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5th PDC-SeRC seminar: "GUI frameworks for fusion codes SOLPS-ITER and SMITER"

Welcome to the fifth PDC-SeRC seminar! PDC and SeRC are hosting a series of seminars about e-Science where SeRC members and other interested researchers and students can meet to exchange ideas and listen to inspiring e-Science presentations by outstanding researchers.

Time: Wed 2018-02-14 12.00 - 13.00

Location: SeRC meeting room at PDC, 5th floor Teknikringen 14, KTH

Participating: Leon Kos, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

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The fifth seminar in this series, "GUI frameworks for fusion codes SOLPS-ITER and SMITER" by Dr. Leon Kos, will be held on the 14th of February from 12:00-13:00 in the SeRC meeting room at PDC. Leon is a researcher at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

A light lunch will be provided, but please register to ensure that enough food can be ordered: goo.gl/forms/JJPDOzJ1wr51KRjf1 .

Abstract

The design of the divertor as well as erosion of plasma facing components (PFC) and the related migration and (re)deposition of material are among the most critical issues to be addressed for the success of next-step nuclear fusion reactors (see lecad.fs.uni-lj.si/icomplex ). Simulation, analysis and design tools are indispensable to cope with the complex physics phenomena and engineering constraints involved in these complex components. Edge plasma codes as B2-EIRENE (SOLPS) are heavily used both in the interpretation of present-day experiments, in the design of next-step devices as ITER and DEMO, in the development of novel divertor concepts, and in the preparation of operational scenarios for both existing and future machines.

However, plasma boundary (SOL) codes are notorious for their high complexity and long simulation times. Indeed, convergence times for plasma boundary simulations using standard tools, even on the ITER scale, routinely reach several months. In combination with the large number of design variables and complex work flows, this poses very severe limitations on the design process of divertors at the reactor scale.

In addition to the established SOLPS-ITER code suite a new SOLPS-ITER Graphical User Interface was developed by LECAD laboratory at the University of Ljubljana in support of users that can now easily work with the codes for preparing and controlling the runs on the cluster.

The PDC-SeRC seminar will present the SOLPS-ITER GUI features that go beyond usual hard-coded built-ins with a notion of modularity and reuse on other similar codes. Further it will present the design and implementation of a set of user-friendly interface tools for the SMITER field line tracing and PFC power deposition computation environment based on the SALOME platform that is 3D oriented from pre- to post-processing. SMITER maps profiles of heat SOL heat flux density flowing parallel to magnetic field lines onto the surfaces of PFCs. This requires that magnetic field lines on flux surfaces within the magnetic equilibrium be followed in 3D geometry until they intersect a solid surface, the geometry of which is generally obtained from a CAD model of the structure. The ultimate objective is to form a framework for orchestrating the work of the SMITER software and to render the package as user friendly as possible for wider use by scientists and engineers.