Robust Maxwell Solvers For Large Scale Particle-In-Cell Simulations
Abstract
The design of modern devices is impacted heavily by the use and availability of robust, efficient computational tools. This includes modeling devices that use plasma and other space charge like particle accelerators, klystrons. These devices and phenomena can have fine features and complex geometry. That in turn requires millions and potentially billions of degrees of freedom to properly resolve the physics in the region of interest. A common computational model to perform this analysis is the particle-in-cell method. It provides a straightforward paradigm to self-consistently solve for the distribution of the plasma as a a collection of particles. The prevailing approach to solve for the fields in PIC is the finite difference time domain method, or EM-FDTDPIC. However, in the past decade, considerable effort has been put into defining finite element based PIC schemes, EM-FEMPIC. One major concern of utilizing EM-FEMPIC over EM-FDTDPIC is the computational cost of FEM, which is greater than FDTD, despite the advantages of field and geometry accuracy FEM affords. This dissertation seeks to advance the state of the art of EM-FEMPIC methods by defining EM-FEMPIC schemes that can accurately solve large-scale problems. First, the requirements of charge conserving EM-PIC schemes are explored for both EM-FDTDPIC and EM-FEMPIC. A clear comparison of methods are made between EM-FDTDPIC and two EM-FEMPIC formulations. Then, a higher order EM-FEMPIC scheme is presented that maintains charge conservation. Finally, two domain decomposition approaches are presented that ameliorate the cost of EM-FEMPIC without compromising the accuracy or physics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 06, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1156411
Entities
People
- Zane D. Crawford
Organizations
- Michigan State University