On September 20th, a member of our Fusion Group, Hernán Domingo Ramos, successfully defended his Master’s Thesis. His work on numerical simulations of electromagnetic (EM) waves using the finite element method (FEM) in plasma environments, was presented to the steering committee of the European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics, which awarded him with the mention Très Bien, equivalent to outstanding distinctions.
His work, titled “MAXWEL: FEM software module to compute EM fields within a magnetically confined fusion reactor”, consists of the development of the software module MAXWEL, which is responsible for simulating wave propagation under a varied range of conditions and materials, such as isotropic or anisotropic dielectrics and cold plasma.
The current state of the code allows the user to simulate this propagation under the presence of a plane wave or a finite source, solving the Helmholtz equation in two dimensions, either for an ordinary or extraordinary polarization. This Master’s Thesis was carried out as part of the mobility program and with the financial support of the FuseNet association, whose funding made this work possible.
Hernán will continue his work within the group under a PhD program in Nuclear and Ionising Radiation Engineering, tackling some relevant challenges such as migrating the code to the HPC framework Alya in MareNostrum 5, scaling the module to a 3D domain and implementing a hot plasma model to simulate the phenomena in a nuclear fusion reactor accurately.
His progress, challenges, and future steps will be presented shortly at the 5th Fusion HPC Workshop. This online workshop covers all computer applications using HPC in the field of fusion research, and it is open to everyone. Please join us to learn the latest on HPC in fusion!
