Quasi-3-D Spectral Wavelet Method for a Thermal Quench Simulation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quasi-3-D spectral wavelet method combining finite element and spectral techniques to efficiently simulate thermal quenches in domains with strong directional disparities, such as accelerator cables.

Contribution

It proposes a novel quasi-3-D approach using wavelet-based spectral methods with adaptive resolution for thermal quench simulation in translationally invariant domains.

Findings

Successfully simulates hot-spot propagation in Rutherford cables.

Verifies the effectiveness of the combined finite element and spectral wavelet methods.

Reduces computational cost for anisotropic domain simulations.

Abstract

The finite element method is widely used in simulations of various fields. However, when considering domains whose extent differs strongly in different spatial directions a finite element simulation becomes computationally very expensive due to the large number of degrees of freedom. An example of such a domain are the cables inside of the magnets of particle accelerators. For translationally invariant domains, this work proposes a quasi-3-D method. Thereby, a 2-D finite element method with a nodal basis in the cross-section is combined with a spectral method with a wavelet basis in the longitudinal direction. Furthermore, a spectral method with a wavelet basis and an adaptive and time-dependent resolution is presented. All methods are verified. As an example the hot-spot propagation due to a quench in Rutherford cables is simulated successfully.