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At least 1,225 records · Page 68

Finite-element schemes for extended integrations of atmospheric models

Of the two finite-element models presently used to investigate the effect of the conservation of integral invariants, by means of finite-element discretization schemes of the shallow-water equations, in order to serve as a paradigm of long-term atmospheric-model integrations, the first employs rectangular elements and conserves total energy, while the second uses triangular elements and a high-accuracy two-stage Numerov-Galerkin method. Attention is given to critical times for numerical nonlinear instability, as well as to the determination of the critical degree of dissipation entailed by the achievement of stable long-term integrations. Relative computational efficiency and accuracy comparisons are presented for the two finite-element schemes.

Steppeler, J.↗

On Two-Phase Pressure and Temperature Equilibration with Mie-Grüneisen Equations of State

In the course of reactive flow modeling, the phases of high explosive (HE) reactants and products introduce additional degrees of freedom to the underlying hydrodynamic equations of compressible reactive fluid mechanics. Hydrodynamic simulations track the bulk (mixture) conservation properties of mass, momentum and energy. When multiple phases are introduced, one must decide on appropriate closure rules to determine the relative phase volumes and energy distribution between the phases. One typical closure is to assume that the phases are in pressure and temperature equilibrium. Here, the requisite equations of p-T equilibration are explored for Mie-Grüneisen Equations of State (EOS). Examples with Davis reactants and Davis products EOSs will be given. The Davis forms are used in both the WSD and AWSD reactive flow models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Toward higher order tests of the gravitational interaction

Analyses and interpretations of experiments which test post-Newtonian gravity are usually done under the assumption that gravity is a metric field phenomenon - a manifestation of space-time geometry. This, however, is unnecessary and one can start at a more primitive level - that there simply exists a phenomenological, gravitational, many-body equation of motion which must be determined by a package of observations. In fact, over the last couple decades, a diverse collection of solar system interbody tracking observations, supplemented by data from the binary pulsar system PSR 1913 + 16, has completely mapped out the first post-Newtonian order. After the fact, using empirically determined equations of motion, along with some observed properties of nongravitational clocks and rulers and conservation laws for energy, momentum and angular momentum, a post-Newtonian Lagrangian can be constructed, a geometrical space-time metric field conceptual interpretation can be developed, Lorentz invariance of the equations of motion can be shown, and the equations of motion are found to agree with the predictions of Einstein's gravitational theory, General Relativity, within experimental accuracy.

Nordtvedt, Ken↗

Quantum Fokker-Planck modeling of degenerate electrons

In this work, an implicit and conservative numerical scheme is proposed for the isotropic quantum Fokker-Planck equation describing the evolution of degenerate electrons subject to elastic collisions with other electrons and ions. The electron-ion and electron-electron collision operators are discretized using a discontinuous Galerkin method, and the electron energy distribution is updated by an implicit time integration method. The numerical scheme is designed to satisfy all conservation laws exactly. Numerical tests and comparisons with other modeling approaches are shown to demonstrate the accuracy and conservation properties of the proposed method.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A variational approach to the question of temporal stability of equilibrium models of solar prominences. I - The formal theory

A Lagrangian approach to the equations describing small amplitude departures from equilibrium of solar prominences is presented. Seven quantities are derived which, by analogy to the concepts of energy, momentum, and angular momentum, are conserved under conditions corresponding to ignorable coordinates of classical mechanics. It is expected that these conservation laws will be useful as criteria of accuracy in obtaining eigenfrequencies for the perturbation equations when numerical techniques are used. The method is capable of handling complicated spatial dependences and has internal criteria for assessing the accuracy of any given numerical convergence scheme.

