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Calculation of continuum damping of Alfvén eigenmodes in tokamak and stellarator equilibria

In an ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma, shear Alfvén eigenmodes may experience dissipationless damping due to resonant interaction with the shear Alfvén continuum. This continuum damping can make a significant contribution to the overall growth/decay rate of shear Alfvén eigenmodes, with consequent implications for fast ion transport. One method for calculating continuum damping is to solve the MHD eigenvalue problem over a suitable contour in the complex plane, thereby satisfying the causality condition. Such an approach can be implemented in three-dimensional ideal MHD codes which use the Galerkin method. Analytic functions can be fitted to numerical data for equilibrium quantities in order to determine the value of these quantities along the complex contour. This approach requires less resolution than the established technique of calculating damping as resistivity vanishes and is thus more computationally efficient. The complex contour method has been applied to the three-dimensional finite element ideal MHD Code for Kinetic Alfvén waves. In this paper, we discuss the application of the complex contour technique to calculate the continuum damping of global modes in tokamak as well as torsatron, W7-X and H-1NF stellarator cases. To the authors' knowledge, these stellarator calculations represent the first calculation of continuum damping for eigenmodes in fully three-dimensional equilibria. The continuum damping of global modes in W7-X and H-1NF stellarator configurations investigated is found to depend sensitively on coupling to numerous poloidal and toroidal harmonics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A unified framework of stabilized finite element method for solving the Boltzmann transport equation

This paper presents a unified framework of stabilized finite element method for solving the Boltzmann transport equation. Unlike the traditional Petrov-Galerkin finite element method which modifies the test function to construct the stabilization term, we derive the stabilization methods from the standard Galerkin weak form with Sub-grid scale model. The basic idea of this method is to decompose the unknowns into its numerical solution and residual, with an approximation for the residual and embeds it in the Galerkin weak form to yield a stabilized variational formula. Different approximations of the residual lead to different stabilization methods, all the frequently used stabilized methods, including the Streamline Upwinding Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) method, Galerkin/Least-Square (GLS) method, and Algebraic Sub-Grid Scale (ASGS) method can be obtained from this framework. The similarities and differences of the different approximations are compared in this paper. The numerical results show that the behaviors of the different methods area similar with the same stabilization parameter, and all these stabilized techniques can obtain a correct and stable solution. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

A non-linear discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method for removing oscillations in the solution of the time-dependent transport equation

This paper describes a Non-Linear Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method and its application to the one-speed Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE) for space-time problems. The purpose of the method is to remove unwanted oscillations in the transport solution which occur in the vicinity of sharp flux gradients, while improving computational efficiency and numerical accuracy. This is achieved by applying artificial dissipation in the solution gradient direction, internal to an element using a novel finite element (FE) Riemann approach. The added dissipation is calculated at each node of the finite element mesh based on local behaviour of the transport solution on both the spatial and temporal axes of the problem. Thus a different dissipation is used in different elements. The magnitude of dissipation that is used is obtained from a gradient-informed scaling of the advection velocities in the stabilisation term. This makes the method in its most general form non-linear. The method is implemented within a very general finite element Riemann framework. This makes it completely independent of choice of angular basis function allowing one to use different descriptions of the angular variation. Results show the non-linear scheme performs consistently well in demanding time-dependent multi-dimensional neutron transport problems. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Pn-FEM Method for Solving the First-Order Neutron Transport Equation

A deterministic method was investigated and developed for the photon-neutron transport calculation for fusion reactor blanket. Firstly, considering the fact that the second order transport equation cannot describe void region accurately due to the appearance of zero total cross section in the denominator, the first order equation was selected as the starting point of the solution. The angular discretization uses the spherical harmonics (Pn) method. Although discrete ordinates (Sn) method has been most commonly applied due to its efficiency, it suffers from the ray effect. To describe unstructured geometry, the finite element method was used to discrete spatial variable. It is well known that Bubnov-Galerkin discretization of the first-order equation is inappropriate which will create oscillations. To obtain robust solutions, Petrov- Galerkin methods have been developed such as the Streamline-Upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) method and the Generalized Least-Squares (GLS) method. These methods require a stabilization term added to its test functions, which will incur additional computational cost. Another finite element formulation that usually used for first order equation is the Discontinuous-Galerkin (DG) method. In this method, each element has a unique and separate set of basis function. Then the adjacent elements can be connected by using the in-coming flux. Its main drawback is the number of unknowns, much larger than Continuous-Galerkin (CG) method. The Sub-Grid Scale (SGS) finite element method combines the advantages of CG and DG methods together. It inserts the DG method in each element to correct the CG solution, and provides numerically stable solution of first-order equation without increasing the number of unknowns. The boundary conditions and interface conditions for Pn method is a hard nut to crack. We use Riemann method to deal with this problem. It decomposes the neutron angular flux into in-coming and out-going information through an interface, and applies boundary condition to the in-coming one. (authors)

