ISEP: Integrated Simulation of Energetic Particles in Burning Plasmas

The objective of the SciDAC Center for Integrated Simulation of Energetic Particles in Burning Plasmas (ISEP) is to improve physics understanding of energetic particle (EP) confinement and EP interactions with burning thermal plasmas through large-scale simulations. The ISEP center will develop a multiscale and multiphysics ISEP framework for a predictive capability of EP physics and deliver an EP module incorporating both first-principles simulations and high fidelity reduced transport models to the fusion whole device modeling (WDM) project.

We will improve our understanding of EP transport and EP coupling with thermal plasmas including EP transport by mesoscale turbulence driven by EP pressure gradients and EP coupling with microturbulence and macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic modes driven by thermal plasmas. We will develop a multiphysics ISEP framework to carry out these EP physics simulations and to provide a first-principles EP module for the fusion WDM. The ISEP framework is a unified simulation platform incorporating a hierarchy of first-principles models, which will be developed based on the global gyrokinetic particle code.

We will deliver to the fusion WDM an EP module incorporating both the first-principles ISEP framework and the high-fidelity reduced EP transport models including a critical gradient model and a resonant broadening quasilinear model. We will verify and validate the EP module by using first-principles simulations, analytic theory, and experimental data.

The ISEP framework will enable us to perform long time, global kinetic simulations of EP physics in burning plasmas, by utilizing the full power of the next generation supercomputers. Our research and development activities will build on fruitful collaborations with computer scientists and applied mathematicians to offer enabling technologies for performance scalability, portability, solvers, coupling for integration with the fusion WDM project, and long-term preservation of data.