Lerche, I.↗

GenASiS Mathematics: Object-oriented manifolds, operations, and solvers for large-scale physics simulations (version 2)

We report GenASiS Mathematics provides modern Fortran classes furnishing extensible object-oriented functionality for the solution of fields governed by selected partial differential equations. The initial release included extensible object-oriented implementations of simple meshes and the evolution of generic conserved currents thereon. This revision - Version 2 of Mathematics - includes significant reorganization and streamlining of these classes, higher-order reconstruction by a different method, a Poisson solver, coarsening to avoid Courant time step limitations near coordinate singularities, and the offloading of computational kernels to GPUs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The collisional particle-in-cell method for the Vlasov–Maxwell–Landau equations

We introduce an extension of the particle-in-cell method that captures the Landau collisional effects in the Vlasov–Maxwell–Landau equations. The method arises from a regularisation of the variational formulation of the Landau equation, leading to a discretisation of the collision operator that conserves mass, charge, momentum and energy, while increasing the (regularised) entropy. The collisional effects appear as a fully deterministic effective force, thus the method does not require any transport–collision splitting. The scheme can be used in arbitrary dimension, and for a general interaction, including the Coulomb case. We validate the scheme on scenarios such as the Landau damping, the two-stream instability and the Weibel instability, demonstrating its effectiveness in the numerical simulation of plasma.

Bailo, Rafael (ORCID:0000000180183799)↗

Continuum electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations of turbulence in the tokamak scrape-off layer and laboratory devices

Here, we present algorithms and results from Gkeyll, a full-f continuum, electromagnetic gyrokinetic code, designed to study turbulence in the edge region of fusion devices. The edge is computationally very challenging, requiring robust algorithms that can handle large-amplitude fluctuations and stable interactions with plasma sheaths. We present an energy-conserving high-order discontinuous Galerkin scheme that solves gyrokinetic equations in Hamiltonian form. Efficiency is improved by a careful choice of basis functions and automatically generated computation kernels. Previous verification tests were performed in the straight-field-line large plasma device [Shi et al., J. Plasma Phys. 83, 905830304 (2017)] and the Texas Helimak, a simple magnetized torus [Bernard et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 042301 (2019)], including the effect of end-plate biasing on turbulence. Results for the scrape-off layer for NSTX parameters with a model helical magnetic geometry with bad curvature have been obtained [Shi et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 012307 (2019)]. In this paper, we present algorithms for the two formulations of electromagnetic gyrokinetics: the Hamiltonian and the symplectic. We describe each formulation and show results of benchmark tests. Although our scheme works for the Hamiltonian formulation, the presence of spurious numerical modes for high-β and large $k^2_⊥ρ^2_s$ regimes shows that the symplectic formulation is more robust. We then review our recent algorithm for the symplectic formulation [Mandell et al., J. Plasma Phys. 86, 905860109 (2020)], along with example application of this new capability. Maintaining positivity of the distribution function can be challenging, and we describe a new and novel exponential recovery based algorithm to address this.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Mutually magnetically insulated two-species Brillouin flow

In this work, we use the Brillouin flow analytic framework to examine the physics of Magnetically Insulated Transmission Lines (MITL). Here, we derive a model applicable to any particle species, including both positive and negative ions, in planar and cylindrical configurations. We then show how to self-consistently solve for two-species simultaneously, using magnetically insulated electrons and positive ions as an example. We require both layers to be spatially separated and magnetically insulated (mutually magnetically insulated); for a 7.5 cm gap with a 2 MV bias voltage, this condition requires magnetic fields in excess of 2.73 T. We see a close match between mutually insulated MITL performance and “superinsulated” (high degree of magnetic insulation) electron-only theory, as may be expected for these high magnetic fields. However, the presence of ions leads to several novel effects: (1) Opposite to electron-only theory, total electron currents increase rather than decrease as the degree of magnetic insulation becomes stronger. The common assumption of neglecting electrons for superinsulated MITL operation must be revisited when ions are present—we calculate up to 20× current enhancement. (2) The electron flow layer thickness increases up to double, due to ion space-charge enhancement. (3) The contributions from both ions and electrons to the MITL flow impedance are calculated. The flow impedance drops by over 50% when ions fill the gap, which can cause significant reflections at the load if not anticipated and degrade performance. Additional effects and results from the inclusion of the ion layer are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Novel Relaxation Time Approximation to the Relativistic Boltzmann Equation

In this work, we show that the widely used relaxation time approximation to the relativistic Boltzmann equation contains basic flaws, being incompatible with micro- and macroscopic conservation laws if the relaxation time depends on energy or general matching conditions are applied. We propose a new approximation that fixes such fundamental issues and maintains the basic properties of the linearized Boltzmann collision operator. We show how this correction affects transport coefficients, such as the bulk viscosity and particle diffusion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Theory of fracture mechanics based upon plasticity

A theory of fracture mechanics is formulated on the foundation of continuum mechanics. Fracture surface is introduced as an unknown quantity and is incorporated into boundary and initial conditions. Surface energy is included in the global form of energy conservation law and the dissipative mechanism is formulated into constitutive equations which indicate the thermodynamic irreversibility and the irreversibility of fracture process as well.

