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Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Algorithms on Unstructured Meshes for Kinetic Plasma Simulations

Na, Dong-Yeop, NA
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543398838970791

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Plasma is a significantly ionized gas composed of a large number of charged particles such as electrons and ions. A distinct feature of plasmas is the collective interaction among charged particles. In general, the optimal approach used for modeling a plasma system depends on its characteristic (temporal and spatial) scales. Among various kinds of plasmas, collisionless plasmas correspond to those where the collisional frequency is much smaller than the frequency of interests (e.g. plasma frequency) and the mean free path is much longer than the characteristic length scales (e.g. Debye length). Collisionless plasmas consisting of kinetic space charge particles interacting with electromagnetic fields are well-described by Maxwell-Vlasov equations. Electromagnetic particle-in-cell (EM-PIC) algorithms solve Maxwell-Vlasov systems on a computational mesh by employing coarse-grained superparticle. The concept of superparticle, which may represent millions of physical charged particles (coarse-graining of the phase space), facilitates the realization of computer simulations for underscaled kinetic plasma systems mimicking the physics of real kinetic plasma systems. In this dissertation, we present an EM-PIC algorithm on general (irregular) meshes based on discrete exterior calculus (DEC) and Whitney forms. DEC and Whitney forms are utilized for consistent discretization of Maxwell’s equation on general irregular meshes. The proposed EM-PIC algorithm employs a mixed finite-element time-domain (FETD) field solver which yields a symplectic integrator satisfying energy conservation. Importantly, we employ Whitney-forms-based gather and scatter schemes to obtain exact charge conservation from first principles, which had been a long-standing challenge for PIC algorithms on irregular meshes. Several further contributions are made in this dissertation: (i) We develop a local and explicit EM-PIC on unstructured grids using sparse approximate inverse (SPAI) strategy and study macro- and microscopic residual errors in motions of charged particles affected by the approximate inverse errors. (ii) We extend the present EM-PIC algorithm to the relativistic regime with several relativistic particle-pushers and compare their performance. (iii) We implement a secondary electron emission (SEE) processor based on probabilistic Furman-Pivi model and numerically investigate multipactor effects that are resonant electron discharges from conducting surfaces by external RF fields. (iv) We diagnose numerical Cherenkov radiation, which is a detrimental effect frequently found in EM-PIC simulations involving relativistic plasma beams, for the present EM-PIC algorithm on general meshes. (v) We extend the FETD field solver for the solution of Maxwell's equations in circularly symmetric or body-of-revolution (BOR) geometries. (vi) Lastly, we combine the EM-PIC algorithm with the BOR-FETD field solver for the efficient analysis of vacuum electronic devices (VED).
Fernando Teixeira (Advisor)
Kubilay Sertel (Committee Member)
Robert Lee (Committee Member)
Asuman Turkmen (Other)
248 p.
Electrical Engineering; Electromagnetics; Plasma Physics
particle-in-cell, unstructured grids, discrete exterior calculus, Whitney forms, finite-element time-domain, charge conservation, sparse approximate inverse, multipactor, numerical Cherenkov radiation, body-of-revolution, transformation optics, BWO

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Na, NA, D.-Y. (2018). Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Algorithms on Unstructured Meshes for Kinetic Plasma Simulations [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543398838970791

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Na, NA, Dong-Yeop. Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Algorithms on Unstructured Meshes for Kinetic Plasma Simulations. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543398838970791.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Na, NA, Dong-Yeop. "Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Algorithms on Unstructured Meshes for Kinetic Plasma Simulations." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1543398838970791

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1543398838970791
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© 2018, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Algorithms on Unstructured Meshes for Kinetic Plasma Simulations by Dong-Yeop Na NA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.