New velocity-space discretization for continuum kinetic calculations and Fokker-Planck collisions

Abstract

Numerical techniques for discretization of velocity space in continuum kinetic calculations are described. An efficient spectral collocation method is developed for the speed coordinate - the radius in velocity space - employing a novel set of non-classical orthogonal polynomials. For problems in which Fokker-Planck collisions are included, a common situation in plasma physics, a procedure is detailed to accurately and efficiently treat the field term in the collision operator (in the absence of gyrokinetic corrections). When species with disparate masses are included simultaneously, a careful extrapolation of the Rosenbluth potentials is performed. The techniques are demonstrated in neoclassical calculations of the bootstrap current and plasma flows in a tokamak.

References in corpus (1)

• Local and global Fokker-Planck neoclassical calculations showing flow and bootstrap current modification in a pedestal

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Development of Advanced Linearized Gyrokinetic Collision Operators Using a Moment Approach
• Gyrokinetic Continuum Simulation of Turbulence in Open-Field-Line Plasmas
• Numerical Implementation of the Improved Sugama Collision Operator Using a Moment Approach
• Moment-Fourier approach to ion parallel fluid closures and transport for a toroidally confined plasma