Lee, J. D.↗

Neutron stars

Quantum-mechanical processes associated with the presence of high magnetic fields and the effect of such fields on the evolution of neutron stars are reviewed. A technical description of the interior of a neutron star is presented. The neutron star-pulsar relation is reviewed and consideration is given to supernovae explosions, flux conservation in neutron stars, gauge-invariant derivation of the equation of state for a strongly magnetized gas, neutron beta-decay, and the stability condition for a neutron star.

Canuto, V.↗

Transonic potential flow and coordinate generation for bodies in a wind tunnel

An accurate method has been developed for computation of transonic potential flow about a 2-D lifting airfoil or an axisymmetric body in a wind tunnel. The computational mesh is nearly orthogonal everywhere and is generated by a sequence of Schwarz-Christoffel transformations and shearings to obtain an '0' grid near the body. A conservative finite-volume scheme for the full-potential equation and exact boundary conditions is used together with 'retarded' density to solve efficiently transonic flow with embedded shocks and large regions of supersonic flow. Supersonic free-stream flows are also solved with captured bow shocks and embedded subsonic regions.

Doria, M. L.↗

Solution of the two-dimensional Euler equations with generalized coordinate transformation using flux vector splitting

An implicit finite difference code using flux vector splitting has been developed for solving the two-dimensional inviscid gas dynamics equations. The method is spatially second-order acurate, fully conservative, and uses body-conforming generalized coordinates for treating complex geometries. Numerical results have been obtained for transonic flow over a circular cylinder and airfoils. Steady results for a half cylinder (top and bottom symmetry-imposed) range from critical flow to a strong shock case with rotationally induced flow separation. Full cylinder solutions at freestream Mach number values of 0.5, however, show unsteady oscillation. A perturbation form of the method has also been developed and used to compute both fore and aft inviscid flow separation about a cylinder for a nonuniform incoming stream.

Buning, P. G.↗

Application of augmented-Lagrangian methods in meteorology: Comparison of different conjugate-gradient codes for large-scale minimization

A Lagrange multiplier method using techniques developed by Bertsekas (1982) was applied to solving the problem of enforcing simultaneous conservation of the nonlinear integral invariants of the shallow water equations on a limited area domain. This application of nonlinear constrained optimization is of the large dimensional type and the conjugate gradient method was found to be the only computationally viable method for the unconstrained minimization. Several conjugate-gradient codes were tested and compared for increasing accuracy requirements. Robustness and computational efficiency were the principal criteria.

Navon, I. M.↗

Numerical and analytical study of fluid dynamic forces in seals and bearings

Study results for rotor/bearing/seal system models are compared with both a numerical model based on a transformed, conservative version of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation, and an analytical model based on 'lumped' fluid parameters. Rotor-destabilizing factors are related to flow field rotation; it is shown that these factors can be reduced through a decrease in the fluid average circumferential velocity. A transformation of the Navier-Stokes equations to those for a rotating observer and a numerical code with a nonorthogonal body-fitted grid are used to carry out numerical experiments demonstrating the character of the complex flow field.

Tam, L. T.↗

Zonal techniques for flowfield simulation about aircraft

A technique for performing conservative flowfield calculations on zonal meshes is described. The underlying flow solver is an implicit, upwind finite volume scheme which can incorporate either a perfect gas or an equilibrium air equation of state. Two different approaches which yield identical results, in terms of performing a conservative flux calculation on a zonal interface, are described and compared in terms of numerical efficiency. The capability of the method to handle relatively complex geometries is demonstrated by considering the flowfield about a model SR71 aircraft.

Walters, Robert W.↗