Simulations of plasma-based flows using heterogeneous computational strategies

Deborah Levin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Usage Details

Numerical modeling has been an important tool in analyzing and predicting plasma behavior in both high- and low-density applications. Various codes have been used to help design better operational designs for the spacecrafts in low density space plasma.  On the other side of the spectrum, numerical studies of the high-density fireball plasma generated by nuclear explosions and their interaction with dispersed dust particles are performed to estimate the residual radiation footprint from nuclear fallout transportation. High-fidelity numerical modeling of both types of plasma requires development of novel computational strategies and multiprocessor computational architecture. There has been a general interest in the research community in moving towards high fidelity plasma modeling where new numerical techniques and computational algorithms, if implemented on a larger scale, may provide deep insights on the contemporary plasma problems such as ion stabilities in Hall thrusters and particle coagulation profile in a fireball plasma.

The main objective of our Blue Waters proposal is to numerically model challenging plasma physics problems on a wide plasma density spectrum with high fidelity approaches such as particle-in-cell and magneto-hydrodynamics equations using novel in-house codes on heterogeneous computational architecture.