Bringing global gyrokinetic turbulence simulations to the transport timescale using a multiscale approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiscale approach that couples global gyrokinetic turbulence simulations with a transport solver, enabling long-timescale predictions of plasma temperature profiles in toroidal devices.

Contribution

The authors develop a resilient multiscale method that integrates turbulence simulations with transport modeling, addressing the challenge of vastly different energy confinement and turbulence timescales.

Findings

Successful coupling of gyrokinetic simulations with transport solver

Demonstration of long-timescale temperature profile evolution

Potential for predictive whole-device plasma modeling

Abstract

The vast separation dividing the characteristic times of energy confinement and turbulence in the core of toroidal plasmas makes first-principles prediction on long timescales extremely challenging. Here we report the demonstration of a multiple-timescale method that enables coupling global gyrokinetic simulations with a transport solver to calculate the evolution of the self-consistent temperature profile. This method, which exhibits resiliency to the intrinsic fluctuations arising in turbulence simulations, holds potential for integrating nonlocal gyrokinetic turbulence simulations into predictive, whole-device models.