A provably stable numerical method for the anisotropic diffusion equation in confined magnetic fields

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Muir, Dean, Duru, Kenneth, Hole, Matthew, Hudson, Stuart
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Muir, Dean
Duru, Kenneth
Hole, Matthew
Hudson, Stuart
author_facet Muir, Dean
Duru, Kenneth
Hole, Matthew
Hudson, Stuart
contents We present a novel numerical method for solving the anisotropic diffusion equation in magnetic fields confined to a periodic box which is accurate and provably stable. We derive energy estimates of the solution of the continuous initial boundary value problem. A discrete formulation is presented using operator splitting in time with the summation by parts finite difference approximation of spatial derivatives for the perpendicular diffusion operator. Weak penalty procedures are derived for implementing both boundary conditions and parallel diffusion operator obtained by field line tracing. We prove that the fully-discrete approximation is unconditionally stable. Discrete energy estimates are shown to match the continuous energy estimate given the correct choice of penalty parameters. A nonlinear penalty parameter is shown to provide an effective method for tuning the parallel diffusion penalty and significantly minimises rounding errors. Several numerical experiments, using manufactured solutions, the ``NIMROD benchmark'' problem and a single island problem, are presented to verify numerical accuracy, convergence, and asymptotic preserving properties of the method. Finally, we present a magnetic field with chaotic regions and islands and show the contours of the anisotropic diffusion equation reproduce key features in the field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_00423
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A provably stable numerical method for the anisotropic diffusion equation in confined magnetic fields
Muir, Dean
Duru, Kenneth
Hole, Matthew
Hudson, Stuart
Numerical Analysis
65M06, 65M12
G.1.8
We present a novel numerical method for solving the anisotropic diffusion equation in magnetic fields confined to a periodic box which is accurate and provably stable. We derive energy estimates of the solution of the continuous initial boundary value problem. A discrete formulation is presented using operator splitting in time with the summation by parts finite difference approximation of spatial derivatives for the perpendicular diffusion operator. Weak penalty procedures are derived for implementing both boundary conditions and parallel diffusion operator obtained by field line tracing. We prove that the fully-discrete approximation is unconditionally stable. Discrete energy estimates are shown to match the continuous energy estimate given the correct choice of penalty parameters. A nonlinear penalty parameter is shown to provide an effective method for tuning the parallel diffusion penalty and significantly minimises rounding errors. Several numerical experiments, using manufactured solutions, the ``NIMROD benchmark'' problem and a single island problem, are presented to verify numerical accuracy, convergence, and asymptotic preserving properties of the method. Finally, we present a magnetic field with chaotic regions and islands and show the contours of the anisotropic diffusion equation reproduce key features in the field.
title A provably stable numerical method for the anisotropic diffusion equation in confined magnetic fields
topic Numerical Analysis
65M06, 65M12
G.1.8
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00423