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Mechanics of cantilever beam: Implementation and comparison of FEM and MLPG approach

Two weak form solution approaches for partial differential equations, the well known meshbased finite element method and the newer meshless local Petrov Galerkin method are described and compared on a standard test case - mechanics of cantilever beam. The implementation, solution accuracy and calculation complexity are addressed for both approaches. We found out that FEM is superior in most standard criteria, but MLPG has some advantages because of its flexibility that results from its general formulation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A toolbox for a class of discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin methods using trilinos.

The class of discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin finite element methods (DPG) proposed by L. Demkowicz and J. Gopalakrishnan guarantees the optimality of the solution in an energy norm and produces a symmetric positive definite stiffness matrix, among other desirable properties. In this paper, we describe a toolbox, implemented atop Sandia's Trilinos library, for rapid development of solvers for DPG methods. We use this toolbox to develop solvers for the Poisson and Stokes problems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

CosmosDG: An hp -adaptive Discontinuous Galerkin Code for Hyper-resolved Relativistic MHD

We have extended Cosmos++, a multidimensional unstructured adaptive mesh code for solving the covariant Newtonian and general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, to accommodate both discrete finite volume and arbitrarily high-order finite element structures. The new finite element implementation, called CosmosDG, is based on a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) formulation, using both entropy-based artificial viscosity and slope limiting procedures for the regularization of shocks. High-order multistage forward Euler and strong-stability preserving Runge–Kutta time integration options complement high-order spatial discretization. We have also added flexibility in the code infrastructure allowing for both adaptive mesh and adaptive basis order refinement to be performed separately or simultaneously in a local (cell-by-cell) manner. We discuss in this report the DG formulation and present tests demonstrating the robustness, accuracy, and convergence of our numerical methods applied to special and general relativistic MHD, although we note that an equivalent capability currently also exists in CosmosDG for Newtonian systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

PHYSICAL-CONSTRAINT-PRESERVING CENTRAL DISCONTINUOUS GALERKIN METHODS FOR SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC HYDRODYNAMICS WITH A GENERAL EQUATION OF STATE

The ideal gas equation of state (EOS) with a constant adiabatic index is a poor approximation for most relativistic astrophysical flows, although it is commonly used in relativistic hydrodynamics (RHD). This paper develops high-order accurate, physical-constraints-preserving (PCP), central, discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for the one- and two-dimensional special RHD equations with a general EOS. It is built on our theoretical analysis of the admissible states for RHD and the PCP limiting procedure that enforce the admissibility of central DG solutions. The convexity, scaling invariance, orthogonal invariance, and Lax–Friedrichs splitting property of the admissible state set are first proved with the aid of its equivalent form. Then, the high-order central DG methods with the PCP limiting procedure and strong stability-preserving time discretization are proved, to preserve the positivity of the density, pressure, specific internal energy, and the bound of the fluid velocity, maintain high-order accuracy, and be L {sup 1}-stable. The accuracy, robustness, and effectiveness of the proposed methods are demonstrated by several 1D and 2D numerical examples involving large Lorentz factor, strong discontinuities, or low density/pressure, etc.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Milstein Approximation for Advection-Diffusion Equations Driven by Multiplicative Noncontinuous Martingale Noises

In this paper, the strong approximation of a stochastic partial differential equation, whose differential operator is of advection-diffusion type and which is driven by a multiplicative, infinite dimensional, cadlag, square integrable martingale, is presented. A finite dimensional projection of the infinite dimensional equation, for example a Galerkin projection, with nonequidistant time stepping is used. Error estimates for the discretized equation are derived in L{sup 2} and almost sure senses. Besides space and time discretizations, noise approximations are also provided, where the Milstein double stochastic integral is approximated in such a way that the overall complexity is not increased compared to an Euler-Maruyama approximation. Finally, simulations complete the paper.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Superconvergence results of Legendre spectral projection methods for Volterra integral equations of second kind

