3D Adaptive Mesh Refinement Simulations of Pellet Injection in Tokamaks
Authors: R. Samtaney, S.C. Jardin, P. Colella, and D.F. Martin
Date of PPPL Report: October 2003
Presented at: the International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Plasmas, 7-10 September 2003, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Submitted for publication to Computer Physics Communications.
We present results of Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) simulations of the pellet injection process, a proven method of refueling tokamaks. AMR is a computationally efficient way to provide the resolution required to simulate realistic pellet sizes relative to device dimensions. The mathematical model comprises of single-fluid MHD equations with source terms in the continuity equation along with a pellet ablation rate model. The numerical method developed is an explicit unsplit upwinding treatment of the 8-wave formulation, coupled with a MAC projection method to enforce the solenoidal property of the magnetic field. The Chombo framework is used for AMR. The role of the E x B drift in mass redistribution during inside and outside pellet injections is emphasized.