W Arter 1995 Rep. Prog. Phys. 58 1-59

Numerical simulation of magnetic fusion plasmas

W Arter
Culham Lab., AEA Technol., Abingdon, UK
Print publication: Issue 1 (January 1995)

     Lastly, it is worth noting that Fokker-Planck codes have been written to model inertial confinement fusion experiments, e.g. Andrade et al (1981), and at least one such (FPl) has then been used to model tokamak edge plasmas (Abou-Assaleh et al 1990).  The computational details are not directly relevant to this review, but the physical results from FPl are interesting, since they suggest that the heat transport is not well modelled by corresponding fluid codes. A comparison with results obtained using particle methods (section 3.6) would be of interest.

. . ."

S. A. Uryupin, S. Kato, and K. Mima

Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan

(Received 23 June 1994; accepted 12 April 1995)

The self-similar distribution of electrons is found for a nonuniform underdense plasma that is heated by an intensive laser field. The distribution function is flat-topped for the low-energy electrons. And in the high-energy region, it has a well-pronounced high-energy tail. It is also found how the electron heat flux and the absorption coefficient depend upon both the ratios of electron mean-free path to the inhomogeneity scale of effective temperature and of the oscillation velocity to the thermal velocity. The actual shapes of electron energy distribution, the heat flux limitation, and the electromagnetic radiation absorption rate are given, both for a currentless plasma and for a plasma with a finite electric current. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.

F. Vidal and J. P. Matte

Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique—Energie et Matériaux, 1650 Montée Ste. Julie, CP 1020, Varennes, Québec J3X 1S2, Canada

M. Casanova and O. Larroche

Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Centre d'Etudes de Limeil-Valenton, 94195 Villeneuve St. Georges Cedex, France

(Received 7 November 1994; accepted 4 January 1995)

Electron heat flow was computed in the context of a steadily propagating shock wave. Two problems were studied: a Mach 8 shock in hydrogen, simulated with an ion kinetic code, and a Mach 5 shock in lithium, simulated with an Eulerian hydrodynamic code. The electron heat flow was calculated with Spitzer–Härm classical conductivity, with and without a flux limit, and several nonlocal electron heat flow formulas published in the literature. To evaluate these, the shock's density, velocity, and ion temperature profiles were fixed, and the electron temperature and heat flow were compared to those computed by an electron kinetic code. There were quantitative differences between the electron temperature profiles calculated with the various formulas. For the Mach 8 shock in hydrogen, the best agreement with the kinetic simulation was obtained with the Epperlein–Short delocalization formula [Phys. Fluids B 4, 2211 and 4190 (1992)], and the Luciani–Mora–Bendib formula [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2421 (1985)] gave good agreement. For the Mach 5 shock in lithium, both of these gave good agreement. The earlier Luciani–Mora–Virmont formula [Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 1664 (1983)] gave fair agreement, while that of San Martin et al. [Phys. Fluids B 4, 3579 (1992); 5, 1485 (1993)] was even further off than the classical Spitzer–Härm [Phys. Rev. 89, 977 (1953)] formula for thermal conduction. To assess the effect of nonlocal electron heat flow on the shock's hydrodynamics and ion kinetics, each of the two problems was done with two different electron heat flow models: the classical Spitzer–Härm local heat conductivity, and the Epperlein–Short nonlocal electron heat-flow formula. In spite of the somewhat different electron temperature profiles, the effect on the shock dynamics was not important. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.

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