In this paper, Legendre spectral projection methods are applied for the Volterra integral equations of second kind with a smooth kernel. We prove that the approximate solutions of the Legendre Galerkin and Legendre collocation methods converge to the exact solution with the order O(n{sup −r}) in L{sup 2}-norm and order O(n{sup −r+(1/2)}) in infinity norm, and the iterated Legendre Galerkin solution converges with the order O(n{sup −2r}) in both L{sup 2}-norm and infinity norm, whereas the iterated Legendre collocation solution converges with the order O(n{sup −r}) in both L{sup 2}-norm and infinity norm, n being the highest degree of Legendre polynomials employed in the approximation and r being the smoothness of the kernels. We have also considered multi-Galerkin method and its iterated version, and prove that the iterated multi-Galerkin solution converges with the order O(n{sup −3r}) in both infinity and L{sup 2} norm. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the theoretical results.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Statistical properties of three-dimensional two-fluid plasma model

The nonlinear dynamics of incompressible non-dissipative two-fluid plasma model is investigated through classical Gibbs ensemble methods. Liouville's theorem of phase space for each wave number is proved, and the absolute equilibrium spectra for Galerkin truncated two-fluid model are calculated. In two-fluid theory, the equilibrium is built on the conservation of three quadratic invariants: the total energy and the self-helicities for ions and electrons fluid, respectively. The implications of statistic equilibrium spectra with arbitrary ratios of conserved invariants are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Stabilization of the solution of a doubly nonlinear parabolic equation

The method of Galerkin approximations is employed to prove the existence of a strong global (in time) solution of a doubly nonlinear parabolic equation in an unbounded domain. The second integral identity is established for Galerkin approximations, and passing to the limit in it an estimate for the decay rate of the norm of the solution from below is obtained. The estimates characterizing the decay rate of the solution as x→∞ obtained here are used to derive an upper bound for the decay rate of the solution with respect to time; the resulting estimate is pretty close to the lower one. Bibliography: 17 titles.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of an Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics Technology for the Next-Generation Nuclear Reactor System Analysis and Safety Margin Characterization Code

This report describes the research activities we have conducted at NCSU for our NEUP project. The work toward achieving the objectives of the project is reported. The significant achievements and accomplishments are presented. A number of numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate that the goal of the proposed work has been successfully achieved. Issues, recommendations, and future work are discussed.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

RELAP-7 Development Updates

RELAP-7 is a nuclear systems safety analysis code being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory, and is the next generation tool in the RELAP reactor safety/systems analysis application series. RELAP-7 development began in 2011 to support the Risk Informed Safety Margins Characterization (RISMC) Pathway of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program. The overall design goal of RELAP-7 is to take advantage of the previous thirty years of advancements in computer architecture, software design, numerical methods, and physical models in order to provide capabilities needed for the RISMC methodology and to support nuclear power safety analysis. The code is being developed based on Idaho National Laboratory’s modern scientific software development framework – MOOSE (the Multi-Physics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment). The initial development goal of the RELAP-7 approach focused primarily on the development of an implicit algorithm capable of strong (nonlinear) coupling of the dependent hydrodynamic variables contained in the 1-D/2-D flow models with the various 0-D system reactor components that compose various boiling water reactor (BWR) and pressurized water reactor nuclear power plants (NPPs). During Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, the RELAP-7 code has been further improved with expanded capability to support boiling water reactor (BWR) and pressurized water reactor NPPs analysis. The accumulator model has been developed. The code has also been coupled with other MOOSE-based applications such as neutronics code RattleSnake and fuel performance code BISON to perform multiphysics analysis. A major design requirement for the implicit algorithm in RELAP-7 is that it is capable of second-order discretization accuracy in both space and time, which eliminates the traditional first-order approximation errors. The second-order temporal is achieved by a second-order backward temporal difference, and the one-dimensional second-order accurate spatial discretization is achieved with the Galerkin approximation of Lagrange finite elements. During FY-2015, we have done numerical verification work to verify that the RELAP-7 code indeed achieves 2nd-order accuracy in both time and space for single phase models at the system level.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Reduced-order modeling of neutron transport separated in energy by Minimax Proper Generalized Decomposition

In this article, we demonstrate a Petrov-Galerkin Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD) known as Minimax PGD for modeling neutron transport separated in energy. To compare the Minimax with the classical Galerkin PGD, we assess both on a model problem of UO{sub 2} or Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel pins in an infinite lattice with 3 industry-standard energy meshes. We find the Minimax PGD achieves a superior decomposition to Galerkin PGD, both with and without update of the energy modes. This suggests Minimax PGD may be more computationally efficient, provided this reduction in modes (to achieve a given accuracy) outweighs the cost of solving the necessary adjoint problems. In either case, we note that PGD offers an a priori Reduced-Order Model (ROM) which may be dramatically cheaper to solve than the full-order model, especially in problems with fine to ultrafine energy meshes. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