MUSES: A nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics discontinuous Galerkin code for fusion plasmas

Abstract

The article describes initial steps toward the development of our nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics code, MUSES. Unstructured grids and general coordinates are employed so that MUSES code is expected to have a capability to represent realistic geometries of fusion devices. Discontinuous Galerkin method is chosen as a code framework because of its high spatial accuracy and numerical stability on unstructured grids. The governing equation of the ideal magnetohydrodynamics in this work is Powell 8-wave model which can mitigate the divergence-free issue. Roe scheme is used as a numerical flux since the Powell 8-wave model is a nonconservative system. A cross code comparison is carried out with a linear magnetohydrodynamics code, MINERVA. Owing to discontinuous Galerkin method, a linear theory of an ideal internal kink mode is reproduced quantitatively although the upwind method is employed for numerical stability.