Speaker
Description
Realta Fusion is developing fusion energy technology based on the magnetic mirror confinement concept, in which neutral beam injection (NBI) plays a critical role in plasma heating and fuelling. Designing a high-performance NBI system requires navigating a broad engineering and physics parameter space while ensuring that critical processes are accurately captured. To meet these complementary needs, a multi-fidelity simulation approach has been developed at Realta Fusion in which several computational tools operate at different levels of fidelity and serve distinct roles in the development process.
Initial scoping is done with RealBeam, a Python-based code developed in-house, which enables rapid and interactive exploration of a wide design space by simulating the beam envelope, neutralization and re-ionization reactions, magnetic deflection, power deposition, and beamline gas distribution. Promising configurations identified through RealBeam undergo kinetic-level validation with WarpX, an open-source particle-in-cell code, which is used to validate critical processes such as extraction, acceleration, neutralization, and space charge compensation, with results benchmarked against experimental NBI measurements from the WHAM device. Engineering realism is introduced through COMSOL, which performs self-consistent ion source plasma simulations and multiphysics analysis on representative CAD geometries, ensuring that physical predictions translate directly to the engineering design. This layered approach forms a cohesive framework that supports NBI development from early conceptual design through detailed engineering validation.
| Visitor's Visa | no |
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| Classification | Other negative ion sources for fusion, accelerators, and other applications |