A Study of Stability and Energy Conservation of a 3-D Electromagnetic PIC Code for Non-Orthogonal Meshes
Abstract
A 3-D electromagnetic particle-in cell code (EMPIC) was developed for large-scale plasma simulation on parallel computers. To simulate plasma problems with complex geometries such as high-power microwave generation devices, curvilinear coordinates were used. A logically connected Cartesian grid consisted of hexahedral cells that could be deformed to body-fit complex shapes. A finite-volume method for a non-orthogonal grid was used to calculate the electromagnetic field. This method is based on Gedney-Lansing: (1) and Madsen; (2) algorithms, and is reduced to a standard FDTD algorithm for an orthogonal grid. Particle updates use current deposit formulation of Villasenor and Buneman; and (3) generalized to non-orthogonal meshes, preserving charge and current. The numerical stability of the electromagnetic algorithm was analyzed for a planar EM wave propagation in a distorted periodic box. The influence of face-to edge transformation properties on the EM algorithm stability is analyzed. Energy conservation for a full PIC simulation of two-stream instability on non-orthogonal meshes is studied.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA357700
Entities
People
- Dmitri Kondrashov
- Joseph Wang
- Paulette C. Liewer
Organizations
- California Institute of Technology