instead, we combine an extrapolation of the distribution function and a correction of the moments based on the fluid data. Thus, throughout the simulation both codes provide the necessary boundary conditions for each other. A speed-up factor of around 20 is achieved by using GPUs for the computationally expensive solution of the Vlasov equation and an overall factor of at least 60 using the coupling strategy combined with the GPU computation. The coupled codes were then tested on the GEM reconnection challenge.
A key uncertainty in the design and development of magnetic confinement fusion energy reactors is predicting edge plasma turbulence. An essential step in overcoming this uncertainty is the validation in accuracy of reduced turbulent transport models. Drift-reduced Braginskii two-fluid theory is one such set of reduced equations that has for decades simulated boundary plasmas in experiment, but significant questions exist regarding its predictive ability. To this end, using a novel physics-informed deep learning framework, we demonstrate the first ever direct quantitative comparisons of turbulent field fluctuations between electrostatic two-fluid theory and electromagnetic gyrokinetic modelling with good overall agreement found in magnetized helical plasmas at low normalized pressure. This framework is readily adaptable to experimental and astrophysical environments, and presents a new technique for the numerical validation and discovery of reduced global plasma turbulence models.
Two-fluid Braginskii codes have simulated open-field line turbulence for over a decade, and only recently has it become possible to study these systems with continuum gyrokinetic codes. This work presents a first-of-its-kind comparison between fluid and (long-wavelength) gyrokinetic models in open field-lines, using the GDB and Gkeyll codes to simulate interchange turbulence in the Helimak device at the University of Texas (T. N. Bernard, et. al., Phys. of Plasmas 26, 042301 (2019)). Partial agreement is attained in a number of diagnostic channels when the GDB sources and sheath boundary conditions (BCs) are selected carefully, especially the heat-flux BCs which can drastically alter the temperature. The radial profile of the fluctuation levels is qualitatively similar and quantitatively comparable on the low-field side, although statistics such as moments of the probability density function and the high-frequency spectrum show greater differences. This comparison indicates areas for future improvement in both simulations, such as sheath BCs, as well as improvements in GDB like particle conservation and spatially varying thermal conductivity, in order to achieve better fluid-gyrokinetic agreement and increase fidelity when simulating experiments.
A global heat flux model based on a fractional derivative of plasma pressure is proposed for the heat transport in fusion plasmas. The degree of the fractional derivative of the heat flux, $alpha$, is defined through the power balance analysis of the steady state. The model was used to obtain the experimental values of $alpha$ for a large database of the JET Carbon-wall as well as ITER Like-wall plasmas. The findings show that the average fractional degree of the heat flux over the database for electrons is $alpha sim 0.8$, suggesting a global scaling between the net heating and the pressure profile in the JET plasmas. The model is expected to provide an accurate and a simple description of heat transport that can be used in transport studies of fusion plasmas.
We report on experimental evidence of visco-elastic effects in a strongly coupled dusty plasma through investigations of the propagation characteristics of low frequency dust acoustic waves and by excitations of transverse shear waves in a DC discharge Argon plasma.