Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mandell, N. R., Dorland, W., Abel, I., Gaur, R., Kim, P., Martin, M., Qian, T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06731
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917651841810432
author Mandell, N. R.
Dorland, W.
Abel, I.
Gaur, R.
Kim, P.
Martin, M.
Qian, T.
author_facet Mandell, N. R.
Dorland, W.
Abel, I.
Gaur, R.
Kim, P.
Martin, M.
Qian, T.
contents GX is a code for solving the nonlinear gyrokinetic system for low-frequency turbulence in magnetized plasmas, particularly tokamaks and stellarators. In GX, our primary motivation and target is a fast gyrokinetic solver that can be used for fusion reactor design and optimization along with wide-ranging physics exploration. This has led to several code and algorithm design decisions, specifically chosen to prioritize time to solution. First, we have used a discretization algorithm that is pseudo-spectral in the entire phase-space, including a Laguerre-Hermite pseudo-spectral formulation of velocity space, which allows for smooth interpolation between coarse gyrofluid-like resolutions and finer conventional gyrokinetic resolutions and efficient evaluation of a model collision operator. Additionally, we have built GX to natively target graphics processors (GPUs), which are among the fastest computational platforms available today. Finally, we have taken advantage of the reactor-relevant limit of small $ρ_*$ by using the radially-local flux-tube approach. In this paper we present details about the gyrokinetic system and the numerical algorithms used in GX to solve the system. We then present several numerical benchmarks against established gyrokinetic codes in both tokamak and stellarator magnetic geometries to verify that GX correctly simulates gyrokinetic turbulence in the small $ρ_*$ limit. Moreover, we show that the convergence properties of the Laguerre-Hermite spectral velocity formulation are quite favorable for nonlinear problems of interest. Coupled with GPU acceleration, which we also investigate with scaling studies, this enables GX to be able to produce useful turbulence simulations in minutes on one (or a few) GPUs. GX is open-source software that is ready for fusion reactor design studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2209_06731
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle GX: a GPU-native gyrokinetic turbulence code for tokamak and stellarator design
Mandell, N. R.
Dorland, W.
Abel, I.
Gaur, R.
Kim, P.
Martin, M.
Qian, T.
Plasma Physics
GX is a code for solving the nonlinear gyrokinetic system for low-frequency turbulence in magnetized plasmas, particularly tokamaks and stellarators. In GX, our primary motivation and target is a fast gyrokinetic solver that can be used for fusion reactor design and optimization along with wide-ranging physics exploration. This has led to several code and algorithm design decisions, specifically chosen to prioritize time to solution. First, we have used a discretization algorithm that is pseudo-spectral in the entire phase-space, including a Laguerre-Hermite pseudo-spectral formulation of velocity space, which allows for smooth interpolation between coarse gyrofluid-like resolutions and finer conventional gyrokinetic resolutions and efficient evaluation of a model collision operator. Additionally, we have built GX to natively target graphics processors (GPUs), which are among the fastest computational platforms available today. Finally, we have taken advantage of the reactor-relevant limit of small $ρ_*$ by using the radially-local flux-tube approach. In this paper we present details about the gyrokinetic system and the numerical algorithms used in GX to solve the system. We then present several numerical benchmarks against established gyrokinetic codes in both tokamak and stellarator magnetic geometries to verify that GX correctly simulates gyrokinetic turbulence in the small $ρ_*$ limit. Moreover, we show that the convergence properties of the Laguerre-Hermite spectral velocity formulation are quite favorable for nonlinear problems of interest. Coupled with GPU acceleration, which we also investigate with scaling studies, this enables GX to be able to produce useful turbulence simulations in minutes on one (or a few) GPUs. GX is open-source software that is ready for fusion reactor design studies.
title GX: a GPU-native gyrokinetic turbulence code for tokamak and stellarator design
topic Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06731