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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Giuliani, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.19097
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author Giuliani, Andrew
author_facet Giuliani, Andrew
contents Many stellarator coil design problems are plagued by multiple minima, where the locally optimal coil sets can sometimes vary substantially in performance. As a result, solving a coil design problem a single time with a local optimization algorithm is usually insufficient and better optima likely do exist. To address this problem, we propose a global optimization algorithm for the design of stellarator coils and outline how to apply box constraints to the physical positions of the coils. The algorithm has a global exploration phase that searches for interesting regions of design space and is followed by three local optimization algorithms that search in these interesting regions (a ``global-to-local" approach). The first local algorithm (phase I), following the globalization phase, is based on near-axis expansions and finds stellarator coils that optimize for quasisymmetry in the neighborhood of a magnetic axis. The second local algorithm (phase II) takes these coil sets and optimizes them for nested flux surfaces and quasisymmetry on a toroidal volume. The final local algorithm (phase III) polishes these configurations for an accurate approximation of quasisymmetry. Using our global algorithm, we study the trade-off between coil length, aspect ratio, rotational transform, and quality of quasi-axisymmetry. The database of stellarators, which comprises approximately 200,000 coil sets, is available online and is called QUASR, for `QUAsi-symmetric Stellarator Repository'.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_19097
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Direct stellarator coil design using global optimization: application to a comprehensive exploration of quasi-axisymmetric devices
Giuliani, Andrew
Computational Physics
Many stellarator coil design problems are plagued by multiple minima, where the locally optimal coil sets can sometimes vary substantially in performance. As a result, solving a coil design problem a single time with a local optimization algorithm is usually insufficient and better optima likely do exist. To address this problem, we propose a global optimization algorithm for the design of stellarator coils and outline how to apply box constraints to the physical positions of the coils. The algorithm has a global exploration phase that searches for interesting regions of design space and is followed by three local optimization algorithms that search in these interesting regions (a ``global-to-local" approach). The first local algorithm (phase I), following the globalization phase, is based on near-axis expansions and finds stellarator coils that optimize for quasisymmetry in the neighborhood of a magnetic axis. The second local algorithm (phase II) takes these coil sets and optimizes them for nested flux surfaces and quasisymmetry on a toroidal volume. The final local algorithm (phase III) polishes these configurations for an accurate approximation of quasisymmetry. Using our global algorithm, we study the trade-off between coil length, aspect ratio, rotational transform, and quality of quasi-axisymmetry. The database of stellarators, which comprises approximately 200,000 coil sets, is available online and is called QUASR, for `QUAsi-symmetric Stellarator Repository'.
title Direct stellarator coil design using global optimization: application to a comprehensive exploration of quasi-axisymmetric devices
topic Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.19097