Explicit structure-preserving geometric particle-in-cell algorithm in curvilinear orthogonal coordinate systems and its applications to whole-device 6D kinetic simulations of tokamak physics

Explicit structure-preserving geometric particle-in-cell(PIC)algorithm in curvilinear orthogonal coordinate systems is developed.The work reported represents a further development of the structure-preserving geometric PIC algorithm achieving the goal of practical applications in magnetic fusion research.The algorithm is constructed by discretizing the field theory for the system of charged particles and electromagnetic field using Whitney forms,discrete exterior calculus,and explicit non-canonical symplectic integration.In addition to the truncated infinitely dimensional symplectic structure,the algorithm preserves exactly many important physical symmetries and conservation laws,such as local energy conservation,gauge symmetry and the corresponding local charge conservation.As a result,the algorithm possesses the long-term accuracy and fidelity required for first-principles-based simulations of the multiscale tokamak physics.The algorithm has been implemented in the Sym PIC code,which is designed for highefficiency massively-parallel PIC simulations in modern clusters.The code has been applied to carry out whole-device 6 D kinetic simulation studies of tokamak physics.A self-consistent kinetic steady state for fusion plasma in the tokamak geometry is numerically found with a predominately diagonal and anisotropic pressure tensor.The state also admits a steady-state subsonic ion flow in the range of 10 km s-1,agreeing with experimental observations and analytical calculations Kinetic ballooning instability in the self-consistent kinetic steady state is simulated.It is shown that high-n ballooning modes have larger growth rates than low-n global modes,and in the nonlinear phase the modes saturate approximately in 5 ion transit times at the 2%level by the E×B flow generated by the instability.These results are consistent with early and recent electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations.

CONVERGENCE AND SUPERCONVERGENCE ANALYSIS OF LAGRANGE RECTANGULAR ELEMENTS WITH ANY ORDER ON ARBITRARY RECTANGULAR MESHES

This paper is to study the convergence and superconvergence of rectangular finite elements under anisotropic meshes. By using of the orthogonal expansion method, an anisotropic Lagrange interpolation is presented. The family of Lagrange rectangular elements with all the possible shape function spaces are considered, which cover the Intermediate families, Tensor-product families and Serendipity families. It is shown that the anisotropic interpolation error estimates hold for any order Sobolev norm. We extend the convergence and superconvergence result of rectangular finite elements to arbitrary rectangular meshes in a unified way.

NUMERICAL SOLUTION FOR UNSTEADY 2－D FLOW USING THE TRANSFORMED SHALLOW WATER EQUATIONS

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution of two-dimensional flow.The technique of boundary-fitted coordinate systems is used to overcome the difficulties resulting from the complicated shape of natural river boundaries; the method of fractional steps is used to solve the partial differential equations in the transformed plane; and the technique of moving boundary is used to deal with the river bed exposed to water surface. Comparison between computed and experimental data shows a satisfactory agreement.