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 (5)

• Linearized model Fokker-Planck collision operators for gyrokinetic simulations. II. Numerical implementation and tests
• AstroGK: Astrophysical Gyrokinetics Code
• Local and global Fokker-Planck neoclassical calculations showing flow and bootstrap current modification in a pedestal
• Fast elliptic solvers in cylindrical coordinates and the Coulomb collision operator
• Resolving velocity space dynamics in continuum gyrokinetics

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Development of Advanced Linearized Gyrokinetic Collision Operators Using a Moment Approach
• Linear Theory of Electron-Plasma Waves at Arbitrary Collisionality
• Gyrokinetic Continuum Simulation of Turbulence in Open-Field-Line Plasmas
• Impurities in a non-axisymmetric plasma: transport and effect on bootstrap current
• Accurate Spectral Numerical Schemes for Kinetic Equations with Energy Diffusion
• Numerical Implementation of the Improved Sugama Collision Operator Using a Moment Approach
• Numerical solution of the quantum Lenard-Balescu equation for a one-component plasma
• Moment-Fourier approach to ion parallel fluid closures and transport for a toroidally confined plasma
• Pseudo spectral collocation with Maxwell polynomials for kinetic equations with energy diffusion