Efficient Numerical Solution of Coupled Axisymmetric Plasma Equilibrium and Eddy Current Problems

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient numerical tool for solving the problem of transient nonlinear evolution of plasma equilibrium in presence of eddy currents. The code, named FRIDA-TD (FRIDA-Time Domain), and based on the existing FRIDA (FRee-boundary Integro-Differential Axisymmetric) code, exploits two different approaches for solving the elated nonlinear system of Partial Differential Equations (PDE): (i) Finite Element Method - Boundary Element Method (FEM-BEM) for plasma equilibrium, and (ii) Axisymmetric Volume Integral (AVI) formulation for eddy currents. The resulting FRIDA-TD is a fast and flexible tool suitable for engineering-oriented purposes, such as the design of Tokamak devices, set up of plasma operations, prediction of performance scenarios, and design of feedback control systems. FRIDA-TD is successfully validated at first with the well-established CarMa0NL code, and then against experimental data of the RFX-mod device.