High-fidelity simulations of transverse electric waves propagating through Alcator C-Mod

This project represents an attempt to model the propagation of microwaves into Alcator C-Mod's plasma in high fidelity and with a reduced number of degrees of freedom. The success of this endeavor would accelerate progress within the field of fusion energy, as simulations of C-Mod's plasmas, or other plasmas in general, can be run more quickly while still maintaining their accuracy. The main procedure involves producing simulations within COMSOL that use mode numbers based on a power spectrum of waves at 4.6 GHz. These simulations are then overlaid to model how the waves will propagate as a function of position, plasma density, and local flux. Future work could focus on verifying the accuracy of the simulations when compared to data acquired from C-Mod as well as ensuring the run-time of the simulations is indeed faster than other methods.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Major, Maximillian R

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gregory Wallace.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112469

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/112469