An outgoing energy flux boundary condition for finite difference ICRP antenna models

Abstract

For antennas at the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) modeling in vacuum can now be carried out to a high level of detail such that shaping of the current straps, isolating septa, and discrete Faraday shield structures can be included. An efficient approach would be to solve for the fields in the vacuum region near the antenna in three dimensions by finite methods and to match this solution at the plasma-vacuum interface to a solution obtained in the plasma region in one dimension by Fourier methods. This approach has been difficult to carry out because boundary conditions must be imposed at the edge of the finite difference grid on a point-by-point basis, whereas the condition for outgoing energy flux into the plasma is known only in terms of the Fourier transform of the plasma fields. A technique is presented by which a boundary condition can be imposed on the computational grid of a three-dimensional finite difference, or finite element, code by constraining the discrete Fourier transform of the fields at the boundary points to satisfy an outgoing energy flux condition appropriate for the plasma. The boundary condition at a specific grid point appears as a coupling to other grid more » points on the boundary, with weighting determined by a kemel calctdated from the plasma surface impedance matrix for the various plasma Fourier modes. This boundary condition has been implemented in a finite difference solution of a simple problem in two dimensions, which can also be solved directly by Fourier transformation. Results are presented, and it is shown that the proposed boundary condition does enforce outgoing energy flux and yields the same solution as is obtained by Fourier methods. « less